If you choose to go with Wanhao, the first thing you want to do is make the proper repairs to the main board to cut down on the risk of fire. Wanhao has been cutting corners when it comes to the connectors used for the power connections on the board and it has resulted in many fires. There are instructions on what needs to be done in many places. It basically involves either changing out the connectors or soldering directly to the board. If you value life and property, I would address this issue before doing any of the other upgrades to this printer.
Has that been reported for the i3 Plus? It has an updated board from the i3 v2.1 Another fire warning deals with the springs that can scrape into the heater plate and cause shorts/fires. They sent out fiber washers for that issue.
Yes, I have checked the idler pulleys. It was also loose for my y-axis and I tightened it. The others are good though. I’ve reduced the ringing effects to mostly the y-axis. I’ll do the z-brace fix later on which should get the ringing/ghosting down to a minimum. For the price of the i3 Plus I can’t complain too much though. It works very well and modding it is pretty easy.
The latest boards that have went out are using screw terminals instead of the traditional connectors. No fires have been reported with the screw terminals yet. The only way to know for sure is to look at the main board and see if it has the new screw terminals.
As far as I know it includes all boards that have the plug in connectors. My understanding is that all new boards from Wanhao (including the Plus) have went to the screw terminal connections.
I have a Wanhao Duplicator I3 plus. The printer has been solid but is not the easiest printer to setup. You will need to make some mods to the printer and download and print some alignment tools for the z-axis to keep it running. I installed a glass bed on my printer. There are plenty of youtube videos on how to do this. I would recommend Simplify3D as your slicer. I would recommend using Octoprint as your printer interface. I am running the Octopi version on a raspberry pi with a logitech camera and it runs wonderfully including a web interface that shows the print progress and the g-code executing. The print quality of this printer is not nearly as good as my Makergear M2s that I use but it makes an acceptable print.
Thanks everyone for the responses. I have been playing with Fushion 360 and so far I like it. Is there a big difference between monoprice and Wanhao? From what I could find online they seem to be the exact same machine. Is it worth it to save the money and go with the Monoprice version? If I go with the I3 am I going to have to do the mosfet mod to keep it from catching on fire or has that been addressed? I don’t mind tinkering with things I just want to know what needs to be done for safety as apposed to fun.
Where would be a good place to purchase the Wanhao from? Wanhaousa? I see I can order mono from Amazon. I have prime so that would help. Decisions decision.
