Creality CR-10 V1

2021-02-01 I finally decided to purchase a CR-10 It has been long overdue but I have way too many 3D-Printers now. I do however have many reasons to get a CR-10.

The reason I wanted a V1 was I wanted to study the original model before I obtain a newer version.

As you can see I am not typical not wanting the latest and greatest but I have several reasons for that as well.

I want to start supporting the CR-10 and to eventually stock all the important parts in my online store Hardware for Hackers.

So it looks like I will start stocking parts for the V1 first although I already have a plethora of parts that will work on the V1 already in stock at the store. By studying the V1 I can also determine what parts are in common with the Ender 3.

I will be devoting financial resources to stocking as many CR-10 parts as I can. It will take some time, however.

2021-02-11 I finally received my new CR-10 V1 yesterday. I opened it today and made a few pictures of how it had been packaged from the factory. I am making an initial inspection first and I will document a few things with the build process.

I have located one flaw already. The printer arrived mostly assembled, and while I was unpacking everything I saw that the PC4-M6 connector installed in the V2 acrylic extruder was defective. The fitting did not have any tension and would not automatically lock on a PTFE tube. It looks to be defective from the factory.

2021-02-12 I really did not take any pictures once I started assembling it, the darned thing was assembled before I knew it! It was trivial to assemble, even easier than an Ender 3. Earlier I did a bed level and printed the XYZ calibration cube. That went well! Although I am certain that the glass bed has it's advantages I want my old hotbed sticker on a fiberglass board so am trying to order some quantity of those to start selling online.

300*300mm parts seem to be more expensive too.

2021-02-15 Today I mounted an Ender 3 spool holder on top of the CR-10, in exactly the same manner as an Ender 3. It is a much better approach and allows the control box to be better positioned.

CR-10-Spool-Change-01.png

2021-02-28 I was using Cura on a Linux desktop machine and had left the settings to "Ultra Coarse" for resolution and everything because I had been printing some bulk items. The pieces were not very complex on the things I had been printing before and I liked the speedy printing.
So I wanted to print a large quantity of 6S2P Li-Io 18650 cell holders to build some 24V battery packs. I printed a few and noticed that there were strings hanging onto the print across the inset hole where one end of the battery fits.

I noticed that the print was fine until it got to the overhanging plastic tabls that are over inset holes. I thought about it for awhile and re-sliced it in Cura with the "Low Resolution" profile and I also increased my travel speed to 200 which was originally set to 120.

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Anyway the next print was clean. I wanted to mention my solution to this common problem as it seems to resolve the issue when there are parts of the print job that might overhang voids below. It makes sense to me. So the next time you see this happen with your CR-10 check to see if you can use a higher resolution especially ff there is an overhanging part.

Anyway this is something to consider. I know extrusion issues can be caused by a myriad list of things but I think we all eventually see every form of failure over time. I restore the original travel speed setting as I assume the problem is just using low resolution on parts that overhang. I am printing a new one at the original travel speed and using "low resolution" profile in Linux Cura. I am also using PETG which is not factor in my "hairy" strings of filament webbed across holes in the printed object.

2021-03-18 I really have to replace the OEM weak springs with the upgraded hotbed springs soon. I keep having to adjust the bed level and as "something keeps changing" it would seem. I also noticed that the bed ajustment knobs had almost reached the end of their travel and were about to fall off.

I also note for those who think you have to print a shim to add some compression strength to the CR-10 standard hotbed sprints that you simply need to upgrade your springs and then you won't have to invent workarounds or keep leveling your CR-10 every time you use it.

Now these two key points underline why you need to install the heaviest springs you can find for the CR-10 (still being 25mm in height of course.) If you did use the heavier springs you should also begin adjusting the hotbed with the knobs close to center of the hotbed screw travel.

Another really great idea is to print and install the "adjustable" Z-Axis Limit Switch Mount and then you are back in control of the adjustment process and not at the mercy of permanent static mounts that force you to keep using a certain style of build surface.

CR-10-Z-Axis-Mounting-01.png

See Adjustable CR-10 Z endstop at Thingiverse by John Racus. It is Thing Number #2349068 … In case the design ever disappears, here is an archived copy as I obtained it from Thingiverse.

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2021-03-25 I received a shipment of parts and one of the items that just arrived are sets of the CR-10 extension cables. I only ordered 10-sets to begin with and one of those will be installed shortly.

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I will try to make some pictures but there isn't much to the installation and nor is there any complexities involved. If you want some more information (or to purchase) see Creality CR-10 CR-10S Extension Cable Assembly OEM

I am looking forward to using the extension cables. I hope there are not any issues that crop up from extending the cables. I have seen odd issues crop up when extending cables like this. If I were engineers at Creality I'd start using toroids on the ribbon cables soon. Noise. I have some serious space problems now and using a set of these is going to help me move the control box onto adjacent location freing up precious space surrounding my CR-10.

2021-04-03 I installed the Creality CR-10 Extension Cable set today. It went smoothly without any problems whatsoever I moved the control box to a convenient location and it really helped make the most of a minimal space situation.

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It took longer to dress the cables and install some tie wraps (zip ties to some) than it did to connect everything. I split the cables up into bundles separating those cables that remain staionary from the ones that move. Before I secured the cables I moved the printer in different axis just to see how the cables would move. That let me spot a couple that needed adjustment and re-routing to ensure a smooth operation.

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I moved the control box to the right side of the CR-10 and the excess cables are draped behind the bench top. The cables that move in X, Y and Z are split into a branching group of cables and remain on the left side.

This is really a valuable modification to any CR-10. The extension cablee set does include an extra Z-Axis extension cable in case you happen to be using a dual Z-Axis system. The stock CR-10 does not so you end up with a spare cable!

