HALOT-SKY: presentation and beta test of the new resin 3D printer from Creality

This post is also available in: Français Deutsch

To celebrate its 7th anniversary, Creality has just announced on April 9th, 3 new 3D printers. Among these new products, we find a new resin printer, the HALOT-SKY, of which I was lucky enough to receive a beta unit a few weeks ago.

I had to keep this test confidential until today, but now that the machine has been officially announced, here is a presentation as well as a first test on this machine, this article will be completed in the next few months when I have had more time to test the machine and after the update of the slicer.

Presentation of the HALOT-SKY series

Creality already has several resin printers in its catalogue, the LD-002/6 series, and as these resin machines become more and more popular, Creality is trying to expand its range with the Halot series, a higher-end series, in addition to the existing LD.

The HALOT-SKY (codename CL-89) is the first in this new series, and is a large format resin printer with an 8.9-inch 4k monochrome LCD screen, a 192x120mm print area and a 200mm print height.

It is equipped with a brand new lighting system with a power of 120w, and an innovative UV light reflection system for a uniform illumination of over 90%.
The powerful lighting system, together with a monochrome screen, allows for ultra-fast printing, with exposure times of between 1sec and 4sec per layer.

The machine also incorporates a 64-bit ARM Cortex A53 4-core CPU-GPU, as well as a WiFi module that will allow automatic firmware updates and remote control with the Creality Cloud mobile application.

There is also a 5 inch colour touch screen, with a new UI that will be translated into 12 languages (currently I only have the English and Chinese version on my beta machine).

As for the structure of the printer, the Z axis is guided by 2 linear rails, and we have a cover fixed to the machine by hinges that can open upwards.

On the software side, Creality has developed a new Slicer dedicated to this machine, in Windows and Mac versions. It is normally planned to be compatible with ChiTuBox in the future.

Concerning the price, the HALOT-SKY will be sold for 949$ (about 800€), the HALOT range will be declined in the future in several formats, including a smaller machine, the HALOT-ONE at 199$ (launch price), and a machine even bigger than the SKY, the HALOT-MAX with a 13″ screen.

Unpacking the HALOT-SKY and first impressions

Like most resin printers, the Halot Sky is a pre-assembled printer, at least almost, you will still have to screw the cover to the frame with 4 screws as it is not fixed for transport.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Before the first print, it is imperative to adjust the plate, there is no self-levelling system on resin printers, the procedure is relatively simple and identical to other machines of the same type, it is well detailed in the manual and takes only 30sec.

As this is a beta machine, I didn’t have an example model on the USB key, so I had to create my own file under Creality’s software.

Let’s start by printing these 2 towers, so here is the result on the software

And here is the result once printed, you may notice that the text is in mirror mode on the printed model, it was a default setting problem on the Creality slicer (in Alpha version), Creality has since corrected this problem. Apart from this small detail, the rendering is very clean, with a very good level of detail.

• 

• 

Before continuing the tests, here are some pictures of the interface, the navigation is fluid, and the interface is easy to handle (except for some translations that could be improved), we can directly modify all the printing parameters directly on the printer.

For the 2nd print, here is a small figure, I had initially created the file in the Creality slicer, but as I couldn’t add the supports as I wanted, I opted for an STL file generation with support exported in Prusa Slicer, then reimported directly on the Creality software. I also get a very good rendering, with a good level of detail, this model was printed with an exposure time of 3sec per layer (the default value of the machine).

• 

• 

For the 3rd print, a much larger model, the media were also generated via Prusa Slicer, no printing issues, no defects!

• 

• 

Finally to finish this first part of my test, the printing of an easter egg in voronoi, this time I reduced the exposure time to 2sec per layer, the machine is also doing very well, perfect printing!

So that’s it for this first test of the Halot Sky, another article will be published soon, this first part having been done with the Windows version of the slicer, I’m more used to working on Mac, and Creality has just sent me the software compiled for Mac, enough to re-launch some test impressions!

To conclude, and my opinion on the Creality HALOT-SKY

First of all, a big thank you to Creality, who trusted me for the beta test of this printer, but this does not prevent me from giving you my sincere opinion on this product. As this is a Beta phase, I was able to give some feedback to Creality who was very quickly able to make some corrections.

Concerning the structure/finish of the machine, it is a beautiful machine! The structure of the machine is robust and stable (it weighs more than 16kg). The colour touch screen is pleasant to use and responsive, we can clearly see that we are facing a much higher end machine than the LD-006 (which is still a good machine by the way).

I was expecting some problems, but in the end there were no problems at all.

The only reproach I could make for the moment to this machine, which is not really related to the machine, would be the slicer still in Alpha version, with which I had to have 1 crash when I tried to load a file a little heavy, I hope that this machine will be very soon compatible with ChiTuBox.