3D Printing Forum

Hello,
I am new to the CR-10 S5 Machine and have a few questions. I do not have the change filament option when I am printing? I just got the machine a few weeks ago and I am wondering if I need to update the firmware? Does anyone have instructions on how to do this? Here are the questions that I have.
How do you tell what firmware version you are at?
How do you tell what board came with the machine does this matter?
Is the Firmware you download from the Creality site the best one to use?
Do you need specific drivers for Win10 to recognize the printer I would assume so where do you download the latest ones?
Any help on this will be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

For clarity, I am not vary familiar with the CR-10 S5 (which is the 500mm^3 model). AFAIK, all of the CR-10S series use the same control board.

Firmware: Changing the firmware requires a little bit of programming knowledge, but it is not terribly difficult. The main thing is getting the settings right in the Configuration.h and Configuration_adv.h. If you have never flashed your firmware before, I'd highly recommend downloading the pre-compiled firmware first, just to get familiar with the process. Then, you can get the source for Marlin and build from the latest release. You may need to customize the header files, but there are samples in marlin/example_configurations/Creality/CR-10S/ in the source tree. The software is constantly evolving, and the vendors don't always keep up.

Windows 10: afaik it should show up as a serial (com) port. No special driver needed (just one for the serial controller). However, be advised that controlling it directly from a laptop/desktop is not always advisable. My personal recommendation is to get a Raspberry Pi 3 kit running Octroprint. The link on Amazon is for the basic RPI, and it uses a standard USB2 Micro power supply (2A), and micro SD. You can 3D print your own case which there are plenty to be found on Thingiverse (why not, you have a printer), or you can buy a complete kit. It doesn't require a dedicated monitor, and since it is very low power, you can keep it on 24/7. Unlike PCs, it won't go into standby mode halfway into a very long print.

Filament change: I don't have that feature either. Not to worry, you can use Cura and one of its plugins to insert a pause at layer to change the filament. It is very easy to do (and printing with Octoprint will show you the current layer in real time).

Cheers

One firmware I would suggest is the TH3D Unified Firmware. He's really made a lot of tweaks for each printer Yours appears to be in the list.

https://th3dstudio.freshdesk.com/suppor ... re-package

Thank you for the great information. I have a few more questions as I am new to this. What is the purpose of the Rasberry Pi3 does it allow you to wirelessly monitor you printer and print to it? Or does it take over the printing function from the main board that came with the printer? I see the Hex file you can get but none of the files show what Rev level they are? How can you tell if you need a newer version? The last question is the one driving this does going to the TH3D which has great reviews improve my print quality over the standard firmware? Also any thoughts on auto bed leveling kits?

OctoPrint is a 3D Printer web interface Program that allows you to manage your 3D Printer, for remote access.
And the Raspberry Pi is an inexpensive alternate to a desktop computer for remote monitoring and control of your 3D Printer.
The Raspberry Pi is a Quad core computer that allows Octoprint access to web cams for remote viewing via a web browser.
At home at the store or at work you have complete control over your 3D Printers.

An even though the image shows Cura displaying my 3D printer, Cura does not support the Octoprint interface.


This is the main reason Octoprint has its own web interface and many plugins to help you control and monitor your 3D Printer

As Robert mentions...

Remote admin of printer (start/stop/pause), addition of a web camera for time lapse or monitoring
The Octoprint Anywhere Plug In allows you to view your Octoprint server from remote anywhere. (Whether you trust your printer to print un-attended is a personal decision!)

The one thing I would warn is that many inexpensive printers have 8 bit boards and an I/O (UART) that can only allow so much data to flow into it. When in doubt, print at 40-45 mm/sec I posed this question a while ago and the comments on the linked thread are very enlightening.
https://community.octoprint.org/t/the-o ... heory/6341

Also, to find out what firmware you have, you can send gcode M115 to the printer. That 'should' display what version you are on.

On my CR-10S, I get: This was using Octoprint while the printer was idle (Octoprint has a feature where you can send random gcodes, which you can get from here.

(yes, I need to upgrade. Seek 'copious spare time'.)