Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 review: A four-color variant

Elegoo has introduced its first four-color printer, the Centauri Carbon 2 Combo, a new variant of its stellar Centauri Carbon CoreXY 3D printer. “Combo” might be a bit of a misnomer, as the color system is baked into the CC2 and not the optional module that fans of the original Centauri were hoping to see.

The design is reminiscent of Flashforge’s AD5X, with Bowden tubes arching over the top of the machine before hooking directly into the hot end. A sleek “top hat” style lid completes the enclosure for printing with higher temperature filaments.

The Centauri Carbon 2 remains a moderately priced machine, with a reasonable $449 price tag. It is being marketed as a family-friendly machine for beginners and hobbyists, though it would be a welcome addition to makers seeking to add color to their 3D printing workshop. During testing, the printer handled all manner of filaments well, with a hardened steel nozzle capable of hitting 350 °C.

Specifications: Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 Combo

Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 Combo: Included in the Box

The Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 comes in one box with all you need to get started. You get the tools and hardware needed to assemble and maintain the printer, a printable scraper blade, a small filament coil, and a paper copy of the manual. Elegoo also includes a USB stick with a copy of ElegooSlicer and a PDF copy of the manual.

Elegoo sent spools of black and white PLA equipped with RFID tags for the review.

Design of the Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 Combo

Like the first Centauri Carbon, the Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 is a fully enclosed, fast Core XY printer with a 256 mm cubed build volume, a solid metal frame, metal side panels, and a glass front door. It’s better lit inside than CC2, and also has a larger 5in touch screen plus the four-color Canvas system. It uses the same style of feeder as the Flash Forge AD5X, with four PTFE tubes running from the top of the Canvas module to the toolhead. It uses a very large “top hat” to complete the enclosure.

The chamber fan with an automatic grill is a very appreciated upgrade that negates the need to run the printer with the door open and top hat off for PLA and PETG printing. Overall, cooling was not an issue, and the chamber was toasty enough, or at least draft-free enough, for ABS, PA, and PC prints. There is also a large side-mounted parts cooling fan to go with the blower fan mounted on the toolhead cover.

The toolhead is topped by a four-filament hub that uses collets so strong that it’s impossible to remove the PTFE tubes from them. Even using the included printable PTFE tube tool and enlisting a bit of help from my husband did not help. In the event of an extruder clog, you will need to remove the entire screwed-in hub. At least these screws can be accessed without removing the tool head wiring and drag chain if you are careful.

The Centauri Carbon 2 uses the same hardened steel nozzle as the Centauri Carbon but can reach 350 °C in the new hot end. With a bed that can reach 110 °C as well, this allows most consumer-grade technical filaments to be printed. The CC2 doesn’t have active chamber heating, but that didn’t prevent it from printing PAHT CF and several types of polycarbonate beautifully, with no warping or other issues.

I ran into some trouble switching between regular PLA or PETG and high-temperature filaments. The loading routine does not get hot enough to remove all the left over high temp filament in the nozzle. Its preset temperature of 250 °C is fine for PLA, TPU, and PETG, but it fails to adjust for higher temperatures for PC, PA, or PET. Unless and until Elegoo can offer a choice from the loading screen, you will need to manually heat the extruder and feed filament to clear it.

The Core XY motion system runs on linear rods for the X, Y, and Z axes, with three leadscrews for the bed belted to a single Z stepper motor.

The side-mounted spool holders can be easily removed to run technical filaments out of a dry box when needed. Unfortunately, these are sized to work with Elegoo spools, but don’t work well with some other brands. I ended up breaking one of the spool holders when a third-party cardboard spool became stuck to the spool, and tore the rubber grips off. I was able to print replacement spool holders that function better.

Also, the mounts for the spoolholders attach to the more solid edges of the printer’s frame. This places the spools fairly far apart and expands the printer’s footprint.

The 5-inch touch screen is very bright and responsive. It’s large enough to be readable, and you don’t have to peck at it with a fingernail. The UI is well thought out, intuitive, and just a pleasure to use.

My only quibble is that the filament choices from the printer do not always line up with those on the slicer. The slicer would often prevent me from printing with a filament that it doesn't think matches, and I would need to rename the slicer filament to the exact spelling.

The Centauri Carbon 2 has an excellent camera for print monitoring and AI detection, with improved lighting that lets you see what’s going on inside the chamber.

Assembling the Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 Combo

The Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 arrives mostly assembled, with the top hat and other parts packed neatly inside the printer. The hardware is nicely bagged and labeled.

After unpacking the machine, there are three screws to remove to release the bed.

The touch screen has a ribbon cable to plug in and attaches without tools to the front of the printer. The nozzle wiper and poop chute attach to the back of the printer with screws. The Canvas module attaches to a bracket on the top of the printer’s frame with three more screws.

