Pros & Cons
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- Simple setup and calibration
- Closed-frame design allows use of materials such as ABS and cuts down on noise
- Very good quality prints
- Reasonably priced
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- Lots of vibration while printing
- Tall prints need supports
- No multi-color support
Elegoo Centauri Carbon Specs
| 3D-Printing Technology | Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) |
| Dimensions (HWD) | 15.6 x 15.9 x 19.3 inches |
| Frame Design | Closed |
| LCD Screen | |
| Materials Supported | ABS |
| Materials Supported | ASA |
| Materials Supported | PA |
| Materials Supported | PC |
| Materials Supported | PET |
| Materials Supported | PETG |
| Materials Supported | PLA |
| Materials Supported | TPU |
| Maximum Build Area (HWD) | 10.1 x 10.1 x 10.1 inches |
| Number of Extruders | 1 |
| Number of Print Colors | 1 |
| Primary Interface(s) | USB Thumb Drive |
| Primary Interface(s) | Wi-Fi |
| Top Print Resolution | 100 |
| Warranty (Parts/Labor) | 1 |
| Weight | 38.6 |
With a roomy print bed, a large control panel, and very good print quality, the Elegoo Centauri Carbon ($299.99) seems like it should cost a lot more than it does. But the budget 3D printer market is extremely competitive right now, so this combination of strengths at this price is what we expect. Printers like the Centauri Carbon are a boon to today's 3D printing novices: an excellent filament-based printer for budget-conscious beginners who want both ease of use and some higher-end features. It's a solid closed-frame alternative to the Editors' Choice-winning, open-frame Bambu Lab A1 Mini.
Design: A Closed Frame Enables Wide Filament Support
Like many makers of 3D printers these days, Elegoo offers a range of filament-based models, from the open-frame Neptune series to the OrangeStorm very-large-bed printers to the Centauri line. The Centauri Carbon is currently the flagship of that latter line (though not the most expensive). Elegoo also offers resin printers, with the soon-to-be-reviewed Saturn 4 Ultra being the newest.
Elegoo's base-level $200 Centauri has some features in common with the Centauri Carbon reviewed here, but with a slower speed and smaller print bed size. Both the base Centauri and the Centauri Carbon are "Core XY"-style printers, which means that the print bed moves vertically, and the extruder moves horizontally in both forward and sideways motions. Both models share the same extruder, heat bed, acceleration, and filament flow.
But the Centauri Carbon is a considerable upgrade, and at a not-considerable price increase. The most obvious difference (besides price) between the two models is that the Centauri Carbon is fully enclosed, giving the Centauri Carbon several benefits beyond the base Centauri model. For one, it’s somewhat quieter than open-frame competitors (including the A1 Mini), though nowhere near silent. More important, the closed design, along with a brass-hardened steel extruder nozzle rated for a maximum of 608 degrees F, allows the use of filaments that have a higher melting point, such as ABS, nylon, and carbon fiber. The list also includes PLA, PETG, ASA, TPU, PET, PC, and PA, a wide compatibility not often found in a printer at this price.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)Alas, the Centauri Carbon does not currently support multi-color printing as many of the newest printers from other vendors do, including the A1 Mini. But Elegoo says that it plans to offer an optional multi-color filament accessory starting later this year.
The print bed, meanwhile, is a generous 10 cubic inches with a maximum temperature of 230 degrees F, and the bed surface is dual-sided, with PLA on one side and textured PEI on the other.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)The enclosed chamber offers very good heat regulation with an extruder fan, a part-cooling fan, an auxiliary part-cooling fan, and a fan to regulate the chamber. It also has an activated charcoal filter, which should help when printing filaments, such as ABS, that give off noxious or irritating fumes.
Setup: Easy Assembly and Calibration
Unpacking and setup is quick and easy. Freeing the printer from its well-padded packaging takes only a minute or two. You then need to remove three screws from the print bed (which are pointed out with red arrows), mount the control panel, and put the filament spool in place on the right side of the printer. A tool kit is included, which contains several Allen wrenches, an unclogging pin, a screwdriver, a spare bed nozzle wiper, and the user manual. A camera for watching your prints in real time is already mounted inside the printer.