2021-04-07 Today I was studying the CR-10 aviation connectors GX16-8 and GX12-4 themselves in preparation for ordering these parts. I was thinking the kind of people that use this equipment are also the sort to repair or replace things themselves. I don't see any one else selling them that sells 3D Printer stuff but obviously you can purchase them from electronics parts sources.

cr-10-Aviation-Connectors-Pins.png

If I sell it as a Creality CR-10 connector people feel somewhat more comfortable I suppose. So for the GX-16-8 connector this is the cable that brings hotend power, thermistor resistance and the two fan circuits.
as an aside one of the fan circuits is controlled and the other is uncontrolled, meaning one can be controlled via software and one is running at a constant speed.

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This is the exact GX12-4 connector set I will be stocking at the store. I will sell them as a set in case someone needs to repair their control boxes,

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2021-12-17 I devised a useful upgrade to hold the bundle of wiring that runs out to the hotend attaching it to the extruder base. I have installed it on my CR-10 and it is perfect! See "My Cable Holder" to download. This works with all Ender 3 models and most CR-10 as well.

2021-12-19 I guess it doesn't matter what part of the site that I write this anecdote of the current apocalyptic "end of the world" supply chain story.
I am sure by now everyone has a few stories of their own about how things are falling apart.

Today (like almost every day for the last few months) I was cruising Amazon to buy some cheap filament. I don't know about you but filament prices on eBay have become ridiculous so for the first time ever, Amazon has been the cheapest place to buy filament.

I have been buying filament like mad for about 6-months. I started buying extra filament at about the same time I stopped importing Creality parts from China for sale. The price of shipping was chrusing me and so I knew it was only a matter of time before filament cost a lot more. That turned out to be true, but not just because of shipping costs it turns out.

Anyway I have purchased 8 rolls of filament in the last week. I purchased only 2-colors. I had only one filament I could use, it would be PETG so that is what I have been trying to get lately.
They were about $13 a roll which is a great price, nowadays.
.
Evey time I purchased more. the selection has been getting worse. Today, I was trying to purchase some more PETG filament BUT there was not one single roll available on Amazon. I checked a few hours later and that was still the case. That is simply astounding to me.

Updated 2021-12-20 I checked today and it appears some of the vendors have restocked somehow even though they ship from Amazon, suddenly some more PETG appeared. This is all very abnormal but we will see what happens in the coming weeks.

Updated 2021-12-21 I checked Amazon again for PETG filament and there stukk seens ti ve plenty available now so I can only assume there is no issue in obtaining filament.

2022-02-02 I have a series of upgrades planned for the CR-10 which will most likely transform it into something much different than it was before. Today, I decided to install a support bracket kit which stablizies and stiffens the upper part of the printer. Of course you need to make sure that you adjust the supports so that they are not causing the upper frame to bow. A levek is required to do so. It only takes about 15-minutes to install/ I used the Creality version of this upgrade kit. I guess there are third party sources as well.

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It is straightforward to install and requires only (2) tools which are supplied so you don't need anyything else to install.

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Now this CR-10 looks like the CR-10 V2 and will resemble it more so in the coming weeks as I do all the upgrades I have planned. I am going to convert this CR-10 (8-bit) into a CR-10S with a 2-bit motherboard. Witht hat will come a dual Z-Axis upgrade and a filament broken sensor.

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You can see how everything was attached, it is very simple.

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2022-03-07 I will be performing a dual z-axis upgrade on this machine soon. I have to admit I am not using this machine that much, I always seem to end u using the CR-10 V2. I still have a CR-10 to CR-10S upgrade kit waiting for this machine as well but I don't really feel motivated about that.

2022-07-12 I have not performed any updates to this section of my wiki for quite some time as you can see from the dates. There are various reasons mostly due to problems with the hosting company somehow resetting my quote too low and was unable to add any images or data of any size. The other more serious issues is that I am going blind and it is very difficult to make the updates here now.

Ad for my CR-10 I have been using it for various projects (not so many in truth) and it finally was upgraded to dual-z axis about a month ago. The box of parts had been sitting here for a long time and I finally got tired of it sitting there under my bench so I finally did the work. I assumed it would be an easy task and honestly it turned into a mess.

In order to explain this I have to mention that I had been using the Creality extension cable set for this printer which only supports the "stock" CR-10 with (1) Z-Axis stepper motor.

The extension cabling for the Z-Axis drive has a female connector on one end that matches the connector on a stepper motor itself so the Z-Axis cable from the mainboard instead of being plugged into the stepper motor plugs into that female connector on one end of the extension cable and the other end of the Z-Axis extension cable plugs into the stepper motor. This is only fine for a single Z-Axis CR-10.

Unfortunately the Dual Z-Axis cable that came with my upgrade kit was not compatible with the Creality extension cable for Z-Axis and in addition it looks like that cable was also reversed.

I am still not completely certain what happened that the original mainboard cable on the4 CR-10 was working I believe it failed so I had to troubleshoot the Z-Axis drive cabling and since

I have quote a lot of parts I was able to replace that mainboard cable from stock and now everything is working well with the dual z-axis upgrade. However I can no longer use my extension cables so the damned control box is horribly close to the printer durum operation. I know I was spoiled by the extension while everyone else has been dealing with this annoyance.

I am going to resolve this issue by fabricating a new Z-Axis extension cable to work with this eventually if I am still able to see.

So to make a long description shorter my CRo10 has dual-axis drive sand i works very well! I have my extension cable set packed away until I have the parts and the time to make it compatible again with the connectors and the second stepper motor. if I am still able to see.