Hello, 3D Printing Friends! Today on the BV3D Channel,
we’ll take a look at the MRiscoC Professional Firmware for the Ender-3 V2.
I’m Bryan, and YOU… are watching BV3D!
Hi, welcome back! OK, so today we’re
taking a look at the M-Risco-C Professional Firmware for the Ender-3 V2 and Ender 3 S1.
A while back …probably about 2 years ago by now… I fell in love with the JyersUI
firmware for the Ender-3 V2, and I made a couple of videos about it.
Unfortunately, the JyersUI firmware is no longer really seeing any active development,
and time has marched on. A number of you mentioned this
“Professional Firmware” for the Ender-3 V2 as a worthy successor to JyersUI,
and I finally had a chance to play with it. And HOLY HECK is this some awesome code!
It’s based on Marlin, and it’s made by Miguel Risco-Castillo.
That’s where we get the M-Risco-C from. M for Miguel, Risco for …Risco,
and C for Castillo. So, let’s talk about
what this firmware can do for you, and then we can get started on actually installing it.
The stock Creality firmware is basic. It tends to do just enough to allow the printer to actually
print, and has very few convenience features. The M-Risco-C Professional Firmware adds a bunch
of quality-of-life improvements to the experience. Here are a few examples.
It has an entire menu for filament management, with options to…
Park the print head, Change, Unload, or Load filament,
And a preheat menu with sub-items to preheat for PLA, ABS, PETG,
and a CUSTOM one you can configure as you like. The Move Axis menu has the usual “Move X, Y, Z,
and Extruder” options, and also gives you the option to perform a live move,
which moves while you turn the knob. And it also has a convenient feature
to extrude 100 millimeters of filament, which is perfect for calibrating E-steps.
It has a Bed Tramming menu, to let you move the nozzle to each of the bed’s corners,
over the adjustment knobs, so you can get the bed and nozzle on the same plane.
The Homing menu lets you home all, but also lets you home each individual axis,
plus it lets you set a final height for the Z axis after homing, so you can make it home, but then
have it always raise up a little bit afterwards. And you can easily set the Z offset from
the home position to make super fine adjustments for a really good first layer.
And all these features I mentioned are just in the PREPARE menu on the main screen.
There’s also an entire ADVANCED settings menu on the main screen that allows you to:
Configure the settings for mesh bed leveling; Enable or disable the filament sensor;
Set how far the runout sensor is from the extruder;
Adjust filament loading and unloading distances; Reverse the direction of the extruder;
And it even allows you to choose whether to use firmware-based retraction, AND allows you to
adjust those settings, right from the screen. So how do you get all these features for
yourself to make your 3D printing life easier? Follow along and find out!
Before you begin, I want to mention that any firmware installation runs the risk of bricking
your printer, rendering it inoperable if something goes wrong during the process.
So don’t say I didn’t warn you. Now, according to the documentation
on GitHub, there are a few requirements you’ll need to meet before you take on this project.
If your printer is an Ender-3 V2, its control board needs to be a V4.2.2,
4.2.3, or 4.2.7 board, OR an SKR Mini E3 V3 with an STM32F103, or STM32F401 chip.
If your printer is an Ender-3 S1, its control board needs to be a Creality V24S1_301 board.
To see what control board is installed in your printer, you can try looking through the vents
underneath while shining a flashlight into the printer. But if that doesn’t work you’ll need
to remove the bottom cover to get a look. Also, the printer needs to have the stock
Ender-3 V2 or Ender-3 S1 color screen with a rotary knob — made by DWIN, or DACAI.
The monochrome screens like on the Ender-3 Pro won’t work, nor will
color touch screens, like on the Ender-3 S1 Pro. And you’ll also need an 8GB or smaller MicroSD
card to get the firmware onto the printer. And you can use the card that
came with the printer. I usually have the best
luck by formatting the card, after I make sure I’ve backed up any files that I want to keep,
before using it to install the firmware. For this video, I’ll be using one of
the precompiled firmware files available from Miguel’s GitHub page, linked in the description.
Also, be sure to make note of any custom settings you’ve entered into the printer.
For example, if you’ve installed a different extruder and you’ve had to calibrate the E-steps.
Look up the current steps-per-millimeter values in your existing firmware and make note of them,
so that after you install the Professional Firmware, you can set the values to match.
So. With that out of the way, it’s time to choose a firmware file.
The printer I’m installing this on is considered “Mostly Stock.”
The only thing non-standard on it is the BIQU H2 V2 direct drive extruder with the E3D Revo
hot end built into it. The board installed in
the printer is a Creality V4.2.7 board. Now, it used to be a V4.2.2 board but a
year or two ago I cross-wired something on it and killed the old board, and the 4.2.7 boards were
the only replacements available. So, it’s an Ender-3 V2 with
a 4.2.7 board and no bed probe. Looking on the Releases page on GitHub,
you can see what’s new in the latest release. But scroll about halfway down the page to
the Assets section, and you’ll see a set of .bin files you can download.
And these are the different firmware files you can choose from.
And here’s how to choose the right one for you. The naming convention is: Printer type,
and then board type, and then options, and then release date.
So for the Ender-3 V2, I know I want one of the files that starts with “Ender3V2”.
The next part of the filename is the board type, and my printer has a 4.2.7 board,
so that narrows it down to two choices. Of those two, there’s one file for a printer
with a BLTouch bed probe, and one for a printer without, which can use Manual Mesh leveling.
Since my printer doesn’t have a bed probe, the choice for me is the one with MM, for Manual Mesh.
So I’ll download Ender3V2-427-MM-MPC-20230522B.bin.
Then, I’ll copy the .bin file onto my 8GB MicroSD card.
