Hello, everyone. I have a 5 year old voxelabs aquila (ender 3v2). It worked great for 2 years then started modding it, since then problems. Im at the point with bltouch and klipper from raspi4 and custom fans that it might not be worth my time to even fix. Previous 3d printed fan shroud broke and printer another, but there is supports in the blower tubes i cant remove fully plus removed the x? Stop sensor as thought was good after starting with klipper and setting it all up but it smashes to the end of the line and errors so that needs to fixed. Plus never really got the bltouch working due to wrong offsets. Idk sounds like small issues i could fix but i just want a working 3d printer.
Ive been seeing all new printers now have auto bed leveling, direct drive, most have pressure advance, vibration compensation and other features that i kinda would like but i only print hobby stuff and current printer has been sitting for over a year due to not needing it and the fact its not working.
Basically should i just replace it with a used Elegoo Neptune 3 Pro or a new Elegoo Centuri Carbon, or just fix what I have?
You sound like you are looking for the justification to buy a new printer. If your current machine is preventing you from making the things you want, get something that will allow you to make those things.
You want recommendations? Prusa, what you get beyond the initial price is worth it. Bambu, the Apple of the 3d printing world, lock in included at no extra cost. Qidi, a cheaper printer with features that make printing more difficult engineering filaments easier.
I got a new centauri carbon a few months ago and I got to print maybe 10 things and then the shitty USB connected print head fried its PCB and the main board as well so I’ve Been waiting on parts since then. It worked really good before it broke I guess. I’d get a different brand next time.
@StopSpazzing To make it short: Get rid of it if you don’t need it
If you want to have a working printer:
- If you’ve time but no money: Fix it
- If money for a new printer is not a problem: Replace itTo start with I would put it back to stock.
Definitely consider if you’ll use it enough to justify the purchase, but buying a new one and spending the effort that you would have used trying to mod the old one could be better used on the new machine getting functional prints and advancing your skills.
This is basically me and several people I know who all grew tired of the constant tinkering and print failures and quit using their printers almost completely before upgrading to the new crop of printers that just work (in our case Bambu) without all the fuss. I now have 3100 print hours on my X1C after about a year and a half which is probably 2-3 times the usage of my old Artillery Sidewinder after 3.5 years of ownership and tons of mods.
Auto bed levelling (it usually doesn’t level anything but just uses a probed bed mesh to compensate) and pressure advance is basic klipper functionality that is available to you with your existing hardware
You do need a cheap accelerometer to use it though. They are cheap, but still an added cost.
Not for pressure advance or bed meshing
