CR10 Smart Review – How Good Is It?

Transcript

Hello everybody and welcome to another video. In today’s review, we’ll be taking a closer look at the CR10 Smart by Creality and see what these machines have to offer. Full disclaimer, I purchased this machine with my own money in order to do this review, so everything you see here is based on my own opinion.

While I originally intended to release this review several months ago, I was surprised to discover quite a few hurdles in getting this machine ready for testing, as you’ll see shortly. So to start things off, I opened up the box to double-check all the components and put this machine together. The main change in the design is the incorporation of the electronics within the base of the machine. When I opened up the box, the spool holder was already broken where the ball bearings were located. This area should have been designed with a metal insert, however it simply had a screw which was supported by a thin plastic. In my case, I was able to substitute this, a similar attachment that I had left over from my Ender 3 V2. One great feature on this machine is that all the tools required to maintain it are located in a convenient shelf. This make it much easier when performing maintenance since everything is located and organized nearby.

After putting together the machine, I opened up the bottom panel to begin testing all the safety features. In order to properly test the thermal runaway, I had to actually create connection adapters. The company has created custom pin connections for all the components in the hot end assembly. This means that those portions are not so easily swapped out via the motherboard connection and instead have to be done via the connection hub that’s on the X gantry. After testing everything out, I was happy to discover that there was indeed proper thermal runaway protection enabled in both the stock version of the firmware and the updated version. Now this machine comes with a low quality Bowden tube and is one of the first recommendations I have for an upgrade since it can make a huge difference in prevent issues down the road. I have unfortunately found that on most of Creality’s machines, the stock hot end is prone to heat creep and therefore this is a good preventative measure.

Updating the firmware is not intuitive at all and has specific requirements in order to be successful. I personally believed I had bricked my machine until I discovered the usual requirements that it had. In order to do a proper update, you need to fulfill 3 main factors. You have to use the proper sized SD cards which has been formatted correctly, you must hold the power button on during the full update and the .bin file must use a different name every time an update is done. These were just some requirements, and once again I had to pause the review in order to make a video showing the proper procedure so that others would have an easier time doing this for themselves.

But why did I need to update the firmware, you ask? Well, everything time I attempted to print in vase mode, I ended up with something like this. As you can see, it didn’t quite print correctly and ended up taking 10x times the amount of time it was supposed to. To be clear, the company doesn’t recommend that you use anything but their skinned version of the Cura slicer, and I was using the most up-to-date version of Cura at the time, but this is the first machine that’s ever given me this results. While printing, I noticed that the machine was pausing continuously, which was leading to longer print times and this bubbled look. After quite a bit of troubleshooting which did include disabling the Creality Wifi Box that’s been integrated into the machine, I was finally able to solve the issue by updating the firmware. If you are using Cura I will include two Start Gcode options that I’ve tested and can confirm work correctly. The first will be the one provided by David Hart and the second one will the one that I’m currently using. Both of these will be in the download package on my website along with my custom Cura Profile.

One great feature of this machine is its ability to shut down vial the screen or after a 3d print has completed. This is a great feature to have and is something that I would like to see other companies implement in the future, however it does come with some tradeoffs that would need to be addressed in future versions. I suspect that the implementation of this feature is what makes updating the firmware less intuitive, since it requires that the user keep pressing the power button in order for it to fully complete.

This machine does indeed have tinned connections, and I would recommend replacing those for ferrule one’s. Once again, I have already created a specific video for this machine which can refer to. While opening up the machine to check for tinned wires, I also came across the device which was supposed to enable wifi connectivity. If any of you have seen my video on the Creality smart kit, you’ll be aware of my experiences regarding that device, and it’s implementation. Since that device has already been featured in another video, I will not be revisiting that portion in this review. I will say however that during my troubleshooting steps, I did have to disable the wifi box and re-enable the USB connection to the motherboard. I’ll include a link to that in the description below if you also want to do the same.

