Best posts made by ncbob

@S7EN @spauliszyn ok, someone on the Facebook group up posted how to do it, I haven’t tried it yet but I will after I sleep some

M42 P6 S0 ; led off

M42 P6 S255 ; led on

@ncbob everything is working fine including being able to save everything on EEPROM.

If anyone wants to compile it and is having trouble let me know and we can do a zoom meeting and I’ll help you troubleshoot it.

Here's a link to the 1.0.3.6 firmware bin file:
firmware.bin V1.0.3.6

@S7EN Ok, now that I FINALLY got a working motherboard from Creality after 3 1/2 weeks my printer is running, and I found the reason to update the firmware to this version.

In the stock firmware it comes with the EEPROM is not enabled so you have to do leveling, PID tuning etc every time you power the machine off and on or reset things.

I'm uploading it and doing some testing, then I'll post that it's working for me or not.

I've been waiting three weeks so far, and all they keep doing is sending me the same email asking for the same information over and over.

I'm about ready to gut the machine get a different controller board so I have a working printer, and NEVER EVER buy a creality product again, nor will I ever recommend it to someone ever again.

@spauliszyn You are absolutely correct, and I feel the same way about this whole project as you do. I've been working with 3d printers for over 7 years, and this printer by far is the biggest pile of doo doo that I've ever worked on. Yes I understand it's a kickstarter, but the number of issues and the basic functionality that was not configured is terrible. The EEPROM should've been turned on by default. It should require us to modify and compile a new firmware package to enable it. And I know that they knew about it based on the starting gcode they said you needed to put in your slicer. Having to set those things before every print is not something you should have to do.

The firmware is working just fine, I haven't had any problems with it and I actually have my slicer dialed in almost perfectly now. I just used the Ender 3 profile in cura, modified the bed size, and changed the retraction from 3.5 to 5.5. Oh and I'm using the print settings from CHEP and they are the bomb.

THe other thing that I'm really disappointed about is that they didn't enable or wire up the SPI interface to the TMC drivers which would let you monitor them and also adjust voltages and such and have sensorless homing.

I'm actually NEVER going to buy a Creality printer again, and I currently have 7 of them out of my 19 printers. And I won't recommend them to anyone either for the exact reason you stated, how frustrating it is. It's a real shame because before the CR-6 the other printers have been great (except for the early CR-10 which had similar issues and lack of support)

If creality isn't careful they are going to lose a TON of customers.

I'll post the firmware after I get off work.

@spauliszyn Here's my start gcode
You can remove all the comments at the beginning, that's needed for OctoLapse that I run on Octoprint.

; Script based on an original created by tjjfvi (https://github.com/tjjfvi)
; An up-to-date version of the tjjfvi's original script can be found
; here: https://csi.t6.fyi/
; Note - This script will only work in Cura V4.2 and above!
; --- Global Settings
; layer_height = {layer_height}
; smooth_spiralized_contours = {smooth_spiralized_contours}
; magic_mesh_surface_mode = {magic_mesh_surface_mode}
; machine_extruder_count = {machine_extruder_count}
; --- Single Extruder Settings
; speed_z_hop = {speed_z_hop}
; retraction_amount = {retraction_amount}
; retraction_hop = {retraction_hop}
; retraction_hop_enabled = {retraction_hop_enabled}
; retraction_enable = {retraction_enable}
; retraction_speed = {retraction_speed}
; retraction_retract_speed = {retraction_retract_speed}
; retraction_prime_speed = {retraction_prime_speed}
; speed_travel = {speed_travel}

; Ender 3 Custom Start G-code

G92 E0 ; Reset Extruder
G28 ; Home all axes
G1 Z2.0 F3000 ; Move Z Axis up little to prevent scratching of Heat Bed
G1 X5 Y20 Z0.3 F5000.0 ; Move to start position
G1 X5 Y200.0 Z0.3 F1500.0 E15 ; Draw the first line
G1 X4.4 Y200.0 Z0.3 F5000.0 ; Move to side a little
G1 X4.4 Y20 Z0.3 F1500.0 E30 ; Draw the second line
G92 E0 ; Reset Extruder
G1 Z2.0 F3000 ; Move Z Axis up little to prevent scratching of Heat Bed
G1 X7 Y20 Z0.3 F5000.0 ; Move over to prevent blob squish

