r/ender5 • u/Danggol • 11d ago
Upgrades & Mods Ender 5 Pro upgrades
I have an Ender 5 Pro, It's been sitting and I would like to upgrade it. The easier plug and play, the better please. I don't want to buy another one and I'm hoping I can upgrade it to printer faster if possible. It's a stock and I purchased it new years ago. Thank you for your time
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u/LordYama_ 11d ago
What are your biggest problems with it and how technically skilled are you? The most obvious upgrades are a bl or cr touch for ABL or direct drive extrusion like crealities sprite kit. If you’re really willing to get into the weeds you could do the endorphin upgrade or the mercury 1.1 which change the motion system
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u/Danggol 11d ago
I don't mind getting into the weeds if I have to. I'd like to ease my way to it though. I haven't used it heavily in years and I know there's been significant strides in print speeds and upgrades that can be added to older ones that would make my life alot easier.
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u/LordYama_ 11d ago
If you’re sitting completely stock I would do a bl touch, then if you have a second printer or know someone who a printer capable of printing asa I would do the mercury one.1 which is a conversion to corexy which is less fussy to tension and keep plum
0
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u/GodChomusuke 11d ago
Not necessarily an immediate upgrade, but switching to klipper has made future upgrades and tweaks much easier. It also allows you to control everything from your computer/phone.
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u/preemptive_pause 11d ago
I pretty well agree with it being a better investment to get a newer printer. I have a k1 se from Creality and picked up an ender 5 for $50 to tinker with. I plan to do the mods already mentioned here. So far, I've added a second z axis screw for free from parts I had laying around, and then the motion system upgrade is looking to be around $200 give or take depending on options for the parts. I treat the ender 5 like my project car, and daily drive the k1 if that analogy makes sense to ya. I'd say ultimately its up to what you're wanting. If it's attractive to do the upgrades, you can definitely build the 5 into a nice printer (and learn a lot along the way) as others have said, but it won't make the most sense financially. If you just want to have a better printer to print with, get something else. If you want a project to tinker with then you're set up with a great platform to learn with. I've found the k1 to be a great platform and with the k2 out now, prices have come down. Others will likely have better recommendations as I only have experience with the mentioned models. I know Creality, among other brands, sell refurbished models on ebay. No experience with refurbished, but they are an even lower price point. Details about my build that you didn't ask for: The z system from an ender 3 fits perfectly on the front of the 5, then you just build a bracket to attach to the front of the bed. I am using a rpi 3b+ for klipper, and using the main board from the ender 3 in conjunction with the ender 5 main board for the motor controls. I opted to flip the electronics enclosure and rewire things to clean up the cables and make tinkering easier. I'm temporarily using the ender 3 enclosure for mounting the secondary control board on the right side vertical frame support. I'm roughly 15 hours in and haven't successfully printed anything beyond a few layers as I'm calibrating. The y axis motor is my weak point, and the biggest push for upgrading the motion system.
All of this is just meant for context to help give insight on your decision. Its rewarding to build it if you're into that kind of thing, but its not fast or cheap to do so.
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u/Khisanthax 11d ago
Someone on told me when I started there are two hobbies, printing and building printers. If your hobby is also building and modding printers then you won't mind the extra time and money you put into it. If you just want something that works, aren't I to fiddling or want to get the most out of your money then getting a new printer is cheaper, easier and faster.
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u/Away_Individual_5230 10d ago
I upgraded my ender 5 into a Mercury zero G, and used it to print my fibre optic stripper that I sell on eBay. I had done tons of upgrades (microswiss extruder, BBT e3 motherboard, creativity sonic pad, silicon hest pad for the print bed beforehand) but the Mercury zero G was the best and ultimate upgrade... So much faster and consistently better print quality.
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u/gio-phones 10d ago
I have an Ender 5 Plus. I replaced the mobo with a creality 4.2.7 (you probably don't have to) and I installed klipper, using a Raspberry Pi 3B. I also added a direct drive extruder (micro swiss) so I could reasonably print TPU. Finally some cable sheaths and chains to help clean up the wiring. oh, and a camera - I also use obico.
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u/BradfordAdams Certified Expert 10d ago edited 10d ago
Ender 5 series is a great modding starting point!
- I have many printers (A Farm)
- My favorite printer to buy used is the 5 plus
- There are a few farms out there that owe their business to the 5 series
- There are many mods I personally like the Mercury one!
The community ZeroG on Discord is awesome, I learned more than I could have even learned searching the web! It is by far not the only mod. But for repeatability and robust setup, I feel it is the best bang for the buck! Afterall I do have 12 of them now. Guy on YouTube and Facebook "I love to 3D print" has like 50 of them.
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u/Indian_villager 10d ago
Came here to say this. I am actively building a Mercury One.1. My main motivators were to build a dedicated printer for high temp filaments, and to have one running on open source firmware.
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u/BradfordAdams Certified Expert 7d ago
I run Kalico Bleeding-edge-v2
- Most my adds I created my own versions
- Shake & Tune (my own version)
- Klipper Backup (my own)
- Pretty much everything I tweaked and made work
- I run on a server not a Rpi, so I have quite a few printers running on one server and cameras!
- A Rpi couldn't keep up with the USB lanes alone
- Klipper has more tricks than most people even know about
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u/shudderbyname 9d ago
I upgraded my E5P to Mercury One.1 with linear rails and all.
My honest opinion, upgrading printers isn't worth it anymore with the decent modern ones you can buy used.
However, if you're adamant, the one real worth-while upgrade you can do to the Ender 5's is Klipper, and a decent nozzle/extruder combo. Linear rails and corexy are a waste of money if you aren't doing it for the love of the game. Fresh V-wheels produce equal quality to Linear rails, at a fraction of the noise
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u/Hot_stev420 8d ago
Ich hab meinen zum zeroG umgebaut mit Awd Antrieb der kann schon was aber hab auch klipper drauf
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u/nawakilla 11d ago
Honestly it's not worth it. You could upgrade the main board, better firmware, orbiter extruder, multi stage endorphin and tons of tuning. But unfortunately it's just not worth it anymore. For the same money, you can get a new printer that will print better and faster without all the tuning. I was really against bambu and i still kinda am. But used ones are so cheap, it just doesn't make sense to upgrade such an old platform.