Current BL-touch firmware is really still v 1.0.2?
That's the version that people got working for BL-Touch v3.1?

My Ender-6 was delivered with firmware version 1.0.4.
In case something goes wrong with that firmware, i want to have a backup of my current firmware.
But the latest non-BL-Touch firmware on the various creality download sites is only v.1.0.1.

@admin rather than post files in this forum, can you also please arrange to update download site with newest non-BL-Touch firmware (at least v.1.0.4)?

thanks!

@sblakey8 best to check and post in the ender 6 forum for ender 6 stuff.

https://forum.creality.com/topic/1005/bl-touch-connection/3

To plug into the little board near the extruder you indeed need a cable with the same connector on both ends. It's called molex Picoblade, or unofficially/incorrectly/knockoff named "JST 1.25" 5-pin. Have not seen ready-made cables sold yet. You have to make it yourself.

• Either from bl touch extension cable:
  https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqs6rGUX9yw
• Or from normal cables. I used this
  https://www.ebay.de/itm/JST-GH-1-25mm-Stecker-Stecker-28AWG-Kabel-Connector-2-10-Pin-Micro-Mini-1-25/183673793236
• Or crimp on your own connector

Recommend you read up good on firmware and know what you're getting yourself into, because the only support coming from creality in this forum at the moment is a link to (probably) outdated firmware. There are so many people screwing their printers up, probably by doing something wrong in the flashing process.

The guide and help here seems to be more coherent
https://forums.creality3dofficial.com/download/

Do what you want, but I'm not going to flash anything yet myself, until i can find a backup of my current firmware v1.0.4 (or newer). All they have posted now are older ones. I don't want to join the "bricked" thread, so I'm patiently waiting..................

Probably somebody else knows, but in the meantime, maybe you try some of the checks/adjustments mentioned here
https://teachingtechyt.github.io/calibration.html

Should be able to narrow it down before spending the time on another of those globes.

maybe it's time to post a success story here...

and i take it back. creality DID post a how-to for BL Touch on Ender-6:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWjK9ECebMA

I can confirm that the firmware 1.0.4.9 and BL touch 3.1 do play nice together.
i used one that was labelled for ender-3 v2.

bought another picoblade connector (pre-wired), cut the big connector off the bl touch cable, wired the new one up colour-for-colour (ok, green was supposed to be white). otherwise it was plug and play, following the video exactly step by step.

i'm pretty sure using a fresh-formatted empty sd card is a step missed by a lot of people who later have problems. or not having the bl touch connected during flashing (or "brushing" as creality calls it) or during startup. and dont forget to disonnect the Z end-stop. if testing before mounting the unit, make sure it's vertical so the pin can drop freely.

also, before i soldered on the new cable end, i tested with some alligator clips. the ender did NOT like that at all: all the stepper motors growled like an angry wolf pack whenever BL was plugged in. pretty scary, but luckily the final cable solder job stopped this. I assume it was interference with PWM.

only thing left to solve is how to store the bed mesh and z offset, so it doesn't have to measure after powering off.

@jan141282 said in Firmware for Ender 6 to support BL touch V3.1:

I have also placed the bl-touch wit the latest firmware and it works the only problem is that the settings aren't written
in the EEPROM of the mainboard but on the micro SD in the file eeprom.dat . so if you replace the sd wit an other you settings are gone.

you're right about the eeprom.dat on sd card - weird that they would do that! maybe it is a mistake?

i was finally able to get the bed level measurements to stay also, by measuring directly after flashing the BL firmware. then power off, remove sd card, delete the firmware .bin file (keep eeprom.dat!), and put sd back in the printer.

@Pyrolev787 Very happy to report that both of these are now posted at creality3dofficial

https://forums.creality3dofficial.com/download/ender-series/ender-6/

There are lots of guides out there for other creality printers, but unfortunately not much for ender-6 yet. Might take a while for one of those flashy creality how-to videos, but never know. Hope somebody will shed some light eventually though. In the meantime trial/error and keep googlin' i guess....

@GZZ agree 100%, should not be on SD!

And that also seems backwards: that disable auto bed level means it doesn't read stored values. Annoying.
You'd think disabled = read & use the stored mesh,
Enabled = will measure again before print, so don't necessarily need to read.