The build plate auto levelling is poorly implemented and has caused several issues for both me and others online. I personally had to add manual bed levelling in order to properly test the machine’s capabilities. As it turns out, I can say that there’s a small amount of levelling, however it is very inaccurate. I did follow Creality’s bed levelling guidelines prior to running my tests, with mixed results. It is very important to note that the print bed and hot end must be stable and not wobble in order to work correctly. There are tensioner nuts for ensuring this, and if you have any issues with your machine this should be the first thing that you check. In this case it’s far less critical that the pulley wheels have even tension, instead the stability is far more essential. After adding tensioner knobs to my printer, I was able to test whether bed levelling was fully functional, and unfortunately it seems like the machine has issues with accuracy. Even after using the start Gcode by David Hart there were still issues with bed levelling which made it unpredictable. Upon doing further research, I did come across an article by Sebastiaan Dammann which suggests that it could be electrical interference that’s causing the issue and that it could be fixed with a firmware update. Unfortunately the screen that comes with the CR10 Smart makes creating a community firmware difficult and since Creality has not yet released the source code for the machine this is likely to continue being an issue. I have already released the video for adding manual bed levelling to your printer, so if nothing else has worked, and you’ve already updated the firmware, you could try that as well.

The extruder on this machine is quite unique in itself in that I have a locking mechanism for the filament, which does indeed make it easier to feed the filament through. Now, although the machine does come with a transparent plastic that can fit into the gap that’s between the sensor and extruder, I would not recommend using it at all. If there’s a jam, you’ll find it difficult to remove the broken filament if you have this installed. The easiest way to tell if the extruder is in it’s locked state is to give the filament a simple tug and see if it moves back and forth. I personally drew a little padlock so that I would have more visual reference, so that may be something you wish to do as well.

This machine does come with quite a few quality life improvements such as belt tensioners, filament run out, silent stepper motors, dual Z axis motors, built in mosfets and thermal runaway. However, with all these elements, there’s still the glaring issues which a user will most likely have to address. This is unfortunate to say the least, since I really do like this machine now that those issues have been fixed. The out-of-the-box experience is quite bad and isn’t something I can not recommend to a new user at all. For someone who’s a tinkerer and is willing to put in the hours that’s needed to get a functional machine, I give it a 4/10 since the likelihood of the machine working correctly out of the box is very low. This machine is specifically marketed towards new users, and therefore I’m rating it as such. I’ve found this machine to be a missed opportunity and with the potential release of the CR10 Smart Pro I have serious concerns about that machine as well. If a company isn’t able to release a regular version which is fully functional, I have reservations regarding the pro version. It suggests to me that the company was using its user base as beta testers, which in today’s age is unacceptable. Perhaps once the company has release the source code or started providing upgrade kits which fix the current issues, this rating could potentially be revisited.

3D Printing a 15 Foot Dragon – Part 2 Modeling

Transcript

Hello everybody and welcome to another video. Today is the second instalment of this miniseries, where I undertake the challenge of 3D printing a 15-foot dragon. In the previous video, we explored how the creation of the concept art helped to establish some basic design elements. Today we’ll be taking that information and translating it to a 3d printable model, from which we can then begin doing some test prints. (use different footage than the previous video) Mascot looks up at the concept art yelps and runs away.

Although I did purchase a licence of Maya many years ago, I have since switched over to Blender and have been using it for the past 5 years with great satisfaction. By using both this software and Cura I’ve found a fairly efficient workflow when creating my 3D models. I use Blender to create the models and use Cura to both print them and find issues within the mesh. Cura is very good at highlighting broken areas in the mesh and makes it easier for me to find issues which could prevent the 3d prints from succeeding. It’s for this reason that before I’ll even print, I’ll often simply open up the file to double-check that everything is in order. As witnessed by my Grey hair counter, on some occasions I do regretfully get lazy and skip this process t, and that always turns out great

So to start things off, I’ll typically look at my notes on the project and have those either printed out or on a separate screen while I work. By looking at the initial designs, I will essentially break down the shapes in my head to ones which are easier to model. Essentially I’ll look at the vertebrae design and see that the closest primitive shape is that of a cylinder and use this as my base for which I’ll create a model. This process is very similar to how professional artists will break down a subject prior to drawing the person or object. In this case, I took the cylinder and removed the bottom half so that I was left with the remainder of the mesh. From this point on, I started working on the general shape to make sure that these were as close to the design as possible. Now I did try sculpting the shape right away but quickly ran into issues using this method as you can see from the abomination that’s on your screen. The thin walls simply caused too many issues, so I continued using traditional 3d modelling techniques instead. Even though I had already drawn out a design, it’s important to still make improvements if the project allows for it, therefore I played around with the design further to see which elements could be modified to make the overall shape more interesting. When I’m happy with those portions, I can then begin adding additional details.

