Sanlaki VR Table Tennis Adapter

In a recent post about Eleven Table Tennis Adapters, I mentioned that you can obtain 3D models of Quest table tennis adapters on Thingiverse. I recently printed a Quest 2 Sanlaki adapter and configured my Eleven Table Tennis game with the Sanlaki F3 adapter profile.

My first impression is that it is my favorite Quest 2 table tennis adapter so far. Unlike the AMVR and Solidslime adapters that have caused me to play worse, My immediate reaction to the Sanlaki adapter is that I feel like I can play about as well as I was able to play with the Quest 2 controller alone. So in other words, no negative impact on my game. The Sanlaki adapter does feel ever so slightly more top-heavy than the Solidslime adapter but not as top-heavy as the AMVR. Time will tell if my forearm will get fatigued after longer playing periods, but things look good so far.

Also, it is amazing to me that Sanlaki would upload the 3D model for their adapter for people to print their own copies when the adapter is also sold for $24.99 + shipping. Initially I wondered if a clever designer had illegitimately reverse-engineered the Sanlaki adapter and passed it off as if it was the real thing. The 3D model on Thingiverse was posted by Lerrick Salas, and as you can see on the About Us section of the Sanlaki website, the company is run by Lerrick Salas and his business partner Cristina Chrisel. So from what I can tell, everything appears to be legit, and you can see more of Lerrick’s designs here.

Big kudos to Sanlaki for making a great product and also for sharing many of its 3D models. If you are in the market for a Quest table tennis adapter and don’t have a 3D printer, consider buying the Sanlaki VR Table Tennis Paddle Adapter.

A New 3D Printer For Less Than $200

Yesterday I published a 3D Printer Buyer’s Guide that was targeted to first-time buyers. In short, I recommended the Creality Ender-3 V2 Neo. At approximately $250, it’s a great all-around 3D printer for beginners. This morning I received an announcement from Creality that they have released the Ender-3 V3 SE. More details are provided on this blog and product page. I knew that yesterday’s post would eventually become outdated, but not having actually used the Ender-3 V3 SE, I’d say that this would be an equally good if not better starting point for a first-time buyer.

The Ender-3 V3 SE is more or less the same as the Ender-3 V2 Neo, with a few differences. First, they’ve appeared to improve the display with a better user interface. Second, there is new automatic filament loading and unloading feature. Third, the flexible build plate is no longer provided with the Ender-3 V3 SE, but it can be purchased as an optional accessory. Finally, and perhaps the most compelling and welcome change for many buyers, the Ender-3 V3 SE is priced at $199 as of today. I believe that there is a competitive advantage to breaking the $200 barrier because psychologically it may be perceived to be within reach by many people who might have been sitting the fence. Of course when you add tax, filament, a flexible build plate, and other accessories, it will be more than $200. However, in my opinion the additional ease-of-use features and the competitive pricing are critically important in bringing 3D printers into more households and making this hobby more mainstream. Everybody wins!

3D Printing Tips for Beginners

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m a 3D printing newbie. It’s been a steep but fun learning curve, and I thought I’d share a few lessons learned so that other beginners can learn best practices and/or avoid mistakes that I’ve made.

Choose a Slicer. First some background… A 3D printer extrudes filament onto the print bed, and you can think of that as “the last mile” of 3D printing. Before the actual print job can begin, you need a slicer application that provides instructions to your 3D printer (via a G-Code file) that tells it precisely how to lay down the filament step by step to print your 3D object. The slicer needs to be configured to understand what 3D printer you’re using because 3D printers vary in their physical dimensions, number of extruders, and other parameters that affect the physical limits of what can be printed. After loading a 3D model into the slicer, a user must also specify nozzle temperature (which may need to be adjusted based on the material that is used for the print), bed temperature (to ensure proper adhesion), print quality (layer height), wall thickness, infill density, supports, and many other parameters that may need to be customized to the object that is being printed. Getting the settings wrong in the slicer may lead to a 3D print yielding a pile of spaghetti.

