No connection between Raspberry 3B+ and Ender 3-S1 (F401)

General Discussion
1

Creality Ender 3-S1
STM32F401
Raspberry 3B+
klippy(1).log (107.5 KB)

Hi there,
really trying so many hours to get it work, but there seems to be no connection between the Rasp and the Printer.

Klipper reports: ERROR
mcu ‘mcu’: Unable to connect
Once the underlying issue is corrected, use the
“FIRMWARE_RESTART” command to reset the firmware, reload the
config, and restart the host software.
Error configuring printer

ls /dev/serial/by-id/*
ls: cannot access ‘/dev/serial/by-id/*’: No such file or directory

Flashing the firmware, the screen of the printer just shows the Creality logo and some dots+lines.

Thank you in advance for your help.

2

Your board is not properly flashed. See Issues flashing the printer board

3

Thank you. I checked all the flashing issues but it still does not work:

  • Flashing: exactly what is advised, different names of the file, correct folder name…
  • SD-card: 8GB original from Creality, it works fine flashing the Creality firmware
  • USB-cable: good quality, tight connection, trying all ports, no other USB devices
  • make menuconfig Settings: exactly like advised in the top of the .cfg file

Processor Model: Visually inspect the MCU and note the respective type. For some boards, multiple revisions / flavors are existing with different types of MCUs and are requiring different settings.
Especially during the chip crisis, some manufactures (e.g. Creality) switched to different MCU chips without changing the board’s name, so it is crucial to identify the correct type and follow the respective instructions in the example configurations:

BUT: When I bought the printer I wanted to update the (creality) firmware using the latest version on their webpage: Marlin2.0.8_Ender-3S1_HWv24S1_301_SWV3.2.0_Nine_C_F401_FDM_LASER Jun 10, 2023

And? It did NOT work. The support sent me an older firmware (also available on the webpage):
Ender-3 S1_HWv24S1_301_SWV3.0.4_C_F401_FDM_LASER 21 Oct. 2022

This one works. (But of course I still want to flash Klipper.)

Hopefully this information is useful. Any help is so welcome.

4

As I found the use of Klipper running on a Raspberry Pi even on a Creality website, I asked the customer service if there is something special regarding flashing firmware of my printer, but unfortunately they can’t or do not want to help me:

I’m sorry to trouble you, but your machine will not be able to use Klipper firmware without the Sonic Pad and Nebula Screen. Please follow the tutorial procedure to update the machine board firmware and screen firmware.

Seems they prefer selling their own stuff - or it’s really tough?
I cannot believe being the only one with this problem using such a popular printer - even if there exist various versions/chipsets.

Still grateful for any hint…

5

Issue following commands:

cd ~/klipper
make clean
make distclean
make menuconfig
make

Compile the firmware with following settings:

  • STM32F401
  • 64KiB bootloader
  • Serial on USART1 PA10/PA9
  • Leave all other settings default

The Creality boards are generally a bit of a pain, so I’m not 100% sure, which one is the correct approach:

  1. Get the klipper.bin from the ./out folder
  2. Copy the klipper.bin to a SD card (below 8GB, good quality, formatted as FAT32) and EITHER:
    • Rename to firmware.bin
    • Rename to abcd.bin (any string that you have not used before, but ending in .bin)
    • Create a folder STM32F4_UPDATE on the SD card and put as firmware.bin into this folder
    • Create a folder STM32F4_UPDATE on the SD card and put as abcd.bin (any string that you have not used before, but ending in .bin) into this folder
  3. Put the SD Card into the board and reset the board
  4. Wait some seconds
  5. Check with ls /dev/serial/by-id/* if you get an result

EDIT:
Edited for clarity, but I sincerely hope that this was unneeded

6

Thank you again, but no success. Tried all the possibilities on different cards, but no way.
(I trust that the board is not flashed if the Creality Logo appears on the screen. Of course I also checked with ls /dev/serial/by-id/*, but no result might have other reasons, too (SBC or USB problem))

The firmware from Creality flashes immediately, with any card.

7

Personally, I have no experience with the Creality CR4NS200141C13 board.
It seems to be a common board, so I guess the issue is somewhere local on your side.
The influencing factors for a proper flashing of the board are listed in the article that I linked above.
The only real proposal that I can give you is to carefully go through each section of this article and make sure you can tick it off.

Edit:
Also make sure to generously deploy the universal solution in IT: Reboot the Pi and really restart the board by power cycling after each attempt.

8

I did it carefully, several times. And of course, power off the board after each attempt.
Reboot Pi: If I understand well, the communication with the Pi would be the next step. First I have to get rid of the Creality logo after a flash attempt. (As far as I understand, the logo is part of Creality’s firmware, which means unsuccessful flash.)

9

Finally I got it work.

First, one of my USB-cables was bad. For other purposes it was (and still is) fine, but not for the printer. No idea why.

Second: The screen of the printer is NOT(!!!) black - the firmware is properly flashed even WITH the Creality logo and some dots and lines.

Third: Don’t believe the Creality customer support - there is no need to use Sonic Pad and Nebula Screen.

Thank you again and I hope this will be helpful for others.

1 Like
10

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.