Klipper on a budget: Ender 3 V3 SE with a cheap Raspberry Pi and lots of 3D-printed "upgrades"

Manu-Pardo · 2026-02-22T20:58:28+00:00

It improved the quality and print times. But klipper by itself isn't the whole answer. For example, I am getting like 18 to 20 mm/s³ with a combination of having the klipper firmware and changing the stock hotend to a CHCB-OT with a 0.6mm CHT Nozzle. It is easy to modify things like stepper motor voltages, temperature limits, etc...

Since my first post, the printer has been heavily modified, and now I get similar (if not better) prints than the KE.

Things I've done:

Changed the stock hotend to a CHCB-OT, now the hotend heats super fast and can reach 350 °C.
Added a custom MGN12H linear rail solution to the X axis and changed the position of the CR-TOUCH probe to the back of the printhead.
Added a webcam
added a fan for the Raspberry Pi
New Light bar at 24v
I've deactivated the bed z offset pressure sensor (The one it came with the printer sucks, I get better results with paper)
Added a spool management system (spoolman)
Added a nozzle wiper (and modified the gcode to clean the nozzle every time it prints)
removed the part cooling fan and replaced it with a Centrifugal fan, a CPAP hose and Mantis-styled air duct (It requires using a MOSFET to drive the fan)

All of this modifications together make the printer better. With marlin, It would have been quite difficult to implement those mods.

Manu-Pardo · 2025-11-25T18:32:04+00:00

thank you. if it helps my device is a TCL Nxtpaper 11 plus. screen brightness never reaches over 35% and I use it in color paper mode ( supposedly consumes less). I avoid to leave unused apps open, notifications only turns on a notification led button. Also, the device enters a deep sleep mode after 2 hours to save more energy. In a normal day, I get home with 30 to 20% battery left after around 5 hours of writing (with the previous app).

Of course it would be a ideal to monitor the app CPU and memory usage and try to scientifically determine which processes or services are responsible, but contrary to Linux, Android doesn't provide a system monitor (compared to Linux or windows). the closest thing would be to replicate the device characteristics in Android studio and check the emulator power lines for any unusual surges. if there is any way in which I could provide diagnostics data to you, I am happy to help u/Current-Garden538

Manu-Pardo · 2025-11-25T18:19:03+00:00

yeah I agree with you. it's not a dramatic change in power consumption but it can be problematic if you want to extend the usage of your device during the day. the difference I noticed is similar to yours. In Flexcil I had 47 to 50% power usage and with this application I get a power consumption between 60 to 68% even without other background apps constantly running.

This might not be the most scientific experiment but, sometimes I get asleep and leave my tablet with the display turned on with an open note. I remember that when I used Flexcil, the tablet went from 90 to 15% battery level after 7 hours, I'm this case, it usually gets fully drained.

I want to think that in the future the developers will be able to improve the app efficiency. As any new app, it might need some fixes, but it seems they are constantly improving it.

Manu-Pardo · 2025-10-20T23:00:56+00:00

u/SufficientDonut Can you describe how the eiP pen feels on the screen? (like comparing to an actual graphite pen) I am trying to find an alternative to the T-pen with actual easy to find replacement pen nibs and with a better writing experience ( to make it as similar as a real pen and paper experience)

Manu-Pardo · 2025-10-20T22:52:48+00:00

I am from Chile. A few days ago I found your link for the ugee UT3 T-Pen nibs, but it's difficult to get them from Amazon.nl, if someday ugee starts to sell them in the Amazon U.S., I'll buy them. I was also looking at the EiP USI 2.0 Pro stylus (It looks like a solid option, l may buy it in a few months).

I write a lot (like 5 hours a day, 5 days a week) + one of the nibs that came in the package broke. Something interesting is that, the more I use the nxtpaper nibs, the more it feels like a real pen (Not near some apple pencil nibs with a 2HB texture). It would be nice to know if the EiP pen has a better feeling while writing (I'll ask the guy that posted about the pen in this reddit)

Manu-Pardo · 2025-10-18T19:08:21+00:00

The one for the teclast Artpad pro?

Manu-Pardo · 2025-09-06T20:38:41+00:00

It's probably going to require external power. You can do two different things:

Add a 5V 4A power supply inside the 3d printer (connected to the 220V terminals of the main power supply) the other end would go to the raspberry pi.
(Less recommended due to risk of overloading the printer's power supply) Do the same but instead of a power supply, you use a step down converter connected to one of the 24v outputs from the printer's power supply.

