XYZ Davinci Mini W 3D Printer...

I got this XYZ Davinci Mini W from a family member. If I recall, they got this for free from an online group. It's a small desktop printer, having a print volume of 150mm x 150mm x150mm. It's not bad for a starter printer, to be honest. It gets those interested in 3D Printing a chance to get their curiosities sated.

A few things I'm not liking about this printer is that the print bed isn't heated. A heated bed usually helps with bed adhesion for that first print layer and helps keep the print from falling over. For this situation, it works fine with laying painter's tape on the print bed and use a glue stick to help with bed adhesion.

Another thing is that you can't use any slicer to print on this. You need to use XYZ's software in order to print on it. That means, for some printers, that the printer needs to be connected to a PC all the time. The W on this printer means that it can connect through WiFi, but it still needs to be connected to a PC to set up the WiFi. I still need to get this set up.

Lastly, the printer can only use XYZ's filament spools. It has a DRM chip that knows (through the software) if there's an official spool or not. I had a spool that's XYZ branded with the DRM chip on it, but the filament was getting bad. I searched for any updates for the printer and found one forum that had update information for the printer. I followed the instructions and updated the firmware to a more current one. With that update, it eliminates the DRM filament spools requirement and allows any filament to be used.

With the printer updated, I used some spare filament that I kept to do a calibration cube print. I got everything set up in the software on my PC. There was an option to do a bed leveling 

After having the software slice the print, I sent the commend to print to the printer.

Printer in action! The fans are a bit loud, but it worked as it should. Before I started the print, I put some painter's tape and used a glue stick to get a good first layer adhesion. It took about 10 or so minutes for the print to finish.

So. How did it do?

Honestly, the print came out pretty good. I did measure the dimensions and it did pretty well. There might be a slight elephant's foot effect, but nothing that a little slicer setting couldn't fix.

I'm planning to let my son use this to introduce him to 3d printing. He's shown some interest since I've since I've got my Ender 3 Pro and FLSun QQ-S Pro and sidelined my Anet A8. I hope that interest is still there. It'll be easier for him to learn with this super simple, all-in-one software.