The Backstory
The internet was abuzz when the Centauri Carbon came out. A CoreXY 3D Printer with a $300 list price with an enclosed chamber. And with a promised future multi-filament upgrade to print multiple colors as part of the same print.
The Centauri Carbon sold a lot of units when it released in Spring of 2025, but the multi-filament system never materialized. Elegoo released the Centauri Carbon 2 in January…so only months about the release of their big hit. The Centauri Carbon 2 is a refinement of the original Carbon, with:
- reinforced body to reduce vibration
- upgraded belts, motors, and pulleys to increase smoothness
- redesigned extruder
- improved hotend
- improved cooling system and stronger fans
- better included build plate
- quieter motors reducing sound
- the multi-color system, called CANVAS, on day 1.
That meant an improved version of the printer that Elegoo shipped to people while still refining it was suddenly no longer a production model. Pre-orders of the Carbon vs the later production models came with improvements and fixes, leading some to say they were using early adopters as beta testers. And now, without offering the promised accessory, they had released a version 2. That produced concerns that the promised multi-color support would never materialize, and that replacement parts for the original Carbon would dry up quickly.
Prusa, a long standard in the industry for open printers, offers upgrade kits. You can keep buying the improved components and turning your version 1 into a version 2, and so on. Considering how close the Carbon and Carbon 2 are and how many people bought them, and the short lifecycle of the original, it is surprising that Elegoo or third party hardware manufacturers wouldn’t consider supporting some of the improvements of the Carbon 2 on the original.
Elegoo apologized and insisted they had some issues, but they still intended on completing the system for the original Centauri, and offered an apology gift, a choice between a $50 coupon at their store valid for 3 months, an $80 discount on the Carbon, or a year long extension on the warranty, excluding consumable parts. It was starting to look as if they’d never offer the item. And they took a lot of heat for it.
On Monday, I woke up to see not only had it gone live, but the initial pre-order window for May delivery was already sold out, with shipping for the second round to be in June. And the price… $55. As of the evening, shipping dates for new orders were at end of July.But scandal hit rather quickly, at least the sort of thing the internet calls a scandal.
At a recent 3d printing event in Boston, Elegoo’s booth had a Centauri Carbon with the CANVAS system on display, and promised that units were shipping to warehouses around the world, and it would go on sale soon. A page went up, with a price of $150. Then the page went down. Several people get advance units to look at, so we got some ideas of what it was. Then the big reveal at $55, and some advance reviews started to leak out, very slowly.
What We Know about the CANVAS upgrade
This isn’t just installing a unit and plugging it in. Early reviews of the item reveal you have to perform some major surgery on the printer to upgrade it. The sheer amount of parts is why most people thought it would be a lot more than $55.
- The CANVAS unit is mechanically identical to the one used on the CC2, but has a different circuit board.
- It uses the same spool holders as the CC2, but it supplies adapter brackets to mount them as there aren’t the same holes to install them as are on the CC2
- A new toolhead circuit board has to be installed. It contains ports for three new sensors. A filament detector sensor on the printhead, a filament cutter sensor, and a front cover removal sensor….all features present on the CC2.
- There is no opportunity to upgrade to the hotends and the higher temperature rating that the CC2 has.
- The improved CC2 extruder is supplied, replacing the original extruder. I had several problems with the extruder on the CC1.
Even without wanting the CANVAS unit, the new sensors and extruder are improvements of their own, and would probably cost nearly as much on their own for other printers.
What We Don’t Know
There is one downside to the CANVAS upgrade. The original Carbon had a glass lid that served to enclose the unit when printing filaments that required it. The CC2 has a large plastic hood. Visually, this is significantly less elegant than a glass top. The Carbon upgrade prevents the original glass lid from being used, and the upgrade provides no cover, which means you have a choice between not printing those materials or not installing the upgrade.
We don’t know if Elegoo has a solution to this problem, but we know either Elegoo, hobbyists, or both will figure out a solution to that problem. My personal prediction is that hobbyists will come up with something, as they usually do. But Elegoo will have to say something. They mismanaged this situation, and they are trying to recover, partially by selling the pre-orders at such a low price.
We don’t know enough yet about the reliability of the solution overall, although it is the same basic design as the CC2, so the reviews of that should bear out for this version. As reviews trickle in, and I await my delivery date, we will see what news develops.
Is it Worth Buying?
This upgrade doesn’t turn a Carbon into a Carbon 2, but it gives a variety of upgrades present on the two. If you bought the Carbon for the multi-color printing, it is a no-brainer at the price. If you bought the Carbon to do filaments that required the lid to be on, I’d still pre-order the device and trust a solution will come. And in the meantime, you get the other upgrades.
