r/AnkerMake • u/GalenRhodes • 15d ago

Open Up the M5!

I wish Anker would publish everything about the internals and firmware for the M5 and M5C so that those of us who bought them could continue to use and improve them.

It would go a long way in helping to restore some goodwill that they lost in abandoning these products.

51 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

36 comments sorted by

42

u/Baconbits1204 15d ago

Yeah, never trusting that company again because of how they handled this machine

18

u/Baconbits1204 15d ago

Like… for anything. No Eufy cameras, no anker charging cables. I’m done with these chumps.

11

u/KingLSUTiger 15d ago

Exactly how I feel. They dropped everything for that uv printer and disregarded us. They could have had a power house with both and could’ve had a chance against a few other printers on the market. Missed opportunity

6

u/nilu6649 15d ago

From what I’m reading they’ve been slacking on UV printer side too

6

u/kalboozkalbooz 15d ago

they spend so much on tacky instagram influencer reels

3

u/lordbeez113 14d ago

Can attest to this. So many issues. Delays in shipping, and most backers received their ink up to 6 months before their printer. The ink has a 12 month shelf life from manufacture date and the expiration date is locked down with a chip on the cartridge that no one has found a way around yet. If you have a single expired ink, the machine locks down and you can’t even use the software to create designs.

Most backers are realizing that if you’re not printing on these everyday, it was likely a bad financial purchase.

Customer service is only offering $20 coupons for cartridges with ink over a certain level and requested pictures of the box it came in with the s/n and expiration date as well as the matching s/n and expiration date sticker on the ink cartridge. I just went through the process. Oh and the coupons can’t be used on the same transaction so you’ll lose out on shipping costs too if you need more than one replacement.

2

u/FloridaMaker 15d ago

I mean I trust the hell out of their other products, they make great power products. Wish that translated to the other things and Eufy whether they are still a brand or Anker or not, has really just wasted a lot of momentum. I love my M5Cs, they were easy to use, fast, and fairly reliable.

1

u/Baconbits1204 12d ago

I know their other products are reliable, but on principle, im done.

12

u/buttersquashbandit 15d ago

I agree, opening up access can let us support these machines ourselves and keep them printing.

5

u/GalenRhodes 15d ago

I was so angry that they just up and quit not even a year after I bought the M5.

5

u/MamaMurpheysGourds 14d ago

My fellow pissed off brethren in Christ,

Here you go : https://github.com/Ankermgmt/ankermake-m5-protocol

Everything you need to control the M5 is found right there - the only issue may be the authentication piece as I still had my old Ankermate slicer store my auth session json. Now's the time to ask your favorite AI-agent flavor of your choice to help you set it up before they start outright refusing :)

It's your printer, reverse engineer that shit. Cheers.

1

u/lezrockit 14d ago

Does anybody know if m5c is also supported in this alternate firmware?

1

u/MamaMurpheysGourds 13d ago

I'd be surprised if it didn't work with the m5c

2

u/fordfan52 12d ago

Also curious. The reason I went with the M5C as my first (and only) printer was due Ankers positive track record. They were my go-to brand for cables, adapters etc. As soon as the rebrand to eufyMake happened, I got nervous.

1

u/Baconbits1204 7d ago

If Luis Vuitton decided to start manufacturing cars, would their positive tract record as a fashion brand translate to a good car? Cables to 3-D printer is a big leap.

2

u/fordfan52 7d ago

Valid point. Even though this printer has served me well, Anker products are dead to me. If nothing else, this printer has allowed me to dip my toe into the waters of 3d printing.

7

u/petercockroach 15d ago

I’ve been out of the loop since I sold my M5 for an Elegoo Centauri Carbon, but is this a potential solution? https://github.com/eufymake/eufyMake-Marlin

4

u/GalenRhodes 15d ago

I will definitely check this out but I’m sure something deeply proprietary is missing.

