ToAuto Pyramid A1.1

I bought this printer on Amazon. Thanks to the video instruction in the micro SD card，the installation is actually easier than I expected. My first printing job is impressive, this machine is way quieter than my old 3D printer, I can barely hear the motors. The printing quality is good， my son is happy about the new toy he got from the printer, I will try to print some big for myself as well, maybe a helmet, LOL. Overall, it is a good combination of quality and price. I will try to add direct drive kit to print TPU, will update soon.

The overview: this is a really great, big 3D printer that is a terrific value for the price — which could use a couple of tweaks!

The good: At the current (11/2020) price of $339 ($389 plus $50 off coupon), this is a great value.
The printer came well-packaged, with no damage and everything in place. It is almost entirely un-assembled, so if this is your first 3D printer beware of that. It’s not hard to assemble, just take your time and use the instructions and videos included on the SD card that came with the printer, and you’ll be fine. This is my second 3D printer, and I had it all assembled in about 20 minutes.
The parts are well-made and high-quality. I had no bent parts, stripped threads, or anything of the sort. Everything fit together nicely, with two minor exceptions noted below. I was up and printing within 30 minutes.
The initial print quality of the bunny model included on the SD card, with some orange PLA I already had, was very good. No stringing, almost no visible layer lines, and really good performance on overhangs. I was impressed!
The updated version with the direct-drive extruder is very nice to have, and is easy to load/unload filament. I’ve had no issues with the extruder slipping/skipping. I printed the very large vase in the photos with some rainbow PLA I had, sliced in Cura, and it printed great with no issues. And it’s big!
I included a photo of the printer side-by-side with my existing Ender3 Pro (converted to direct-drive extruder), which should give you an idea of just how much bigger the build volume is on the Pyramid. Yet with that large size, the included triangle-braces do a good job of stabilizing the printer.
The UI is simple and easy to use, and the touchscreen is very nice. The MKS Robin Nano 1.2 32-bit control board works great, and the “silent” TMC2208 drivers on the X and Y axis (it uses non-silent stepper drivers for the Z axis and the extruder) mean this thing is really, really quiet when printing. The only sounds I hear are the fans and a tiny bit of noise from the extruder pushing/retracting.
I added a BLTouch auto-bed-leveling sensor to mine (see photos) — installation was simple, and the ToAuto support team emailed me installation instructions and the proper firmware (though the firmware was already on the SD card included with the printer). That all works as expected, and removes the somewhat tedious manual leveling that needed to be done before each print.

What could be better:
My printer came with a green 3D-printed mount for the filament runout sensor. Which is fine…but everything else is red-accented. So I used the bit of red PLA they included with the printer to print out a red one (the .stl file for the mount is on the SD card).
The left-hand mount for the Z-axis limit switch that came with mine was the same as the right-hand mount — which is backwards. When mounted as it came, it hit on the angled part of the X-axis bar mount, and so wouldn’t trigger properly. Fortunately .stl models for improved Z limit switch mounts are on the SD card, so I printed one out for the left side (in white, see photos), and used it to properly mount the Z limit switch. All good.
The glass build plate that comes with the printer is OK…but print adhesion isn’t the best. I had to use a fair amount of glue stick before prints to get them to stick well. So I spent $15 to get a Creality CR-10 textured glass bed — much better. Prints stick great now with no glue needed.

I will probably build a newer version of the firmware myself, since the printer uses Marlin 1.x and there is Marlin 2.x available for the Robin Nano 1.2 board in the printer. I do kind of miss all of the settings adjustments you can do in Marlin 2.0 right on the printer without having to edit config files or use Pronterface to “talk” to the printer over the USB cable. But honestly, other than trying new firmware, getting the Creality build plate, and adding a BLTouch, there’s really nothing else to do to this already fine printer. It’s already run a 16-hour print without batting an eye, and it’s proving to be well-built, durable, reliable, and really really fun! I’ve got my eye on a full-sized Mandalorian helmet to print on this big guy soon…
So overall, it’s a really good printer at a really good price. The ToAuto people have been great to deal with, there are only a few very minor quibbles with the printer, and the print quality is outstanding on everything I’ve printed. I’m a happy customer.