Hi Squad144, If you are still having problems with your LCD, I’ve attached a photo for reference. Please look up the schematics for the creality lcd and for the e3 board to get the pin reference. You can then look at the photo as a double-check. I’ve had my board wired this way for almost a year with no issues.
Once I had my display working, I hot-glued the wires together.
Ok I got good new and bad news… Firstly, thank you Myriad and Blair for helping me with my questions. Thanks to you, my printer now runs.
Here is the bad news… The bltouch refuses to work. As far as I can see, everything else works except for this. Did you guys have this problem?
My bltouch wouldn’t cycle the pin in and out until I flipped two of the wires in the plug
Then it turned on but rammed the nozzle into the bed until I flipped polarity on the end stop plug.
I’m using the black/white wires in the z endstop plug kind of like how they were on the creality board. I did not plug them in the bltouch port beside the other wires.
Other than that I didn’t have any issues.
What is yours doing?
Does it not turn on (no led glowing)
Does it not do the startup test cycling the probe?
Does it look like it is working and the printer starts homing but never stops?
I plugged the black and white wires into the z endstop port. The printer acts as if the bltouch is not connected. It will not preform the startup test cycling. The x and y home just fine but stop when the bltouch should drop the probe and lower the z. The bltouch has a blue light but it almost looks a little faint. This could just be my eyes though as I have not had this printer turned on for some months. Currently, in the “servo connector” (three wires), the order goes blue red yellow. I have tried turning the plug so yellow went where the blue wire was and vise versa but has no luck. What do your wires look like? Maybe I just need to swap a few around.
Pretty sure mine are yellow-blue-red
If you look at the ribbon cable the wires are in that order but going into the plug creality has blue and red crossed.
This is from memory and looking at my old pictures so if that doesn’t help I’ll resort to opening up my printer to look closer for for you.
Ok so then blue becomes the 5v? Am I right?
Yup. Red ground, blue 5v, yellow pa1
Ok I swapped the wires, now the bltouch does not light up at all. Still unresponsive. I used your exact firmware and made all the changes to update the config files to 2.0.9.2. All I did with the bltouch in the firmware was set my offset and comment 5v cause it would not compile without that commented…
I think my firmware that I just compiled would work on your printer since most of the changes are settings that get stored on the eeprom and can be changed on the printer. I believe you can turn off the filament runout and power loss recovery from the menu too.
I solved it. I had to move the pin over so it would supply the 5v to the bltouch. Thanks for helping me and for suggesting the wire swap. I did have to do that. I will start a print tonight and hopefully everything works as it should.
I will post back with details of the completed print. I will see if I can get some pictures of the finished print as well.
Great. I kind of figured it was something small and silly like that.
One thing I thought of is when I compiled my original firmware I had the settings for power loss recovery turned on. With the skr mini there is no power loss recovery unless you install their ups 24v module. If the firmware is configured for having power loss but the board doesn’t have the hardware installed when you start a print it will immediately stop.
I was able to turn it off in the menus on the touchscreen but I don’t know if it gives the option in the marlin interface. Just thought I’d mention it if you happen to run into that.
Hopefully you’re off and running now and have some successful test prints.
Hey guys,
I’m considering doing some of these upgrades to my CR-20 Pro.
What are your thoughts on the Big Tree Tech SKR Mini e3 V3?
I’m trying to decide if to go for the V2 or V3, also if to go for CR Touch or BL Touch.
@Blair, did you 3D print the custom case you made for the TFT35?
If so, would you mind sharing it?
My Cr-20 Pro has changed a bunch since this thread started.
It now has an SKR 2 board so I can do gantry levelling. I also installed a BTT UPS and power relay as well as the Micro Swiss NG. I think it has reached the end of its path for paid modifications. The case for my TFT35 could use some improvements though so I wouldn’t mind redesigning that and printing out a better one with some of the features I designed in the one on my Ender. For example, whenever the bed moves forward all the way it blocks the screen and makes it very awkward to see.