Like I mentioned earlier, I’m using the card that came with the printer.
I backed up the files I wanted to keep, and then I formatted it. So now,
the firmware file is the only thing on it. So, here’s how to install the firmware.
With the printer off, insert the card with the firmware file on it into the printer.
Then turn the printer on. The screen will stay black for about 15 seconds,
while the printer is installing the firmware file. And when it’s done, it will boot to the Main Menu.
Your previous firmware may have stored settings in a different area of memory on the main board
compared to the Professional Firmware, so it’s probably a good idea to reset the settings.
This will make sure that the new firmware is starting with known-good settings.
From the Main Menu, go to Control, then go to Restore Defaults.
The printer will beep, and everything will be reset to standard values.
And with that, you’ve got the firmware updated on the printer.
You can also install an optional update on the screen itself, to change the graphics.
But the stock screen firmware will still work just fine, so you don’t HAVE to do this.
And depending on your screen, it might not be worth the effort.
But I’m going to do it. The first step to update the
screen is to determine which screen you actually have on the printer.
Creality has used several different manufacturers, and while they function
the same… the way they get updated, and whether it’s easy to do, depends on the manufacturer.
So. Now it's time to play “Who made that screen?” Start by turning off the printer.
Then unsnap the screen from its bracket, and unplug its ribbon cable.
Then, remove the four screws from the back of the screen, and pop the back cover off.
Now you can see the screen’s circuit board.
Compare it to the images on the Display Assets page, linked in the description.
If you have a screen made by DWIN or DACAI, you’re in luck.
If you have a screen made by SYNWIT or TJC, these either aren’t supported,
or they need a custom compilation of the files, so there aren’t precompiled file sets for them here.
So if you’re one of the people with the SYNWIT or TJC screens,
that’s OK - the Professional Firmware installed on the printer will still work just fine with them.
You just won’t be able to update the screen to get the custom graphics.
Now, my screen is a DWIN screen. And if you have a DWIN or DACAI screen,
follow along as I update mine. This requires an 8GB-or-smaller
MicroSD card, specifically reformatted as Master Boot Record, FAT32, with 4K sectors.
Now, GitHub doesn’t have an easy way to download a subfolder from a project. So instead, download the
Source code.zip file from the Releases page. That’s the same place we got the precompiled
firmware file a few minutes ago. Expand that Zip archive.
Inside, open the display assets folder, then open the Giadej compilation folder.
For the DWIN screens, copy the DWIN_SET folder over to the MicroSD card.
For the DACAI screens, copy the private folder over to the MicroSD card.
Then eject the card from the computer. Insert the card into the card slot on the back of
the screen’s circuit board, plug the ribbon cable back into the screen, and turn on the printer.
The screen should start up with a blue screen, and then a few moments later,
it should change to a red screen, which indicates the process is complete.
If it changes from blue to red instantly, the update probably didn’t work.
And if it didn’t, try reformatting the card and copying the DWIN_SET or private folder back to the
card again, and repeating the process. The screens are REALLY REALLY picky
about how the cards are formatted. And if you still can’t get it to work,
that’s OK - the printer’s firmware will work just fine without the custom icons.
So. Continuing on, turn off the printer, unplug the screen, remove the card from the card slot
on the back of the screen, reattach the back cover, plug in the screen again,
and snap the screen back onto its bracket. Then turn the printer on again,
and enjoy the new graphics. Now that the firmware is installed, there are
a few “housekeeping” things you’ll need to do. Remember at the beginning of the video,
I told you to make note of your steps-per-millimeter settings?
This is where you’ll put those to use. From the Main Menu, go to Control,
then Motion, then Steps per Millimeter. Go to the axes you need to change. For me,
I only need to change the E axis, because this BIQU H2 V2 E3D Revo extruder (that's quite a
mouthful) has a really high gear ratio. So I’ll set that back to 932 steps per
millimeter. And then I’ll go back to the Control menu, and Store Settings.
Don’t skip that Store Settings step, otherwise the printer will forget when you turn it off.
Next, it’s a good idea to do a PID tune on the hot end.
This lets the firmware calibrate itself, so it can keep the hot end at a given temperature.
Now fortunately, the firmware makes this super easy to do.
From the Main Menu, go to Advanced, then MPC Settings, and finally MPC Autotune.
The printer will do an Autohome, and then it will perform a PID tune on the nozzle.
It heats it to 200 degrees Celsius. And while it’s heating and
performing its analysis, it shows a temperature graph on the screen,
which is pretty cool. I didn’t know that was even possible with these screens.
When it’s done, it lets you know. Press the button to confirm.
And last, you can also do a PID tune on the bed heater.
Go to the Advanced menu, then go to the Bed PID settings, and pick Bed PID.
Just like it did with the nozzle, the screen will show a temperature graph for
the bed while it performs the P-I-D autotune. And again, when it’s done, it lets you know.
Press the button to confirm. Go back to the Advanced menu,
and select Store Settings to save the new PID values for the bed and the nozzle.
So, now you’ve got the M-Risco-C Professional Firmware installed, you’ve done a PID tuning on
the nozzle and the bed, and you’ve got a bunch of new features to play with.
If you’re switching from Creality’s basic firmware, I think this will make using your
printer a lot more enjoyable! I hope you have fun with this,
and I’d like to hear what you think of it. Do you love it? Do you hate it? How do YOU think
it compares to the stock Ender-3 V2 firmware? Please share your thoughts down in the comments!
Big thanks to everyone who supports the channel, whether with channel memberships
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and maybe consider subscribing so you don’t miss future episodes.
Well, 3D Printing Friends, that’s about all the time we have for this one.
And now that we’re at the end, let's go print something cool, with some amazingly cool firmware!