How to Upgrade CR-10 From Single Extr0der to Dual V6 Extruders With Bltouch?

This is meant for people who had some experience with electronics and they know the risk of modifying your printer. It can be used for any 3D Printer but I will be focusing on the CR-10.

The tutorial will start by explaining the hardware parts and at the end, the software installation (Marlin), plus some problems and solutions through the tutorial.

Enjoy.

If you are looking for the Marlin file click he re

Please read everything before you attend this. You are responsible for any changes you make to your printer and this hack should be done by someone who knows the dangers of electricity work.

Hi everyone, for the past month I was trying to find sources where I can make my Cr-10 print with dual extrusion. However, there is a lack of information on the subject. After all the research I was able to print my first printing with two nozzles, and now that is working I would like to share my work.

This project may take a whole day or a few hours depending on your skills, but I will make sure I put every detail to make it easier for you. I believe the first part of the project is to know how much money and which part you are going to need.

So let get going.

These are the parts that you will need for the upgrade and I add it an extra board. In my opinion, I would choose MKS instead of GT2560 board but these two boards would do the job. I use GT2560 and then went to MKS after I could not make the LCD work and when the LCD did not work with MKS, I knew it was something else. But I find the problem and both of them are really good for dual extrusion.

• MKS Gen 1.4 or GT2560 Board I recommend MKS
• A4988 Stepper Motor Driver
• Extruder bracket
• Full LCD Controller
• Tube
• V6 Hot end (2)
• Pins Cables
• Stepper Motor
• Fans
• Tape
• Insulation
• OR
• Silicone Insulation
• Motor Mount Bracket

The rest of the parts are going to be print it with your

CR-10, here is the link:

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2777673

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2853340 BY Robert Schrade

Just make sure you print these files before you start disassembling your printer.

I made a diagram explaining how to put all the 3d part together.

For this one is going to be tricky, if you don't have dual z-axis then you are going to struggle a little, I have seen people putting the second extruder next to the other one but I have not try that before. I use a motor mount bracket and hold the bracket with a single screw from the hole that is left in the z-axis bracket. I had to use a drill in order to make a hole in the bracket for the wheel screw could pass through, and happily, the screw is not long enough to poke the stepper motor. This is not the fanciest way to do it but the motor does not move from its place and it does the job, but if someone has a better solution I open for ideas.

Here is a diagram of the CR-10 before any modifications. There is going to be some modification that you will need to do to the cable to connect it to the new board so beware.

Now most of the cables are going to unplug and plug, but the

only a few that may need to change for the board connection.

For the MKS is going to be the same, but with some differences in connections. Just follow the board's pictures, and you will be fine.

The 12 volts fans that cool down the board and the hot ends do not have a plug for the board, which means you will need to solder female pins for the GT2560 board or the KMS Gen 1.4 . This fans will cool down the board and the hot ends. TheGT 2560 board comes with the best labels that I have seen, KMS not so good, but will guide you on both of them.

• if you flip the board you can see where the pins need to go. Red is + and Black is -.
• For the Controllable Fan cable from the CR-10, you just need to plug it in the PWM Fan in the GT2560. This will allow controlling the fans that will cooldown the print.
• For MKS just cut the cables and connect them where the fan connection is located on the board:

  Red is + and Black is -

  .

• Both of them are really forward, the only you need to know is the "Heater 0" is the first heater and is going to be the left one and "heater 1" is the second heater and is going to be the right one.
• For the sensors, you are going to plug them in the X-min, Y-min & Z-min.
  • For MKS, you will do the same, but because this one has three connections for the endstops, you will need to use two of them. The only ones you need are the "s" and "-", you may need to modify the cable connection in order to connect right. I just shave one of the plastics that stick out of the connector.

The only ones you need for the endstops sensors are "s" and "-". Do not use "+" the motors will not move correctly if you do that.

• The stepper motors are plugged and play. The only one that will give you some trouble is the second extruder.
  • For this part, you may need to look at the first extruder and see which cables are needed it for the stepper motor, we only need 4, and the stepper motor uses 6. Just grab the wires that are only need it (check picture)
• The stepper driver direction matters, you want to keep the voltage away from the connectors
• For the MKS, holds the voltage screw on the left side or the power connection side.
• The Stepper Drivers that I like and they are the same as the CR-10 are this make sure you are using 1/16 per step to be in order with the Marlin firmware.
  • To check this type the name of the stepper driver micro stepping online and it will tell you how far can the stepper go, some of them can go as far as 1/32. More than that is not necessary.
  • For the A4988 you can check this link. The pins location will be located on the board between the two eight pins where you put the stepper driver, they are removable, but for this tutorial, you leave them there because the original CR-10 uses 1/16 micro stepping.
• The end tops are plugged and play, make sure you are putting the end stops on the right axis, or you will have the motor moving a few millimeters everytime away from the axis.

