Promises, promises. If there’s anything life teaches us, it’s that promises almost always end in disappointment. Despite that, we almost always trust in a promise when it’s made and the upcoming Biqu BX printer is making rather a lot of them. To be fair though, it looks to have a lot going for it, and Biqu has promised that the BX will be a “revolutionary product”. Well, we’re not sure about that yet, of course, but with integrated Octoprint, the “World’s lightest extruder”, inbuilt plug-and-print Raspberry Pi integration, and a big, beefy motherboard sound pretty good to start with.
While the upcoming BX definitely seems to have some potential, we’ll keep our enthusiasm in check until it makes it out of the other side of its Kickstarter campaign. Anyway, we thought now’s the right time to share what we know about it.
Features
Integrated Octoprint
You can’t always sit next to your printer and babysit it – especially if you have real children to babysit. Spending large amounts of time observing and checking on our printer just isn’t practical. It’s for this reason that the addition of Octoprint within the new Biqu BX will be welcomed with open arms by the printing community. Octoprint has been integrated into 3D printers before, but usually only in high-end, expensive printers.
Double Precision Stepper Motor
The majority of 3D printers make use of stepper motor with a step angle of 1.8°. While it isn’t unheard of for a stepper motor with a 0.9° step angle to be found in a modern 3D printer, it’s still a bit of a treat and should allow you to achieve smoother curves on your prints. That’s something we are definitely looking forward to testing.
The World’s Lightest Direct Extruder
At 219 grams, the all-metal extruder that the Biqu BX comes equipped with is apparently the lightest of its kind you’ll find anywhere on our blue marble. It’s debateable as to just how significant this is, but in theory less mass to move about should mean slightly more precise movements which in turn means better quality prints.
BigTreeTech’s Beefy Motherboard
The Biqu BX comes equipped with a new 32 bit, 400 MHz chip that allows for more complex prints. It also features heating overload protection and voltage monitoring that Biqu says should help it have a long and healthy life. Along with the Raspberry Pi plug and print support and a 7-inch touchscreen, this should be an intuitive printer to get to grips with. As an additional bonus, the new BX’s firmware code is open-sourced, and we like that.
Release Date and Availability
The full skinny on the Biqu BX will come on September 29, during a Kickstarter live event. A few details have slipped out on social media in the runup, including a ship date of December for initial orders. Could be early 2021 before we see general availability.
As always with campaigns on Kickstarter, there is no guarantee you’ll get the product in the end, or that it will be as initially advertised. You’re backing an idea, and putting faith in the team pitching to convert it into reality. It may be a bit rote to say, after several years of Kickstarted (and some failed) printers, but only back with money you can afford to lose.
Price
As above, social media teasers give us a clear look at the price, with a $249-shaped hole in your account being the price for super early-birds. There are other tiers of pricing, but the eventual Kickstarter special price will be $339, which tells us that the general retail will be close to, or a little more than this. Providing Biqu can deliver the goods, these prices sound utterly reasonable for what could be a highly capable machine.
Reviews
We haven’t got our hands on the Biqu BX just yet, but we’re working on changing that. It’s shaping up to be a printer that’s easy to operate and manage, with some cool features that could well see it produce some very high-quality prints. We’re looking forward to checking it out.
Tech Specs
GENERAL SPECS
- Technology: FDM
- Year: 2020
- Assembly: N/A
- Mechanical arrangement: Cartesian-XZ-head
- Manufacturer: Biqu
MATERIALS
- Filament diameter: 1.75 mm
- 3rd party filaments: Yes
- Compatible materials: PLA, ABS, TPU, PETG, Nylon
3D PRINTING PROPERTIES
- Layer height: 0.1 mm
- Feeder system: Direct Drive
- Extruder type: Single nozzle
- Nozzle size: N/A
- Max. build volume: 250 x 250 x 250 mm
- Max. extruder temperature: N/A
- Max. heated bed temperature: N/A
- Max. print speed: 100 mm/s
- Closed print chamber: No
- Bed leveling: Automatic
- Print bed: Heated
- Display: Color touch screen
- Connectivity: SD card, USB
- Built-in camera: No
- Resume print: N/A
- Filament sensor: N/A
SOFTWARE
- Recommended slicer: N/A
- Operating system: Windows, Mac
- File types: STL, OBJ
DIMENSIONS AND WEIGHT
- Frame dimensions: N/A
- Weight: N/A
Similar Machines
Creality Ender 3 V2
The best 3D printer under $300 is a tough opponent for the Biqu BX, but the BX has some features that the Ender 3 V2 doesn’t, leaving Creality’s creation looking over its shoulder.
Original Prusa i3 MK3S
Consistently brilliant and with a strong community following, the Prusa i3 MK3S is simply the best 3D printer in the world right now. But the BX appears to offer more than this legendary printer.
License: The text of "Biqu BX 3D Printer: Specs, Prices, Release & Reviews" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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