Regarding the SKR Mini e3 v2 versus the v3, I have used both. I had the V2 in my cr20, then I moved it to my Ender. At one point I thought it had fried (it hadn’t, long story) so I installed a V3. There isn’t much difference between the two other than the extra controllable fan port on the V3 which I quite like. It just means that my hot end fan isn’t running all the time and is only on if the temperature is above 50*. It’s just nice for keeping the noise down when something isn’t printing and kind of makes my power shut down relay a bit unnecessary.
I haven’t used a CR Touch, but have the stock BL Touch on the Cr20 still and installed a BL Touch on the Ender. Why are you deciding between the two? Did the one that came with your Cr-20 Pro break? Or did it not come with one?
It would be amazing if you could do that and send the model for the screen!
I ordered the SKR Mini E3 V3, TFT35, smart filament break down sensor and bl touch. I got my CR-20 Pro second hand from my coworker and it did not come with a bl touch. Levelling the bed has been a real pain.
Would you happen to still have the firmware for the v3? I’m still quite new to all this, after watching a couple videos on how to configure the firmware sadly a bunch of it still seems really complicated.
What are the best modifications you have done that you think have led to the most improvements in print quality?
I do have the firmware.
I recently updated to the current version of Marlin. I think my file will work for you but I do have the settings enabled for a power shut down relay.
Having it enabled in firmware but without the additional hardware might work totally fine since as far as I know the board only sends signals to the power relay and doesn’t receive anything.
I guess if you need the screen case it’ll just light a fire under me to finally get around to updating it.
I think the biggest improvement for print quality and consistency was the Micro Swiss extruder and hot end as well as the enclosure. I had a lot of warping issues before putting my printers in the creality tent enclosures.
The main board was nice just to quiet down the obnoxious old stepper drivers.
Thanks a lot for the screen case and firmware!
I just ordered it from Aliexpress so hopefully it won’t take too long to get here. Did you print a bracket to fit on the bl touch to your extruder?
Also, I read some people say online that for the SKR Mini E3 v3, they had to wire up jst connectors for the fan. Did you have to do that?
I did print off a bracket for the BL Touch. For the original Micro Swiss I designed one, for the NG i’m just using the stock fan shroud and their printable bracket for now until I feel motivated enough to do a round two of my own shroud design.
I likely did rewire a few things with JST connectors. I honestly can’t remember how many I had to do on the E3 V3 board but it was I’m sure I would have done the fan and the bl touch.
I was just taking a look at my CR20 and was trying to figure out where I would move the screen to get it out of the way when the bed is all the way forward. It would have to hang off the side a bunch which would make it much harder to pull my enclosure off when I need to work on the printer. So I think I’m going to just leave it where it is but maybe update my old design a bit.
The old one I have attached with magnets and there is a little piece that is the shape of the cutout for the stock screen which clips into the bottom and acts as a locating pin. The magnets are ones that are from Home Hardware so they’re pretty easy to get. It actually hold in place quite well.
Let me know when you get your parts and are getting ready to install it all. I’ll compile whatever files I have that you’ll need.
I’m considering ordering the Microswiss NG direct drive. I emailed the guys at Microswiss and they said that they will have a big sale coming up for black friday.
I just ordered a bunch of JST connectors and a crimp through work, since I can justify its use for my work as well. Crazy how expensive some of these crimping tools are!
Thank you again for compiling everything, I will post here once I get my parts.
On another note, have you ever considered installing klipper?
I was looking into it a little bit, but too bad the price for the raspberry pi is super inflated now.
I did see some alternatives like the Makerbase MKS PI and the BTT CB1, maybe I’ll give it a try later on down the line.
What kind of crimpers do you use?
I’ve got an Iwiss crimper (from AliExpress) that isn’t great - it often crushes the wire resulting in an easily broken mechanical connection.
I haven’t used it yet, but I got the PA-21