I have a Creality Ender-3 V2 Neo, and Creality provides free slicing software. While it may be advantageous to use the slicer that is provided by your 3D printer manufacturer (e.g., ensured compatibility with your 3D printer), there is also potential benefit to choosing a slicer that has wide community adoption and strong developer support so you get more frequent bug fixes and new features. For this reason, I chose Ultimaker Cura which is a free open-source slicer. Of course, there is no reason why you can’t use more than 1 slicer, but I find it easier as a beginner to learn the nuances of just 1 slicer application. A more in-depth comparison of Creality slicers vs. Cura is provided here. I’ve also heard good things about PrusaSlicer but have not used it. A more comprehensive comparison of slicer applications is available here.

Calibrate Z-Offset. In addition to getting all of your slicer settings correctly configured, you must also set the Z-axis offset (or just “Z-offset” for short) which determines the height (i.e., position of the nozzle on the vertical or Z axis) of the first layer of your print. If the Z-offset is too low, you could squish the bottom layers of your object and even damage your print bed. If the Z-offset is too high, you may get poor adhesion and a failed print job. Unfortunately I’ve committed both errors, so I understand the importance of getting the Z-offset setting just right. This article explains different ways to set the Z-offset, but you should also check with your 3D printer manufacturer for additional best practices on how to optimize that setting.

Remove Filament Tangles. Most filament-based 3D printers have an extruder that pushes and pulls filament through a hot nozzle where the filament is laid down to create your 3D object. Filament is typically packaged in spools where you thread the free end into the extruder of your 3D printer. Before you thread the filament into the extruder, it is a good idea to make sure that you’ve checked for tangles. If your filament happens to wrap over itself, the resultant tangle may require additional force to pull the filament from its spool, and that can result in under-extrusion or a complete stoppage of filament extrusion depending on the degree of entanglement. Obviously this can result in failed print jobs which is frustrating because your only recourse is to start over. Unfortunately this happened to me twice before I figured out why my print job kept failing.

If you are a beginner, I hope you learned a thing or two from this post. Also check out Failed 3D Prints, and How to Fix Them and 3D Printing Troubleshooting: All Problems & Solutions for more practical advice as well as 17 Epic 3D Printing Fails & Why They Failed for a more humorous (or not so humorous, depending on your point of view) look at epic 3D printing catastrophes that will likely make you feel better about your own 3D print failures.

Buyer’s Guide - 3D Printers for Beginners

TL;DR: If you’re a first-time buyer of a 3D printer, consider the Creality Ender-3 V2 Neo. If you want to evaluate other options, read on.

I recently purchased my first 3D printer, a Creality Ender-3 V2 Neo. I chose this 3D printer because it has received very favorable reviews and was reasonably priced ($300 when I bought it in May 2023 and currently on sale for $250). There are many features of this particular model that I find to be useful, and although this is not a comprehensive buyer’s guide, my intent is to give you a few things to think about when buying your first 3D printer. I am not an expert, so my viewpoints are mostly from the perspective of the owner of an Ender-3 V2 Neo.

Assembly. I read that some older Creality Ender-3 models required several hours of assembly time, and perhaps that may be true of some other models made by other manufacturers. The Ender-3 V2 Neo was advertised as “95% Pre-Installed” which was appealing to me since I wanted to minimize setup time and get straight to 3D printing. I spent about 45 minutes unboxing the printer and getting it fully assembled, despite being completely unfamiliar with 3D printer parts and terminology. One of the challenges with assembly of the Ender-3 V2 Neo was that although there was a paper instruction manual, the booklet and print size were so small that it was very difficult to read. Fortunately several people had commented on online forums that a PDF version of the manuals was also available online (a PDF version of the manuals also came with the micro SD card and USB to microSD adapter that accompanied the 3D printer), so it was possible to enlarge the instructions and diagrams on a computer monitor. You might want to check online forums for helpful assembly tips for your 3D printer.

Auto Bed Leveling. Prior to my purchase, I was aware of the importance of having a level print bed to ensure good adhesion of your print to the bed surface. I had even watched video tutorials of how to manually level the print bed, and it seemed like a lot of steps to me. Therefore, it was a huge selling point to have an automatic bed leveling feature in the Ender-3 V2 Neo. Before your first print, you may still need to adjust the knobs and springs below the corners of your print bed if macro adjustments are needed, but I was blissfully ignorant of that and went straight to auto bed leveling and haven’t experienced any issues. Auto bed leveling eliminates a lot of the hassle out of preparing for your print job.

