Creality New Arrival - Ender 3 S1 3D Printer

“SPRITE” DIRECT EXTRUDER

The new extruder, developed by Creality, is said to offer considerable pushing force while only weighing 210 grams. The documentation suggests it’s a geared extruder with a reduction ratio of 3.5:1, with dual gears doing that actual gripping and pushing of the filament. That’s relatively sophisticated compared to past Mk8 style extruders we’ve seen from Creality.

We won’t know how well this will translate into quality extrusion until we’ve seen it for ourselves (soon), but Creality is pushing it as a flexible filament-friendly option. Plenty of people have made direct extruder upgrades on their Ender 3’s before the Sprite coming along here, so it’s fair to say there’s a demand for this configuration of Ender 3.

A filament sensor and resume print function are also present on the S1, which are becoming pretty much standard on any FDM 3D printer worth getting excited about.

CR TOUCH AUTO-BED LEVELING

Automatic bed leveling, you love to see it. Creality’s CR Touch setup uses a metal touch probe that makes a cheeky little poke in 16 areas across the print bed in much the same style as BL Touch. In theory, it should account for any inconsistency in the flatness of the print bed. You still get giant hand-leveling knobs to dial in the general perpendicularity of the bed, but this new sensor should get you across the line to even first layers.

BUILD VOLUME

You’ve got 220 x 220 x 270 mm to play with, which makes the Ender 3 S1 ever so slightly larger than the Ender 3 V2 on the Z-axis – by 20 mm actually. It’s a bang average build volume, and there’s nothing wrong with that. If you need a teeny tiny bit more space, the Biqu B1’s 235 x 235 x 270 mm will give you just a bit more sideways space.

If you’re the type of person who likes the zone of printing to be copiously illuminated in low light conditions there’s further good news, Creality will sell you an LED add-on for the S1. However, if you have something called a light switch at home, you can turn that on, and not only will your print bed be illuminated, your entire room should be too. That’s a top tip right there.

POSSIBLE FUTURE MODULARITY

Creality is keen to point out that the direct extruder can be removed easily and replaced with a laser engraving tool head that’s sold separately. We’re still not sure how powerful this laser will be, or if there will be more tool heads to follow. If there are, things could get a little Snapmakery. Though, judging by Creality’s seemingly abandoned CR-01 3-in-1 machine, we don’t hold out hope for the company cracking this particular nut anytime soon. It’ll be interesting to see how far Creality takes it, if anywhere at all.

QUICK SIX-STEP ASSEMBLY

For a semi-assembled 3D printer, the Creality Ender 3 S1 is pretty assembled. Creality says when you open the box, the printer is 96% assembled. Try running late to work and telling your boss you were 96% on time to work in the morning. It’s odd. Anyway, the S1 can be assembled in just six steps, which isn’t a lot of work and is much quicker than having to build the whole thing from scratch.

PC SPRING STEEL PRINTING SHEET

Glass print beds can be hit and miss, but the Ender 3 S1 will come with a spring steel printing sheet that magnetically attaches itself to the print bed. Once your print is complete, you should be able to remove the bed and flex it to release the prints with little effort. The quality of such sheets can vary wildly. We’ve used good and bad examples of this, so it’ll be interesting to see how Creality’s effort holds up.

NEW USER INTERFACE

There’s a new UI in town: a 4.3-inch LCD with a rotary knob you can twiddle around and select options on the screen with. It calls back to the Ender 3 V2, the last printer the company put out with such a UI. Considering the touchscreen-heavy list of recent releases from Creality, this seems like a backward step. However, Creality does say in its material that the new UI will “allow you to experience operation by knob,” and we assume that the firm must feel pretty strongly about this.

FURTHER FEATURES

Besides the above, here’s what the Ender 3 S1 is packing:

Dual Z-axis: Sturdier, more consistent travel through the Z is the goal. A synchronized dual-driven Z-axis can help.
Full-size SD: An underrated feature in offline printers, if you ask us. No more losing microSD cards in the shag carpet. Full-size SDs all the way with the Ender 3 S1.
Tool drawer: The tool drawer returns. It’s a thoughtful touch that we like to disregard the original purpose of and stash snacks, instead.

About Ender 3 S1:

【“Sprite" Direct Dual-gear Extruder and PC Spring Steel Printing Platform】Compared with other direct extruders, the“Sprite" is lighter and features less inertia and more precise positioning. The innovative printing platform is a combination of a PC coating, a spring steel sheet and a magnetic sticker.
【Quick Assembling & CR Touch Automatic Bed Leveling】96% of the printer body is pre-installed, making assembling extremely convenient with only 6 steps and the maintenance of the printer simple and easy. Our self-developed 16-point automatic bed leveling technology saves you the trouble of manual leveling and makes leveling simple and easy.
【Low-noise Design & High-precision Dual Z-axis】The brand-new 32-bit silent mainboard runs at low decibel levels, greatly reducing noise to let you enjoy your printing. With a Z-axis dual-screw+Z-axis dual-motor design, Ender-3 S1 works smoother and more synchronously to lower the possibility of lines and ridges on the sides of your print, thus improving the printing quality.
【Power Loss Recovery and Filament Sensor】Ender-3 S1 features the function of detecting filament runout or breakage/power loss and resume printing after recovery. By accurately recording the printing data at the time of power outage/filament runout or breakage, it helps to avoid the waste of filaments and time caused by accidents.
【4.3-inch LCD Screen & Strong Expandability】Ender-3 S1 features a brand-new UI interface to facilitate simple interaction that allows you to experience operation by knob. With a wide variety of preset interfaces for laser engraving and LED lamps, Ender-3 S1 offers more functions for you.