ANYCUBIC KOBRA MAX - Large 3D Printer Manual

Packing List

* All pictures shown are for illustrative purposes only. The actual product may vary due to product optimization.

Product Overview

Back

Print

Prepare

Tool

Light: Turn on/off the light of the print head

Motor: Disable all motors (only valid when machine is not printing).

System

Language: Change language (English / Chinese).

Voice: Turn on/off the screen sound.

About: Display the information about the product.

Installation

1. Be cautious during assembly as some parts may have sharp edges.
2. It is suggested to use a flat desktop and place the parts in an orderly manner for quick assembly.
3. The color of some parts may be different from what in the manual, but the assembly is the same.
4. Firmware has been pre-uploaded to the motherboard. After completing the assembly, please level the platform and load the filament then you could start the first test print.

Note: Every unit of the printer has been inspected and tested for printing. Therefore, in some cases, there might be very small marks left on the print head or on the heated bed. Those will not affect the printing quality and those mean the printer has been tested for the quality. If there are some tiny scratches on the aluminum beams or slight unevenness on the platform, it is normal and won't affect the printing quality. Thank you very much for your kind understanding.

1. Install the frame. (Front side)
   

2. Install supporting rods. (Back side)
   

Tips: Loosen the nuts at both ends of the supporting rod and the length of supporting rod can be adjusted.

3. Install the screen. (Front side)
   

4. Install glass plate. (Front side)
   Please remove the film of the heated bed before installing the glass plate.
   

6. Wiring: connect all these cables to their ports following the corresponding label. (The cables are packed under the heated bed, please pull them out carefully.)
   Do not connect or disconnect any cables when the machine is powered on.
   Make sure the print head cable goes smoothly under the top beam.
   
   
   

7. Move the print head to the end, then secure the print head harness into the bracket with an R type cable clamp and one M4 screw. (Back side)
   
   Pay attention to the fixed position of the print head harness. If the length shown above is less than 56cm, the print head harness become loose or damaged after long-term use.
   

7. Use three cable clips to tie the print head cable and Teflon tube together, then fix the print head cable to the print head fixing plate with a zip tie, and tie the cables at the left rear to the supporting rod with a zip tie. (Back side)
   

Check Before Use

1. Remove unwanted zip ties and foams
   Cut off the zip ties shown in the picture and remove foams from the print head.
   

2. D-shape wheels
   D-shape wheels of the base and print head may be loose due to transportation. After assembly, place the printer on a flat desktop and check the wheels.
   1. X axis: Shake the print head manually. If it wobbles, tighten the wheel by rotating the eccentric nut with an open-end wrench until the print head does not wobble and moves smoothly along X axis.
      
   2. Y axis: Shake the printing platform manually. If it wobbles, tighten the wheels by rotating the eccentric nuts with an open-end wrench until the platform does not wobble and moves smoothly along Y axis.
      

3. Belts
   Please tighten the belt tensioners if the belts are loose.
   

Leveling

Leveling the printing platform is a key step in 3D printing, which determines to a large extent whether the model can be reliably adhered to the printing platform. If the distance between the nozzle and the printing platform is too wide, the model will not adhere to the printing platform properly. If the nozzle is too close to the printing platform, it will hinder material extrusion and scratch the platform. Once leveled, it is not necessary to level every time before each printing.

Anycubic Kobra Max supports auto-leveling, which is easy to level the platform.

* Before leveling, please ensure that the platform and nozzle are clean and free of foreign matters to avoid affecting the leveling effect.

1. Plug in the power cord, and then power on the printer.
   

2. Return to main menu, then click Prepare→ Leveling→Auto-leveling. A pop-up window appears that prompts you to use a tool to touch nozzle for calibration. Note that you need to do the calibration within 1 minute.
   

Loading Filament

1. Return to main menu, click Tools→Move Axis, clickcontinuously to rise the print head, so that there is enough space for loading.
   

2. Return to main menu, click Prepare → Filament → Filament In, and the heating up interface will pop up, click "0K".
   
   

3. Cut the end of the filament at a 45 degree angle and straighten the filament, then place the filament spool on the filament holder.
   

