Swiss Pen 3D handheld

After nearly four months of what can only be described as dissembling lying and fraudulent billing by the company, I am surprised to have received a "Swiss Pen".  Those who are reading probably know what it is --- a handheld "3D printer" which is really just a big electric glue gun for ABS plastic filaments.   Its claim to fame was that it was going to beat kickstarter success 3-Doodler to market.

Here i have some unboxing photos.   No fancy packaging (unlike 3-Doodler, which ships in a box worthy of Apple). The power supply won't fit US outlets so until I find an adapter, I don't know if it works.

The major point to make is not that they have shipped, but that the seller has lied and lied and lied for months about "we sent it" and "sorry, we had a delay, we'll send it now" to "sorry, we'll refund your money and you can keep it when it arrives" ..... and that was before Jan 1st.  The last 6 week have seen many promises of a refund -- but somehow they never do complete the process.

Full review after I have an adapter.

image

image, a photo by Donny O'Smokem on Flickr.

The SwissPen (swiss-3dprint.com) seems to be selling smoke....

A number of gadget and 3-D printing sites have gushing previews of the SwissPen, a 3Doodler knock off that was supposed to come to market ahead of the great kickstarter success.

I backed 3Doodler on kickstarter and now have it in hand.  Not without problems of its own
http://airsmokeandmirrors.blogspot.com/2014/01/3doodler-troubleshooting.html

I also ordered a SwissPen in October 2013.   More that 3 months later, no pen, no refund, and the company is emerging as a big scam.

Gerard's blog Here and here report an experience similar to mine.

Comments  and (Comments) on some of those laudatory SwissPen previews now show many others got taken in.

What is most concerning to me is that Paypal really enabled this scam.  By sending lots of  "Sorry, we had a delay" and "your pen has shipped, I'll get you a tracking number" messages -- in my case these messages from swiss-3Dprint.com were sent through paypal's own dispute resolution center -- the seller manages to put even the concerned buyer on hold until after paypal's dispute resolution option has expired.

3Doodler troubleshooting

3Doodler is the handheld "3-D printer" which was a big hit on kickstarter.   Essentially it is a big fat pen with a drive system, heater, and nozzle through which you can extrude ABS or PLA (using their proprietary filaments.... a significant upsell!)

I got mine recently and am here to report on its premature demise.  After 8 or 10 filaments over 3 days, I started a real design project, using black ABS. Shortly the pen clogged or jammed.  Nothing coming out.  Their site advises trying to push it through with a new filament -- no go.  Then it advises removing and unclogging the nozzle with flame or acetone. Don't burn your fingers.  Still my device was jammed.  When I tried the last step on their FAQ guidance, to advance or back up the filament, instead a white nylon sleeve/tube came out from the distal end.  It appeared to be jammed and filled with solid black ABS.   I could not reinsert this tube into the pen.

So far the company has not responded to customer service requests.

Jawbone is great -- but its attachments are terrible!

As an early adopter, I was psyched to grab the Jawbone, a bluetooth headset with really meaningful noise reduction.

It works pretty well. Callers hear my voice clearly even when I am in the car -- wind noise on the street or with the top down is still a problem. But it's a big step up from others I have owned.

The volume in my ear could be a little louder -- I find I have to put a finger up there to push it into my ear canal if I am not in a quiet environment.

But the big gripes all are about the attachments.

First, the designers chose a proprietary charging adapter. This sucks a bit -- who wants to carry yet another charger in their bag when traveling? A mini USB would have been SO much more friendly.

Second, the earloops (you get several in the package, for different sizes of right and left ears) are very fragile. Within days of purchase, the one that fit my ear best had fractured. The next best fit lasted only another week before it had become bent -- and surely will break if bent back into shape.

Third, the earbuds (again, you get several in the box, of different sizes/shapes) are not securely attached to the headset. They click on with a quarter turn, and are prone to detach and get lost unless you pack the thing in cotton and transport it in a hardshell case......

Here's the smoke on Jawbone: cool first generation device, but early adopters will be penalized with poorly thought-out attachments which make the headset hard to use in real life.

Gmail crashes my Blackberry 8800

Writing an email of more than a few lines on Gmail via my 8800 often causes a crash -
"Uncaught exception: Application gm_v4_0_L1 (379) is not responding, process terminated.

Not seeing much about this in the groups -- anybody else? Solutions?

Delkin Sensor Scope user

BEFORE

Bits of crud started to appear on the photos coming out of my Nikon D100, so I looked into cleaning the sensor. Lots of advisors said this is serious business, not to be done trivially or you can ruin the camera. An ad for the Delkin Sensor Scope flew past my eyeballs and I bought it (for $189 from the manufacturer.)

If you're thinking about the same purchase, bear in mind that setting up your DSLR for cleaning the sensor requires specific steps. For me, it required an additional purchase of an AC adaptor (not a charger, but a power source) -- only with this plugged in will the D100 go into mirror lock-up/sensor cleaning mode.

The Sensor Scope comprises an illuminated loupe that fits loosely into your lens mount, and focuses more or less on the sensor. The kit contains a small and not very powerful vacuum, powered by USB or by the included pseudo-USB battery pack. With a brush tip on the vacuum cleaner, you're supposed to clean the fuffum and fleckies out. Then you can use the provided wiper sticks and cleaning fluid to get the sticky gack off the sensor.

For me, it took quite a while to make much progress. The vacuum did not seem to do anything. The wiper sticks are not exactly lint-free, so really careful wiping technique was required, and I went through 5 cleanings before I had gotten most of the stuff off there. Even still, the result is not perfect.


AFTER

727-712-0382

they're still at it...


Plenty of other reports (JWSmythe, 2, 3) of the extraordinarily aggressive telemarketing scam that comes from "Quality Resources." They call your phone (in many cases, it seems, your cell phone) and claim that you've done business with them in the past. They have your credit card, even.

These are scary bastards, and my wife having just gotten a couple of very creepy calls from them today, we'll be trying to SMOKE them out.