Viskafors

Sadly not, outside Gothenburg (Borås) here.

3.5 hour drive I think

Sweden here!

I don't think Qidi even have a cloud mode. I don't recall having one to turn off. Using Klipper and being open source with their QidiSlicer variant of PrusaSlicer, you don't have the proprietary binary-only blob that Bambu ship, to try to work around... I don't think it is commensurate.

If you have specific information to the contrary that goes beyond my scope of experience, please share specific details.

(Yes, I've read Josef's Xits about chinese surveillance law. Thus the point that not having a cloud mode might be a specific advantage here.)

I guess it's like with every chinese printer company. Devices usually okay, support questionable, actions anything between okay over confused to vile.

Guess they're a good pick if you want to save some money. A makerspace should be able to help themselves anyway. Just… be aware the printer should probably be used offline. Chinese surveillance laws are absolute and enforced globally.

I have their SV08, which is a 3D printer hacker’s dream rig: everything on it works well enough, right out of the box, and most everything in the box is compatible with many of the Voron 2.4 modifications out there. https://www.sovol3d.com/products/sovol-sv08-3d-printer

The Sovol Zero is their take on the Voron 0.2 - I haven’t played with one of those but they seem to be well received by the community too. https://www.sovol3d.com/products/sovol-zero-3d-printer

I do however understand that a hackable printer may not be the ideal choice for a #hackerspace: there’s a lot of temptation to modify such a machine, and machine mods in a hackerspace often mean machines that just don’t work anymore, with a bonus side effect of members being angry with one another.

On the other hand, they have been around for a long time. My Qidi X-Max 3 has been a workhorse. They ship their slicer with support for Linux, and appear to have been respecful of open source licenses as far as I can tell. They give the information for you to have root access on the embedded Linux system running Klipper. I've been able to order consumables or and replacements post-warranty. Their support has actually been helpful and responsive (modulo time zone differences, of course). They have real heated chambers in some printers, and they seem to be the most cost-effective way to get a functional heated chamber for engineering filaments.

So Qidi, along with Sovol, are on my list to consider for my next printer, whenever that is.

SOVOL makes a respectable printer, not perfect but tries to do the right thing for open source. SV08 should come close to that range.

And I did it without the motivational gummy bears! They don't ship them to Brazil

If you go for a multi color printer, please consider only ones with separate print heads. The single print head ones that change filament are horribly wasteful.