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Edited: Mar 11

SELLING - 3D Chameleon MK4 Mainboard

FINAL UPDATE - 11/03/2025 - After investigation, it seems that it will simply cost too much to produce and legally sell this item internationally at a reasonable price for consumers. in order to even break even, unit sales will need to exceed the hundreds in order to export to UK / EU, and thousands in order to ship to US. Above this, it seems that USA has also recently imposed new tariffs at 25% on imports to the US, therefore any potential sales to USA would be slugged with a 25% import tax once the goods enter the country further increasing the cost to astronomical levels.

This project started as a way to help the community and potentially mainstream a brilliant product Bill has designed, however i cannot see the product selling anywhere near enough units to make it affordable to produce and ship on a global level.

With this being said, as there is no legal way to sell these products affordably, and no safe way to protect consumers should something go wrong, i will also be abandoning this project. It was a great experience and i have learned a lot from it, and i hope it teaches others too.

Should anyone wish to purchase a large number of these units then feel free to contact me via my website. the link is below, we can make something happen on the scales below.

QTY requirements (Units):

Aus - 1000
UK / EU - 2000
USA - 10,000

Thanks everyone for joining me on this journey

Website - 3D Chameleon MK4 (Zapp Edition) – ZAPPS

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ORIGINAL POST:

Hi All.

tldr: I am producing my own mainboards from the open source materials provided by Bill, and am looking to sell excess boards... $35USD Per Board. They will come programmed with the latest software. Please register interest here so i know if i need more.

The long story:

I was previously unable to purchase this product due to being outside the USA. Since this has now been open sourced i am in a position to make my own 3d Chameleon. Part of the process here is to have the mainboards manufactured for the Chameleon. The manufacturer has a minimum order of 5 boards. Therefore i will have 4 mainboards i am not in need of.

The boards are basically exactly what was sold in the kits previously, with a few altered components due to availability at the manufacturer. (over time older components become unavailable and obsoleted)

I am looking at pricing these mainboards at around $35USD at this point in time. The boards will come programmed with the latest software, I will also be happy to include some hard to get items imported from the US such as the Springs for the switching Mechanism.

Please note i have been given permission from Bill himself to reproduce these boards. so please let me know if you are interested!

Price may fluctuate depending on parts cost and availability however it will not be by much. I will have an eBay listing for this once i have the boards ready and tested.

Thanks!

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UPDATE - 12/01/2025:

I have ordered a small batch of boards! These should be in my hands at the end of the month.

Once i receive them i will program and test them. I am looking to have these boards ready to ship mid February at this point. Unless they are somehow delayed. Please check back here for updates!\

UPDATE 2 - 23/01/2025

Hi all, I wanted to update you with progress so far. I have received confirmation from the PCB manufacturer that the boards have been cut and assembled and have been shipped to me. While i wait for the boards to arrive for programming and testing, i have been printing and building my own 3d chameleon and it is coming along well. I just need to sort the PTFE tubes out and i should be ready for the mainboard. Keep an eye on this space!

Pic for reference.

UPDATE 3 - 30/01/2025

I wanted to let everyone know that the PCB's have arrived and are looking great. I need to install the stepper drivers next and program them. Will update you with more info when this stage is completed!

UPDATE 4 - 10/02/2025

There has been a lot of work and troubleshooting since the last update so it has taken some time to get to this point, sorry for the delay.

The chameleon has been programmed and tested and some alternations were made to the source code for the device, among some other things. IMPORTANT NOTE: Not all stepper motor cables are made the same, they can cause big headaches...

I needed to swap out a single component on each board and i did not have all of them on hand, as a result, i only have 2 completed boards right now while i wait for the correct component to arrive from the supplier. Because of this, the boards may have some superficial marks around the power adapter socket, these do NOT affect the functionality of the board.

While we wait for these to arrive, here is a video of the device in operation. The filament often gets stuck in the Y-Pipe for me, so i have also ordered an injection molded one. I am also waiting for that to arrive, so please ignore it getting stuck in the Y-Pipe as the Mainboard is fully functional

UPDATE - 21/02/2025

Hi all, the new components have arrived as of today. i will begin installing them onto the boards and start programming and testing.

I am hoping to have this ready for sale by the end of next week. Please bare with me a bit longer! UPDATE - 28/02/2025

Thank you all for your patience with me. These are almost done! I will have a link up to buy these ASAP i am aiming for Sunday at this point in time, however they may even be ready early. I am running final testing and getting the links ready for purchase as we speak. Keep your eyes pealed as it is coming very very soon

UPDATE - 03/03/2025

The time has finally come. I want to thank everyone for their patience here. I thought since i was doing this i should do it right, rather than just an eBay listing, i have actually made a website where i will sell the product, and where i have posted some useful documentation / guides for what i am calling, the "3D Chameleon MK4 Zapp Edition" The reason why this is being distinguished as something else is for a number of reasons. Mainly this board can be used as a direct plug and play alternative / replacement for the original kits, however the software is slightly different. You can see more about that on my blog explaining the differences and why the code was changed. Apart from the code variance, i think people should know where the unit came from, in this case it was me, ZAPP, not bill over here at 3D Chameleon.