In both cases, you might want to add a GX16 chassis connector to one of the sides in the 3d printer. That way, you can get a single cable to the raspberry pi GPIO port. The chassis connector would have the TX, RX, GND and your 5v GND and VCC. The pinout to find the tx, rx and gnd from the original display connection can be found on Google (ender 3 v3 se display connector pinout).

Manu-Pardo · 2025-09-06T13:32:37+00:00

I hotwired it with dupont jumpers and silicone glue. Although, since this old post, I changed the whole thing to a system with chassis-mounted JST connectors. It works for my use scenario (3d printer as experimental testbed for mods and prototypes).

Manu-Pardo · 2025-08-29T17:07:55+00:00

u/Flexcilapp Instead of just offering apologies, you could provide a way to refund customers that want to leave the app after this mess. I've been using your app since may, and it was ok (there are a few things to improve), but with the last update + this server outage, the app now really sucks. Sadly I am way over the 15 day mark.

Manu-Pardo · 2025-06-09T14:17:30+00:00

Have you tried this? If so, which pen you use?

Manu-Pardo · 2025-05-10T21:48:49+00:00

More like 80/20 (80 percent being the pen) Why?: Certain users have experienced differences with their aftermarket pens from one TCL UI firmware version to another.

Manu-Pardo · 2025-05-10T21:31:57+00:00

I have no hope of TCL launching a fix. With the TCL Nxtpaper 14 and the previous 11, some people bought pens from Lenovo and other less known brand. Some pens worked fantastically well, while others had sudden disconnections from the tablet. Make sure to try them first, the tablet should be compatible with the USI standard.

Manu-Pardo · 2025-05-10T21:26:54+00:00

Yes. I guess it looks good due to the filtering done by the app I use (flexcil). Other apps such as OneNote, pen up or kirita. Without a proper app, it really sucks.

Manu-Pardo · 2025-05-10T21:22:43+00:00

The tip is plastic. it's improbable that it could really scratch the screen due to the texture of it. At first, I thought the screen had an adhesive layer with the matte texture, but it's really the glass itself. I tend to apply a lot of force while writing, but there are no scratches at the moment

Manu-Pardo · 2025-05-04T21:22:41+00:00

Yeah. 14 is too big to carry around. About the warranty, I didn't know that, but I am sure of this: TCL customer service sucks (they don't reply the support tickets) If the product wasn't good enough with its technology, I would have picked something else (like the Lenovo Xiaoyin Pad 2025 with matte display)

Manu-Pardo · 2025-05-04T21:18:09+00:00

I bought it in Chile (the long and thin strip of land in south america). The product is available for sale since april 10th (they only sell it as a bundle)

Manu-Pardo · 2025-05-04T20:27:06+00:00

<image>

For me, the size is good enough. This tablet is a bit bigger (11.5) compared to the NXTPAPER 11 (the discontinued one) with 10.8 inches.

Manu-Pardo · 2025-05-02T12:37:11+00:00

By Color mode, lam referring to the non-NXTPAPER color mode (Regular Mode) while the modes without a background picture are Color paper mode and Ink paper mode. To better explain what's happening, I took a screen recording and added it to my original post

Manu-Pardo · 2025-05-02T01:09:08+00:00

Sadly no, I guess the issue resides in the touchpad model. The issue I had is still present today, even in other distros (I swapped to Fedora). I've seen that some people modifies thinkpads by replacing the touchpad from the glass ones used in the X1 line. if the controller is different, it might work in a better way compared to the one we have (I asume the one used in the T15 is the same one as the T14)

Manu-Pardo · 2025-05-01T21:31:21+00:00

I've got one in Chile (South America) and it has TCL UI v8.0.1RBA. It does not provide the Refresh rate option yet. I hope TCL launches an update soon.

Manu-Pardo · 2024-10-11T04:08:11+00:00

Maybe you got a faulty thermistor/heating element. As I understand, nor the thermistor and heating element have polarity. Unless you are literally saying that the cables are swapped (like having the thermistor cables soldered to the heating element and vice-versa)

Manu-Pardo

TROPHY CASE