Last year Monoprice sent me one of their Maker Ultimate 2 Printers to review. I can honestly say it’s been an excellent printer for me, and you can find it for around $550 as of this writing on Monoprice or Amazon. Keep in mind that my experience before this consists only of using an MP Select Mini 2, which I was also happy with.
My system shipped with Firmware version 1.6, but later versions (2.~) reportedly appear to somehow bonk USB functionality. Mechanics-wise I still think this is a good printer, but there’s not yet a community surrounding it to help with issues like firmware, or even how to clear a jam.
So with that in mind, I’ve created a subreddit dedicated to this system, and placed a bit of content there to hopefully start the discussion. There’s also a bit of info in this Twitter thread, including an imgur set of me disassembling the print head. You can also find my review from last year and some setup tips below, however, note that these were based on 1.6 firmware.
Update 1/17/2020: Per this Reddit discussion, USB/Octoprint DOES work with Octoprint via the 2.2.8 firmware and this MalyanConnectionFix plugin. While I still think the MP Select Mini V2 [MP or Amazon] is a better first printer choice simply to get your feet wet, this could be a great upgrade. Be sure to join up on Reddit to help make it awesome!
Incidentally, after finally looking through my plugins, I do have this one already installed. Most likely it’s because I was using my Octoprint setup with the MP Select Mini V2 before this. Looks like that’s the solution:
As of now, I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this device as a first printer. If, however, you’re competent upgrading and/or downgrading firmware and with printers in general, I to think this could be a good option.
This is really frustrating for me as a reviewer, since it’s been a good printer for me, and I sincerely think it could be excellent with a bit of software work. Hopefully a community will develop around this piece of equipment, and perhaps you can help!
*Note that links to Amazon are affiliate, meaning I get a small % of purchases at no additional cost to you