I’ll often use non-destructive modifier’s whenever possible, since these allow me to return to a more simplified shape. One such modifier is the mirror modifier, which allows the 3d modeller to only have to work on half of the design while the other is mirrored with software. While this workflow is very useful, it can sometimes cause problems in the geometry if not implemented properly, so it’s always a good idea to double-check the mesh as you work. Another great modifier is the solidify modifier which, although it can work great, it can …. Oh, do something like this, which is definitely not the intended result. So depending on what you’re doing, you’ll want to choose the right modifier for the job.

Once I had the main vertebrae done, I could then begin working on creating the full length of the dragon. To get the proper size requirements, I create a large cube which showed me the overall target dimensions. This was created with the 3d printer’s maximum height taken into account and the desired length. For this project, I had decided to use the CR30 since I could set up multiple prints to print all at once. I duplicated all the vertebrae and… Wow, ok little guy By using a lattice I deformed them into the shape that I wanted to achieve.

For the mechanical portions such as the jaw, I found that doing a quick sketch to get a couple of ideas out on paper was the fastest method to testing the pros and cons of each. For instance. I could have simply used some string and made some holes for the jaw to connect, but I wanted to limit the movement to just up and down as much as possible. Having a hinge would allow for this, however it would also make future repairs more difficult. I ended up choosing the hinge since I wanted to 3d print as much of the dragon as possible, and this allowed me to do so. In the end, however, a prototype always needs to be made to test out the mechanic and see what needs to be changed from the design, but that will be a story for another day. I hope you guys enjoyed the journey so far. If you want to support this channel, please feel free to check out the merch on my main website. Thank you for watching, and I hope to you again soon. Thank you and take care.

Safety Mod + Pro Version – CR10 Smart Safety Fix

Transcript

Hello everybody and welcome to another video tutorial. Today we’ll be addressing an issue which is quite common among budget friendly printers and isn’t discussed all that much. The CR10 Smart like many other 3d printers in the market today, have tinned wired connections at their terminals, so today we’ll be replacing those with ferrules. As always, what you see here represents my own opinions, and undertake this at your own risk. I’m in no way responsible if any damages that may occur.

Now, there’s a couple of reason why you might want to change the main power connections to ferrules, however the main one is for safety. Not having ferrules means that maintenance will generally be more difficult since you’ll have to deal with the wires unravelling when being placed inside the terminals. Tinned one’s on the other hand can make the strands more susceptible to vibration, loosing and corrosion, all of which are to be avoided when it comes to the main power connections. So for this reason we’ll be taking a closer look at how to replace the those connections on the CR10 Smart by Creality.

The CR10 Smart is designed with a Creality Wifi Box within, and for this reason there are a couple of additional terminals that need to be updated. Unlike the CR10 V3, the electrical components are within the base of the machine, therefore we’ll need to open this up in order to get access to the electronics. With the base open, we can already see some terminals on the main motherboard. As you can see from this diagram, we’ll need to replace the ones in these two locations. Like most budget machines on the market today, this FDM printer has tinned wires at the main power and hotbed output. The second set of terminals comes from the connection hub, which allows the connection between the motherboard and the internal Wi-Fi box components.

To make things easier to keep track of, we’ll only remove one wire at a time by unscrewing the screw at the top of the terminal. With wire cutters, you’ll remove the part that tinned before beginning to prep the wire for the ferrule. In order to have proper contact with the ferrule, well need to strip the tip of the wire by using one of the two methods. If you have wires strippers, you can use those to strip the wire connection, if you don’t, you can use your wire cutter to do the same thing by gently adding pressure until you’ve cut through the outer protective layer. You’ll then be able to remove the coating by holding the cutter’s partially open while pulling that part away. When choosing a ferrule, you want to choose one that just barely fits onto the wire to help ensure a proper connection when crimped. By making sure to twist the wires first, you’ll have an easier time inserting them into the ferrules. If you have a ferrule crimping tool, you can use that to crimp the connection, if not you can use a pair of pliers’ to do the same thing. Always test the connection before putting it back into the terminal.

