Automatic Resin Filling

Automatic resin refilling, which Anycubic calls “Smart Resin Filling”, seems to be the feature of this printer that garners most of its interest. As best as we can tell, Anycubic’s resin feeding system is designed to just cap onto the company’s resin bottles and create positive pressure to pump resin into the vat. The system uses two metal prongs to detect the resin level and fill when required. Reviewers have said it tends to overfill somewhat, though.

Third-party material compatibility will be in question here. First, in terms of the cap simply fitting other manufacturers’ resin bottles. Second, whether the sensors will detect third-party resin. Anycubic suggests in the Photon M3 Plus’ manual that users confirm the sensor’s red light turns off when touching third-party resin before printing with the feature enabled. If the light stays on, the resin is incompatible and the vat will overflow.

Wireless Connectivity

Anycubic has its own cloud 3D printing app called Anycubic Cloud. With it, and the Photon M3 Plus connected to your network wirelessly or by Ethernet, Anycubic says users can control and monitor their printer remotely. There is also an optional camera for visual print monitoring via Anycubic Cloud, but the hardware costs an extra ~$30 to purchase. Though, it seems to be a very simple install. Plug and play, baby!

Though the app is up and running, it seems like it hasn’t reached the state Anycubic suggested it would back in 2020. So far there’s no option to download models, no desktop version exists, and cloud slicing isn’t a feature. Instead, it appears users must use Photon Workshop to slice models, upload them to Anycubic Cloud, then start the print from the app. Why bother with the app at all? Just let Photon Workshop do the job, or at least create a web app. Cloud.anycubic.com exists, but has an expired certificate and is just a 403 error right now.

34-Micron Resolution

Seems not so long ago that getting 4K resolution on a small resin printer was a feat, and even less time since printers went completely overboard with 8K resolutions on small screens. The Plus is fitted with a 6K resolution, which seems ideal to achieve a noticeably high accuracy before running into too-steep diminishing returns.

That resolution comes from the 9.25-inch 5,760 x 3,600 pixel monochrome LCD screen, resulting in an impressive 34-micron accuracy – the best in the M3 lineup. Anycubic is also touting a 350:1 contrast ratio for the screen, which it says is higher than that of competitors. It is, however, lower than the smaller Photon M3’s 400:1 ratio.

High-Speed Printing

Anycubic is claiming the Photon M3 Plus can print at speeds of up to 100 mm per hour, which would be impressive indeed. Unfortunately, some reviewers have taken issue with the claim. Thomas Sanladerer says in his review that while the printer’s layer cure time is an admirable 1.5 seconds, the peel time makes Anycubic’s 100 mm per hour claim unattainable.

Still, 1.5 seconds is a solid layer cure time, and Anycubic says that it achieves this speed, at least in part, through its “LighTurbo” light source. That’s a fancy branded name for the company’s LED array comprised of 40 LED beads. Aside from speed, there’s an argument to be made that an array like this is excellent for light uniformity.

Further Features

• Large Build Volume: the Photon M3 Plus’ 197 x 122 x 245 mm build volume is set firmly between the gargantuan Photon M3 Max and more standard-sized Photon M3.
• Laser Engraved Build Plate: etched with a checkerboard pattern, the M3 Plus’ build place should hold fast as it peels your parts.