Alright! I've had the Ender 3 XS Pro from banggood for a bit over a month now. Here's a link to the item: Ender 3 XS Pro

So I'll make it clear, Banggood supplied this for my review, but I'm no noob in the 3D printing space, I'll give a brief history:
I started out with a XYZ Davinci V1.0, and printed mostly ABS, then got an UpBox, and in the last 3 or 4 years i was running a farm of a few ultimaker 2's, but I nolonger have any of these and wanted to try out the creality side as a friend has had a CR10 for a long while now and I helped him with it and liked it. I also currently have a CR10 S5 I picked up second hand for cheap, it has been mistreated and took some work but is now doing perfect prints.

Now, onto the Ender 3 XS Pro, technically Creality only offers the Ender 3 XS and the Ender 3 Pro as individual printers, but what Banggood does is take an Ender 3 Pro and do all of the XS mods to it (or vice versa) so you're basically getting the best of both worlds.
Here's how it came in the box, pretty standard for an ender 3:


Setup time was about 2 hours of fluffing around, I purposely only used the included instructions (on the SD card) and not a youtube video to see if I had any issues. Even the cables were clearly marked and I didn't have any real issues with assembly of the unit. If I was to do it again, I'm pretty sure i could assemble it and be doing the first benchy in under an hour. Here's the assembled printer:


So levelling the bed was easy, and I was able to use the included instructions for this too. I just used the paper method, and since the bed was already set up with the large adjustment knobs it was very easy to do and i was suprised how sturdy the structure was. For an adhesive for every print i've done so far I have just used a medium coat of my wifes hairspray, re-applicating each print and then cleaning off with metho and paper towel every 5 or so prints. I started printing with the included PLA, and I used CURA, with the settings on this webpage: http://www.emcu.eu/configure-ultimaker-c...l-ender-3/
This is how the first print came out:


After all my filament came in.... here's the filament tower next to my wife:


Oh yeah, so after the filament came in I decided to give the Saintsmart 95A TPU a go, and it took some tuning of the settings but at a print speed of 35-40mm/s and keeping retraction on I was able to get some really beautiful TPU results, here's a XT60E-M and SMA mount I modelled in solidworks and printed on the Ender 3 XS-pro:


Overall, I like the ender 3 very much, and if I was to buy another one I'd get this pre-modified one from Banggood again as it saved a lot of time and hassle, and to be honest this thing works better than the Ultimakers i was using..... but that might upset some people. Let me know what you'd like to see me print on the ender 3, and if you guys would be interested in my dry box project:


As far as modifications are concerned, I'd recommend an updated fan duct, I went for the Hero me, and I printed it in Esun ABS+ on the ender 3 as well, I had some warping issues, but a warmer room or enclosure would've fixed this.I found that the upgraded duct helped significantly with big overhangs without supports, I found I could go even up to 65-70 degrees with this duct! Anyhow here's the finished result of that fan duct:


Also, here's a comparison pic between my ender and my cr10 s5.... biiiig size difference!


Please let me know any questions you guys may have that i haven't covered in this review, I'll be sure to make a video in the near future, but that'll probably be a comparison between the ender and the CR10 S5, while they are polar opposites it still seems there are people trying to figure out which one to get!

Banggood has asked me to mention their black friday sales from November 27th-30th. If you're interested in this printer it'll be a good time to pick one up at a cheap price. Here's the link to the main page for the black friday sales: Banggood black Friday sale

Hold up, let me get that into metric units.




Mate, you need to get your better half ISO certified.

Good review!

(20-Nov-2019, 09:56 AM)Banelle Wrote: Hold up, let me get that into metric units.




Mate, you need to get your better half ISO certified.

Good review!

Hahahaha that's gold, I showed her and it made her laugh   

Cheers buddy!