End Gcode

G91 ;Relative positioning
G1 E-2 F2700 ;Retract a bit
G1 E-2 Z0.2 F2400 ;Retract and raise Z
G1 Z10 ;Raise Z more
G90 ;Absolute positionning
G1 X0 Y235 F3000

G1 X0 Y{machine_depth} ;Present print
M106 S0 ;Turn-off fan
M104 S0 ;Turn-off hotend
M140 S0 ;Turn-off bed

M84 X Y E ;Disable all steppers but Z

Ok, I've been digging through the code and I've got a version compiled that supports M600. Once I finish my print sometime tomorrow I'll go ahead and flash it and see if it works, if it works then I'll probably do a print and see if there are any issues with it.

@mslucas Not a stupid question, it's hard to tell sometimes. The Ender 3 V2 comes default with a .4 mm nozzle.

I would avoid the creality slicer like the plague, just download the latest version from Cura's site and use an Ender 3 profile (preferably CHEP's) and the only thing I had to change was the bed size and the retraction.

@S7EN honestly I’m not sure what they changed, I do like that I can make my own changes if needed and see what they have done and how things are configured. I mostly did it to try and get my printer working, mine is one where the steppers won’t move.

Now when I try to home it doesn’t halt anymore, but it still doesn’t work.

I was finally able to compile the 1.0.3.6. version of the firmware.
These are the changes I made to platformio.ini file
I added this line:
board_build.core = maple
to the [env:STM32F1_base] section

I had to comment out this line:
Adafruit_MAX31865=https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit_MAX31865/archive/master.zip
in the [common] section

Going to get a small 8gb sd card and then try to flash it and see if it fixes anything.

Oh one other thing after you make those changes clean out the .pio directory in the root of the project before you do another build.

@GroovyDrifter there are quite a few dependencies needed to compile the creality version of the firmware that is not documented.

How are you installing in, are you putting the magnetic sheet on the glass plate, or are you removing the sheet and the hold downs and putting it directly on the bed.

Also I really honestly don't like the surface, it's so rough and that's going to make the prints be rough as well on the bottom. I'm honestly probably going to get another build sheet from Wham Bam, I have them on all my other printers.

Ok, just wanted to update on what I did. I took the glass bed off and put the magnetic sheet right on the aluminum bed. I left the clips on in the back, and the rotating clamps in the front.

Turns out the clips in the back make it very easy to put the metal build sheet on, you can slide it against the clips then drop it down and it's lined up, then you can just rotate the clamps back in place (it won't get hit in a print because it's out of range of the print head).

The one issue I ran into is that the optical sensor was triggering too early because the glass bed isn't there. For now I put electrical tape over the sensor, but I'm going to make an adjustable trigger tab that goes on the x gantry and then adjust it so that it triggers properly. That way I still have the failsafe of the optical endstop.

My other concern about the rough surface is unfounded. The plastic will lay down on the high spots and it doesn't get down into the low spots of the PEI sheet, so it actually surprisingly works quite well.

@Daverobbo1904 if you install octoprint you can use this plugin which will recognize the M600 command and let you pause and restart the print using the octoprint interface

https://plugins.octoprint.org/plugins/RewriteM600/

Just want to throw my 2 cents in now that my printer is finally working.

I used the ender 3 profile then change the bed size, start and end code to what I use normally, and change the retraction to 5.5 and it’s printing great.

@thing20 @phamtom009 I've linked to a compiled version of the latest firmware, I think it's 1.0.36 that has the EEPROM enabled so you can save not only the ABL but all the other settings like PID tuning etc. I've been using it for a couple of days and have had no problem and don't have to wait for the ABL anymore.

@Daverobbo1904 Ok bad news, it won't work on the CR-6 SE because it doesn't have an LCD so I can't enable to advanced pause feature which gives M600 functionality.

It works on the Ender 3 V2 because the display is defined as an LCD display.

I'm going to play with it some more and see if I can disable the check for an LCD display, or maybe add a dummy LCD display.