If you have the right G code in your slicer though, and there is a valid mesh, it should be ok to leave ABL off in the lcd menu but still read & use the stored mesh... But I haven't had a chance to try yet.

Should be able to bypass the whole faulty menu by using serial terminal, although I don't think that solves the SD card mistake. Probably needs firmware editing.

@dman said in Firmware for Ender 6 to support BL touch V3.1:

Hi, I have BLtouch version 3.1. The cable between the BLTouch and the PCB has only 1 JST connector for the BLTouch. The other end of the cable just has female headers to connect to the adapter boards.

Yeah i fell in the same trap, believing they might have come with cables for Ender-6. It seems they are not being sold yet.

Do you know which JST connector is needed to connect to the PCB mounted to the frame?

It's exactly the same as what goes into the bl touch itself. I learned that these smaller connectors are technically not JST connectors (JST being a company), they are "Picoblade 5-pin" connectors designed by company Molex. If you buy from an electronics shop, that's the right name. If you buy from amazon/etc, then the same are sold with the (wrong) name "JST 1.25mm 5-pin".

Or you can buy a bl touch extension cable, which has 1 of those on one end, and something else on the other. Maybe you can find the right extension kit that plugs into what you got with your bl touch. If not, you probably have to do some cutting and soldering.

In any case, you need to end up with a cable with identical connectors at each end, and pay attention to the wiring!

This is how mine ended up.

You mean bl touch was working before this happened? Was it after a firmware upgrade that it started happening?

Could be loose/wrongly connected wires somewhere too (new bl touch?). Or maybe even interference with bl touch cable if it's wrapped around something or not neatly wired.

There is also a 1.0.4.9 bl touch firmware now.

@traniere octopi working fine here, without any extra steps or drivers.

in my extension to bring the micro USB out of the case i did not connect the 5V line.

i did this because i heard of overvoltage burning pi's / printers / computers, and back-powering the displays even when switched off. not sure if this is true or not, or if having it connected can actually make it not work in your case... but since in my setup i had male micro USB - cable - chassis mount micro USB port, i just didnt connect the 1 wire.

or there's this:
http://blough.ie/bloughr/
https://www.tindie.com/products/brianlough/power-blough-r/

i've heard of people managing to cover that contact with a small bit of sticker or tape.

oh yeah- an easier thing to rule out first is the USB cable.
make sure it works.. and has data lines, not just a charging cable

@xbarbellido
I guess you mean this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWjK9ECebMA
A few things that might be important

• don't use a huge SD card. I think up to 32GB is supported, but recommend 8GB or 16GB
• fresh format FAT32, don't put anything else on the card
• only copy the .bin file to the card
• get firmware direct from creality
  https://forums.creality3dofficial.com/download/ender-series/ender-6/
  At time of writing the latest is "Ender-6 _32bit V1.0.4.9-BLTouch"
• turn off printer, insert card, turn on printer, let it finish and show the menu
• remove card, delete the .bin file
• to save BL Touch measurements, need to keep an SD card in the slot (can use the same one). settings will get saved in file eeprom.dat
• unplug stock Z end-stop
• when BL Touch is correctly installed, it will light up and click out and in a couple times as the progress bar is loading on the screen
• you can see if your firmware is working at all by starting the printer with BL Touch completely unplugged. the menu should still load, but turn it off right after! don't let it home since you have no Z end-stop. if the problem is only when plugged in, then the cause is your wiring. this is an easy check to start with

Refer to https://forum.creality.com/topic/1987/which-firmware-should-flash

Plug your Z endstop back in and take the latest "endstop" ender-6 firmware.
At time of writing the latest is "Ender-6 V1.0.4.9-Endstop"

https://forums.creality3dofficial.com/download/

@Bruce also unfamiliar with rhino myself, but it seems to be aimed at the modelling aspect, and not necessarily specialized in slicing, even if it has some capability.

My guess is that you are better off making/editing your models in it if you are comfortable with it, but exporting the model to .stl or so, and then use cura or similar slicer to arrange the print, make supports, infill, etc., and finally generate the g-code. Cura is made only to do that, so is likely more capable, and there will be way more community support to help.

Creality's "cura" comes with profiles for their printers (ender-6 is the exception not in there yet I think. have to edit ender-5 or something). You can use these, or else refer to to help you set up the right settings/parameters if you do use rhino or something else.