Man, you make me sick  How are you getting such good TPU prints? They look flawless 

I really need to get back on the case with trying to print TPU again after my printer nearly found itself flying out of the top floor window a month or so back

What type of supports did you use to print that VTX antenna / XT60 bracket? Do you have any photos of it on the print bed? I also seem to struggle with supports as well when trying to print TPU because they just tend to end up becoming part of of my printed artefact 

Great review BTW

(21-Nov-2019, 12:10 AM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: Man, you make me sick  How are you getting such good TPU prints? They look flawless 

I really need to get back on the case with trying to print TPU again after my printer nearly found itself flying out of the top floor window a month or so back

What type of supports did you use to print that VTX antenna / XT60 bracket? Do you have any photos of it on the print bed? I also seem to struggle with supports as well when trying to print TPU because they just tend to end up becoming part of of my printed artefact 

Great review BTW

Thanks mate!

TPU is definitely a hard one to wrangle, firstly I have mega issues if I don't leave the roll of TPU in my dryer (ebay dehumidifer set @ 45 degrees C) for about 6 hours.. It just comes out messy and blobby and falls to pieces. That bracket has almost no supports, I print it upside down and with the support angle in CURA set to 60 degrees, the VTX antenna part just prints as overhang, and the only bit that gets supports is the parts that wrap around the standoffs. I'm at work at the moment, but I have a Hero 7 mount for my Rooster on the printer at home as we speak so I'll take some pics of how it comes out, It was looking great when i left home and had already been running for 11 out of 14 hours.

Honestly I think having a good fan duct helps with printing supports as the printer leaves a tiny gap above supports so they don't adhere so well, and having a good part cooling fan duct stops the filament from oozing into the supports. Also it could be a temperature thing, or a dryness like I said before.. I have played with the support settings in CURA a bit, but ended up going back to the stock 20% density etc, and just raised the angle because of my better overhang capabilities.

What type of TPU are you using, and what printer? I think half the skill with TPU stuff is designing it so it's easy to print lol....

Edit: I forgot retraction makes a big difference too. Lowering print speed to 30-40mm/s, then retraction speed to around 30mm/s with 6-7mm of retraction. Turn on Retract on layer change, and set up zhop on retraction at 0.2mm. I think my TPU prints had a big improvement after that.. The first one was a MESS, I'll admit that lol, I printed 5 of those mounts (all usable) before I got them that clean and tidy.

I've got Prusa i3 MK3S so you can probably understand why I'm upset that I'm struggling to get decent TPU prints from what is supposed to be a flagship printer and one which has a direct drive extruder. I have two reels of TPU filament. A transparent blue one made by a company called "Surreal" which I got off Amazon (had good reviews) but there is no shore hardness specified. People in the reviews say it is softer than Sainsmart and likely to be somewhere between 85A and 95A but I have no idea which. I also have a reel of transparent red TPU made by a company called "Frontierfilla", also bought from Amazon (again, good reviews). That reel is specified as 94A shore harness. Both reels give the same crappy results. Between botched attempts at printing I keep each reel in its own vacuum sealed bag that also contains pouches of silica gel desiccant.

My car crash TPU prints can be found in the post and the subsequent posts following it at the link below. I use PrusaSlicer but I've so far failed to get anything decent from that with TPU (PLA prints beautifully). I did however get a few good TPU prints using Cura and some other dude's profile settings but it only worked for a small print that was flat on the bed. Trying to print an upright print using the same Cura profile ended in another disaster. It's the million and one slicer settings that makes the whole task frustrating when you don't have a clue what half of them really do, so it ends up a time consuming task of trial and error.

https://intofpv.com/t-using-supports-for...1#pid72561

I'd lost the will to live with it all so I still need to try and drum up some renewed enthusiasm and get back to it again

(21-Nov-2019, 12:53 AM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: I've got Prusa i3 MK3S so you can probably understand why I'm upset that I'm struggling to get decent TPU prints from what is supposed to be a flagship printer and one which has a direct drive extruder. I have two reels of TPU filament. A transparent blue one made by a company called "Surreal" which I got off Amazon (had good reviews) but there is no shore hardness specified. People in the reviews say it is softer than Sainsmart and likely to be somewhere between 85A and 95A but I have no idea which. I also have a reel of transparent red TPU made by a company called "Frontierfilla", also bought from Amazon (again, good reviews). That reel is specified as 94A shore harness. Both reels give the same crappy results. Between botched attempts at printing I keep each reel in its own vacuum sealed bag that also contains pouches of silica gel desiccant.

