I just got a new 3d printer kit - a Prusa i3 clone by Creatbottech. At the moment I have two main questions (I'm sure there will be a lot of learning and more questions down the road).

The first one is on the extruders/hot ends. I ordered it with the dual extruder upgrade, and the instructions, not terribly surprisingly, aren't super clear which is which. In the instructions, if looking at the front of the extruders and the side of the hot end/nozzle assembly with the fan on it (The left side in the 'stock' photo in the manufacturers site), it lists the right extruder, the one towards the middle of the unit, as extruder 0 and the left one as extruder 1. I'm assuming, but it's not terribly clear, that the extruders line up with the hot ends in that the right hot end/nozzle would be 0 and the left would be 1 just like the extruders - is my assumption correct (or does it even matter? I'd assume it does)?

The second question for now is firmware. The board on it is this one to a tee based on a visual analysis. It appears to be running a REALLY OLD version of Marlin firmware (1.0.0 RC2-mm according to the bootup screen). Does this mean that I can update it to a later version of Marlin (it appears the most recent version is 1.1.8, and the most recent 1.0 version is 1.0.2) without much/any issue, or is it likely they have some customization in there that stock Marlin would have issues with?

I know some out there might look down on the 'cheap' kits like this one - personally, I like to build things. I get more satisfaction from building something like this than just unboxing it and going with it. Plus it's an opportunity to learn. Sure they're not perfect - I've already had to make one tweak to the Z-axis drive. I noticed that when it got close to the bottom, it was starting to become hard to move and binding. Turned out the bracket that the threaded brass piece attaches to didn't protrude quite far enough, so it was binding when it got near the bottom (closer to the motor) and had less play. The solution was a piece of fake credit card that they send you in the mail with those offers cut to fit behind the bracket and tightened back down - smooth as glass now. I'm also considering taking the brackets attaching hte various bars together off one at a time and adding washers as the slots in the corner pieces don't give a whole lot of real estate for the screw heads (and maybe adding some blue locktite while I'm doing that).

The nice thing, in my opinion, about this kind of printer, is it's open source. So if something dies, odds are I can replace the part fairly easily. I've been searching for various parts to see what's out there and I've literally found every part of this printer that could or is likely to fail. Of the 'ready to roll' printers, while some are open source as well, others, well, not so much, so for those that aren't open source, if something dies, you have to pay what THEY want you to pay to fix it.

I'm sure there will be more later, as well as enhancements to it (If anyone has any suggested enhancements or tweaks, I'm open to tips/suggestions - I intend to print mostly PLA and/or PETG with it, most likely no ABS). I haven't even printed anything yet and I'm already thinking about the possibility of upgrading its print area (It's 200x280x230 now). In theory, it seems that it shouldn't be too hard to upgrade it to 280x280x230 by replacing two frame pieces, the X-axis travel bar and the print bed.

Thanks in advance for any info or suggestions.