Elegoo Centauri: speed and quality at an affordable price

We were really looking forward to sharing with you our impressions of the new Elegoo Centauri, a fast CoreXY printer, with a high quality of results and easy to use… and also, at a very reasonable price which will make it a great option to consider for many users.

We are currently living in a second or third era of 3D printing where these machines were once only for a few, now manufacturers are working to make them accessible with more and more technology and innovation… and Elegoo has done a sensational job with this Elegoo Centauri.

Elegoo is a great veteran in the world of 3D printing and, in this Elegoo Centauri, it has applied its philosophy of offering high-end features at very competitive prices without neglecting quality and ease of use.

In the field of FDM (Filament Fusion Manufacturing) printing, Elegoo has extensive experience in this type of printers such as the Neptune series, of which we have been lucky enough to evaluate different versions of it, and which have proven to be highly reliable machines for many users as well as adapting to their needs with their different models. It also includes the Elegoo OrangeStorm Giga, a large format printer that seeks to meet the demands of even higher print volumes. With the Elegoo Centauri, Elegoo seeks to renew its range of printers and consolidate itself in the high-speed and high-quality FDM print segment.

You can also access our video/podcast where we comment on the analysis of this Elegoo Centauri Carbon. In Spanish but you can access english subtitles.

As always, before continuing with the article, I remind you that you can join 3DWork on our Telegram channel full of 3D printing deranged, or on our social networks: Instagram, , YouTube, , TikTok, , Twitter and Facebook.

Elegoo Centauri… Features & Specifications

The Elegoo Centauri is Elegoo’s first CoreXY printer with interesting next-generation features as we will see later.

This new Elegoo Centauri comes in two versions, the Elegoo Centauri and the Elegoo Centauri Carbon with some small changes between them but that are important depending on the use we want to make of this printer and that we will explain in more detail later.

There is a lot of emphasis on this type of CoreXY kinematics today, and no wonder, since it is a type of kinematics well known for its ability to deliver high-speed prints with remarkable accuracy.
The entire kinematics are mounted on a robust chassis made of aluminum that will allow great stability, as well as the reduction of vibrations with fast, precise and quality prints.

In the case of the Elegoo Centauri Carbon version, it has an enclosure with aluminum side panels as well as glass on the front and top panels, an important change with respect to the other version, which will provide us with a more controlled printing environment for the use of certain more technical materials.

Both models, thanks to their CoreXY kinematics, can reach an impressive 500 mm/s with up to 20,000 mm/s² of acceleration thanks to the dual system of 4260 motors that manage movements in the XY axis.
This, together with a theoretical 32 mm³/s of extrusion volume, depending on the filament we use, will allow us to work with large volume projects with fast and high quality prints.

Continuing with the extrusion system that Elegoo has mounted on this Elegoo Centauri we can tell you that it comes equipped with double hardened steel gears and with a 5:2 ratio. We also have a 0.4mm diameter hardened steel nozzle. This will allow us to print a wide variety of materials, including abrasive filaments such as those reinforced with carbon fiber.
On the other hand, the hotend can reach 320 °C and the heated bed 100-110 °C depending on the version, which further increases material compatibility.

Along with this we have an efficient layer ventilation system supported by an auxiliary system placed on the back of the printer.

About the print volume… This Elegoo Centauri has a volume of 256 x 256 x 256 mm, a size that is becoming a standard in this segment of printers.

As it could not be missing, the Elegoo Centauri has a fully automatic bed leveling system, using four pressure sensors that provide great accuracy.

As a printing surface we have a double-sided magnetic platform, a rough one for general use (A) and another especially suitable for PLA and low bed temperatures with great adhesion.

We will now list the smart features that this Elegoo Centauri integrates and that will undoubtedly greatly improve the user experience:

The Elegoo Centauri has Wi-Fi connectivity and a front USB port offering flexibility in transferring our files to the printer.
It will also allow the control and management of our printer locally through a web interface, without the need to depend on the cloud, although Elegoo is working to add this functionality soon, which for some is a plus point for data privacy and security.
This connectivity to the Internet will allow us to easily have our machine updated with the latest news and corrections thanks to OTA firmware updates, although we can also carry out the process manually from USB.

