i owned this for just about 2 months, when it worked it printed quite nicely! however that was far less than half the time i owned it. i have since returned it. at first it worked great for 2 days, then on day 3 it wouldn't turn on. support suggested dead power on/off switch so i routed power around it. sure enough dead switch, back on and printing for a few days.

then it wouldn't read bed temperature, it turns out a moving bed brings some issues! the wires connected to the bed are under a lot of stress, and the white molex style plug probably isn't the best solution, the connection failed. cut all the wires short and one at a time crimped on plugs and jammed it back together, it works again.

then a few days later the extruder motor wouldn't spin. after lots of diagnosis i determined the stepper motor was fine, the wires running to it were fine, it was the driver on the main board. this apparently happens so often (see the facebook hictop group) that hictop has firmware special just for this situation, you flash the mainboard and connect the extruder to e1 instead of e0. tried this but no luck, so hictop mailed me a replacement mainboard. new board arrived, flashed firmware, right back to printing.

then a few days later i couldn't level the bed! tried and tried and tried, whats this the carriage is warped! after looking online its yet another common issue, i took the carriage out and looked at it, sure enough its not flat, which comes as no surprise it's paper thin sheet metal. so i buy an "upgrade" Y carriage on amazon, modify it to fit the hictop printer and i'm back up and running.

then a few days later the extruder motor won't spin again! this sounds familiar... since i already have all the diagnostic tech support steps i go through them all, i test the motor, the wire, i verify the mainboard driver is the issue once again. then i try the e1 firmware, it doesn't work again. i email all of this information to tech support and they ignore it, they cut and paste the same responses as the first time. they drag their feet for a week and finally agree to send me another main board. it arrived, i flashed the firmware and installed it same as last time excited to get back to printing. only this time it doesn't work, SAME PROBLEM! e0 is dead, and the e1 firmware didn't help. this time tech support sends me a youtube video to calibrate the voltages to each stepper, which i carefully did and once again tried both e0 and e1 firmware, nothing.

i contact their support again and report back and they don't believe me. they want me to send the parts back to verify that they're sending me broken parts... so i sent it back.

then i get another main board in the mail, just as excited!! i flash the firmware, installed it, hooked everything up, and you guessed it, DEAD AGAIN, SAME PROBLEM!

with that i pinched it off, i sent this story to amazon customer service and they stepped up and did the right thing. thank you Amazon for allowing me to return this JUNK and get a refund. if you're looking around at your first 3d printer KEEP LOOKING elsewhere, hictop sells junk thats JUST barely enough to print, but parts will fail one after another and then you need to start "upgrading." i put upgrade in quotes because it's not an upgrade if it's required just to operate correctly.
i owned this for just about 2 months, when it worked it printed quite nicely! however that was far less than half the time i owned it. i have since returned it. at first it worked great for 2 days, then on day 3 it wouldn't turn on. support suggested dead power on/off switch so i routed power around it. sure enough dead switch, back on and printing for a few days. then it wouldn't read bed temperature, it turns out a moving bed brings some issues! the wires connected to the bed are under a lot of stress, and the white molex style plug probably isn't the best solution, the connection failed. cut all the wires short and one at a time crimped on plugs and jammed it back together, it works again. then a few days later the extruder motor wouldn't spin. after lots of diagnosis i determined the stepper motor was fine, the wires running to it were fine, it was the driver on the main board. this apparently happens so often (see the facebook hictop group) that hictop has firmware special just for this situation, you flash the mainboard and connect the extruder to e1 instead of e0. tried this but no luck, so hictop mailed me a replacement mainboard. new board arrived, flashed firmware, right back to printing. then a few days later i couldn't level the bed! tried and tried and tried, whats this the carriage is warped! after looking online its yet another common issue, i took the carriage out and looked at it, sure enough its not flat, which comes as no surprise it's paper thin sheet metal. so i buy an "upgrade" Y carriage on amazon, modify it to fit the hictop printer and i'm back up and running. then a few days later the extruder motor won't spin again! this sounds familiar... since i already have all the diagnostic tech support steps i go through them all, i test the motor, the wire, i verify the mainboard driver is the issue once again. then i try the e1 firmware, it doesn't work again. i email all of this information to tech support and they ignore it, they cut and paste the same responses as the first time. they drag their feet for a week and finally agree to send me another main board. it arrived, i flashed the firmware and installed it same as last time excited to get back to printing. only this time it doesn't work, SAME PROBLEM! e0 is dead, and the e1 firmware didn't help. this time tech support sends me a youtube video to calibrate the voltages to each stepper, which i carefully did and once again tried both e0 and e1 firmware, nothing. i contact their support again and report back and they don't believe me. they want me to send the parts back to verify that they're sending me broken parts... so i sent it back. then i get another main board in the mail, just as excited!! i flash the firmware, installed it, hooked everything up, and you guessed it, DEAD AGAIN, SAME PROBLEM! with that i pinched it off, i sent this story to amazon customer service and they stepped up and did the right thing. thank you Amazon for allowing me to return this JUNK and get a refund. if you're looking around at your first 3d printer KEEP LOOKING elsewhere, hictop sells junk thats JUST barely enough to print, but parts will fail one after another and then you need to start "upgrading. " i put upgrade in quotes because it's not an upgrade if it's required just to operate correctly.