The control panel is a 4.3-inch capacitive touch screen and is easy to see and use. The power switch is located at the rear of the printer, which is a bit inconvenient, but not uncommon.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)The Centauri Carbon comes with a USB flash drive that contains a small set of models to print, as well as Elegoo's slicer software. Unlike many other printer vendors, Elegoo currently doesn’t have a large model library, but this should present no problem, as you can easily find models from websites like Printables.com. You can print models from your own flash drives, as well as through a Wi-Fi connection to a computer or mobile device.
As with many consumer 3D printers, you will need to install the slicer app and run a calibration before you start printing. The calibration takes about 20 minutes, which is pretty close to several other printers we’ve tested, and the rest of the setup takes only a few minutes.
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(Credit: Elegoo)In addition to the Elegoo slicer app, the printer will work with other slicers, including Cura and Orca. In fact, the Elegoo slicer is almost an exact mirror of the Orca slicer, and even mentions Orca at startup. All of my testing was performed with Elegoo’s slicer, and I had no problem navigating the software.
Quality: Accurate and Well-Formed Prints
We use several methods to determine a 3D printer's output quality. One way is to simply look for anomalies such as lines, distortion, or obvious stringing. We also use a benchmark print, where the parameters of the test object are known; measuring it can tell you how accurate your printer is. Benchmarks are also used to gauge characteristics such as ringing and stringing. In addition, we print a test panel that consists of a number of geometric and typographic forms that increase or decrease in size going horizontally from left to right.
The two formal benchmarks are the 3D Benchy (a boat) and a comprehensive test model that was developed by Kickstarter and Autodesk. I printed both three times using eSUN white PLA+ filament and the 0.4mm nozzle that the printer came with. Elegoo offers several additional nozzle sizes for some of its printers, but none currently for the Centauri Carbon.
The complete rubric for the 3D Benchy consists of measurements of the bridge roof length, chimney roundness, horizontal overall length, horizontal overall width, vertical overall height, cargo box size, the diameter of the hawsepipe (which is the small hole near the front of the boat), the front window size on the bridge, the rear window size on the bridge, and several measurements of angles, including the bow overhang and bridge roof inclination.
(Credit: Ted Needleman)The bridge roof length should be 23mm. Our test model measured 22.89mm across an average of the three prints. The horizontal overall length according to the rubric should be 60mm, while the average of three test prints measured 60.37mm. Other rubric measurements were similar: The measurements were very close, and the test prints were of excellent quality.
The Kickstarter-Autodesk “torture test” measures dimensional accuracy, filament flow control, fine negative features, overhangs, bridging, XY resonance, and Z-Axis alignment.
(Credit: Ted Needleman)A perfect score on this benchmark would be 30 points. The Centauri Carbon scored 22, which is good but not excellent. The part of this benchmark that brought down the score the most was fine flow control, a test measuring the length of the spikes at the top of the object, as well as the amount of stringing between the spires, if it exists. The Centauri Carbon's spires were perfect, but stringing between the spires was enough to bring the score down considerably.
The overhang part of the test object also reduced the score. This test looks for lines as the object moves from no observable lines to very easily visible ones, moving from one overhang step to the next. As the print moved along the overhang, visible lines were observed on the last two steps. This brought the score on this part of the test from 5 to 3.
The geometric panel came out fine, other than the fact that I initially had a problem printing it. On the first try, the vibration of the printer knocked over the print when it was very close to being finished. I added a brim, but got the same results. We had the same problem with several other printers, and I remembered the solution was to add supports. Third time’s the charm...
(Credit: Ted Needleman)One additional note about these rubric-oriented test prints: Filament performance often varies a bit from one print to another, which can result in a print scoring differently from one iteration to another. We would be surprised if the scores on a particular rubric were perfect, so some variance has to be considered in evaluating the results of the prints.
In addition to the benchmark prints, I printed several other models on the Centauri Carbon to judge print quality, including an owl, a baby Yoda, and a model of the Eiffel Tower. All things considered, the prints were very good overall, especially considering the price of the printer.