If you have any question you can check their website:

GT2560

MKS Gen 1.4

• This one is simple, just connect the cables that you remove from the CR-10 that came from the power supply and put them on the new board.
  • For the GT2560, you can see at the back which one is positive and which one is negative.
  • For the MKS, is really hard to see which one is positive and which one is negative. From the picture the one on the top is positive, and the one on the bottom is negative.
• Is essential, for the heat bed you have a black and red cable that connects to a switch which allows for higher voltage. Make sure you put the wire on the right polarity, Negative "-" and Positive "+."
  • You want to make sure you connect the positive with the positive and the negative with the negative.
    • For the GT2560, you can check the board for the positive (red) and negative (black). the top one is negative, and the bottom one is positive.

I basically follow this steps from this website:

Link

The only changes I made are this:

• I download the latest firmware 1.1.8
• Line (122) For GT2560 choose motherboard 7 for the MKS motherboard 47
• Line (290) Change from 0 to 1
• Line (329) Change from 275 to 300
• from 494 to 501 just leave everything in "false"
• Line (215) change it to:
  • #define HOTEND_OFFSET_X {0.0, 23} // (in mm) for each extruder, offset of the hotend on the X axis
  • this will tell the printer to offset the second extruder 23 mmm from the home point (first hot end)

• #define X_PROBE_OFFSET_FROM_EXTRUDER 30 // X offset: -left +right [of the nozzle]
  #define Y_PROBE_OFFSET_FROM_EXTRUDER 25 // Y offset: -front +behind [the nozzle]

For the people who don't like to learn the beauty of Marlin here is the li nk for the files, just make sure you use the latest Arduino software or you may get errors.

For some reason, there is a problem with the LCD connection cables, it works great with the smaller lcd but the full RepRap LCD it seems to not work.

For me, I had to flip the connections 180 degrees in order to get the screen to work.

I grind the middle piece of plastic that keeps the cable from going the opposite direction. Just grind and flip the cables closer to the board and leave the one in the LCD alone.

After that hack, the screen will work without a problem.

Some errors that I had in the past:
GT2560 does not upload the file: Remove drivers, for some reason the board won't accept the firmware if the board or the LCD is connected.

LCD make some noise but it won't turn on or show display: Flip the connections, you may need to remove the tip of plastic in order to flip the connections. Do not swap the EXP1 with EXP2, just flip it clockwise.

The voltage is something you will need to play with, most of the time the voltage is too high and you can hear the grinding noise from the motors or the voltage is not strong enough to pull the filament or the bed.

You will need to have the printer turn on at this time, just make sure the flat screw does not touch anything but the voltage screw.

• You need to move the voltage from the stepper driver in order to get the best performance.
  
  • first, turning clockwise will reduce the voltage
  • you start by homing the printer
  • then you make any axis move 100 mm
    • if you hear any grind sounds, lower the voltage, if the motor is skipping then add some voltage
    • the trick is to not hear the grinding noise but not at the same time have enough force for the movement.
  • for the extruder, you will need to add heat to the hotends and extrude 100 mm of filament
    • if you hear it skip, then add more voltage, if you hear the motor grind too much then lower the voltage
  • Note: You can use a multimeter in order to check the voltage once you are done. The way you check it is by putting the multimeter in DC Voltage and connect negative cable to the negative board screw and the positive on the screw from the stepper motor.

Here is the setting for simplify 3d that I use on my printer. Unfortunate I have not use Cura before, but I'm sure there are enough tutorials explaining how to use dual extrusion with different slicers.

Here is this Youtube video that explains how to use it with Cura and Simplify 3D with dual extrusion.

For bltouch script steps, I will send you to a YouTube link. The main thing you will need to be careful is the cables, they need to be in the right connection. White and black should be in the same way as the picture above or bltouch won't work. You can download the Marlin file with bltouch setting add it, the only thing you need to do is uploading it to your board.

Note: I have not done this with a GT2560, right now is just the MKS and it works just fine but I check this website and there are no changes in the Marlin firmware but check this website link