Other smart features that can be very useful for the user are the inclusion of a filament sensor and the possibility of recovery from current failures, the latter although not always reliable, are systems that can help recover some impressions especially in complex projects.

Finally, we would like to highlight a well-thought-out detail: it is the filament support that we can mount laterally, making it easier to change spools.
The printer also includes a filament cutter and a poop chute for waste ejection, which together with Elegoo’s confirmation of a future multi-filament system for Q3 2025, indicates that the Elegoo Centauri is going to be competing with other models in this regard shortly.

Below is a table with the detailed specifications of the Elegoo Centauri Carbon and its sister, the Elegoo Centauri, for a direct comparison:

Elegoo Centauri Carbon Unboxing

The process of unboxing and setting up the Elegoo Centauri Carbon is simple and fast, approaching the plug-and-play experience, in which in a few minutes we will have our printer up and running.
The printer arrives practically pre-assembled, which minimizes the need for complex assembly instructions since we also have a process manual and all the necessary tools in the kit for commissioning and maintenance.

In any case, we provide you with a description of the most important steps:

• Removal of the packaging: The printer comes well protected in its box with foam/foam protections that we must remove carefully in addition to removing the printer carefully and safely as it is a bit heavy.

• Removal of safety anchors: To prevent damage during transport, the printer has anchors in the hot bed, three clearly marked screws, which we have to remove.
  On the other hand, the flanges that anchor the print head must be removed.

• Pantalla: el siguiente paso a realizar será la instalación de la pantalla táctil donde colocaremos el cable en el conector y deslizaremos esta en los conectores del chásis para que quede anclada… no tiene mucho misterio.
• Filament holder: We will place the filament holder on the connector on the right side of the printer to locate the filament spool there. In our case, as we have the SUNLU Filadryer SP2 and FilaDryer E2 systems for technical filaments, we chose to use the spools from these to be able to have our filament in perfect condition.
• Upper panel: We will place the glass panel on the top.

• Initial ignition and calibration: now that we have everything mounted we will connect the printer to the current (the ignition button is in the rear, and if … it is not the most accessible location) and it is turned on.
  The printer will execute a complete initial self-scolabration process, which includes bed leveling and “Input Shaping”, lasting approximately 20-30 minutes. This process only needs to be carried out once or in case of moving the location printer or other maintenance that can influence these automatic adjustments.

Well, we already have our Elegoo Centauri Carbon ready to print!!, we recommend as a first impression one of the tests/objects that are included in the USB/memory to verify that everything works correctly.

In our case, as a first impression we made the typical benchy that came out with a good quality despite using a filament that we had from other tests and printing this test in just over 15 minutes when in other printers, from previous generations, it usually takes more than double.

In the following screenshot you have all the components of the kit as a reference:

As always we recommend you to check out the Elegoo video with the whole process:

Elegoo Centauri Carbon tests and user experience

We’ve been using this Elegoo Centauri Carbon for a few weeks now, and despite some minor issues that are normal for most printers, we’ve been pleased and impressed by the machine’s performance, especially considering its price tag.

Once the benchy was finished, we saw that within the Elegoo Centauri Carbon itself we had the Eiffel Tower as a test, which given its characteristics is a good litmus test to see the quality of the printer making bridges/overhangs and how it behaves with a large volume of retractions.
The result was sensational, especially considering that we did not use an Elegoo filament or make any fine adjustments to the print.

As we have already mentioned before the Elegoo Centari has intelligent functions as well as a friendly interface, during the printing of this test it reminded us that the temperature of the enclosure can be a problem with certain filaments… something that can be very useful for users who are new to 3D printing and can prevent failures during printing.
Although on the other hand and in conditions where the temperature of the enclosure must be high it seems to appear and there is no way to indicate that it does not warn us more, at least currently.

