Ender 3 V2
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2021-02-26 I decided to skip the Ender 3 Pro for now and move on to the Ender 3 V2 because I need to start supporting Ender 3 V2 on my online store. Most if not all Ender 3 Pro features are now on the Ender 3 and then some!

Anyway, I can't really know enough to sell to my customers if I am not familiar with the product. I hate to keep buying 3D Printers (yeah, right… but I am a practical sort and I know normally that having too many is pointless if they are not all in heavy use all the time thereby indicating you actually need all those units.

I am not just collecting all the different Creality 3D Printers I can get, though. Well it seems as if I am but I really am only buying them in order to familiarize myself with what parts I need to stock for that particular model. It is my job now to study all the Creality models that I can afford. Of course nowadays that isn't many but I am slowly getting there.

I am making an make an intense effort to begin stocking those parts most needed by the Ender 3 V2. Many of the parts are still in common with the oldest Ender 3 but increasingly the changes from Ender 3 Pro to Ender 3 V2 are divergent with the original Ender 3. A good example of that point are the Y-Axis changes between Ender 3 V1 and Ender 3 Pro (and now Ender 3 V2) very different design nowadays.

Much improved. I assume they borrowed the changes from the CR-10 design. I don't really know or care at this point because it's much better.
If anyone actually reads these entries, I have a nice Ender 3 V1 that is well maintained I could sell. I really do not ant to be in the business of selling used 3D printers tho0ugh.It seems like inviting a lot of problems into my life.

I have three of them and probably should reduce it down to only two, ahem. I really need to keep a couple though if I am going to be able to support them in a way that my customers can rely on. Maybe reduce them down to only one Ender 3 V1 but that means I will probably be taking it apart a lot. I wated to add the touchscreen upgrad to one of the Ender 3 V1 units soon too. OK, yes this is really about the Ender 3 V2 system.

All the diatribe is really creating context if you can follow along. We'll see.

So Ender 3 V2. I have no place to put it, all my possible space for printers have been filled by… 3D Printers. I am going to have to move one of the three Ender 3 V1 units. Most likely the last to be moved will be my super Ender 3 V1 with Ender 3 mainboard (silent) and the acrylic V2 extruder feed.

Yes, I like the V2 plastic extruder mechanisms. It just works and if when it breaks I replace it saving the extra parts and move on without having to stop printing for very long. It also helps longevity to not be so forceful in any operation involving the lever.

I can write more when the new machine actually gets here. Until then it is just speculation, or in Wall Street babble "Forward Thinking" which is not really useful for people like us.

In these Orwellian days, perhaps any thinking beyond certain safe pathways is risky. Insert some other witty expression here. Or not.

2021-03-04 The Ender 3 V2 arrived today. The box was slightly damaged, I was right to be concerned as I have found several problems so far. The fase frame refused to sit level on a known flat surface. Either the profiles are bent or the profiles moved due to some impact. It actually rocked on a flat surface. I inspected the bottom of the machine and it seemed nothing was amiss.

IAfter considering the issue I thought I understood and then I loosened the 4 screws on each side of the base frame and it sat down perfectly without any more rocking so I re-tightened the screws on each side of the frame. That seems to have solved one issue. It does not rock anymore on top of a flat surface anyway. (ahem.)

The other problem i found is the Y-Carriage is loose on the Y-Axis profile. I have to adjust those soon to eliminate sideways slop in bed movement.
At this point I have called it a day and will pick that up tomorrow hopefully completing assembly.

The damage to the box was on top and it looks like something may have also struck the glass plate as there are 2 places where the protective plastic sheet is scarred.

I am too busy writing some MPI python code to use on a parallel cluster to work on the V2 any further today.

I am very disappointed that my shiny V2 was already abused when I got it. I hope I can resolve all the issues that I may encounter.
Placing the glass plate on top of the container right under the outer lid of the box without better protection than a thin piece of foam seems ripe for cracked bild plates.

101`-03-05 I was workibng on the new machine again. Creality is still shipping the original, weak hotbed springs. I replaced those immediately after I straightened out the Y-Axis sideways slop problem.

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I have finished building the V2 printer but I have not yet powered it up nor have I adjusted the Z-Axis (Bed Leveling) I may power it up soon to loo kat the cool new touchscreen.

THe building process was simple there are a few serious changes with the Ender V2 that are worth noting. I will present some of these changes here with no particular order or significance.

