CR6 SE a month later.

 So, I've had the CR6 SE for about a month now and been 3D printing in general for the same amount of time.

By and large my initial impression hasn't changed... much. I still think it is a great printer for those interested, and not scared off by the price tag but who has reservations about how to handle all of the new terminology (like bed levelling).

At the end of the day, yes. I could have handled that on my own. But, I didn't really know that beforehand. And I think this is an element that a lot of reviewer are missing. As a beginner you don't know what you don't know. Also, it remains the cheapest printer in stock at the place I was looking to buy from.

What has changed a bit is that I've come to understand the source of some of my failures. And I lay the blame squarely on the strain gauge. Unfortunately the very thing which performs the much touted automatic bed levelling. And the gantry, which again, also affected bed levelling. But also affected prints in general.

Firstly the strain gauge. This is basically a flexible piece of metal which detects a change in resistance as it flexes and is used to detect when the print head has touched the bed. However, I found it infuriatingly inconsistent. Which would be OK if it didn't re-home that axis at the start of every print and then combine that fault with an inability to tune it by more than 0.05mm increments.

I managed to get it to a place where the offset was almost always between 0.15 and 0.20. But when your layer height is near or even less than that value already it is very hard to salvage. I could literally reprint the same gcode 3 times in a row and get 3 radically different results. Once the first layer went down well, things generally went well thereafter.

And, it turns out that a big part of the problem may be firmware. But, more on that in a bit.

Next is the gantry. Or rather the portion of the assembly which moves the X-Axis up and down. On mine, the two sides were out of alignment. I understand this is likely as a result of shipping. And so I don't blame Creality for the fact that it happened. But, it would have been nice if there were more a more complete tutorial on assembly and how to deal with certain issues.

Both of these issues are the sort of thing where they only manifest really in certain prints. For instance, if I had a big, solid base as most of my original prints did, then a bit of an issue in the Z-Axis offset really had no impact. It would build up a solid base and most problems would disappear a few layers up.

And the gantry problem really only manifested itself in large prints with gaps along the X-Axis in printing. If the print were small enough there wasn't enough variation in the X-Axis to cause issues and if it was printing continuously it didn't often cause anything noticeable either. But, when there were long stretches and multiple elements in the print it would often bang into them, or rip up and burn infill.

As a novice 3D printer I didn't even consider this problem for weeks. And then it took some time to suss out WHAT the problem was, and to fix it properly. The best video WAS from Creality. So, kudos for that. I just wish that I didn't need to waste time learning what the nature of my problem was in the first place.

Now, the problems mentioned above didn't ruin all, or even most of my prints. There were some things which they made very difficult. But, most prints worked and looked fine. So, I stand by what I said previously. As you can likely get away with setting up this printer and knowing nothing about 3D printing it makes it a better value than one which costs less but performs better for those just getting in because there are better odds that you either won't consider buying the cheaper one in the first place, or you will buy it, and ruin it, and then end up spending more in the long run.

The gantry problem I fixed on my own which removed one major problem. So, the next problem to deal with was the probe. As I said, I tried messing with the potentiometer. But, every gain came with drawbacks. So I finally bit the bullet and put the community firmware on it.

NIGHT. AND. DAY. Without any changes to the potentiometer since my last tweaking, the probe now ALWAYS stops immediately as it hits the bed. With the Creality firmware the thing would always smoosh into the bed and flex a bit. I had reduced this greatly by tweaking the potentiometer, but, I suspected that the flexing, combined with the fact that there was almost always some amount of oozed out filament was leading to the difference.

I wasn't really expecting much from the community firmware aside from the ability to tune in 0.01mm increments over 0.05. There was some talk about shutting off the heating while probing to reduce interference. But, I didn't expect that to do much. And I don't know if it was that or how they are interpreting the data, but the difference is DRAMATIC. 

Not only can I now tune the offset by smaller increments, ending up at a MUCH more reliable heights, but I have seen absolutely no measurable difference in where it homes to across multiple prints. I almost feel like I can stop staring intently at ever line on the first layer. Almost. After all, there is still no guarantee of good bed adhesion, and let over filament oozing out could still throw off the probe. But, I'm much more confident in my printing now.

As a final note, I'll add some thoughts on how the product could be improved. Firstly, the strain gauge, when it works is a pretty cool idea. I think if it were moved to a static position fixed near the gantry, or really anywhere that oozing filament wouldn't compromise the print would be an improvement. I also think Creality needs something akin to an interactive user manual which helps detect and troubleshoot problems. And lastly, I think Creality could lessen their R&D burden by simply  branching the community version and developing out in the open instead.

What the community version has shown me with their solution to the strain gauge is that there ideas out there which can turn that little piece of cheap hardware into a top notch solution. Creality might actually stand to sell units of this device to even experienced 3D printers if they can improve the quality and openness of the firmware. 

Honestly, after putting the community firmware on the device I now see the hardware as competent and could see this device in a lot more settings than just beginners. And I imagine that is an image Creality would like for their products to have. They have faced criticism on their forums for not obeying the GPL license, which might be less of a pain point if the firmware were better. But, since the community firmware is running circles around them it makes more sense for them to create an official branch in Github and spend more cycles contributing back to the community and approving PRs than it does to spend R&D cycles playing catch-up.

I meant, at this point it seems as though the community devs have sussed out the LCD and firmware even better than Creality has. I fail to see any reason or competitive advantage in keeping anything closed source. 

But, that is where things stand.