The title sums it up well, but I will elaborate a little more.
I have been eyeballing the Taz Pro since before it was called that (back when I did a plant tour like a year back). However, when it came out, it was carrying a price tag about $2k higher then what I was told, but, then the Workhorse came along, and it carried the one I was told for the Pro (making me think there was a mix up).
Anyway, what I am trying to now figure out is what exactly makes these vary in price? To me the only thing I have been able to see that the Pro has over the workhorse is
The screen (no longer “gray-scaled” and has touch capability
The dual extruder (which is nice)
But I have trouble believing that just these 2 small features could really justify a $2k price difference. What else am I missing? Because right now the Workhorse looks just fine for what I want, giving a lot of the new features I saw the Pro had when I saw it on the tour, and the items it’s missing I can do without.
I believe the big difference in price is because of the difference in target users. The Pro is aimed at professionals and businesses. The Workhorse is more an “upgrade” to the TAZ 6 targeted at the same groups that the TAZ 6 was targeted at.
Only time will tell if this marketing strategy will be successful.
The screen, dual lifting extruders, filament runout sensors and a 32 bit control board are the primary differences.
IMHO, the “PRO” version of a Taz should have included a larger build platform, multi-point mesh bed leveling, V-slot rails or linear bearings and rails and an enclosure. At minimum. For the price they are charging.
Well the 32-bit board I see no relevance, probably just to support the screen if anything. But that Filament Runout Sensor that does have my eye. But still a 2k price is hard to stomach for that and the extruder (I could care less on the screen)
The Pro is NOTICEABLY quieter when it turns. The motors on the Workhorse “sing” as the control boards run the motors. On the Pro it is virtually silent.
Both use the same E3D Titan Aerostruder with direct drive… but on the Pro there are two of them. The platform has a 2nd wiper pad on the Pro for the 2nd extruder.
The comparison table will tell you the Workhorse doesn’t have offset calibration… but that’s because it only has one nozzle. The offset calibration on the Pro measures the distance between the nozzles on the two extruders in X, Y, and Z so that when switching filaments, it knows precisely how to move to get the 2nd extruder nozzle exactly where it wants it. The calibration-cube on the Pro automatically measures this (as well as doing backlash compensation).
Build plate is the same (they are interchangeable). The build volume is also the same.
Since the print-head on the Pro is larger and because of the chain-belt, the Pro needs more clearance on the build-plate. If you print multiple parts using one-at-a-time printing on the Pro, be aware of this need for more space between parts – or the need to be a bit more clever about how you arrange parts on the build plate.
The memory slot on the Workhorse is an SD card slot. The Pro uses a USB slot (so you use a USB thumb-drive instead of an SD card.)
The Pro has dual filament run-out sensors. BTW, it doesn’t say it has a jam sensor… but mine alerted me when I had a filament jam. So I’m thinking it’s a dual-purpose jam + run-out sensor. The Workhorse doesn’t have a filament run-out sensor. (I was thinking about adding one but wiring it to my OctoPi. I use an OctoPi on each printer to control the print jobs.)
Dual extruders are really nice and I love the quiet operation and the touch-screen is very nice. If I were to only buy one then I’d go with the Pro. Quality of prints… the Workhorse is as good and has been a solid performer.
It’s new… I’ve been running maybe a month. I have (twice now) noticed an issue where I hear a buzzing sound when it’s homing the print-head. I haven’t quite pinned down why but I think I’ve noticed that if it is ordered to home, but is already against a hard-stop, it doesn’t know it’s on the hard stop and tries to home itself again anyway.
At first I thought the hard stop wasn’t working … but I’ve tested that. If it isn’t on a hard stop, and moves to a hard stop, it detects the hard-stop sensor and stops. I think (but am not sure) the problem happens when it’s already at the hard stop and tries to move into it again. I’ll have to do a little testing to see if I can’t pin it down.
That has only happened twice. That may well end up being a firmware bug because I think the hardware sensors are working. Other than that… no issues with it. It’s been running great.
LulzBot has a print-nozzle calibration part that uses a vernier scale… printing the scales adjacent to each other in two different filaments. The spacing on the scale for nozzle 1 is meant to be slightly different than the spacing for the scale on nozzle 2. I nozzle offsets are correct, then the middle line on the two scales will match up. If any other line (other than the center line) matches better than the middle line, then it means the nozzle alignment values need to be tweaked (and you can use the scale to determine how much). When you flash the firmware, you have to re-enter the values. Anyway… I was doing that manually. THEN I discovered that I could have picked auto-calibrate and let it use the calibration cube. The calibration cube on the Pro will, in addition to working out backlash… also works out nozzle offsets. It made things MUCH easier and the nozzle check part prints with the vernier scales on the X & Y axis perfectly aligned.