So you’ve got a normal Creality CR-10, you want to upgrade to a direct drive system and you wanna use the bondtech extruder? The Bondtech DDS Extruder would be ideal for the job, however, it is designed for the CR-10S which features additional accessories like filament runout. HOLD ON! It can still work! Here is a guide on how to fit the DDS Extruder onto an regular CR-10.
Step 1: Mounting Hardware
Start off by removing the old extruder and mounting the DDS Extruder onto the x-carriage following the Bondtech manual. Everything should mount the same and you should be left with a filament sensor and a length of PTFE tube. Put the sensor to the side but if you want to use a reverse bowden setup, keep the PTFE tube for now.
Step 2: Changing Extruder VREF
As we are changing the stepper motor on the extruder to a pancake one, the VREF needs to be adjusted. There is a difference between Version 1.1 and 1.2 of the Melzie board so check which version you have as the variable resistors will be different.
Using this link the VREF was decided to be roughly 0.3V. The resistor voltage you need to measure off is very close to the stepper driver’s heatsink but it can fit a small multimeter probe in. The inital VREF should be roughly 0.79V but watch when turing down the VREF as when you approach 0.3V it can jump down rapidly. Use a VREF as close as you can get it to 0.3V.
Step 3: Flashing Bootloader and Firmware
Before we start to flash firmware, we need to burn a bootloader onto the Melzie board. This guide here should be able to guide you on how to do this.
Next download Marlin 1.19 and open it into Arduino IDE, which can be downloaded here if you don’t have it. Take the files from the Creality examples Directory and copy them into the main directory.
You’ll then need to adjust the stock CR-10 firmware for the E3D V6 hotend to configure the temperature settings and the Bondtech Extruder for the E-steps. Here are the two guides here:
Step 4: Calibrating Your Printer
This step is optional but highly recommended to get the best out of your new setup. We found the guide by 3DHubs thorough in their description and explination.
Step 5: PRINT!
You should be all setup now to print whatever you like without out the hassle of bowden setups with a wider range of printing materials like TPU as well.
Big thanks to Darren Good for his help with this!
We’d love to chat to you about your 3D Printing needs. Get in touch!