I am looking at diving into the 3d printing world. I have been looking at the Wanhao 3I plus printer. I also am looking at the Fushion 360 software and also Matter hackers program for the slicer. The question I have is that the only two programs I would need to design and then print a design? I went with the hackers program so I could see the program run while printing and hopefully help me get familiar with gcode. Is there others that are better/ easier to use? I will be making mostly demisional things for the rc hobby.
I don’t actually own the i3 Plus, but I own a i3 V2 and a i3 V2.1 as soon as it arrives and they’re quite similar. Overall, what you’re aiming for should suit your purposes just fine once you get a handle of the machine and software. I haven’t had a chance to try MatterControl yet, since I use Simplify3D, but that’s all you need (slicer, modeling program, and printer).
I bought my i3 V2.1 over the Plus because the i3 Plus is still mostly a first iteration of that variation and the V2/2.1 have a longer track record and unless you really need the extra features or the space saving that the plus provides, I think people are still leaning more toward V2.1 when it comes to the Wanhao i3’s. It’s been 3 weeks since I ordered my V2.1 and I’m not sure if the i3 Plus will have a similar wait time, so be aware of that. The Prusa i3 MK2 has an even longer wait time, at around an estimated 2 months the last time I checked. If you’re okay with the wait, those are the solid entry level machines. I’ve had my Wanhao i3 V2 running almost a whole year now, printing everyday and it’s still going, it just takes maintenance time to time.
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.
I ordered mine from Wanhaousa and they’ve had some good customer support. I just looked at their page and it says that they have upgraded the heat bed mosfet. So hopefully no smoke coming out of it. Mine doesn’t have that upgrade but it hasn’t smoked yet.
I just pulled the trigger on the Wanhao I3 from wanhaousa. Thanks for the help. I am sure you will be hearing from me in the future. I end up going with this one just because of all of the online support for it. I am new to all this so I will need all the support I can get.
A good thing to check once you get it, is the reference voltage (vref) for all the stepper motors. Mine were set too high for the extruder and x/y stepper motors. It caused my extruder stepper to overheat and made the steppers noisy. Now with a lower vref everything is staying cool, working great and I can barley hear the motors. There’s some good tutorials on youtube about setting the vref.
Other than the name on the printer and box there is no difference between the Wanhao and the Monoprice. Wanhao makes them. If you can get the same printer from Monoprice for less money, you aren’t missing anything.
The MOSFET mod is one way people have been addressing the problems with the Wanhao board. Others are replacing the connectors or just bypassing the connectors altogether and soldering directly to the board. Using a separate MOSFET from the board is probably the safest option but it has more work and expense than the others. How you decide to fix the problem will be up to your judgement.
The only way to know if the printer you get has the latest board with the screw terminals is to look inside. Keep in mind that the boards with the screw terminals are new and haven’t proven themselves one way or the other. In theory the screw terminals should alleviate the problem but Wanhao’s history with fire hazards has not been good.
Let us know how that goes. I have seen some reports on other forums lately about huge delays with wanhaousa. Hopefully that won’t be an issue with you but it’s always good to have the latest reports. Good luck to you.
so I cancelled the order from wanhao as I am not a very patient person and ordered the Mono I3 from amazon. Saved me some money and a little sanity with my lack of patients. Thanks for the info on the long delays that would have killed me and possibly a few others . lol
