Modernizing an Ender 3

https://lemmy.world/post/5567492

Modernizing an Ender 3 - Lemmy.world

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!

Has there been so much going on in the market? I’m still using my Ender 3 and I’m not sure what I would add to it, it serves me well (I already added a BL Touch, in the early days I got it, and a glass bed, although I don’t see much different with that last part). It’s just doing the job perfectly. 🤷 That being said, I only use it for functional printing. I way more often use my Elegoo Saturn (a resin printer), as I use it to print my tabletop minis.
If you’re happy don’t feel like you need to change anything!