Creality Ender Series

[Coyote]

I thought I would start a thread on the creality Enders both 3 and 5.

They are essentially the same machine with different frames so most mods are able to be implemented on both options.

After buying on of these ( Ender 5 ) a few weeks back I was that impressed with it that I thought a help thread would be a good idea because I think these are perfect for both beginners and the seasoned user.

So a quick look at each -

Ender 3



Features
3 Part kit
Build size 220 x 220 x 250mm
Aluminium V-slot bearing and precision roller
Safe and reliable power supply with power cut protection for long prints
Fast heating mechanism
MK8 nozzle

Ender 5 -



3 Part kit
Build size 220 x 220 x 300mm
Safe and reliable power supply with power cut protection for long prints
Fast heating mechanism
Soft magnetic removable bed liner
Dual Y-Axis motor for dual synchronization
Down-shift Z-Axis for smoother movement

Right out the box these are ( after a bed level ) ready to go. putting one together takes only a few minutes, my Ender 5 took me 25 mins to assemble and that was including the BLTouch bed level sensor.

Bed leveling took 3 goes, the first you save the Z offset, reset, run through it again, the second time save the new offset, the third reset everything was nicely dialed in.

With the Ender 5 I found a few things that could be better. I will list some mods, and if they are for the Ender 5 or both 3 and 5


Ender 5

The Sd card slot is terrible ! The card slot is sunk behind the metal casing and if you don't get the Micro SD card perfectly aligned it disappears inside the case :( I don't like fiddly Micro SD anyway so a quick print of this sorts it out :



Thingiverse link

You need to buy a Micro SD adaptor from somewhere like Amazon to go inside it. Now you can use full fat SD cards and putting them in and removing is no longer an issue.

Even though the Ender 3 has the same case and motherboard you can not use this mod as it hits the bed.


Ender 5 -

Another necessity really in my opinion is the bed sags under weight and once loaded up is can spring during Z movements while printing. Again this is all sorted out with some more printing :)



Thingiverse link

They take a good few hours and only just fit on the Ender 5 bed but well worth it !

Ender 5 -

Strain relief for the bed cable didn't exist, this needed to be addressed, again Thingiverse had a nice little design which works well :



Bed cable strain relief

Ender 5 -

X and Y collide during homing ! Yes would you believe that oversight lol But yes they both his the frame as they make the switches, a really stupid thing to miss. At first I bent the lever part of the X limit and printed a tiny tab, it worked ok but eventually started to bend back flat, the same with the Y axis, a simple bend initially cured it but again after a few days of printing its not effective enough.

The fix is to print these two adaptors to move the limit switches to the sides and then you have silent homing. 



Thingiverse Link


Ender 5 and 3 -

Now this one is a must if you don't go with a Silent board option. Both printers give a salmon skin effect of the outer perimeters of the prints, very noticeable which is a great shame. Easily fixed though with some Stepper TL smother boards.



Amazon TL Smoother kit

If you get the Silent board these are completely unnecessary though.



Ender 5 and 3 -

The noise was one issue, not great for me, but other people ( not use to printers ) mentioned how loud it was compared to my enclosed CTC Biezer. Of course being enclosed was the key but Creality sell a 1.1.5 TMC2208 Silent board for an additional £30.



Firmware wise I would highly recommend flashing a bootloader ( to an original board ) and then flashing with TH3D if you go with the optional BLTouch addition. The original firmware just wouldn't flash for me with the ISP programmer provided.The Silent board though comes with the bootloader already on so it's just a case of plugging in the USB to upgrade firmware which is much easier. 

That's what I would say are the essentials to greatly improve this printer, after thats its all about personalisation like adding tool holders, spool clip etc. Any of those you have tried just post below, it will be interesting to see how people have them all setup.

I'll post pics of my setup later on :) 

[FPVSteve]

ooooo an old school FPVHub thread - awesome.

Shame you had to do such silly mods to bring it from 99% to 100%. What is it with companies bringing out awesome products but failing on the silly stuff?

[BigT]

On my Ender 3 I got so fed up trying to level re level and re level again I fitted the BL Touch and a glass bed. Following Teaching Techs advice I did away with the bed springs and clamped the bed down solid. You could just wind the springs down. I also used those frameless picture frame clips to hold the bed down rather than Bulldog clips. I to hated the sd card issue so I went with the Raspberry  Octoprint conversion. Again following Teaching Tech on YouTube. He actually provides a ready made script based on the Marlin update. Here's a link to the same thing for the Ender 5. https://youtu.be/aQIg9zxuCvM
He also has many other videos on updates and mods to both the Ender 3 and 5.

My experience with the Ender 3 is a bit love and hate. Some days it works flawlessly then for no apparent reason it will throw a hissy fit and need TLC.

[Coyote]

Yes that magnetic bed is already annoying me so I've ordered a mirrored glass bed that should be here Thursday. The idea of being flexible was ok, prints stuck fine, but the skirts got that embedded in that when swapping colours they ran into the next print. I ordered bulldogs, I pull the handles off ( caveman style ) but the frameless sound a much better idea :)

I have a case printed with a Pi3 in it on the back, a Logitech C930E has just turned up so I can Octoprint it, but just for monitoring purposes. My old webcam setup needed a laptop constantly connected, the tres was crap and I had no control over it so trying this route again.

Shame you had to do such silly mods to bring it from 99% to 100%. What is it with companies bringing out awesome products but failing on the silly stuff?

I know mate, so close to the mark but make stupid design decisions that must have shown up instantly when testing. But I'm yet to see a printer yet that doesn't benefit from a few mods straight out the box.

[Shikra]

Great thread and interesting.

Unfortunately I managed to fix my years old creator X so finding it hard to justify getting one of these :)

[dp106]

I don't have an Ender 3 however I found levelling with glass the worst of all. I swear the glass had warped. I got rid of it and use a PEI sheet now. Brilliant if you want to use flexible filament although getting other prints off can be a challenge. I've backed off my settings for petg now so that it doesn't squish the first level down at all.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[BigT]

BL Touch, glass bed, springs compressed all the way, Z offset set and saved. all the way for me. Most important to have the correct start script so BL Touch levelling gets used. I level at the beginning of every print ad the temperature of the room changes.

We have just embarked on modifying the Ender 3 to direct drive, my mates do e this with self printed parts and is very pleased with the outcome.

[Coyote]

So do you just run the G29 code to your bed level ?

I just G28
G29 T

Put the glass on the other day and to be honest I just cant get it to print the first layer at all right now. Spent most of yesterday running bed level tests and the test level prints are fine but when printing its not playing ball. The magnetic original plate never failed once, but the top layer started to scruff up and there was raised bits.

Maybe a swap to wham bam :)