4. Check the temperature on the screen. When the nozzle reaches the target temperature, click Filament In again. Pass the filament through filament sensor, and insert it to the extruder until it is fed by the extruder. When the filament comes out smoothly at the nozzle, click Stop
   * Please clean the filament residue on the nozzle tip.
   

Supplement:
During feeding, if the extruded filament is not smooth or too thin, please adjust the extrusion force by rotating the knob as shown below.

Note: The optimal distance of knob for extruding filament is about 18 mm. You may adjust the distance of the screw for the different filament.

Printing Models

After the leveling and filament feeding are completed, the printing can be started. A printable file "owl.gcode" has been preloaded in the memory card and the users can print it directly.

* In order for the printer to better recognize the GCode file in the memory card, you need to back up all the files in the memory card to the computer, and keep the memory card only for the GCode files. Please save all the GCode files in root directory of the memory card.

* GCode file name should only contain English letters, underscore and space. File name contains special characters could not be recognized by the printer.

1. Insert the memory card into the memory card slot, and choose the "owl.gcod e" file to print. (owl, author: etotheipi, www.thingiverse.com)
   
   * Before printing, the nozzle will start heating after the heated bed reaches target temperature. When the temperature reaches target value, the printer will start printing.

2. There might be three kinds of results for the first or second layer of the test print:
   1. Nozzle is too close to the platform, resulting in insufficient extrusion of filament.
      
   2. Proper distance between nozzle and platform can achieve the best printing effect.
      
   3. Nozzle is too high and the gap is large, which lead to poor adhesion of filament to the platform.
      

The printing effect and can be improved by adjust Z-offset during printing.

How to adjust the Z-offset:
Click Settings on printing status interface, then click "+" or "-" of the Z-offset to adjust the distance between nozzle and printing platform and observe the printing effect.

• In case of configuration , please click Settings → Z-offset→ + to rise the print head.
• In case of configuration , please click Settings→ Z-offset → — to lower the print head.

* After adjusting the offset setting, click "0K" on the settings interface, and the offset will be effective for subsequent printing; if you only click the Return button without clicking "0K", the offset will only be effective for this printing.

Removing filament

1. Return to main menu, click Tools → Move Axis , click continuously to rise the print head, so that there is enough space between the nozzle and platform.
   

2. Return to main menu, click Prepare → Filament →Filament Remove, and the heating up interface will pop up, click "0K".
   
   

The printing effect @ and @ can be improved by adjust Z-offset during printing. How to adjust the Z-offset: Click Settings on printing status interface, then click "+" or of the Z-offset to adjust the distance between nozzle and printing platform and observe the printing effect.

3. Import the Configuration File
   After continuous testing, we provided users the suggested printing parameters of different filaments for Anycubic Kobra Max, and the user could directly import the parameter files to the software. (
   1. Click Settings → Configure setting visibility..., and then tick Check all box to make all settings visible.
      
   2. In the same interface opened in Step (1), click Profiles on the left side. Then click Import button to import the desired print profile.
      * Choose different parameter profiles according to different filament types.
      * The provided profiles only match Cura 4.2.1.
      * Profile path: Memory card→ "Files _ English _Anycubic Kobra Max"→ "Suggested Parameters Profiles"
      

3. Select the profile that you just imported, and then click the Activate button
   

* Note: An interface may pop up after clicking the Activate button. If so, please check the values of listed parameters. You can click Keep to keep the custom values or click Discard to enable the values in the profile.

Supplementary Explanation

1. You can customize some parameters after importing the profile, but we still recommend that you use the parameters in the profile that we provide.
   
2. The paremeter Build Plate Adhesion → Build Plate Adhesion Type needs to be set to "None" when you print the maximum size model.
   

4. Manipulate 3D model in Cura
   * Model files can be from www.anycubic.com (ANYCUBIC website) and www.thingiverse.com.
   1. Click the open file button in the top left corner to import the model file or directly drag the file into the software.
      
   2. Left click the model to activate the adjustment tool on the left side of the interface. Choose one of the adjustment tool, and then click and drag the controls on the model to adjust it.
      

Other operations:

1. Press the mouse wheel and move the mouse to move the platform.
2. Scroll the mouse wheel to zoom in and out the platform.
3. Right click and move the mouse to change the viewing angle.

