2.2.1 mainboard for ender 3 v2

Hello,

I have recently purchased a 2.2.1 mainboard to put into my e3v2. Im trying to upgrade it to duel extrusion.

I have the new board in and getting power to it. But get nothing on the display.

Am i missing something?

Thanks
James

It sounds suspiciously like this persons problem:

I dont even get a blue screen…

unplug everything except the power to the new controller board and the cable to the display. Does the display light up?

Also, I know it seems stupidly obvious, but we used to have a saying in our high school electronics class: “If all else fails, try plugging it in”
You made sure you plugged the unit back in after changing the board? There’s a reason we had that saying…

Lol, yeah… the blue leds on the actual board light up

Did you test the controller board with only the display plugged in?

Not yet, no. Probably do that tomorrow

OK. Procedure is:

  1. Make sure the display works. If that doesn’t work, check that you have the cable plugged into the correct ports on both the display and the controller board. My display has 3 inputs, only one of which will produce a display. I have no idea what the others are for. I have an Ender 5Pro, so it won’t necessarily mean that your display has three ports. I should also point out that, just because my display lights up with nothing else connected, doesn’t guarantee that will apply to you. I’m making the possibly incorrect assumption that didn’t radically change the design.

  2. If the display works, turn everything off and plug in the thermistor cables and limit switches. You want to test your inputs before you test your outputs. They use the least amount of power in case the motherboard is being overloaded by something. Power it up. You should at least get temperature readings. You can test this by putting your hand on the middle of the base plate and the temperature should go up slightly.

  3. turn everything off and plug two of your stepper motors in and power-up. If it fails at this point, unplug one of the two you just plugged in and re-test. If it worked, continue plugging in stepper motors and testing. If at any point adding a cable causes the display to fail, check that cable for shorts at either end.

Unplugged everything, just display, still nothing

As long as you’ve verified that your 2.2.1 mainboard is actually compatible with the e3v2, I’d contact either the seller or the manufacturer. Again, not being familiar with the e3v2, I can’t say this with absolute certainty, but I’m 95% sure you should at least have a backlight on the display.

Did you update the firmware for the display as well?

There is the Printer firmware and then the display firmware.

Latest Creality Firmware: “click Image for download page” image

  1. Ensure the SD card you’re using is freshly formatted and ONLY has your firmware bin file on it. The v2 doesn’t like other files on the card and will black screen.

  2. On a fresh format SD card copy the folder found in the “Screen folder” in the firmware zip, it should be called “DWIN_SET”.


    Unplug your screen and remove the 4 screws in the back, and pop the back cover off, there is an SD slot on the board, insert the SD card here, reconnect and boot on. This may fix the screen issue, (In my case it just made the black screen into a red screen).

  3. Finally, and the most effective but least obvious solution. The V2 doesn’t let you reuse firmware.bin names, it seems they loaded the initial firmware using “firmware.bin” so you can’t actually use that filename to update, it will black screen you.
    Instead rename it to i.e “firmware1.bin” and run the update as normal through the front SD card slot, you should blackscreen for ~ 10 seconds and then the update will recover your screen and install the new firmware.

Hope this helps you out!

1 Like

Just for my own info, are you saying that without a firmware upgrade to the LCD, even the backlight won’t come on? On most units I’ve seen, the backlight is wired directly to the LCD power supply and is on as long as the LCD has power. There are some LCD applications where the backlight is selectively turned on or off, but on 3D printers, you usually want to be able to monitor them at a glance, so the displays are lit continuously. Are you saying the E3V2 doesn’t do that?

Yeah No… you confused me there @LEGOManiac lol which is not hard to do. No the “Black Screen” is just that on an Ender 3 v2. The screen colour denotes a successful upgrade or a failure. With the Mainboard firmware update u need to make sure to update the LCD screen as well.

That’s what I thought @Jdumais might have been having trouble. Your advice about testing the board sounded spot on and had me store that info for later use. :slight_smile:

i’m sooooo lost it’s not funny… hehehe

ok, So I have a E3V2 printer, I have replaced the mainboard with a 2.2.1 which is actually a CR-10S mainboard.

I have the mainboard running, but have not flashed ANY firmware yet.
The mainboard is currently running and plugged into my computer via USB.

I also have removed the V2 screen backing and see the SD Card reader on it’s board so it may be upgraded as well.

I would assume my first step would be to flash a new firmware onto the mainboard.

Is this correct and if so, How is this done?

James

Are you using Creality Firmware?

If so Follow this video but use the Creality Firmware and the Firmware for the LCD that I show and linked to above. Teaching Tech at time 10:36 in video

I don’t think so, I think i’ll be using Merlin 2 as I want the duel extruder and also have the Bl Touch.

Micheal from Teaching Tech (You Tube Channel) knows what he’s doing. Watch a couple and you’ll get it.

I have upgraded both firmwares to marlin 2.0.7.2, yet still do not have a display.

Mainboard Creality v2.2.1 - Ender 3 v2 Display Module.

Any ideas?

So, if I"m following the thread correctly, the display is the original one from the E3V2, correct?
Therefor, you’ve seen it working, so it’s a known-good component?

Is the cable between the new motherboard and the display new? If so, even if the old one isn’t long enough, can you test the display with it?

I’m suspecting the answers to the above are yes, yes, no, yes; so what next?

I’m not familiar with the 2.2.1 board. For all I know, that’s what I have in my E5Pro.

So, let’s see if we have a dead duck:

  1. Plug your computer into the printer via the USB port.
    Sadly, you’re probably using windows, but if you can get to a linux terminal, or if the windows command prompt supports it, or something like it, type: lsusb:
    Your looking for something like this:

Bus 002 Device 008: ID 1a86:7523 QinHeng Electronics HL-340 USB-Serial adapter

The Bus and Device numbers will change, but the ID# will start with 1a86. IIRC the 7523 is a serial number.

God it’s been decades since I did Windows tech support. I think you can find what’s connected to your computer’s USB ports via Device Manager. It should give you basically the same thing. You may have to plug the printer in, refresh the Device Manager screen, then unplug the printer and refresh again to see what changes. At least one item should appear and disappear as the printer is (dis)connected.

If you can get that far, open a Serial Terminal. Putty is a common one on Windows, but for decades I’ve used the one that comes with the Arduino IDE. It’s here if you don’t have something else you’d prefer:

So, Opening the terminal program of your choice, Select the port your printer is connected to and set the Baud rate to 115200. In the Arduino IDE, you set the port first, open the terminal second and set the Baud rate within the terminal (lower right corner).

In the input line (the line where you do the typing - on the Arduino terminal, it’s at the top) type some GCode that you know will get a text-based response and hit ENTER:
M503

This should report the current EPROM settings.

If this doesn’t work, your board is probably toast. The other possiblity is that you have the wrong Baud rate set. 115200 is what is working on my E5Pro, so I’m guessing your E3V2 uses the same settings. If not, try different Baud rates.