Ender 3 Pro - Upgrades Do or Do Not

As a device targetted at hobbyists, one of the great benefits of the Ender 3 Pro is that it is highly upgradeable and configurable. However, I have learned the hard way that not all upgrades are that useful or beneficial, where some others are absolutely critical.

Upgrades - Overview

Recommended Upgrades - Commercial

Priority	Upgrade	Cost	Difficulty	Notes
1	OctoPrint + Raspberry Pi	$$$	**	OctoPrint requires a Raspberry Pi or equivalent, adds a wealth of features and control, and enables networking printing and managements. Unfortunately, Raspberry Pi’s are crazy expensive at the moment due to chip supply shortages, but this really improves you experience drastically.
2	Bed-levelling Spring Replacement	$	*	The bed levelling springs included with the Ender 3 are really cheap and generally weak, requiring constant bed levelling and inconsistent prints. These much better springs drastically improve the printing experience and quality and a quick to install.
3	BLTouch	$$	***	Never manually level your print bed again! What a gem, and highly recommended. WARNING: be sure to check the version of BLTouch you get and that the wires are the right way round for your printer! (see more below)
4	PEI Sheets	$	*	Best kept secret for 3D printing. See my seperate print bed post for details.

Recommended Upgrades - Printable

Priority	Upgrade	Difficulty	Notes

Upgrades to avoid

Upgrades	Notes
Creality Touchscreen	Just don’t do it. As cool as it is, it severly limits upgradability and customizability as the drivers for this are proprietary and come with a fairly old version of firmware. You will be stuck using Creality native firmware, which I’m using on Darth.