this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2023
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3DPrinting

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Modernizing an Ender 3 (lemmy.world)
submitted 1 year ago by cwc@lemmy.world to c/3dprinting@lemmy.world
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I've recently returned to the hobby, after some lifestyle changes brought on by the pandemic. It's been a lot of fun catching up on the latest developments, like the emergence of Bambu, etc. My printer is an Ender 3 from Sainsmart, bought in late 2019. I'm guessing it's one of the earliest hardware revisions. I printed a few of the suggested upgrades back when I first bought it, but it was printing pretty well out of the box, so I never did any real mods.

I couldn't help but pick up some recent deals: I ordered the Ender 3 V3 SE, along with a Sprite Pro extruder and dual Z-axis kit - so I can still have a nice machine to print with while I upgrade and tune my old one.

So I wanted to ask the community a few things:

  • Am I likely to need a new motherboard to run this extruder? Hoping I can get away with just firmware

  • Same question, but for Klipper? I currently run Octopi, if I switch away from Marlin, will I also need to drop that as well?

  • Are there any other mods I should be considering to maximize the machine's potential? I'd like to use what I have available where possible, just couldnt resist the Sprite Pro as I want to do ASA and TPU.

Would love to hear folks' thoughts, seems like a better time than ever to be in the hobby!

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[–] Anafroj@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Are they still sold, anyway? I mean, sure, someone who has no printer should buy a more recent one. But that was not the subject, here : the question was if it was needed to replace an Ender 3. I certainly would not, personally, it would be throwing out a perfectly good printer for incremental upgrades. Of course, it depends on the usage. For someone who uses their printer professionally to serially print all day, sure, it's probably worth it upgrading. Me? I really don't care if my prints are slower. I really don't find the Ender 3 hard to get a print right either. But I've been printing since the wooden Printrbot Simple about a decade ago, maybe I'm just used to it.

[–] Thanks4Nothing@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

All great points. I thought he was asking if it was worth it to invest more on it. I was simply saying that if money wasn't a limitation, there are great options that are a significant improvement. Some day my MK3 is outdated too. I wouldn't buy one now, but I also am not sure I will buy the MK3.5 kit and spend the time installing it.

[–] Anafroj@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Oh, I see. Yes, that may very well be a matter of point of view. For me, modding the printer is part of the fun, not something I do to try desperately to stay on the cutting edge. :) The RepRap dream of "printers that can reproduce themselves" never fully materialized, but modding is the next best thing.