EufyMake E1 UV Printer Live Journal

[EposVox]

Well…
This is a story that doesn’t start out well.
I was an early Kickstarter backer for the EufyMake E1 UV Printer. >> eufyMake E1｜3D Texture UV Printer for Home - eufymake US
I’d been researching UV printers for years, had lots of ideas for cool applications for them and it just didn’t make sense before. Seeing the Kickstarter for it and early coverage it seemed to be exactly what I wanted for some of my creative endeavors.
This thing (and bonus ink packs) was a BIG investment, but seemed worth it.
Like many normal human beings, it took me a while to actually be able to sit down and set it all up. I had a LOT of crazy shit happen this year and it was going to require focus.
Today was that day. I got it set up, ink cartridges loaded up, sat through numerous firmware updates, and had a specific test project in mind.

I cannot print with the product I have received. Purely for artificial reasons.

I opened both sets of ink and they are both like this.

Even if I wanted to eat shit and order a new black cartridge, I can’t even play around with it in the meantime because the entire unit is rendered inoperable when a single ink cartridge expires.

They made BIG promises during the Kickstarter campaign that they would not do this.
This is abusive, anti-consumer behavior that has wrecked the normal office printer industry, and I cannot believe I’m seeing a new market entry trying to pull this shit.

Photos from the iOS app, as the Mac desktop version refuses to accept the same email/password combo I use for the website and iOS app to log in… lol.

So before I make too big a mess of things, I’ve done the innocent thing of reaching out to customer support. They have a 500 character limit on the contact form so I couldn’t initially say much, but the autoreply email asks for more info so I sent my full message:

Hello.
I was an early-ish Kickstarter backer. I’ve spent over $2000 on this product that I was very excited for. And yet I cannot print with the product I have received.
I spent the summer dealing with illness, multiple deaths in the family, and adjusting to my kid’s school schedule. Like a completely normal human being, I’ve yet to be able to set up my E1 until today.
Today I set up my E1, sat through numerous firmware updates, the Mac program telling me the same password I use for my account on the web and the iOS app is somehow incorrect, only to find that I cannot print at all because my ink is EXPIRED?! Ink that has been sealed until this point, that I spent hundreds of dollars on, that is still perfectly functional?! Despite a promise during the Kickstarter campaign that this would NOT be an issue, mind you.
This needs fixed immediately.
First order will be to replace BOTH of my full ink kits that are rendered inoperable by artificial means. Second will be to either remove this abusive, anti-consumer non-feature from your software or to implement a bypass option in the settings.
Not wanting users to flood your support with tickets because of bad ink is one thing, but this is completely unacceptable.
Resolve this immediately or issue me a refund for my entire purchase.

I await their response before I make too much noise. But the best case scenario (and an unlikely one, at that) is that they replace my ink without changing policy. Should this be the case, I’m still going public with a lot of noise about this. But I will do the responsible thing and wait for a response.

[Alex]

Not even letting people fuck around and find out is INSANE. Who cares if the ink says it’s expired!??!?! Let me try to see if it works anyway??!?!?!? Locking people out of using the thing they bought needs to end. This is absurd.

[EposVox]

It’s not even a timer from when you first register or use them. Just a timer from when they were made.
They’ve been selling off warehouse near-expiry ones at a discount so they don’t have to trash them; the user will have to instead. Crazy.

[EposVox]

I’ve ordered a third-party ink kit in the meantime, both to hold me over and evaluate if those also have hardware DRM.

I’ve also emailed my contact at Procolored to see if their UV printer models have the same kind of bullshit.

Next I want to start researching what it would take to attempt to flash the chips on these and change the date. Might not be doable, but worth finding out if they’re going to be dead anyway.

[Will]

hell yeah Alex on the forums.

[Alex]

long time listener first time caller

[EposVox]

Unexpected, amazing news!
First, I found a project that might allow me to bypass this issue: GitHub - joggie/eufy-timewarp: Isolated WiFi setup that lets a eufyMake E1 UV printer keep using "expired" ink cartridges by controlling its clock. Working PoC, own-hardware research. · GitHub
This is basically just a clock-spoofing server you run on a Raspberry Pi (or other Linux PC) with two network endpoints. Connect the printer to the RPi’s WiFi broadcast, have the Pi run on LAN, connect your desired PC/phone to the Pi’s network and use it that way. Spoofs the clock reporting to the E1 to trick it into thinking it’s still before the expiration date. Annoying, but theoretically a fine workaround.

But I’m not going to use this yet, as it’s likely not necessary!