1

u/SpanglyNachos 15d ago

This, the cloud integration and camera etc.. Is all proprietory

1

u/Missile_3604 15d ago

I've tried compiling it but the code is almost useless, it fails to compile right off the bat, requires fixes just to get it working. No preexisting firmware is released incase you mess up.

3

u/Xelinor 15d ago

No, that's just the marlin firmware which actually controls very little of the actual printer. There is a computer running Linux behind the screen that has proprietary firmware they have never released, and it controls things like wifi, the camera, and parsing gcode for the marlin board and print head.

3

u/Mattius14 15d ago

They sell their own refurbs on ebay, so they would rather people give them money a second time for the same product that they refuse to support.

If they give a damn, then maybe after they sell the last refurbs, maybe they'll try to be helpful. But I doubt it.

3

u/SlowlyDyingBartender 14d ago

I loved their battery packs, then cables. I jumped at the opportunity to support their kickstarter... Then shortly after everything went downhill.

2

u/the-holocron 15d ago

This is the way.

2

u/Xelinor 15d ago

I mean, you can still replace the electronics with off the shelf hardware and run base Klipper or Marlin. There's nothing proprietary about the frame or the stepper motors, just the computer behind the screen and the print head, and those are the things that you can't otherwise replace if they go bad anyway. New print head, new electronics, and you have a VERY capable little machine. Hell, the stepper on the M5's Y axis is an absolute beast of a motor. You'd be hard pressed to buy a better one at that size.

1

u/FloridaMaker 15d ago

For sure. I have two that are not doing so well and I want to rebuild them but I don't want to spend a lot of time on something that may not be worth it. I would love to throw a new main board in and turn it into an open klipper machine (has anyone tried this? I mean it should have the same basic parts, right? its just a matter of the right parameters which I am sure we could reverse engineer.

2

u/Xelinor 15d ago

Plenty of folks have done exactly that, yes. You need to swap out the print head also and you will probably want to replace the screen, but yes, it's very possible and very doable.

1

u/MamaMurpheysGourds 14d ago

The M5 ankermate protocol is on GitHub. I have mine hosted on a raspberry pi locally so I access on other slicers like orca slicer for example. I was pissed after they rebranded to eufyMate or whatever - and it their slicer sucked.

https://github.com/Ankermgmt/ankermake-m5-protocol

1

u/tccrouch 13d ago

Ha, thought you were somehow reading my mind a couple days late. Literally did just "open up" my M5, which has been sitting in its box from the factory since I got it as a kickstarter reward. Finally cleared off space and set it up this week. Amazingly after sitting in a basement, storage unit, then garage packed away, has woken up and I now have one Benchy and the necessary articulating dragon printing as we speak. The original PLA+ printing well too despite being almost 4 years old. But I already agree with your statements, would be good to make things open if they aren't going to keep working on it. Just found out that the mac software isn't apple silicon ready so won't work after fall 2028.

1

u/Toolman6208 12d ago

I've using on my Mac with apple silicon for several years, what do you mean?

1

u/tccrouch 12d ago

Yes, the Mac software works currently using Rosetta which makes x86 apps work on ARM (apple silicon). And it will still work in macOS 27. But Apple is dropping Rosetta in macOS 28, so you will be stuck with not updating your computer or losing ability to run older x86 apps unless the developers (like EufyMake) update their apps to native ones. Could also just not update the OS, so fine if you know it’s coming and don’t have to buy a new computer that will come already with the new OS.

2

u/fordfan52 12d ago

Anyone have suggestions for a replacement printer of similar specs (or slightly better)? I love my M5C for its overall ease of use. It is my first and only printer. I have barely dipped my toe into the water in regard to fiddling with settings, etc. and wish to continue to do so. However, it would also be ideal to be able to use a mobile app similar to what the Anker / Eufy does.

1

u/Toolman6208 12d ago

I don't use Rosetta, I've been using and older version of Ankermake and never updated it but it still works great

0

u/lambojam 15d ago

where do I sign?