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

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!!

A little disclaimer. I got the kit without the fan. This upgrade is well worth the investment. It took additional You Tube research to get the software running correctly but it’s worth the time spent to use the upgraded control unit. The Capricorn tubing made a huge difference over the generic tube supplied with the Ender 3. Believe it or not I struggled more with the bed springs than anything else. The stiffer springs lowered the adjustability of the bed. I finally realized that I needed to start leveling the bed from the left rear instead of the left front. Because the strain relief shortened the adjustability even further. After that realization everything went much better. I can’t talk about the fan because My purchase didn’t include it. You can’t go wrong with this product.

This has drastically reduced the whining from the motors. Unfortunately the board package was damaged. It seemed that everything was packed too tightly and one of the heat sinks broke off the board. I had to buy thermal glue, let cure for a day. But after that it worked great! Additional pieces are good, I used the springs and new tube. I can’t speak to the sensor or the the fan as I didn’t try these out.

This direct drive extruder upgrade is a must have especially when paired with auto bed leveling and the silent board upgrade. This extruder is near dead silent when compared to the original hot end and is less prone to clogging and the better build quality and added thermal protection allows further ability to print in more exotic filaments and even more important allow higher print temps without having you hot end melt apart and cause a fire. If you haven’t upgraded your board or hot end please do the original build quality of the Ender 3 is sub par and has a few flaws that can be easily corrected within a few hours.

F1RSTLAYER customer support is absolutely stellar. You get in touch with them through their Facebook page using the Messenger. And they walked me though flashing the new touchscreen I had with the correct software to work with this kit and the BL touch I had just bought. They even sent the firmware specific to my setup thought the facebook messenger app. AND this is a good product to boot. I highly recommend that if you are thinking of making this upgrade, to purchase this kit sold by F1RSTLAYER. You wont regret it at all.

This board does make the printer run quieter, the PSU fan will only come one when needed - so the sound from the fans is not on constant high. The 32 bit drivers for the motors allows for the print head to move almost silently. Springs seemed to be a good upgrade as well as the new tube does have less resistance and all the peices appear to be a legit products and not knock offs.

update 9/15/21: well that fan making funny noise... well it died today. this fan did not run that long. guess you get what you pay for. update 9/21: all was well for few days, than stepper motors started to sing. found out it was board that was causing it. Contact Amazon and they sent me replacement. figure all will be good, but no. fan started to make noise on start up. takes about good 30 seconds or more and noise will stop (maybe need oil?) anyhow, replacement package arrives... again, static protection bag is open, and missing fan. anyhow, after install the board, it made noise and noticed filament runout sensor firmware was not flashed... WTF... after flashing firmware almost all stepper motor noise went away. (hope it stays that way) I dont know, maybe its just me having some bad luck or something. feels like these are 2nd hand or something that got returned and these 3rd party sellers buy them in bulk, put in box and resell. overall it sucked. replacing these boards arent fun. short wires and small spaces. hope this board lasts, cause I dont want to go through this again. Install wasnt too bad. remove wires, swap out board and reinstall all the wires. only thing was when it was booted for the first time, EEPROM thing came up, which community helped out solving. ill say, it is so quiet! it is so quiet now that i keep thinking it stopped printing. also hot end fan is lot quieter than stock version. i definitely recommend!

Truth told, easy to install only gets a 4 rating because Creality saw fit to put the mainboard upside down in the housing, and its just a pain in the --- to get in there. The meat and potatoes of this one is, as an upgrade, it borders on essential. All the screaming the steppers did when my printer was new has been practically silenced with this board installed. Its also more capable than the stock board I had as far as installing a BL Touch sensor. (If you choose to install one of those - and you should - make sure your wiring is correct so you dont cook anything!) Worth the buy for sure, if only for the quiet operation. If youre a real modder, though, make sure you see if you arent interested in other makers boards. There are a LOT of expansion opportunities.

From whirring, buzzing, whistling and clicking to DEAD SILENCE - I mean you hear NOTHING AT ALL. Like a new father I was checking on my newborn constantly to see if it was still breathing kinda quiet. There are so many new features that are available as well. Print quality improved immensely and I am a total n00b to 3d printing. It was plug and play install on my Ender-3 - not a pro or V2. Install was easy and straight forward. The filament run out sensor stopped a print and waited for me to change out mid print and resumed exactly where it left off, Saved me 3 hours of reprint time the 3rd day after install. Only reason I put 4 stars on ease of install is the fans that came with it - the wires needed spliced and extended. YOU MUST INSTALL THIS IF YOU OWN A ENDER SERIES PRINTER - YOU WILL THANK ME! Frank 2 - Ender-3s 1 - Xvico x3 1 - Flashforge Finder

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.