In a previous video I talked about the
Ender three v2 Creality had just
announced it and released some specs so
I shared it with my audience and I used
the virtual image for the machine
because I didn't have one. But apparently
I did a good editing job because some
people thought it was real. Well now I
have a real one so let's take a look at
it right here at Filament Friday
Filament Friday is brought to you by
these patreon supporters. The Ender 3 v2
is basically an upgrade to the Ender 3
Pro. Now this one's been modified by me
quite a bit but it still has the
original flexible magnetic bed. This one
sells for $269 on the creality website
and they're sold out right now. This one
sells for $239. On the Creality website so
it's a $30 difference from the
manufacturer. So let's look at the
features on this and how it differs for
that $30. The first thing you get for the
extra $30 is a glass bed instead of that
magnetic bed. You get a glass bed with a
textured surface, two Clips, one on the
front and one on the back hold it, so you
can pop those clips off take the glass
bed off you can actually flip it over
and have pure glass not textured
glass. So you have a choice. But that's
one thing you get is a glass bed.
Another thing you get are belt tighteners.
One on the X and one on the Y.
The X one's got a little bit of an
issue I'll talk about that but it comes
included. They are plastic not metal. I
prefer metal. But belt tighteners are
nice. Another thing you get is a knob. A
knob for the extruder so you can turn it. T
This thing is really loose though it
spins it but it's it's really loose. You
can pull it right off.  I don't know if
that's any better than what you can 3D
print but that comes with it as well.
Another difference is the cover over the
hot end. The hot end itself is actually
the same as the Ender three / Ender three
pro but the cover is bigger and it's
plastic. The Ender three / Ender three Pro
has a metal cover here with two screws
in the front and you can get it to
coupling without taking the cover off.
This one you have to take the cover off
to get to the coupling. So if you want to
pull the PTFE tube out or got a jam you
have to take this cover off and the
screws are in the back not in the front.
So it's a little bit more of a hassle
and the fact that it's plastic. Another
difference is the holes
in the front are tighter so it's harder
to get filament into the fan which is
kind of a good thing. It also makes it
harder to see if the fan is spinning so
if your fan or fails or stalls you can't
tell. I had to put my ear up to it to
make sure it's spinning, and part of that
is because this fan seems a lot quieter
than the Ender 3 Pro or Ender 3. So I
think that's an advantage. I haven't done
any true measurement so I'm just going
by my ear, but it definitely sounds
quieter on this machine than the
Ender 3 Pro. None of those are major
differences I would say to spend $30.00 but
here is where I think it is worth it.
First of all the power supply is no
longer on the rail here it's built into
the base. The switch and plug are in
the back. And it is a meanwell power
supply just like the Ender 3 Pro. So that's
good. But I like that it's in the base.
Keeps fingers away from it. Little
fingers from it. But that power supply.
Not that it wasn't safe but I
like it enclosed. But the biggie: 32-bit
board! It's got a 32-bit electronics
board and more memory. And because of
that more memory you have more functions.
In the menu and the menu itself the
display is a icon type display. You still
have a knob to turn and click but
there's a lot more features. You can
adjust your acceleration, your jerk, you
can even set the retraction speed up to
50 millimeters per second instead of a
default 25 and save it to EEPROM. All
those are inside the display and as far
as the electronics board, 32-bit board, it
also has a plug for a BL touch so you
can add that later and also has a plug
for a filament run-out sensor. Now there
isn't a filament run-out sensor bracket
and this plastic thing on the front does
not have a bracket for a BL touch so I
can see that this is one of the first
things that community is gonna reprint
and make one so you can easily put a
bracket on it. But the capability appears
to be in the hardware into the board so
updating the firmware to be Auto level
should be fairly easy. And that's another
advantage of the 32 bit board, you don't
have to plug in Arduino with a
bootloader and all that. All you do is
you put the new firmware on the SD card.
And it is a micro SD right here in the
front just like the Pro, 
you flip the card over but you put the
firmware on here. It's a dot bin file. You
put it in and you start it up. It'll sense
that and upload and update its own
firmware. That's the advantage of 32-bit.
So I think that's a huge step up for
this machine and it does have silent
drivers so I believe there 2209 they may
be 2208 but either way it's quiet. This
machine is definitely quieter than any
other Ender three machine I have even
with the Noctua fans I put on mine.
This thing is quieter. I had it in my
office printing, wasn't bad at all. In fact
the only real noise that's coming from it
is from the meanwell power supply.
This fan up here is definitely quieter.
So overall that's it. Those are the big
differences. But is it worth $30? Well the
fact that Creality charges 49.95 for
their 8-bit silent board, that alone
says it's worth it $30. You get the
32-bit board, a better display and then
all the other little features that I
meantioned plus the glass bed. Oh you even
get a drawer.
So there's definitely features in this
and for $30 more I think it's worth it.
Assembling it was very similar to any
Ender three. I used the procedure, I have
a whole video on how to assemble in
Ender three and it worked well here as
well. The only issue I had was the X
adjuster. The screw in the front goes in
the same hole as the bracket screw in the
back. They butt up against each other. So
you can't get this thing tight. And then
I had a problem running my bed level
g-code. It just didn't read it right. It
homed but then it's supposed to go over
the top of the screws but listen to what
it did it here. They moved to the right
and made that grinding sound and then it
just went home so it didn't read the
g-code properly. I didn't print a ton. I
had some problems getting it printing at
first. Once I did though it printed equal
to my Ender 3's or CR 6. I tried different
filaments they printed really good but
getting the bed level without my G code
was a little bit tougher. But I got it
done. And the first layer prints on this
glass bed looked really nice.
If you're just getting into 3D printing
or looking for a second printer this is
what you're looking at. The CR6,
I did a full video on this with all the
features you get, a bigger build area, you
get the built-in auto level which works
really well. You get a better extruder
top so you can do ninjaflex. You get the
filament run out sensor you get dual
lead screws in the back. You get a
touchscreen and I'm told it's now
shipping with 32-bit although mine is
8-bit. And if it's 32-bit that that's a
heck of a machine. But you're talking at
least $100 more than this guy.
In fact the retail is $429. I figure it'll
probably be like$ 389 and maybe it'll go
up with that 32-bit board. I don't know.
But its at least $100 more than this. Is it
worth it? if you really want auto level,
you want a little bigger build area, you
want some of these other features, then
yeah. But for a good starter printer I
think this is excellent. And the 32-bit
makes it easy to upload the firmware and
then the other features that it's got, I
think it's worth the $269. If you're
really on a tight budget certainly the
Ender 3, not the Ender 3 Pro,  just the
base Ender 3 is still a great machine.
$219 at Creality. You can get it at
various places for less than that. And
it's still a great machine to start with
and then you can build it the way you
want it. But I think this is a good
in-between machine and at that price
$269. I think, I think this is a great
starter printer. So that's it for this
week. If you like what I'm doing here
check out some of the videos that are
popping up. But if nothing else click on
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you don't miss an episode. I'll see you
next time right here
at Filament Friday.