EufyMake support already got back to me this morning:

Dear Adam,

Thank you for your message, and we understand how disappointing it must be to finally have the time to set up your E1, only to find that you are unable to print due to expired ink – after all the waiting you have been through.

To help us verify your situation, we would kindly ask you to provide the following:

Clear photos of each affected cartridge showing the expiration date and serial number (SN) , and please also indicate the color of each cartridge.

In addition, regarding the software notification – we would like to let you know that in the next firmware update, the system will remind you when a cartridge has expired, but it will no longer block your printing operation. You will be able to choose whether to continue using it at your own risk, as expired ink may affect print quality or device performance.

Once we receive your photos, we will view your case as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and cooperation.

So (if this is to be believed) theoretically they’re going to replace my ink AND a firmware update will allow users to still use expired inks!
I’m going to send photos of all of my ink cartridges’ information (there’s a lot of them that I ordered in my KS bundle) and include the email I got that shows I just activated my E1 yesterday. Hopefully they replace the ink.

Weirdly, I guess I’m a little disappointed? I was so livid yesterday - and I’m still mad: Both that this was ever implemented (especially after HP making it clear this is a bad idea) and that my time is still being wasted, as I have to delay projects. But I don’t have a bad guy to go fight now. Assuming said firmware update does actually come out, and in a timely manner, they are doing the right thing (albeit delayed) and that’s kinda the best case scenario at this point.

I’ll keep updated on the RMA status and actually start live blogging me using this thing, once I’m able to. Originally only my black inks expired (which prevented it from operating still) but most of the others expire today/this weekend, lol.

[EposVox]

Wellp. EufyMake/Anker will not be replacing my inks but the update to let me use them should be releasing this week?
The response I received:

Dear Adam,

First of all, thank you very much for taking the time to compile all the serial numbers, expiration dates, photos, and even your activation notification – and for catching the date format error on the grey cartridges. We truly appreciate your thoroughness and honesty.

We have carefully reviewed the information you provided. The expired cartridges you mentioned (2 Black, 2 Yellow, and 2 Cyan) were indeed part of the ink set we shipped on February 5, 2026, which you likely received around February 10. At that time, all of these cartridges had more than 6 months of shelf life remaining, which was well within normal usage expectations. However, due to your actual printing volume, some of the ink was not used up before the expiry date.

We fully understand how frustrating it can be when the printer itself is unusable due to other expired inks, and at the same time, some inks simply expire while waiting to be used – it feels like being stuck between two problems. We also recognise that this was not because you didn’t want to use them, but because external factors limited your ability to do so.

Given your situation, while we are unable to directly replace these expired cartridges, we would like to offer you a $10 discount code for each expired cartridge, which you can use when purchasing new ink from our official web.

Regarding the firmware update you asked about earlier – we expect it to be rolled out within the next few days. After the update, the system will change to a warning‑only notification for expired ink, and it will no longer block your printing operation. You will be able to decide for yourself whether to continue using the ink based on your actual needs.

Thank you again for your patience and attention to detail throughout this process. We have been listening to your words, and we will continue to take it seriously. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to let us know.

So that’s pretty lame, especially because I did not receive all of my shipments from my KickStarter order until May and would not have used it until at least then, anyway.
But theoretically this week I will be able to actually print with this damn thing after the firmware update, and I have third-party replacement inks arriving on Thursday-ish, too.

[EposVox]

Alright, today is SUPPOSEDLY the day.
Kid woke up extra early this morning, so I checked the EufyMake app and the firmware update was available!

But even after running the firmware update and the machine restarted… nothing seems to have changed in the software. It still says the inks are expired and the device is unavailable because said inks are expired.

I poked around and could not find a single setting that would allow me to bypass the expiry and keep printing. It’s possible they only designed this prompt to only show when you try to print.

I’m not in the office yet so I told it to shut down to give it a good restart and I’ll poke at it more when I’m in the office and can actually print.

[EposVox]

Fun quirk with their account system: It requires a password that’s 8-20 characters long. So when I made my account and autofilled a generated password from my password manager, it truncated it without saying anything. That’s why trying to log in via the desktop software didn’t work, as it was accepting the full-length paste. Sigh.

[EposVox]

Firmware is updated, apps are updated. Both on iOS and desktop software, my only option with expired ink is “Get New One” with no capacity to bypass this warning anywhere I click.
Quality software update. Seriously.