Stocks are limited so please get in quick. I know there are a lot more people who want a unit than what i have available so depending how quickly you guys buy all the stock up, i may enable a backorder function on the website which will allow you to place an order and secure stock when i get the next batch in. This way i know exactly how many i need to order.

Now that everything is sorted and tested, i suspect once i place the order with the manufacturer, i should be able to have the units landed down my end ready for testing within 4 weeks. therefore again, depending how many i order (these things take a while to assemble, program and test, i found that out the hard way!) i should hopefully be able to ship the 2nd batch within 1 week of receiving them, giving about 5 week turn around from backorder. this will be made clear on my site if i enable the function. realistically, things happen and shipments get delayed so lets just say we will add 1 extra week as a buffer in case of emergencies and make it 6 weeks turn around from backorder.

Oh and i almost forgot, you can order one here -> 3D Chameleon MK4 (Zapp Edition) – ZAPPS

Thanks again. May the odds be ever in your favor...

UPDATE - 03/03/2025 - Evening.

It seems the odds were not in my favor...

This is not something which comes easy, especially after all the time, work and R&D which has gone into this process, however this experience has served as a great chance to learn a lot about how the world works, and it may serve the same to you.

With this being said. I want to provide an important update regarding the availability of 3D Chameleon MK4 (Zapp Edition) Mainboard.

While I remain committed to bringing this product to market, I am currently working through the necessary legal compliance requirements to ensure it meets all applicable regulations. This process takes time, and I appreciate your patience as I navigate it.

One major challenge I have encountered is the cost of product liability insurance, particularly for sales to the USA. Unfortunately, the insurance costs in the US are extremely high, making it unlikely that I will be able to offer this product for sale there. However, I am actively working towards achieving compliance in other regions where the costs are more manageable. If compliance is achieved and insurance coverage is available at a reasonable cost, I expect to be able to sell the product in most parts of the world, including Australia, the EU, and the UK.

This project originally started as something to help the community, and my goal has always been to provide an accessible and reliable product. However, as I have gone deeper into the regulatory and insurance requirements, it has become clear that bringing this product to market legally is far more expensive and complex than I initially anticipated. Unfortunately, this means that if I do manage to relist the product for sale, the price may be closer to double the original estimate in order to cover the significant costs associated with compliance and insurance across multiple regions.

I truly appreciate the enthusiasm and support from those who were looking forward to this product. My goal remains to find a path forward that ensures both compliance and affordability, and I will continue to provide updates as I make progress.

Thank you for your understanding and ongoing support.

Best regards,

Daniel

211 answers0 replies

211 Comments

Ace6879

Mar 15

I cut n paste but I get errors

Ace6879

Mar 15

Replying to

Arduino IDE does not see the #include files as far as I can tell

Liam Pulido

Mar 15

Replying to

So you are getting the error message that says, "the library ____ was not found"? I got this error the first time I tried also. Just go to the library manager, search for the libraries that are appearing in the error messages, and download them. Then, it should compile the sketch successfully.

Last note: we are moving the CNC Shield v4 setup to this thread, as this is a mainboard selling thread, and this is kind of off-topic.

https://www.3dchameleon.com/forum/support/help-on-setup-for-cnc-shield-v4-ankermake-m5c

Alexandre Correa

Mar 12

Due to the facts and all the difficulties encountered, could you not share the project (CPL, BOM, EasyEDA, etc.) so that everyone who wants to can assemble it using the JLCPCB website ? As in another comment I made, I ordered some units for testing, they will deliver the assembled boards to me, soldered with all the components (except the motor driver boards). 5 boards with the components + assembly and soldering service + shipping delivered here to my address (Brazil), cost a total of 36.78 USD.

I know you've done all the research and development work to make improvements and adaptations, but I'm in no way saying that your work needs to be free. This was just a suggestion based on all the difficulties of exporting to other regions.

Liam Pulido

Mar 11

Well it may be worth linking my CNC Shield tutorial after all ;)

I am working on a more formal post, with a Q/A, so please link it when that is done

This post is taking quite a bit because of these main reasons:

a) I need to find the time

b) I need to have a full BOM (as I am making a tutorial for the whole kit, not just the board

c) It needs to be easy to understand and somewhat idiot-proof

d) Needs to contain all the firmware files

e) Yet again, I need to find time, as I have many time-constraints

just a funny note: this is the first post to reach over 200 comments haha

Edited