Slow Ender3 Upgrade  ? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Lindley
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 16, 2025, 10:33:26 am
content: Looking to upgrade our Ender 3, mainly due to the long time even some medium sized prints take, eg over a day !Seems stuck between the proverbial Bambu A1 (GB £289) which can include the AMS lite (£419) vs the newer Creality Hi Combo (£368)AuroraTech reviews of both seem very close, so still trying to decide, would like to be able to print the usual PLA/PETG plus PETG CF and TUP; ABS not needed.The Elegoo Centauri Carbon , as mentioned in the recent thread, looks interesting but its seems like at least a 2 month wait to order one and always a bit sceptical about a brand new products which may have a few teething problems.Would appreciate any input on which printer to choose or anything else around the same price point.

author: XxMandragoraxX
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2025, 06:29:16 am
content: Hey man, for your Ender 3, try installing Klipper on a Raspberry Pi and setting up a print server.On the other hand, don’t overthink which printer to buy — in my experience, Bambu is the best. I have two X1 Carbons and three Crealities, and Bambu wins by far.The brand builds really solid machines and offers great support, so don’t overthink it. By the way, have you checked out the Bambu P1 with AMS? It’s an awesome combo.

author: Lindley
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2025, 02:34:26 pm
content: Hi XxMandragoraxX,Thanks for the interestng reply in our quest for more speed, which we were looking more at a new printer as the cost of hardware updating, eg direct drive /metal hot end etc. our existing Ender seemed a bit pointless.However your comment about Klipper is not something we had been aware of, but looking at some Ytubes etc seems it could easily double our existing print speed ?Should have said ours is the Ender 3 V2 and we use it with Octoprint via a Raps Pi 3 B to our outbuilding/workroom.With the help of an online friend a few years ago, we did upgrade the firmware to the Jyers, a fork of Marlin and added a CR touch.Was not aware that Jyers gave any speed increase though am now going to print a Benchy just to see how slow or fast it currently is and then see what we can achieve with Klipper ?

author: MarkF
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2025, 02:59:18 pm
content: I seriously doubt that moving to Klipper is going to give you any speed increase.I have a Creality CR-10 Mini running Marlin 1.1.9. Many versions old.I can easily up my print speed in the slicer, but the prints are just crap.Your real limiting speed factor is the hardware and its rigidity.You can reduce the print times by carefully choosing how a model is printed butyou're not going to half or more the print times.

author: Lindley
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: June 18, 2025, 03:18:27 pm
content: Quote from: MarkF on June 18, 2025, 02:59:18 pmNo ? had looked at a few Ytubes on how to load Klipper and some saying they reduced Benchy times from 1hr 54m to 42m , one assumes for the same quality of print ?Does sound like an improvement many would want to follow and upgrade their printers to, though perhaps we would have heard of it before if it did work that well ?

author: XxMandragoraxX
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 23, 2025, 06:36:56 am
content: It definitely increases print speed without a doubt. I have an Ender 3 S1, which has a direct drive Sprite extruder with dual gears — it's better than the V2 you have. But without question, Klipper optimizes things much better and is a much more complete firmware, in addition to being far more customizable.Also, I have it set up on a Raspberry Pi 3 and manage it over the network, accessing it directly from a web browser. It works as both a print server and the printer's firmware. I’m using Fluidd, but you can also set it up with Mainsail using the Moonraker server. There are plenty of tutorials online.

author: XxMandragoraxX
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 23, 2025, 06:39:12 am
content: That's true — I reduced the print time of a Benchy from 1 hour 28 minutes to 32 minutes, with even better quality. Of course, you need to properly calibrate the printer, and since yours is a Bowden-type setup, retractions are a bit more complicated, but it's definitely doable. I recommend upgrading the extruder and installing the Sprite direct drive — you can get it for under $80.

author: analogueAdder
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: June 23, 2025, 11:19:40 pm
content: Quote from: MarkF on June 18, 2025, 02:59:18 pmKlipper is significantly more capable than Marlin. And you can push an Ender 3 to almost the same speed as a Bambu if you use properly tuned input shaping and pressure advance. This is using software to compensate for the mechanical drawbacks, but it's good enough for this application, and Bambu is also doing this...Apart from the rigidity, the biggest limitations on these printers are the motors and the extruder. I have a Hummingbird extruder on mine, and could potentially go a bit faster if I replaced the motors as I'm still using the Creality ones. Additionally, some models lack a bed probe, so a BL-Touch is a worthy upgrade.The other important part to print fast, is to tune your slicer profiles. I'm using a modified Voron profile with reduced accelerations to match what my printer can do.