My car crash TPU prints can be found in the post and the subsequent posts following it at the link below. I use PrusaSlicer but I've so far failed to get anything decent from that with TPU (PLA prints beautifully). I did however get a few good TPU prints using Cura and some other dude's profile settings but it only worked for a small print that was flat on the bed. Trying to print an upright print using the same Cura profile ended in another disaster. It's the million and one slicer settings that makes the whole task frustrating when you don't have a clue what half of them really do, so it ends up a time consuming task of trial and error.

https://intofpv.com/t-using-supports-for...1#pid72561

I'd lost the will to live with it all so I still need to try and drum up some renewed enthusiasm and get back to it again

Okay yeah if i shelled out for a MK3S I'd be pissed too....

Never used either of those brands. The reason I use Saintsmart is because it's great and it just works. I use 95A because its about all the bowden on the Ender 3 can handle but the softer stuff shouldn't bother yours.

The print in that post doesn't look horrible, it just looks like it might be too thin to be printing that tall in that orientation, but yeah slicer settings do kinda suck. Im keen to work with you to get it working mate, If you'd like I can PM you the model for the mount I printed above? Please just don't share it as I intend to sell it

EDIT: Just got this picture from my wife, warped a little and came unstuck in the last 5 mins of the print : Luckily it won't affect the actual print because of the way it is, so I can still use it, kinda annoying cause it was soooooo close though! You can see beneath the little birds nest that it looks quite nice though

Oh man damn you for pointing me to this thread LOLLL.

I am still eaking out the last bit of life out of this ridiculously modded printrbot simple that started out of wood LOL. And wtf with the tower o' filament dude??? I've never seen so much filament.

I love TPU. I kick myself for not getting into it sooner it has opened up SO much for me. I also love the super cheap e3D v6 lite hotend that quite literally gave my little-printrbot-that-could a second life. I pretty much just use SaintSmart TPU.

(21-Nov-2019, 07:26 AM)the.ronin Wrote: Oh man damn you for pointing me to this thread LOLLL.

I am still eaking out the last bit of life out of this ridiculously modded printrbot simple that started out of wood LOL. And wtf with the tower o' filament dude??? I've never seen so much filament.

I love TPU. I kick myself for not getting into it sooner it has opened up SO much for me. I also love the super cheap e3D v6 lite hotend that quite literally gave my little-printrbot-that-could a second life. I pretty much just use SaintSmart TPU.

Hahahaha sorry mate, just trying to motivate you guys to dust off ya printers

Yeah.... Hobbyking had a filament sale, $12/kg for pla so I got a few colours. Then the second printer I bought second hand came with another 6 rolls or so unopened.

I've been wondering if it's worth upgrading hotends, both my printers have creality v10 hotends and I think they're quite okay for now. Also saintsmart tpu is the bomb hey, wouldn't bother with anything else cause it's so much hassle.

(21-Nov-2019, 01:03 AM)bffigjam Wrote: Okay yeah if i shelled out for a MK3S I'd be pissed too....

Never used either of those brands. The reason I use Saintsmart is because it's great and it just works. I use 95A because its about all the bowden on the Ender 3 can handle but the softer stuff shouldn't bother yours.