[EposVox]

MAJOR SUCCESS, EPIC W FELLOW MAKERS

Holy shit. I can’t believe how easily I’ve pivoted from being angry at this thing to being back in the hype.
So the firmware update came to me around 6:30 AM this morning, but the required software update did not reach me until around 3 PM, when my work day was already over. I was checking the iOS App Store, the in-app updater, and the desktop software updater all day and it never delivered an update.
But when researching more, I found their announcement post, which eventually led me to an app update changelog, and THAT had a QR code. That QR code took me to the App Store, which then showed me the option to update. Don’t know why I had to jump through so many hoops.

There was probably two hours of total setup time, once I was able to print. BTW, the prompt to bypass expired inks only shows when you go to print something… sigh.

The printer needed to:

• Re-run full printer initialization/first-time setup (which it apparently abandoned upon discovering I had expired inks) [45 minutes to an hour]
• Inject Ink (I believe from the cartridges to the print head?) [28 minutes]
• Calibrate the print head (required multiple runs as the initial quality was messy and it needed to “clean” and run the test print page again - unclear if this is a consequence of said “expired ink” or if the print head just ships in need of more thorough calibration. I’d imagine it needs more calibration than you’d expect out-of-the-box, as doing so at factory would leave resin and such in the lines/head which could solidify and kill the product) [30-40 minutes or so]
• Inject ink again because I installed the “Flexible White Ink” instead of the “normal” white ink (apparently) and it didn’t expect that?? (Even though it reads which ink is which from their chips…) [another 28 minutes]
• Calibrate the camera [7-10 minutes]
• Then you can do your “First test print” on supplied magnets [15 minutes]

But then when it’s all done… it’s quite impressive…

This is a 3D textured print of a moon photo. (I’m guessing it’s a photo - some of the artwork options presented seem clearly AI generated at times…) The raised texture is neat and the print quality is solid.

It’s obvious as to why (known variable etc.) but now I’m kinda annoyed that I was forced to use one of their images for this, as I would have loved to use one of my own photos of the moon for this! I still have two of these magnets left, so I’ll definitely do that with them soon!

After this I was, of course, eager to jump into off-label ideas I have - you know, instead of using the trunkload of print materials designed for this thing that came with my KickStarter order - so I was excited that by night time the desktop application finally had updated.
Using the mobile app is a miserable experience. Trying to line up and angle a photo to match the exact position something is in from a phone, with your fingertip and very inaccurate controls just… sucks. On desktop it’s so much easier!!

Use the camera to scan the print area, then it tries to automatically detect your surface. Drag your image onto that surface and it attaches! (Kind of like the vanishing point effect trick in PhotoShop.) Then you can adjust angle and sizing again from there. MUCH easier with a mouse.

I don’t want to spoil too much about what this project is for yet, but this tiny flash drive side took less than two minutes to print! VERY FAST.

It was presented all futuristically with the light shining down in the box and completely sealed and ready to touch as soon as it was done.

Even though it was solid to touch as soon as it finished, I am letting it cure overnight, just in case, before flipping it back onto the adhesive tray to print the other side. I may try printing on the little circles, too!!

Admittedly, at such a tiny size the resolution isn’t stellar. There’s probably optimizations to be done within the program itself, too;- this was just fired off with minimal configuration. It’s still impressive! The lower resolution at tiny sizes is not entirely surprising, as one of the big selling points for the E1 is its massive print bed size with flexible options. With my unit, I have:

• The narrow, small bed you see here
• A much bigger-sized flat bed
• A rotary attachment for tumblers and glasses
• A DTF film attachment (for clothing)

Meanwhile, most similar UV printers on the market (all of which cost double the price, mind you) seem to only support a print bed size resembling a medium-sized tablet. BUT that does make me curious if they have better resolution and rendering at smaller sizes than the E1 here.
(I’m hoping to talk ProColored into covering their UV printer after I cover their DTF printer soon so I can find out, hehe.)

I’m supposed to be sleeping, but my head is spinning with ideas right now. There’s so many cool things I want to make, so many hacks I want to try, and so on. This will show up in a lost_saves video soon, as I’m using it for a project related to that flash drive you see there.

Here’s what the new warning looks like, by the way. It shows you your expiration dates, the recommendation not to use it, and then gives you the option to continue using it anyway - and even to mute the notification for a week! They also added a 14-day buffer from the expiration date before this warning shows.
We’ll see if I get to use all of the ink in these before I run into problems, I guess! I have lots of ideas as I said, but I have no clue how quickly I’ll blow through the ink, heh.

[EposVox]

I’ve printed a lot of cool stuff so far, but this is the COOLEST. A full big metal poster like a Displate - but WAY better quality than the one I have!
(It’s really hard to find good, high-res art of game posters anymore…)

uv print onimusha displate OMG