Top positive review
11 people found this helpful
Great machine for folks who like to tinker
By Amazon Customer on Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2020
This machine was fun to assemble. The instructions were easy to follow, everything was labelled, and it went together in about 20 minutes. Leveled the bed and did my first print shortly after. I then immediately started printing all the most highly-rated upgrades to the machine and have even converted it to direct-drive extrusion with a printed part. Tweaking for the highest quality prints takes time and a willingness to google and watch videos, but there is plenty of info out there. I have had, thus far, zero problems with bed adhesion. The only failed print I've had failed in the middle, where the part had a thin area that broke loose. The magnetic print surface seems to work well, but it is easy to damage with the included (metal) scraper, so be careful. PLA sticks too well to any damaged areas and can further damage the mat when being peeled off. For advanced users: I was able to pair this machine with a Raspberry Pi 3, Octoprint and Klipper for prints as fast, quiet and accurate as a 32-bit controller board without the cost and hassle of upgrading. The only problem I had with the unit was a crash during a print. After a power cycle, the bootloader and firmware had been erased. Flashing a bootloader isn't the simplest operation, especially for newbies, but it can be done as long as you have the right tools and follow the directions (google!) exactly. From then on, any time the unit is powered down completely, the firmware goes missing. I contacted SainSmart support and they very quickly sent me a new mainboard. NOTE: the mainboard is standard across all of the Creality Ender 3 clones, so this was not a problem that SainSmart was responsible for. I have no explanation for how the initial crash happened, other than it might have been triggered by turning off a nearby fluorescent lamp. (ground loop through Raspberry Pi USB port?) Again, this is not SainSmart's fault, so I'm not going to subtract a star. Overall, this is a robust machine that is really fun to tinker with and can produce excellent prints without spending a lot of money. Definitely recommended.
Top critical review
1 people found this helpful
Good product for the price, questionable seller
By CapnCoconuts on Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2020
This product is basically Creality's Ender 3 Pro with SainSMART's branding on it. Presumably, Sain SMART paid Creality for the privilege to do that because they can't design a consistently good FDM 3D printer themselves (see the reviews for their Coreception CoreXY printer). Although the product is largely the same as a Creality-branded printer, there are some concerns I have with the product and the company that sells it. * My Ender 3 Pro came with a coupon that expired on December 31, 2019. I ordered this printer in late April--nearly four months later. The coupon would have been nice, but the fact that it's long expired is unbecoming for SainSMART. * The Bowden tube in my printer was not cut at the proper angle, which caused melted PLA/PETG to leak through the hot end. Bowden tube ends should be cut at a right angle so that they sit right on top of the nozzle and prevent leaks from happening. I was hoping I'd do more than a few prints before having to service the hot end. * Despite the fact that the Ender 3 (Pro) produces great prints for the price, and contrary to SainSMART's caution not to modify the printer (being told not to modify open source design... LOL), you'll want to replace a few parts at some point. The plastic extruder feeder will eventually wear down and break. The stock Bowden tube might be poor quality, needing to be cut or replaced (see above point). Stronger springs will help keep your bed level. There are other small things you can do to enhance your Ender 3 experience. You'll have trouble getting dampers on any of the press-fit stepper motors, though. * The user manual is passable, but could be more helpful for people building their first 3D printer. It also features more than a few grammatical errors. Come on. You have a support office in Delaware. Why can't you write consistent fluent English? * Software provided in the Micro SD card is way out of date. The user manual walks you through installing Cura 15.04.6, which is the LEGACY version. The card also has the modern Ultimaker Cura, but only for Win64, and it's version 3.0.2. Cura 4.5 released in February 2020, two months before I bought this. * I was not able to find firmware downloads on the SainSmart website, binary or source code. That's interesting, because it's quite similar to Creality's firmware and vanilla Marlin, which are licensed under the GNU GPL. The point of the GPL is to force creators of derivative works to share their source code. Make of that what you will. I bought the Sain SMART edition Ender 3 Pro because (1) it was on sale, and (2) the original edition seemed to be sold out just about everywhere else. Unless it's at a discount, I wouldn't recommend it over the original Creality-branded Ender 3 Pro.
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