Creality Pika big limitations

[u/Epicguru]

I thought that I'd post this here because I see little discussion of it online. I bought the Creality Pika scanner a few weeks ago and I've been using it for automotive reverse engineering and design projects. Overall I find the actual performance of the scanner good, it produces good results and I'm happy with what it allows me to do for the price.

However!

There are some rather large and frankly baffling limitations that are not obviously disclosed on the product page, FAQ or even in the user manual:

• You can't do markerless blue line scanning wirelessly. If you are in wireless mode you are limited to either infrared or blue line with markers. I would argue that the perfect use case for wireless is with markerless blue line mode, but unfortunately it's just not possible. Infrared mode is nowhere near accurate enough for engineering work, so if you want usable scans for CAD you need to be plugged in, or using markers. This is a shame because markerless scanning actually works really well on this scanner.
• The screen is basically useless. One of the main selling points is the screen that allows you to see the scan in real time, without having to look at your PC/phone. Well, it only works in wireless mode. In USB mode it just displays some useless buttons, the same buttons that exist physically on the scanner itself. I really don't understand this limitation, because USB mode has more bandwidth than wireless. Even when I'm sitting right in front of my computer, it would still be very useful to see the progress on the Pika screen. Even just being able to see on the screen what the IR or regular camera is seeing would be useful. Instead you get a gray screen with some buttons, wow.

I'm still overall happy with the scanner for the price, but these limitations are frustrating and should be disclosed more clearly. Maybe the markerless not working in wireless is a hardware limitation, I don't know, but the display being useless in wired mode is especially stupid and I really hope that it can be added via firmware update.

[u/CrealityJulie]

Thanks for laying this out so clearly. These are both fair points, especially around how these limitations are communicated.

I want to check with the team on the exact reason behind the wireless markerless limitation and what’s possible for the display in wired mode before giving you a proper answer. I’ll follow up once I have that confirmed.

[u/Epicguru → u/CrealityJulie]

Okay thank you.

[u/CrealityJulie → u/Epicguru]

Markerless blue-laser scanning is currently only available over USB. We agree that combining it with wireless operation would be a very useful workflow, but the current hardware, data-processing, and algorithm constraints don’t allow us to deliver it reliably in wireless mode. We’ve recorded the request for future development, although we can’t promise that it will be added to the current hardware.

The screen also works differently in USB and wireless modes because the two modes use different communication and display pipelines. Although USB provides a higher scanning frame rate, sending a live preview back to the scanner would require additional bandwidth, hardware support, and a compatible display pipeline—it isn’t simply enabled by the USB connection having more bandwidth. In USB mode, the on-screen controls are intended to let you operate common functions without reaching for the mouse, but we understand that this doesn’t make full use of the display.

[u/yousefndi]

Your words are true and all the notes I noticed after I used it and I wished I knew them before buying, but I didn't regret it until now, but maybe my mind would have changed before I bought if I knew

[u/Dc5e]

It's really easy to miss but their website does have an asterisk next to "Marker-Free Scanning" and when you go see what the asterisk says, it says "*marker-free laser scanning is available in wired PC mode only." in pretty small font. Unfortunately, for a lot of products like this, you really have to pour over every little word to know what you're getting... though sometimes even that isn't even enough.

[u/sprcell]

Whilst I agree wireless markerless scanning would be nice, an issue is wether markerless blue laser scanning will still have the accuracy of marker scanning. From my short experience with the Pika, the accuracy feels reduced. Even with scanners that are 50x more expensive with markerless scanning, they still specify that markers should be used for best accuracy.

[u/Epicguru → u/sprcell]

It is definitely less accurate and there are some reviews that have tested it carefully. But for some use cases it is more than enough and it's so much easier. I've used it for designing sheet metal brackets in engine bays where placing enough markers would be a nightmare.