Since you already bought it, I guess you can try, see, and don't forget to report good luck and have fun

edit: sorry i had it mixed up about slicer profiles:

• Creality Slicer (as of v. 4.2.1) does have a built-in Ender-6 profile.
• Ultimaker Cura (as of v. 4.8.0) does not have Ender-6, but you can make one easily enough by modifying a copy of a different Ender (adjusting build size, print speed, etc. to suit the 6).

I'd also like to hear!
I started looking into it too. First the 40x10 extruder cooling fan, but also maybe the mainboard blower.

I would have liked to try TH3D
https://www.th3dstudio.com/product/40mm-sealed-bearing-fan-24v-ender-3-tornado/

But shipping to europe kills that for me. So now considering
Orion fans OD4010-24MB
https://www.digikey.nl/product-detail/nl/orion-fans/OD4010-24MB/1053-1212-ND/2621117

And Winsinn maybe (dual ball bearing, not hydraulic), since they are just so cheap on amazon.

Heard that Noctua are quieter because of lower air flow. I don't want to compromise on that.

As with everything, have to watch out for cheap knockoffs I think.

@Dogberticus
For me the problem went away when I replaced alligator test leads for proper soldered connections in the middle of the cable. I hooked up to the breakout board by the extruder, not to mainboard in the case. I don't know if that would have worked.

And for me it was all motors, not just one, that were making noise until then.

Other people have asked about this.
@those people: is it fixed and if so, what fixed it?

One thought: from the fw version screen, it will say "Ver 1.0.4.9" but there is no indication of BL touch or endstop version.
If you see the measurement grid and options on the Leveling page, then you can be sure.

Well if you ever do solve it, be sure to share your fix here.

@jdiazrdgz
After you put in the support ticket to creality and while you are waiting on their response, you can also check this out:
https://teachingtechyt.github.io/calibration.html

Sounds like you need to get a computer with a keyboard hooked up to its serial interface one way or another. Micro USB on mainboard works. Octoprint and pronterface are known programs. You have to search for help vids about those.

An unclean bed also won't stick.

If it's been printed on a couple times, or even just sitting out and getting dusty, prints will most likely have trouble sticking. Even if leveling and settings are correct, which are also important.

i just use warm water and dish soap on a paper towel or soft cloth. Another paper towel or super soft clean cloth to dry.

Apparently some people and even some creality manuals say to use isopropyl or some kind of alcohol to clean build plates. And then other people that followed that instruction complained about it ruining the finish on the bed. You can search it in this forum. So I would not recommend that. Soap should be fine.

Another thing to watch: temperature. I got an ender-6: the filament that came with it worked fine with default cura temperatures, but other transparent filaments needed almost 30C hotter extrusion temps to begin to stick properly. Some filaments might also go better with the part cooling fan off for the first few layers, but that's getting a bit involved.

@traniere octopi working fine here, without any extra steps or drivers.

in my extension to bring the micro USB out of the case i did not connect the 5V line.

i did this because i heard of overvoltage burning pi's / printers / computers, and back-powering the displays even when switched off. not sure if this is true or not, or if having it connected can actually make it not work in your case... but since in my setup i had male micro USB - cable - chassis mount micro USB port, i just didnt connect the 1 wire.

or there's this:
http://blough.ie/bloughr/
https://www.tindie.com/products/brianlough/power-blough-r/

i've heard of people managing to cover that contact with a small bit of sticker or tape.

oh yeah- an easier thing to rule out first is the USB cable.
make sure it works.. and has data lines, not just a charging cable

@SidP
I really don't know if soldering job itself can be bad enough to mess it up. There'll be loads of youtubes about soldering splices if you need tips. Basically just need to twist enough of the bare wires together and coat in solder. Make sure each joint is insulated (electrical tape should be good enough, heat shrink tubing looks nicer).

Hope you have already checked/confirmed the wiring order. Can refer to my photos in this thread.

Should use a multimeter on each wire of the unconnected cable to check/confirm good continuity and no shorts to other wires.

Shooting in the dark here, but maybe if the cable is coiled around itself tightly anywhere, or a part of the printer, it can mess up the signal too?

I didn't see any ready-made cables/kits yet, but maybe you can find somebody at creality who knows when they plan to start selling them.

Good luck