Review on BIQU B1 235X235X270mm Dual System Certificate: An Efficient Solution for Advanced Functionality by Scott Ramu

This is my second printer. I have an Ender 3 Pro and wanted to "upgrade". A 32-bit board was the next step for the E3 Pro, but it would have cost me at least $80. The Biqu B1 printer already included the SKR 1.4 board and touchscreen, and I figured this would be a better place to start than spending a weekend learning and fixing the headaches of the E3 Pro upgrade. When the price was $228 on Black Friday, I bought it. Another option was to purchase the Ender 3 V2 and after looking at online reviews I realized that Biqu gives me the best platform to upgrade in the future. Unpacking and setting up is not difficult. The main thing I would look for is to make sure your frame is square. I learned that lesson building the E3 Pro and will not make that mistake again with the Biqu B1. Biqu is not failsafe or perfectly aligned. Use the Quick Squaring tool and shape the frame in place before tightening the Z-axis frame screws. Watch the Ender 3 assembly video. It's essentially the same machine, but with different electronics. The printer was packaged very well. Better than the E3 Pro in my opinion. The firmware on this machine was the latest at the time, Marlin 2.0.6, so I didn't have to do any updates. Another pleasant surprise is that the printer came in all black rather than the eye-catching fuchsia detailing shown in the test videos. I don't mind a little color, but black is a good place to start. The car is nice and solid. The touchscreen is very nice, responsive and very easy to use. Printing is very quiet, much quieter than the E3 Pro, but you can still hear the fans in different parts of the machine. Some are louder than others. In the future I plan to switch to silent fans. A few things are missing from the Biqu B1: no PTFE hose clamps. I had to print some of these at 125% because of the larger size for Ender 3. In addition, they did not contain a nozzle cleaning needle. At the same time, the quality of non-critical parts is lacking. The USB stick (on the side) broke after the first few uses after accidentally tripping over it. The plastic spool nut was a lot cheaper than the E3 Pro. I had to print a replacement. Other minor annoyances: A bad driver prevented me from using the printer right after assembling it. BigTreeTech (manufacturer) quickly contacted the Revain dealer and they very quickly shipped me a new set of FIVE TMC2225 drivers. I only needed one so I have more. Customer service exceeded my expectations. They emailed me to help troubleshoot and isolate the issue. You might have to wait a day or so since it's based in China, but they were still very responsive. It was very frustrating to see a large drop being drawn into my print as he started typing. Not cool. This device's profile has no code to print a line before printing. This is usually done at E3 to fill the nozzle. You can easily add an initial G-code to the machine settings in Cura to fill the nozzle before printing. A quick Google search will guide you. Another annoyance with this device is that the power button is on the back and is a bit difficult to reach. Also, SD card models are set to work at very low temperatures (180C I think). Don't use them. My filament was too cold to print. I will miss the V-slots on the bottom of my E3 Pro's frame. Now I have nowhere to attach the boxes. Later I will develop something to store tools for this machine. The PDF manual on the SD card contains instructions on how to print with Cura. It contains instructions on how to create a new profile for this printer. The SD card also stores the Cura profile for this machine and is set to a layer height of 0.1mm. I 3D printed Benchie with this profile and the result was excellent. I tried a few other threads, increased the layer height to 0.2mm and the results were just as good. I ran some more tests using the online calibration guides and it turned out that the machine uses settings very similar to what I used with my Ender 3 Pro: 4mm retract distance and 20mm/s retract speed. I created a new profile using the E3 Pro settings from my old machine. They were very similar to the CHEP E3 Cura 4.6.x profiles and printed beautifully on Biqu, even with cheap filament. These prints are far superior to my E3 Pro, especially when you enable acceleration and jerk control. No further setup of my extruder was required. When I calibrated the electronic steps, this machine was top notch. It has been perfectly calibrated at the factory for 100mm extrusion. I printed a 20mm calibration cube that came out a tenth or two short. I still have to calibrate that. My E3 Pro was exactly 20.0mm in most sizes out of the box. I will continue to tweak the Biqu B1 to get more accurate prints of these sizes later. Here are the main things I like about this printer: - Super smooth printing I think due to the dual Y-axis. That's the main reason I bought this printer. I wanted better prints. - It's nice and quiet. - LED backlight. I see the seal as it appears. The included electronics provide a great platform from which to upgrade without requiring a great deal of training and troubleshooting for "base" E3 machines. Things I will improve on later will make this an excellent machine: - Hot finish. The standard is not that good. - Drivers are updated on TMC2209s. - CHEP hot-end modification for printing at higher temperatures. - BL Touch for automatic bed leveling. - Power supply "upgraded" to Meanwell brand power supply. - Dual extruder. Conclusion: I bought this printer to get a new upgrade platform. I wanted a printer that would print great right out of the box. I was not disappointed. The print quality is EXCELLENT and even better with the right settings. The manufacturer of this machine (BigTreeTech) usually sells upgrades, not printers. The Biqu B1 community is still small. You may not be able to get many search results by googling this machine, but since it is essentially an Ender 3 frame and similar components, much of it applies. The firmware is upgradable and open source and the community is very large for it no matter what machine you use. If I didn't have the experience I would definitely buy it again. I think the learning difficulties are the same for both printers. With the exception of the E3 platform, you can reach the machine upgrade limits earlier.