Flexible Print Bed. Many 3D printers come with print beds made of varying kinds of glass, steel, or other materials. The Ender-3 V2 Neo comes with a powder-coated flexible magnetic spring steel build plate which offers good adhesion and makes it easy to remove prints from the bed surface. In my experience, simply removing the magnetic build plate from the printer and bending it a few times results in the print job easily popping off the plate. I find that skirts printed around the object are harder to remove but can be easily scraped off with a spatula as long as settings are configured properly. The only downside I’ve experienced from the flexible print bed is that on a couple of occasions I’ve set the Z offset (height of the first print layer) too low, and that resulted in my print job and skirt being difficult to remove (hint: isopropyl alcohol came in handy) as well as the filament leaving a permanent mark on the print bed. I’m not sure if something similar would have happened on glass or metal, but I suspect that it might be easier to damage a flexible print bed. That being said, a replacement flexible print bed is pretty inexpensive, and I really like this option.

Beyond these 3 factors, there were other considerations that did not weigh as heavily into my selection of a 3D printer, but you might want to compare these features across 3D printers anyway. For example, the composition of the extruder may make a difference. The Ender-3 V2 Neo features a full metal extruder which was an upgrade from the Ender-3 V2 which is made of plastic and more prone to breaking. What does the user interface look like? Is your printer make and model common enough so that there are default settings available in most slicer applications? What print dimensions do you require, and is it worth it to spend more on a larger printer? Finally, what is your total budget? Keep in mind that you will likely also spend money on buying filament and possibly other accessories (note that the Ender-3 V2 Neo came with extra print nozzles, spatula, filament cutting pliers, and other goodies).

All in all, I found the Creality Ender-3 V2 Neo to be a great balance between features and cost. If you’ve been thinking about tinkering with 3D printing, now is a great time to pick up a new hobby because prices have dropped to the point where 3D printing can become more mainstream. Regardless of the 3D printer that you buy, be patient and have fun!

Eleven Table Tennis Adapters

I’ve been playing Eleven Table Tennis (ETT) on the Meta Quest 2 for more than a year. I’ve previously written about ETT personality profiles, how the game addresses latency to produce near-real time gameplay and how to revert to an older version of ETT.

Although the Quest 2 adapters work quite well for me, many players have recommended that I use a table tennis adapter to more realistically simulate the holding of a real table tennis paddle. There are many adapters to choose from, and the first consideration seems to be whether you want to use a traditional shakehand grip (which looks roughly similar to how you might shake someone’s hand) or penhold grip (which is popular among Chinese players). I prefer the penhold grip and will share my experience with 2 different adapters.

The first adapter I bought was the AMVR adapter which has received good reviews. The Quest controller mounts securely, and I never worried about the controller flying off the adapter. There is an AMVR adapter setting that comes standard with ETT, so configuration is easy. However, after playing for a while, I felt that my forearm was getting sore due to the setup being top-heavy. After a week or so, I decided to return the AMVR adapter and try something different.

Many players have recommended the SolidSlime adapter, so I decided to give it a try. The Quest controller is mounted closer to the handle, so the weight distribution feels more natural than the AMVR adapter. For me, this is the major improvement over the AMVR adapter. The SolidSlime adapter comes with a couple of thumbscrews that are used to clamp the Quest controller in place. Despite fully tightening the screws, I still get a small amount of movement/shake in my controller, although I can’t say that it noticeably affects gameplay. There is also an in-game setting for this adapter, so configuration is quick and simple. This is the adapter that I plan to stick with for the time being.

I must admit that with both the AMVR and SolidSlime adapters, I have not played as well as compared with the Quest controllers alone. However, I have played with the Quest controller far longer than I have played with an adapter, so I plan to give it some more time and see if my game improves.

Finally, it appears to me that the SolidSlime adapter is 3D printed. If you have a 3D printer and want to experiment with some different adapters, you can find several Quest table tennis adapters on Thingiverse.