In the end, you should only have to replace 6 wire connections at 3 different terminals. By only disconnecting one connection at a time, you’ll be able to keep track of what connections need to be changed next. This is the method I generally recommend so that you don’t end up mixing your connections. When you re-attach the connection, make sure to double-check that it’s properly secured before moving on to the next one. Once you’ve finished upgrading the terminal connections, you can then put back together the machine and do a quick test print to make sure everything is working correctly.

I hope this video has helped some of you out and if there’s a video you’d like to suggest, please leave a comment down below. I hope you guys enjoyed this video and I hope to see you guys soon.

CR-10 Smart – Manual Bed Levelling Fix

Transcript

Hello everybody and welcome to another mod video. In today’s video, we’ll be modifying the CR10 Smart to no longer require auto bed levelling in order to function correctly. At the same time, we will be adding insulation beneath the build plate to help speed up the heating process. As always, do this mod at your own risk, and I’m in no way responsible if any damages may occur. Now, in most cases, you shouldn’t need to go to these types of lengths to get your machine to work correctly. As of making this video, there are quite a few problems with the CR10 Smart and many users have had to resort to time-consuming mods to rectify the situation. One such issue is the implementation of the auto bed levelling, which doesn’t seem to function properly for numerous users. So before we begin, we’ll need a couple of items prior to doing this modification on our machines. The first will be the levelling nuts with either silicone levelling columns or springs. I have tested both, so I can say that either will work for this purpose. Which ever option you choose, make sure that you have the screws to go along with the kit, since the one’s which are on the machine are too short. The second item on the list is the cork board that we’ll be using to help insulate the build plate, and this needs to be approximately 1 inch in thickness to help reduce the need for adhesives. In my case I order a pack of 12×12 inch sheets which were 3/8 inch in thickness and this allowed me to stack them on top of each other until I had the correct thickness. With the components at the ready, we can now begin by removing the glass bed from the build surface. You can do this by opening up the retainer tabs and sliding out the glass. There are 16 screws that are holding the build plate in place, so we’ll unscrew those, so we can begin prepping the heating platform. Since the existing holes are threaded, will first need to open these up to allow the screw to move freely. Using an 11/64 bit, you’ll widen the hole size every so slightly for the 4 corners that we’ll be mounting the adjustment knobs. I put some paper around all the components to help protect the remainder of the electronics from any metal debris, as well as using some lubricant to facilitate the drilling process. After cleaning up the area with a vacuum to make sure that nothing was left over, I could then begin cutting the cork material to fit the build plate. To make things easier, I cut the corners out to make sure I had enough room for the springs and the silicone columns. I placed the build plate on top of the cork to figure out where I should cut these portions from. Additionally, I created holes in a couple of the layers for where the bolts could fit through. To figure out the location of the bolts, I simply pressed the cork downwards to indent them onto the surface and used that for a cutting reference. Corkboard has a high temperature resistance which is why we’ll be using it for this project, and in this case I didn’t want to use an option which required adhesive material since it would be difficult to remove or make repairs in the future. In order to keep the screws from moving around, I decided to use some springs, which I cut down into spring lock washers. The nice thing about using the springs is that these can have a very small footprint and shouldn’t cause the screw to stick out afterwards. Placing the Cork sheets into place, we can then line up the heated build plate followed by our spring lock washers and screws. If you’re using the silicone columns, the indented portion is supposed to be on top. It’s very important that you screw the levelling nuts so that the Z-endstop can be triggered, otherwise the hot end will crash into the build plate. The way this sensor works is that it waits for the Z end stop to trigger before turning on. When you manually level the bed, you’re going to go to “Settings” + “Level” and wait for the machine to finish probing the centre of the bed. After, you’ll adjust the offset so that it’s close but not touching the build plate by selecting each corner until it’s they are all the same. Now, for some reason I had to adjust the Z-offset a second time, but I had no issues with the overall levelling of the machine. Something very essential with this mod is that the screen is set too high up, and therefore the build plate tends to crash and lift above it when it passes too far forwards. You’ll want to 3d print this part so that you can mount in on the appropriate angle. With the modification completed, you can do a test print to see if everything is working correctly. I generally prefer to use a test similar to what you see here, since it allows me to check for any printing irregularities. I hope that this upgrade has helped some of you out, and I hope to see you guys again soon. Thank you and take care.

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