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1342 Review
79 Karma

Review on ⚙️ Creality Mainboard with Meanwell Power Supply and Carborundum Platform by Chris Peck

Revainrating 4 out of 5

Large volume, machine is better with upgrade

The main advantage of this machine is its larger assembly volume. Aside from that, it comes with a few bells and whistles. It has a 4.2.2 board which is louder. It doesn't bother me because I'm not in the room while I'm doing the prints, but I have to think about it. A lot of people upgrade boards to the newer Creality or use something like the Bigtreetech board. One more note on the 4.2.2 board: it has a terrible single-dial LCD interface. It's awkward to navigate. Using Octoprint helps. Again, this is an area where many people are opting for board and screen upgrades. Updating the firmware to a custom firmware can improve the menu experience, but doesn't help much with the dial used to control the menu. The glass platform is pretty good. He was printing like a champ for a few months. Now it began to deform and became noticeably higher in the middle. The surface finish has also started to deteriorate, using a glue stick before printing helps with the lack of adhesion this causes. I had to get an automatic bed leveling sensor to get my prints decent due to bed warping. Adding the BLTouch was pretty painless, at least the 4.2.2 board has pins for it, which was nice. Another note on adding a BLTouch or other sensor: the official Creality firmware compatible with the BLTouch is outdated and frankly not great. You can find the best firmware for this machine on Github or just make your own if you feel comfortable. Standard tubing will melt at the higher temperatures required for some materials. Hotend seems fine, no problems with it so far. The fans are quite loud. Again, they can be replaced if that bothers you and you want to spend the time and money to replace them. Most people choose replacement fans from Noctua. On one occasion I had to replace the thermistor on the hot end as the thin sheath on the wires wore out. Overall, my assessment is that this is a manageable, simple, high-volume 3D printer. It can certainly be made more user-friendly and give more consistency to prints with certain upgrades if you're willing to pay extra and take the time to apply the upgrades, but not everyone will find it necessary. Since this machine is very similar to the Ender 3 Pro, there is a lot of information, help, and third-party parts available, which is a plus. You can print many mods or other parts for this machine, and there are many third-party parts to buy, such as: B. improved boards, hot-ends and the like; But like I said, a lot of people are fine just using the machine, and they don't need a lot of bells and whistles.

Pros
  • Dual Cooling Fans: Axial cooling fan promotes heat dissipation continuously. Dual-blow fans ensure rapid cooling of the extruded fiber. Always get great results.
Cons
  • Out of fashion