After a couple of months running two Ender 3 Pros, I’ve invariably run into pretty much all the common issues you can encounter with your printer.
Thermal Runaway Error So much fun this is. Said no one ever.
Important! This can be a potentially serious issue, so please do your due diligence! The below may not fix your issue. Please stay with your printer when printing with this type of error, this is a fire hazard if not properly resolved.
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.
Several years ago, I was intrigued by the concept of 3D printing, and decided to give it a shot. I bought a XYZPrinting DaVinci 1.0 back then (the cheapest at the time), with proprietary ABS filements in cartridges (how wrong was this). I knew nothing, and after a couple of months, started to struggle printing so much that I eventually gave up - bed levelling is an absolute nightmare on that printer, and the software/firmware is just terrible.
So many people are having issues with stock builds, and in an effort to help out I’m sharing my custom build for folks that:
Bought an Ender 3 (v2, Pro) in 2022 - your board is a 4.2.2 Have only added a BLTouch and kept the Z-Stop connected (important) No other mods - no screen updates/mods/changes or anything else (you’re using the provided screen) Then try this firmware at your own discretion, I accept no responsibility:
Wow, is this the least well documented topic on the internet, and it is so important. I didn’t realize some of these, and quickly ran into consistency problems. In this post I’ll describe maintenance advice often overlooked.
Filament Change & Nozzle Cleaning Something you will do regularly is change the filament, either for different materials (PETG, PLA, TPU, etc) or, more commonly to change color.
Remove the current filament To change the filament, you need to start by heating the nozzle to the typical printing temperature for the material that is currently being used (e.
In case anyone is interested, I’m sharing the details of my setup.
I’m running two Ender 3 Pro at the moment, almost permanently printing, affectionately called Luke and Darth. Darth was the first printer I bought, and destroyed the controller board installing the BLTouch upgrade. More details on this in the upgrades post.
Darth Darth, on the right in the picture above:
Creality Ender 3 Pro (2022) Replaced controller board with Creality 4.
Wow, have I learned a lot on my journey. And let me tell you for free, the stock print surface that comes with the Ender 3 Pro (or V2) has a very limited lifespan. OK, to be fair all print surfaces have a lifespan, but that magnetic mat that comes with the Ender 3 lasted me about a month on both printers, and anything other than PLA doesn’t stick and will help you lose hair.
