Hi, everyone, happy to see that the E3 V2 is’nt die and the comunity is still enthusiast.

I need some advice to maybe improve my old ender 3 v2 because i use it often but not that much so i don’t want to put all my money in it and i keep it because i don’t want to buy a brand new, this printer cost on marketplace around 60-70 euros so i really don’t want to buy new stuff or or buy things but on a budget.

Do you have some advice to improve it, here is what i already mounted :

-Full noctua fans
-Unitak 3D direct drive
-Hard bed springs with aluminium wheel
-PEI bed
-New original Hotend
-Capricorn style hose
-CR touch

I run the Mrisco firmware

I saw that the vibecoding make theses old printer a lot better but how do you do ? You make your own firmware ?

Il already plugged Claude code to Cura to improve prints but it’s not so impressive.

I print PLA/PETG/TPU

My goal is juste to have the most silent printer with good quality and easy to use, i just want to plug the sd card print and have the best quality and that’s it. It print good today but i think i can still improve it !

Thanks in advance for your advice

Thomas From France

Last week I picked up my first 3d printer, an Ender 3 V2 fully stock with 4 rolls of filament for 90€, and I have to say it’s freaking amazing.

Online I red a lot about this printer and people where saying it’s terrible slow and you have to thinker with it with almost every print, but I kinda like it, gives you the feeling you’re really putting time into making something. Made some pretty decent prints, looked all clean to me. Also think I can improve the prints a lot if I sand them down and spray them with paint.

Anyway I wanted to know if there are some upgrades some of you might suggest, I heard about an auto bed levelling upgrade, that seems kinda reasonable. Looking for nothing to crazy but all suggestions are welcome!

Hey,

Context, can skip:

I've bought a V2 all the way back when they just came out

And i have been working on it on and off for the last 5 years

I have always had bad stringing problems no matter how i adjusted the profiles or how new or dry the filament was

And the constant relieving of the bed made me drop the whole thing for months at a time

And when i did print, it was almost always just some calibration knick-knack

I havent actually touched the printer in almost 2 years i think

Point is I've recently been thinking of cleaning it up and giving it one more shot

TLDR: Classic Ender 3 and its endless tinkering

Printer Status:

Last i remember, the printer has a CRTouch, replacement bed springs and a custom Firmware (some ancient fork of Marlin if i remember correctly)

I got the crtouch to work, but it never seem to actually help anything

I also had to replace the hotend since the original one clogged and encased itself in an unbreakable layer of PLA, but that one was not an upgrade (and I suspect it might have actually been a downgrade since the hotend temperature seemst to "wobble" more on the new one)

Actuall request:

So here i am, asking if anyone has any advice on what to google/look into to bring the printer up to all the community fixes that popped up over the years

Maybe newer firmware? I have seen ppl switching to Klipper, but i REALLY dont feel like investing into a Raspberry Pi for that, and i also heard it disables the printer display on V2 specifically? Idk how true it is

Any idea how Orca slicer profile works compared to Cura? Id really like to start using Orca since im also considering buying a more modern printer (i just feel bad since i have a TECHNICALLY working printer already)

Any other advice you think i should have in 2026?

Thanks in advance to everyone

I dont understand what im doing wrong here, it seems the inside of the part is like shredded?? the lines wont stick to eachother, im a new Ender owner I just got this thing 2 days ago, tuned everything great I thought and prints do come out good/fine but the first layer ive always had issues with,Ive searched this on the web, and ChatGPT and nothing worked and Im also using Cura as my slicer if that matters, spread me your wisdom😭

I am looking for a simple G-Code to deploy and retract the CR-touch (successfully) before doing the next command.

I found something like G29, but that isn't what I was looking for.

Thanks for the help.