After making the benchy and the Eiffel tower that we showed you earlier we went directly to use our own models, and for more complexity we chose to use OrcaSlicer instead of the Elegoo slicer since we work with it normally and the Elegoo Centauri Carbon is available both its printer profile and its integration with the Elegoo remote management system.

For the next test and to verify how well the filament change option works during printing, we launched a print of a mini vase working everything without problem and the assistant from the screen for the filament change was very useful and facilitated the steps of this type of changes.

We made different prints of models for decoration that have an effect that looks very good where we took the opportunity again to verify the filament change.

For the following projects, we continued with PLA, we had pending to make a series of busts of our favorite films trying to make the most of the printing volume of the Elegoo Centauri Carbon… We couldn’t be happier with the finishes… even more so since simulating a normal user we do not make any fine adjustments to our print profile.
We were also able to check the operation of the filament sensor in the case of the Alien bust in which we used a remnant of a yellow coil that left little filament.

We have to say that this Elegoo Centauri Carbon has behaved excellently with slightly more technical filaments such as PETG, ASA and ABS… being in the latter the ones that we have missed a little not having an active temperature control of the enclosure, although we solve by adding an extra time of nozzle/bed preheating.

As you may have seen in the previous projects we tried to take advantage of all the available surface/volume and in some of our tests we were surprised with a warning where it warns us that the right front edge cannot be used as it is used for the filament cutting system.

In case we want to take advantage of this small area by necessity, we have a procedure explained in the Elegoo Wiki for the Elgoo Centauri where it explains the changes in both configuration and hardware of the printer.

We take this opportunity to, if you are or have thought of getting an Elegoo Centauri Carbon, save the link to its Wiki as it can be of great help to you!!

As we already mentioned, in our case we prefer to use our Elegoo Centauri Carbon with OrcaSlicer since it has a profile and integration to send directly to the printer.

The default profile is quite good but as we advised you before it is important to carry out basic tests at least to fine-tune the configurations.

In our case, we made, among others, two adjustments that we consider important:

• Setting the pre-heating temperature in the printer profile startup script. By default, the pre-heating does so at 140 degrees, something that depending on the filament used may be insufficient for the nozzle cleaning process at the start of printing, not removing remains correctly.
  In our case we set it to 170ºC, although you can use other formulas such as using the printing temperature or subtracting 30ºC from it, it also usually works very well.

• We also advise you to make the Pressure Advance adjustments, as the Elegoo Centauri does not have intelligent systems to make these adjustments by itself… and that honestly you probably don’t need since with a simple line test from the calibrations section of the Elegoo/OrcaSlicer rolling mill we can find this adjustment accurately and quickly.
  The Pressure Advance compensates for lag and excess molten plastic inside the nozzle, dynamically adjusting the pressure to make the layers look more even. It is recommended to test each new filament and save the value obtained in the filament profile by creating a different one based on our needs if necessary.
• Another adjustment that we advise you is to relax/slightly reduce the speed of external perimeters, after VFA test to find the maximum speeds for internal perimeters and normally reduce by a % depending on the type of filament used.
  In our tests we have obtained very good external finishing results with speeds of 60-90 mm/s.
• It also usually works very well in this type of machine to correctly adjust the order of perimeters to indoor/outdoor/indoor.
  In this way, when the inner walls touch the outer perimeter, the outer wall is already imprinted and insulated from the vibrations of high-speed movements inside, which often results in a quality exterior finish.
• Another necessary modification has been to add the progress of layers so that from the screen we can see the progress of the print correctly in addition to the time-lapse working correctly.
  To do this, we will only have to add the following lines to our layer change script:

Another interesting aspect is the inclusion of a remote monitoring system using a camera. Although the camera has an acceptable quality, the lighting system has seemed very fair to us.
In the following time-lapse video you can see the quality without lighting, with the LED and with extra natural lighting.

The good news is that in electronics we have a connector to improve lighting where we can install a 24v LED strip.

