Instructions and Firmware For The Ender 3 BL Touch Installation
- For V3.0 BL touches, the C7 capacitor must be removed from the motherboard. Please view the "Ender-3 C7 Capacitor" picture uploaded above. The capacitor in question is circled - the yellow one closest to the Z endstop plug. It is labelled "C7" on the board. It is easy to remove - use a pair of pliers and grip the capacitor, then twist gently. It will break off with no damage.
- When you complete your installation and are ready to test for the first time, try homing the printer and touching the BL touch in mid-air. This will ensure that your connections are working if doing so stops the Z axis from going down. The BL touch should retract, and the gantry should go up and then try to go down again.
- If you get a "U8Glib" Library not found error, go to Sketch > Include Library > Manage Libraries and search for "U8Glib". Download V1.17
- Sometimes if you try to upload it will error out. With Arduino, sometimes the fix for this is trying the upload 2-3 more times.
IF YOU HAVE A CREALITY BL TOUCH KIT, please follow the guide at this link to use your USB flasher to upload the bootloader: https://www.reddit.com/r/ender3/comments/cfmbdy/howto_installing_a_bootloader_to_an_ender_3_pro/
Please follow these steps to flash the bootloader using an Arduino Uno:
- Download and install the Arduino IDE from: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/Software
- Plug your Arduino Uno into your computer.
- Open the Arduino IDE. Under File > Preferences, tick off "Show verbose output" during both compilation and upload.
- Open the sketch "Arduino ISP" From File > Examples > Arduino ISP.
- Configure for upload. From Tools > Board Select "Arduino/Genuino Uno. From Tools > Port select the COM port for your Arduino. It will probably be the only one listed. If there are multiple ports, try uploading to a different port if the selected one doesn't work.
- Click the "Upload" button (The second button from the left at the top of the program, the arrow pointing right).
Now that we have configured the Arduino Uno with the proper software, we are going to use it to put a bootloader onto the Ender-3 Motherboard. This will allow us to flash our Marlin firmware to our ender directly from the USB port in the front of the printer.
- In the Arduino IDE, go to File > Preferences. Under preferences you will see a field called "Additional Boards Manager URLs". Copy and paste the following link into that field, then click : https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Lauszus/Sanguino/master/package_lauszus_sanguino_index.json
- Go to Tools > Boards > Boards Manager. Search for "Sanguino", then install the latest version.
- Under Tools, select Boards > Sanguino. Then select Processor > ATmega1284 or ATmega1284P (16 MHz). Finally, select Programmer > Arduino as ISP.
- Select Tools > Burn Bootloader. If the process is successful you will get no errors.
Marlin is the software that runs our 3D Printer. Luckily, we have provided a pre-compiled version for you so you don't have to mess with the code - just upload!
- Plug your Ender-3 into your USB port.
- Download Marlin from here by selecting "Clone or Download" from the top right of this page, and select "Download Zip"
- Unzip Marlin to a folder on your computer. In the Marlin folder, open "Marlin.ino". This should open the file in the Arduino IDE.
- Configure for upload. Under Tools, select Board > Sanguino. Select Processor > Processor > ATmega1284 or ATmega1284P (16 MHz. Finally, select Programmer > AVRISP mkii.
- Click the "Upload" button (The second button from the left at the top of the program, the arrow pointing right).
- Please resume our Youtube video for setup instructions!