Found these pictures of the Tiko internals, thought others might be interested in this setup.
I should be early in the shipments (backer# < 1000). I’ll try to post photos whenever I get mine.
The setup is really interesting and a bit clever how they decided to insert (probably mold injected plastic?) gt2 inside the rails. But although mounting the motor directly on the carriage is smart, it’s not the right way for a Delta. The speed of the machine will be significantly limited and I can see already that the resolution is pretty low from some of the print videos out there. It’s in the category of M3D printers really. Beginner model, but not for useful purposes, just for fun.
@Shai_Schechter It’s a rack/pinion, which isn’t exactly the same profile as a toothed belt.
Looks like they had they byj48’s made custom, I hope they had them wired as bipolar instead of unipolar.
I’d really like to watch that exterior being extruded. With the rack apparently extruded right along with the rest I’d bet it’s an interesting show.
@Whosa_whatsis Ok didn’t know it’s not the same profile, never looked into using this type of setup.
Their arm setup is something we thought about doing, but it’s pretty difficult to mold inject that design. Lots of tolerances that have to be exact.
@Stephen_Baird i think the threaded strip is added later. I guess It’s possible to extrude threads with an adaptive mould or have an fancy CNC that can reach inside. But it would not make any financial/practical sense.
My guess is that it is a plastic/rubber strip that is glued on or welded together during assembly. As this solution would be the easiest/cheapest approach.
Look at the second image. I think it looks like the threaded strip is made from another material and not part of the extrusion.
Yeah, the rack is a separate, probably plastic piece. Using an elastomeric material would allow it to absorb some backlash, but might enhance ringing if it’s not stiff enough under compression (and the pinion doesn’t look big enough to be helpful in that capacity).
Does anybody have any links to decent photographs of the printer’s output?
There must be a few images around since they started to deliver their machine to end users, but I haven’t yet seen any actual prints off this machine.
Абсолютно непригодная для ремонта конструкция. Я огорчен таким решением. В сентябре я планирую получить свой Tiko. Надеюсь, что он послужит мне хотя бы 2 года.
@Shai_Schechter definitely it won’t compete quality or speed wise with a calibrated and tweaked Ultimaker 2 or Taz 6… but that’s not the point. Tiko’s brief was more like “how can we build something that’s like an appliance; cheap, reliable, does the specific job with a minimum of overbuilding/cost.”
There is a support forum at Tiko3d.com where people have been posting their results. Not in the early bird group, so don’t have a printer to play with yet. ^_^;;
@Patrick_Barnes I don’t think anyone’s looking to have it compete against a $2500 machines. I think a bigger question is, how well does it compare to the Monoprice Select Mini?
@Nathan_Walkner a Mendel that’s owned by an expert willing to tweak and calibrate, or owned by an amateur? “Works out of the box. Continues to work without regular maintenance.” is a surprisingly difficult requirement to meet.
@Nathan_Walkner of course that’s a possibility, we’ll just have to wait and see.
I found these photos of the Tiko’s output from a real user’s first try:
Not much to go on, since most first-time users of any machine tend to make a hash of things anyway.
This image comes from their user forums:
http://forum.tiko3d.com/viewforum.php?f=3&sid=ef6db5d3081a86ef7a06cd42fcf759d1
What I believe is most telling is that the manufacturer is studiously avoiding showing actual prints, especially when they have the most to gain by demonstrating the potential of their machine.
Their photos so-far lack any useful details and their videos are always fast-motion fragments.
The time is fast approaching when we will get a good idea what output quality you get for $180.
I looked at the ‘first thing i’m going to make’ forum and man I felt so sad for most of those people 
I got a strong sense of ridiculous expectations.
For $180 though… some kids toys cost that, and are done with it in 6 months. So I see the niche, I just hate the marketing as something that is going to keep functioning any longer than a toy or cheap appliance.
Appliances at this price point survive by being easily replaced with a ‘sorry here you go have a new one’ from stores like Macy’s. Because of the level of manufacturing and assembly quality control that is economically viable at that price point. These will fail more than most home appliances because that is simply what new untested design does versus old well tested and modified design. So can they stay within the business model and offer good warranties and quick replacements from overstocks of each years model?
I doubt it, because there is no demand for the device to create the rest of the business model. I hope I am wrong for all the dreamers in that forum, but I fear the worst.
@AlohaMilton my feeling is that Tiko’s problems are more serious than that.
If it produces poor results, and also takes an age to produce each print, then it will become a dust-collector within a few weeks, not 6 months.
The strong impression that I got when trying to understand this machine by looking a promotional videos is that it is as slow as the proverbial wet week.
Every video I saw of the Tiko in action was a very fast-motion snippet, and the screen time of each snippet was maybe a couple of seconds.
The manufacturer’s major focus (by reading their Kickstarter updates) seems to be on its mechanical reliability, but reliability is only laudable if they have an output quality that justifies switching the machine on in the first place.
It will tend to be more reliable if they slow it down a lot, but nobody wants it to slowly and reliably produce garbage.
And they don’t discuss very much the details of the prints it produces, and the photos and videos of any actual prints are vague and inconclusive.
Caveat Emptor
From the updates, comments, and forum posts, it seems like the following are potential issues they are dealing with:
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The clean prints originally posted on their kickstarter were not produced using the slicer software currently being developed and deployed on the first batch of printers that were sent out to the early adopter level backers. They were sliced with Simplify3D.
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There seems to be some manufacturing changes from when they got the “wall of printers” batch and when they got the batch to the early adopters. Glues were changed as well as something else, which is resulting in parts separating during operation.
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There seem to be power cables breaking loose in some printers.
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The bowden tube connector is actually failing/not holding the bowden tube. Seems to be due to heat.
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The firmware is still being developed and new revisions are being released. Stability issues when connecting to Wifi/etc.
I was under the impression they had an IMU to do detection without using endstops. But the photos seem to show endstops mounted on the motors.
Personally, I’ve no interest in using the Wifi features or their built-in slicer features, since I slice things with Simplify3d. However, I am concerned about the electrical connections failing and the bowden tube connector failing.
@Paul_Gross & @AlohaMilton yeah, it’s looking more and more like it’s going to be something that I’ll need to dink with when I get mine.
@Patrick_Barnes yeah, layman vs experienced 3d printer tinkerer/maker/etc. will definitely make a huge difference.
Here’s to hoping they work out the issues.