07-29-2017: The Kickstarter campaign for a super cheap FDM 3D printer – Obsidian – ended
Backers have yet to see either the 3D printer or their money. But this story has a much deeper bottom...
On July 29, 2017, the campaign for the low-budget 3D printer Obsidian ended on Kickstarter. The startup Kodama, which had triumphed on Kickstarter the previous year with the self-assembly 3D printer Trinus, was responsible for the design. Obsidian was fully assembled and ready to work, and its numerous features did not correspond with the exceptionally attractive price starting at $99! The campaign ended successfully with 6,034 backers who paid Kodama $1,631,827. Then the problems began…
Supposedly one of the engineers left Kodama, taking the Obsidian designs with him. He allegedly tried to sell them after making some modifications. Additionally, despite having signed non-compete agreements with Kodama, this person tried to sell (or sold?) the production license of these devices to a well-known company in the market, Wanhao.
After some time, a campaign appeared on Indiegogo prepared by the Australian company FurlingTechnology, which presented a device that strikingly resembled the 3D printer. The incident was noticed by the community around Kodama devices, and the blatant attempt at copying resulted in the Australian campaign being blocked.
There was also information that Obsidian was the intellectual property of yet another company, but it ultimately turned out that Furling was a business partner of Kodama responsible for the physical design of this 3D printer. After breaking the agreement, the Australians aimed to release their clone of the previously developed device.
Deep confusion and drama.
All these factors contributed to the need to change all suppliers and hire new engineers, resulting in significant delays in fulfilling the commitments made to Kickstarter backers.
But in the end, nothing came of it at all. To this day, statements from backers calling for refunds are still being published on the campaign's Kickstarter page.