The X-Axis and Y-Axis tensioners allow you to adjust the belt tension very quickly, I have a preference for black and I do not understand why Creality chose to make the knobs blue. I don;'t like the effect. I think using blue makes it look like a cheap pile of junk.

The Y-Axis GT20 gear on the 42-34 stepper motor is completely covered now. It may be hard to see if you have the belt adjusted properly with this cover in place. I have not tried to remove it yet to look inside.

The power supply is enclosed in a confining and tiny enclosure and they have fit it into the space between the center Y-Axis profile and the left and right side profiles.. I was looking at how compact the pwoer supply is.

Speaking of the power supply, the right profile still has the holes where you would attache the Ender 3 Pro power supply. I might re-work my V2 someday to go back to the Ender 3 Pro style power system and wiring. It may not look great but it keeps the spply much cooler I venture.

I think the drawer is cool but I am not too sure I needed it.

Creality uses a 32-bit boards in the Ender 3 V2 and also running Marlin 2.0,x firmware. Due to this you will have to re-slice all your favorite objects on . I realized this when I tried to re-use my favorite bed leveling stuff because it did not support the M10 command. Fortunately CHEP developed a new version that works with the M25 command that Creality now supports.

I am using Linux Cura with the CR-10 so I wanted to use it for my Ender 3 and Ender 3 V2 printers. I really thought the article Ender 3 V2: Cura Machine Settings and Cura Profile by Michael Vizsolyi was very helpful in creating a new Cura profile for the Ender 3 V2.

2021-03-09 The more I look at the blue plastic knobs on this machine the more I detest them.

I really think the use of the blue plastic knobs is a mistake. It makes the printer look cheap. I am going to be working to find a BLACK replacement even if I have to create them myself.

I also am not sure I like the blue metal parts on (for instance) the CR-10 V2..

2021-04-10 I found a great article How to Update the Firmware on the Ender 3 V2

2021-05-16 I have been working on some led lamps for my lab benches and needed a switch panel. This is designed to be mounted under a shelf. I am not ashamed to say I used Tinkercad to do this. It was quite simple. Here are the images and the STL file I created. I printed it using an Ender 3 V2 so I posted it here. It will print easily on any printer.

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Switch-Bracket-V5.stl This design is free for anyone to use in any manner.

2021-07-16

Resume Print Actually Works!

Today I had 3 of 4 printers going, CR-10V2, VR-10 V1, Ender 3 V2. The parts I was making on the CR-10s were almost finished. One was about 82% and the other was about 95% complete. The Ender 3 V3 part was about 40^ complete. So of course we lost power here. It came back up in about a minute and all three printers c;ao,ed to be able to resume the print so one by one I confirmed to begin. Both CR-10 printers exhibited very odd, slow motion movement back to the point where they had lost power. They sat there forever with no option to stop the print so I had to power them down.
Tje good news is that I actually saw a "Resume Print" after power outage work today. Thati s right for the first time ever and it was an Ender 3 V2. I was sorely disappointed in the CR-10 V2 it seems to be less than ready. I don't care to stop everything and get the firmware revision. Maybe later.

2021-07-17

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2021-11-19 Today the stock acrylic extruder lever broke. Since I have a lot of spare parts (I sell this part if you need it. See Creality 3D Ender 3 Extruder Lever ) I quickly replaced the lever using the old bearing and was back in business. During a long print last night the filament stopped feeding completely. After trying to adjust and then replacing the spring I realized the lever had broken. I chide myself for taking so long to notice the broken lever but my vision is pretty bad right now.

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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 Ender 3 v2 and it is perfect! See "My Cable Holder" to download. This works with all Ender 3 models and most CR-10 as well.

2022-07-12 I have not been able to make any updates in a long time. There are q few reasons for this but mostly due to the fact that I am having a very hard tie with my health and now am losing my eyesight. I will be blind soon it seems. Anyway I have not been using the Ender 3 V2 as much as I should despite it being the only Creality printer that does power off restart perfectly. I live in a very unreliable power grid and we ose power here pretty often and I lose any print job not done on this printer. Yet, I have too many printers for my current needs so I never use it. Many times I am printing large items and use one of the CR-10/CR-10V2 printers instead.

I have also shut down my web store http://hackers.attitude.net only selling the remaining inventory on eBay. I am really changing my life in order to face my new reality. I will probably end up selling all of my equipment as it won't be that long until I cannot operate any of it.