Unfortunately we have not yet had time to carry out the installation although it is something that may be very advisable for Elegoo to improve in future versions or with an extra kit.

Continuing with the theme of the camera… We can monitor the status of our prints as long as we are on the same network as the printer and access the printer’s web interface:

This interface, although it provides us with some controls, seems too simple and fair in options, and today we do not have a “cloud” management that allows us to manage or monitor the machine remotely, although Elegoo is working on it and we will probably have news in this section soon.

Another aspect related to the design of the machine is the connection of the filamen to the print head, the entry angle is quite aggressive so sometimes we can have some problems supplying the filament or create unnecessary tensions in the extruder.

As we always do on similar machines, it is to remove a section of the PTFE tube from the guide to allow a better angle for the filament.

We really liked the support from Elegoo to perform machine calibrations where we have self-leveling, interesting to be able to indicate the surface in each case, PID and Input Shaping… and an option to be able to carry out all of them together.

It is appreciated that we have adjustment on the Z-offset although a faster access to this adjustment would be ideal.

Where to buy the Elegoo Centauri?

Elegoo has the Centauri in its online store where you can directly buy the printer, accessories, spare parts and consumables.

In any case, we provide you with some links to their and other reference stores:

Elegoo Centauri Carbon
Elegoo Centauri

Elegoo Centauri 3Dwork review

To finish this review of the Elegoo Centauri Carbon we are going to review its most important aspects and value our experience with this machine in which Elegoo has done a good job.

Considering the combination of performance, features and especially its great price… The Elegoo Centauri Carbon is positioned as a great choice within the current range of printers being a very balanced model at an exceptional price.

In terms of use and support, the Elegoo Centauri Carbon is very easy to start up and use from minute one, it has support in different rolling mills with well-optimized default profiles. We also have the support of a brand like Elegoo that usually offers a good after-sales service.

It is a compact machine but has a very good print volume of 256mm³, a standard and versatile size for most projects.

As for its construction, it is robust and solid in metal, which together with its CoreXY kinematics make it an efficient and precise machine. In any case, and for the price of the set, it is not quite premium in some aspects if we compare it with other alternatives.

For example, in our case our machine arrived with one of the panels bent.

The direct extrusion system, hardened steel nozzle and high hotend temperature allow working with various technical materials… Too bad that we do not have an active enclosure temperature control system or that the print head assembly, although it uses correct materials, provides a feeling of being fair in quality and durability.

During our tests we have not had any major problems except that remains of use remained in the extrusion system causing us to have problems in our prints until the necessary maintenance was carried out.

In this aspect related to the maintenance of our machine, we advise you to review the following video from Elegoo itself where we will find the 5 steps to have our Elegoo Centauri in perfect condition.

This tutorial details the routine maintenance of a printer, focusing on the lubrication and cleaning of its key moving components. It emphasizes the importance of cleaning and oiling the X, Y, and Z linear axes to ensure smooth movement of the printhead and print platform.

At the level of electronics/firmware it is perhaps the fairest point of the machine that although it behaves correctly is not exempt from certain usability problems or bugs that thanks to OTA updates Elegoo has been solving.

Regarding the firmware, the use of, presumably, a version of Klipper customized by Elegoo and with closed access is something that can be an issue for some power users… we will see if Elegoo offers any alternatives in the future to “open up” the Elegoo OS system more.

In the electronics aspect we have an all-in-one without much fanfare of specifications, in addition to this all-in-one electronics for the control of the system (host) and the main part of the printer we have other MCUs for the control of the print head, the leveling system and the touch screen… again… All correct but without great top specs.

Another very common drawback lately is that the on/off button is located on the back of the printer, something that is not very comfortable, to be honest.

As we have already commented on several occasions during the review, a great asset of this Elegoo Centauri is its adjusted price that we could qualify as a real bargain or an excellent machine for beginners… or in general for anyone looking for a powerful, easy-to-use FDM machine at an unbeatable price.