* Note: When moving the model, make sure that the model is in the printable area. The color of the model in the following figure indicates that the model is out of print range.

5. Slice and Preview
   Now that the configuration and print settings are in place, it's time to slice the model. Click Slice button in the bottom right corner. When the process completes, it will immediately show a Preview button, click it to go to the preview stage.
   
   

Use the layer slider and simulation view to check important parts of your 3D slice.

6. Print offline and online
   There are two operational modes for Anycubic Kobra Max: print offline and print online.

• Print offline: Insert memory card into the memory card slot, click on the Home Menu "Print" to enter the file list, and print a selected file (GCode files ONLY).
• Print online: Install CH340 driver to bridge PC and machine, and install Cura for slicing and control the machine to print via data cable.
  

It is suggested to use Print Offline mode to minimize the noisy signal via data cable.

• Print offline (Recommended)
  After slicing, click Save to File in the bottom right corner. Save the GCode file to the memory card, and then insert the memory card to the printer and control via the touchscreen for offline printing.

* GCode file name should only contain English letters, underscore and space. File name contains special characters could not be recognized by the printer. In order to let the printer better recognize the GCode file in the memory card, you need to back up all the files in the memory card to the computer, and keep the memory card only for the GCode file. Please save all the GCode files in root directory of the memory card.

• Print online
  Printing online requires the installation of a driver. And you can control the printer through Cura after connecting the data cable.

1. Turn on the machine, connect the printer (data cable port) and your PC via data cable. The driver may not be installed automatically, so it is required to check that. Right-mouse click "This PC"→ "Properties"→ "Device manager", if there is an exclamation mark as shown below, then it needs to be installed manually.

* Anycubic Kobra Max uses CH340 chip for communication.
* CH340 driver file path: "Files_English_Anycubic Kobra Max" → "Driver_CH341 There are two versions, Windows and Mac version. (* CH341 driver file is suitable for CH340 chip).

2. Here we take Windows PC system for example. Double click "CH341SerSetup.exe" and follow the wizard to install it. If the driver has installed automatically in step (1), skip this step.
   * After the installation is completed, refer to the method in step (1 ) to see if the driver has been identified (no exclamation mark).
3. After slicing, click Print via USB in the bottom right corner to go to the monitor stage. After waiting for about ten seconds, the operation panel will be displayed on the right side of the interface. And the printing platform will be heated up for printing.
   * If the printer is not connected properly, the Monitor interface will be blank. Please plug the data cable to connect again.
   * In the process of printing, do not plug the data cable, or it will interrupt the printing.
   * In case of abnormal sound during the printing process, you can directly turn off the power of the machine. Please check the Troubleshooting chapter for more detail or contact Customer Service.
   

Resume from Outage

In case of a power loss during printing, the machine will automatically save the printing status. After restarting, you will see the interface shown below, please click "Continue" to continue your printing or "Cancel" to cancel it.

Tips: Before resuming, please clean the excessive filament on the nozzle and model to avoid affecting the printing quality.

Maintenance

It is necessary to perform routine maintenance to the 3D printer to achieve consistent and quality results.

Some maintenance suggestions are shown as below:

1. Clean the nozzle with a needle under preheating conditions. If the filament residue in the nozzle could not be cleared 100%, please replace the nozzle.
2. Regularly add lubricating oil to smooth rods, linear bearings, lead screws, brass nuts, etc. It can minimize the wear-out failure of those moving parts.
3. Regularly clean the filament residue and dirt on the nozzle, platform, guide rail, motor, fan, etc.
4. Pay attention to the wear conditions of the D-shape wheels. Although they could be used for long time, please replace the D-shape wheels if they have been wore-out.
5. After finishing a printing, clean the printing platform to ensure the adhesion of the bottom layer of the model for next printing.
6. Check the belts regularly and tighten them if necessary.

Troubleshooting

1. Motor shaking or abnormal sound

7. Freezing screen

Safety Instructions

Technical Specification

Documents / Resources

References

• Thingiverse - Digital Designs for Physical Objects
• Anycubic 3D Printer | For Freedom to Make

Download manual

Here you can download full pdf version of manual, it may contain additional safety instructions, warranty information, FCC rules, etc.

Download ANYCUBIC KOBRA MAX - Large 3D Printer Manual