A power and signal cable attaches the Canvas module to a port on the rear of the printer. Then, four Bowden tubes run from the top of the Canvas module to a filament hub, which is attached to the toolhead with two screws. Four spoolholder brackets attach to the right side of the printer’s frame with two screws each, and the spool holders slide onto the brackets from the top. Lastly, the top hat has an extension to cover the Canvas module, which slides into place. Despite all this, the whole process took less than twenty minutes from unboxing to printing.

When first booted, the UI has a nice reminder to unlock the bed just in case you missed that step.

Leveling the Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 Combo

The Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 runs a full calibration, including bed leveling and Z offset, during the device self-check. The machine also runs through an optional leveling calibration before each print.

Loading Filament on the Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 Combo

Loading filament on the Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 is pretty straightforward. For Elegoo-branded and RFID-equipped filament, the spool can be read by waving it at the reader on the CANVAS module and then fed into the bowden tube at the bottom of the module. It will feed in a few centimeters, then wait until needed.

Other filaments will need to have the type and color manually added to the touch screen after loading.

The system worked great for every filament I printed with, including TPU down to 95A shore hardness. Once the printer is finished printing, there is no unloading routine needed, as every filament is automatically released.

Preparing Files / Software for Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 Combo

The Centauri Carbon 2 comes with a copy of ElegooSlicer, which is based on OrcaSlicer and BambuStudio. The program will feel right at home to anyone familiar with those programs. The default profiles worked just fine.

A new feature for ElegooSlicer is Nexprint, Elegoo’s online file sharing service, which is currently listed as beta. This allows users to select files directly from the slicer’s home screen.

Printing on the Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 Combo

The Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 comes with a small sample coil of white PLA. If you want more colors and materials like silks and multicolor filaments, you should check out our guide to the best filaments for 3D printing for suggestions.

To test the color capabilities of the Centauri Carbon 2, I ran a plate of seven Baby Chameleons from Zou3d. Using a .2mm layer height and an average print speed of 160 mm/s, this print completed in 4 hours and 55 minutes. It looks really nice with no color bleeding using the default purge values. The green filament is Anycubic PLA, with Elegoo black and white PLA for the eyes.

The slicer’s home screen suggested I try a Slinky from Nexprint, so I ran it in PETG. Using the recommended 4 walls, 50% infill, and .2mm layer height, the prints turned out very nice. I used Polymaker blue PETG and Bambu lab translucent PETG. The prints took 4 hours 20 minutes each, running at an average print speed of 150 mm/s.

For TPU, I printed a TPU Air Duster. Using a .12mm layer height and an average speed of 50 mm/s, the print completed in just over two hours and looks pretty good. The surface finish is a little rough, but the print is fully functional. The TPU is CookieCad’s Sunset TPU 95A, though the print isn’t large enough to see the color gradient.

Since the stock spoolholders are removable, it’s easy to snuggle a dry box up to the side of the CC2 for when you want to run hygroscopic filaments like PA. The printer doesn’t have a heated chamber but it did stay toasty enough to get good prints out of PAHT.

This print is a part for an RC deatheracer by Michael Baddeley. Though this print can be a warping nightmare, it did really well in Bambu Lab PAHT CF. Using a .2mm layer height, and throttling the print speed down to 100 mm/s, the print took 2 hours and 12 minutes to complete.

One of my favorite practical prints is a simple Utility Knife that uses a normal razor blade. I ran a plate of seven utility knives in jet black Prusa PC Blend. Using a .2mm layer height and an average print speed of 100 mm/s, the prints were completed in 6 hours and 6 minutes and are perfect.

I normally avoid modding printers during a review, as they should stand on their own merit. However, in this case, having broken one of the spoolholders during the review process, I decided to print a replacement. The stock spoolholders are spring-loaded and retract a bit when filament is unloaded by the CANVAS module. I decided to try a simple spoolholder and found one from the Voron project as a base. This is printed in blue Polymax PC with 5 walls, a .2mm layer height, and an average print speed of 100 mm/s. They completed in 2 hours and 36 minutes, and it works great.

Bottom Line

Currently on sale for $449, the Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 Combo is one of the most affordable ways to get into enclosed, four-color Core XY printing. It’s fast, capable, and surprisingly strong with engineering materials, even without an actively heated chamber. Print quality is excellent, TPU works beautifully, and the Canvas system, while visually awkward, does its job reliably.

But this isn’t the modular upgrade early edition Centauri owners were hoping for. It’s a whole new machine, and it comes with quirks: finicky spool holders, a loading routine that doesn’t fully account for high-temp materials, and a cold plate that could use more grip.

If you’re looking for one of the best 3D printers you can buy, the original Centauri Carbon is still our pick for speed on a budget, and it’s on sale for $289. The Creality SPARKX i7 is an awesome little bedslinger that can color your world for a mere $399. The Bambu P2S Combo Core XY is $799, which might be a bit more polished, but its price tag does explain why the CC2 is such a steal.