Authentic Creality 4.2.7 32 Bit TMC2225 Silent Control Board with Filament Runout Sensor, 24V Ultra Silent Fan for Ender 3 / Pro / V2 / 5 Includes 1M Capricorn PTFE and Other Accessories Upgrade Kit

is good.lol

I just started my 3D printing journey at the beginning of this month with a Ender 3 Pro. A few YouTube videos convinced me to get a CR Touch and an Upgraded Mainboard. This kit came with a Filament Runout Sensor, which seemed like a good idea. I upgraded my Ender 3 Pro in steps. First with the mainboard replacement. It was such a dramatic difference! I have my 3D Printer in the basement, I could hear the motors whine with every movement in my kitchen. It cannot be emphasized enough, the motors are so quiet now. Youll be looking for ways to silence the fans next. The mainboard replacement should be everyones first upgrade. In addition to silencing the motors, it allows you to add on things like a CR Touch sensor and a Filament Runout Sensor. It also has more memory so that you can apply more firmware updates than the stock mainboard could hold. I then moved on to install a CR Touch. Finding the precompiled firmware for this wasnt hard. I found it on Crealitys website. One of the things I learned is that you cannot grab firmware with what you hope to install later. It will cause the 3D Printer to error out. You have to stick with firmware for the devices you have installed. Firmware updates are nice and easy with this board. Just load the .bin file to the root of the micro SD card turn on your Ender 3, wait an extra few seconds and everything is done. As long as you dont hear a long wail from the LCD speaker, youre fine. Later on, I installed the included Filament Runout Sensor. Save yourself some time and find the F1rst Layer Facebook page. It has the link to their Google Drive where they help you find the Filament Runout Sensor mounting plate to print out and they even have the correct firmware precompiled. I didnt know this and hunted for the firmware on my own and was resigning myself to either dropping the search or maybe building my own Marlin firmware in a couple months. I happened to look at the product page on Amazon and found that F1rst Layer offers support. So I reached out and they pointed me to the right firmware combination. Even better, the firmware they pointed me to is the latest Marlin firmware with an updated menu that captures everything I was looking to do! This kit ended up being a fantastic upgrade and highly recommended. F1rst Layer provided great support and deserves your business.

The negative first. 1) no instructions included at all -a) the video link is outdated, incorrect, and doesnt cover all items in kit. Not even by kit maker. 2) the fan doesnt fit and has to be modified (ender 3 pro) 3) coding the firmware was a pain and a guessing game using multiple videos online, seller could just provide a link to a file or a memory card with firmware 4) havent been able to print since upgrading More to come Im sure

So where to start? F1st Layer has been an excellent company to work with. This product is by far one of the best items purchased from F1st Layer so far. It is extremely quiet! The biggest drawback was the install, if you purchased the BLTouch kit from F1st Layer you will need to swap the pins on the power cable for the BLTouch to match the pinout on the new silent board. Also F1st Layer includes Capricorn tubing and couplings in just about every package so dont worry about running out!

I bought this board and had some trouble with it originally. The support team was fantastic and helped me get the issue resolved quickly!

Works as described

Installation was quick and easy and I could not be happier. I did have to try a couple of different MicroSD cards as the system would not recognize the initial MicroSD card used; however, after switching to a different MicroSD card, I was able to easily upgrade to the latest version of Marlin. This board is a must when it comes to upgrades. Unfortunately, the mainboard fan is still tied to the part cooling fan circuit, but a minor modification allows for the mainboard fan to be tied into the hotend fan circuit.

I added the sprite hotend to my Ender 3 Pro.Install was very straightforward and the addition of the silent fan helped quiet my setup. I mainly print props and figures and so far this hotend has not disappointed. This combined with the F1rstLayer firmware has helped me get great quality prints.

My Ender 3 Pro is nearly silent now due to both the mainboard upgrade from 4.2.2 to 4.2.7 and the near-silent fan. Note: The fan that came with my package was a clear plastic vs. the black shown in the item description picture, but no matter - it was still much quieter. I would have appreciated clearer instructions for the runout sensor but otherwise this was a worthwhile upgrade.

Update 3/20/2021: The filament runout sensor uses a simple internal microswitch, and is unfortunately unable to accept a filament entering in reverse. This is a problem, because once the end of the filament triggers the sensor during normal prints and causes the printer to initiate the filament runout sequence, the subsequent filament unload process wont be able to push the remaining filament back through this sensor! The filament will get stuck inside the sensor resulting in the extruder clicking in reverse and its gears chewing filament in place. The design is really not great at all. A very very simple design tweak would have avoided the issue altogether (the internal lever should have been designed to have a hump shape instead of a cliff shape). Oh well, I guess for this price they could not be bothered to think through such corner cases. ----- Original Review: I can no longer hear the stepper motors at all after upgrading. I knew this was going to reduce some of the wee-waa noises during printing, but I was not expecting a difference quite this big. The only noise I now hear is coming from the fans, and I am working on strategies to make those quieter as well. I am really glad I went with this upgrade. A few things to know if you purchase this board: 1. the firmware that comes on the board is really old (1.x.x) and optimized for 8-bit ATmel processors. Its easier to download the latest firmware source code (2.x.x) and build it yourself with VSCode -- lots of videos online on how to do this easily. 2. Make sure you set the correct motherboard in Configuration.h (for example BOARD_CREALITY_V427) 3. Set the correct build target in platformio.ini (STM32F103RET6_creality). Good luck!!