Look out below; another tumbles down the rabbit hole

I've also considered a printer but I have too many projects already. Not that that has ever stopped me. BUT wife has some ideas about how my time could be "better" spent.
 
Larry$ said:
I've also considered a printer but I have too many projects already. Not that that has ever stopped me. BUT wife has some ideas about how my time could be "better" spent.
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When the wife becomes involved with time management, that is never a good thing.
 
I got a Prusa I3 clone years back. It was super cheap. I upgraded the brain box with a Duet WiFi controller, which transformed it. Rather than having to fiddle with SD cards to transfer, tiny display and ghastly buttons, it's got a lovely web interface. The outstanding feature is the stepper drivers it uses, which micro-step and drive the motors ghostly quiet compared to the original. I've no doubt things have come a long way, but I've yet to see a hobbyist printer with features like the Duet. If noise is a consideration (and it is for many), it's worth looking at that as a factor when choosing. How the steppers are driven makes a world of difference - far more than the motors themselves.

If I was going to buy something again, the Ender would be top of my list. However... We're all here because we're chronic, incurable tinkerers, right? Not only that, but aspiring machinists.... So naturally, the urge to roll my own is not possible to resist.

Welcome to the Rabbit hole!
 
The Ender series gained "quiet" stepper drivers a while ago, and they rolled out the 32bit 4.2.2 board pretty much unannounced in Aug '20. That actually caused me some confusion when I bought mine in Sept, as everything on the web didn't match what I had in hand. Unlike the 8bit board, the 4.2.2 has inputs for a bed leveler and filament monitor. No "pin 27" hacks. It has enough power and memory to run all at the same time. And it has the bootloader pre-configured.
 
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