3DPrinting

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3DPrinting is a place where makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing and development of 3D printed parts and devices.

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founded 1 year ago

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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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[–] 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 Some day my MK3 is outdated too.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.