The print in that post doesn't look horrible, it just looks like it might be too thin to be printing that tall in that orientation, but yeah slicer settings do kinda suck. Im keen to work with you to get it working mate, If you'd like I can PM you the model for the mount I printed above? Please just don't share it as I intend to sell it

EDIT: Just got this picture from my wife, warped a little and came unstuck in the last 5 mins of the print : Luckily it won't affect the actual print because of the way it is, so I can still use it, kinda annoying cause it was soooooo close though! You can see beneath the little birds nest that it looks quite nice though

That sucks with the spaghetti mess right at the end of your print. At least it's not a complete failure and is salvageable to some extent.

Thanks for the encouragement. I'll hit you up on PM if I want to try out your print on my printer. I appreciate the help. What I will say is that I have managed to get some good prints (photos in this post) so the TPU itself and the mechanics of the printer seem to be solid. I just can't get anything decent (so far) out of PrusaSlicer. I don't really want to switch to Cura unless I really have no other option. It's the slicer settings that are clearly the key to getting a good print with any type of TPU, but it's a whole long-winded trial and error process attempting to find what those magic settings actually are in the minefield of options you are able to tweak. It also doesn't help that it's not easy to translate settings from one slicer to another because settings are either named differently, missing from one slicer to another, or the granular level of settings is totally different.

(21-Nov-2019, 10:23 AM)SnowLeopardFPV Wrote: That sucks with the spaghetti mess right at the end of your print. At least it's not a complete failure and is salvageable to some extent.

Thanks for the encouragement. I'll hit you up on PM if I want to try out your print on my printer. I appreciate the help. What I will say is that I have managed to get some good prints (photos in this post) so the TPU itself and the mechanics of the printer seem to be solid. I just can't get anything decent (so far) out of PrusaSlicer. I don't really want to switch to Cura unless I really have no other option. It's the slicer settings that are clearly the key to getting a good print with any type of TPU, but it's a whole long-winded trial and error process attempting to find what those magic settings actually are in the minefield of options you are able to tweak. It also doesn't help that it's not easy to translate settings from one slicer to another because settings are either named differently, missing from one slicer to another, or the granular level of settings is totally different.

I redid the print but put a heater in the room and it stayed at around 40 degrees in there (Its my quad building room too and I changed a VTX out last night.... I had to take stops and run back into the AC for a few minutes to dry off the sweat!!) but the result is much better, with absolutely zero warping, so I'm going to build a polycarbonate enclosure to keep the printer warm I think :  here's the results, not perfect like my other mount (i've been messing with slicer settings) but preeeeetty damn nice still.

 


Also I got a picture mid peel to show how the supports came off:


I guess it's fair that you wanna stick with Pslicer, but personally I much prefer CURA, it has its quirks and annoyances but it does just work quite well. I also have experience with it from running ultimaker printers for a few years so it's familiar.

I use Cura as well but miss the pronteface. Unless I'm missing something? Now I have both open. Ponteface in case I need to do gcode commands.

Yea E3D is *aces* man. I like to call them the "forever startup" lol. The Lite6 at under $30 is bullet proof and an amazing deal especially compared to printrbot hotends and even earlier versions of E3D both at over twice the price.

(21-Nov-2019, 10:55 PM)the.ronin Wrote: I use Cura as well but miss the pronteface.  Unless I'm missing something?  Now I have both open.  Ponteface in case I need to do gcode commands.

Yea E3D is *aces* man.  I like to call them the "forever startup" lol.  The Lite6 at under $30 is bullet proof and an amazing deal especially compared to printrbot hotends and even earlier versions of E3D both at over twice the price.

After version 1.something of cura they made pronteface a seperate application and nolonger included it within cura, that is all there. They are designed to be run together.

I'll have to investigate that, I probably won't change my current hotends till I have issues cause they seem quite reliable for now. Especially with the noctua fan i put on my CR10 S5, I have one for the ender  as well, but gotta get a 24-12v regulator for it.

Looks like i'm getting the Anet A8 Pro next. Trying it because of the different rail design and the direct drive extruder.

Let me know what you guys would like to see from it!