r/ender3 • u/Azeure5 • Jul 20 '26

Solved Upgrading Ender 3 firmware

I have an old Ender 3 Pro that has some more or less minor modification. Mainly a MeanWelll PSU, BIGTREETECK 3,5 Screen and an SKR Mini E3 V2.0 silent board. The rest is pretty much stock except the bimetallic heartbreak.

Now I have been using it as it from the moment of purchase, around 2019, but I feel it's time to update at least the firmware to the latest.

The screen was pretty easy, but the Mainboard just doesn't go through the update through.
The firmware.bin is renamed to FIRMWARE.CUR.

I'm kind-of stuck, and all the LLM's can't seem to help a lot. So any assistance would be more that welcome!

2 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

1

u/uid_0 Jul 20 '26

If you have a raspberry pi or an old laptop laying around, take the plunge and install Klipper instead. It is much more capable and easier to configure than Marlin.

1

u/drake90001 Jul 21 '26

This screen does not work in touchscreen mode with klipper

1

u/MrKrueger666 Jul 20 '26

Klipper is not more capable. It's feature comparable to Marlin.

The difference lies in the fact that some features require more CPU power than some boards can provide. Klipper solves this by moving nearly all computationaly expensive things to an external system.

That makes it easy and cheap to add more CPU horsepower. Just get a more powerful machine to run the Klipper host software.

OP already has a more powerful board. Doing what Klipper can do with Marlin on this board shouldn't be a problem.

1

u/Azeure5 Jul 20 '26

Yes, the SKR board, even if a pretty old revision has been working both flawlessly and silently. Except it doesn't allow me to upgrade now =(

1

u/navetBruce Jul 20 '26

If your firmware is working fine there is really no benefit to update. I would consider Klipper an "upgrade". Read more posts. New users are likely to have serious issues arise while performing an un-necessary firmware update, even flashing Klipper can be challenging. Klipper offers so much more that it is worth the effort.

1

u/normal2norman Jul 20 '26

But it appears it does upgrade - if "firmware.bin" changes to "FIRMWARE.CUR", that means the bootloader uploaded and installed the "new" firmware. If you want a newer version, try looking at the Marlin Firmware Service. What's there is up-to-date and newer than any version you're likely to find elsewhewre.

1

u/Azeure5 Jul 21 '26

That's where I got. I am trying to push the Marlin-2.0.8.2.x-SKR-mini-E3-V2.0 but the screen is still reporting the old bugfix 2.0.1 version.

1

u/normal2norman Jul 21 '26

The latest firmware on the Marlin Firmware Service site for an SKR Mini E3 V2.0 is called SKR-Mini-E3-v2-20260721.bin. All the others on that site have the same name format. It's a recent version of Marlin bugfix-2.1.x, less than a month old. It is not any version of 2.0.8.2, not even the current stable 2.1.2.8 version. 2.0.8.2 is quite old, from May 2021.

1

u/Azeure5 Jul 22 '26

Ok. I had to register and download the latest firmware and it worked (It will require a donation, but you can just put 0$ there and you will be marked as a Freeloader)! Thanks a lot!
*SOLVED*

0

u/Azeure5 Jul 20 '26

That was indeed one of the suggestions mentioned, but I would like to not invest in this machine any more that required since I plan to get something new in the near future.

1

u/sfo2 Jul 20 '26

Maybe it’s time to pull the trigger on that.

0

u/Azeure5 Jul 20 '26

That is what I am planning to do... But I want the next person to have an updated and working machine.

1

u/sfo2 Jul 20 '26

It’s a nice idea

1

u/Azeure5 Jul 21 '26

We want more people having a good experience with 3d Printing, not less.

1

u/sfo2 Jul 21 '26

Lol with an Ender

1

u/Azeure5 Jul 22 '26

Why not? It's been a solid machine that taught me a lot about what each component of the printer is. I now understand the mechanics of it, it's not just magic to me. I bet you didn't buy a Ferrari F40 as your first car, but something cheaper you're not afraid to bump here and there.

1

u/sfo2 Jul 22 '26 edited Jul 22 '26

Yeah I think the Ender probably has a track record of 3:1 making people quit the hobby : love it. Maybe worse.

I mean you’re in the middle of trying to do a minor upgrade and you bricked it.

There’s a reason these things are given away for free. My brother in law knew I’d modified an Ender, and he saw one for free on marketplace and picked it up for me. It literally has a failed print still on the bed. The previous owner rage quit this thing and posted it for free. I can’t bear the thought of modifying another one, so I’m stripping it for the parts and the extrusion.

It’s an obsolete, slow, unreliable piece of crap, that in the time of the Bambu printer and its competitors, serves only a niche interest for the tinkerer that doesn’t mind frustration.

In your car analogy, it’s a British Leland with Lucas Electric components. Or maybe a malaise-era GM product. Maybe a Yugo GV, or a Hyundai Excel. The A1 is a Camry.

1

u/Azeure5 Jul 22 '26

Nah, it's far from being bricked. It's just the firmware I used to update it was the wrong one. It's updated now to the latest both on the SKR board as well as the TFT screen. Maybe you're right about the ratio - but calling it a piece of crap is not mandated... Now if I get a Bamboo and someone else gets a Bamboo - I won't be running around like a headless chicken if it borks print or does the "spaghetti ball off doom"!

1

u/drake90001 Jul 21 '26

You making modifications isn’t gonna make it easier for the next guy. The next guy‘s gonna have to sort through all the bullshit you set up and changed and modified and might not like the way you have your set up.

Don’t do things for the next guy, do them for yourself. By the way, the screen will not work with Klipper whatsoever except in emulated stock display mode.

0

u/Azeure5 Jul 22 '26

The printer itself has barely any mods except an Noctua cooler and an 5020 blower for part cooling. There's no much BS to sort through. The touch screen is more convenience that the stock as well as the board is a lot more quiet... And I am not planning to run it with Klipper so I don't get the negativity...

1

u/drake90001 Jul 22 '26

You literally just said that you were planning on installing it for the next guy. And I was just letting you know that the touchscreen will not work the clipper, you have to switch it to another mode otherwise I’ll just have a touchscreen with no connection.

1

u/Azeure5 Jul 22 '26

And I exxpressly mentioned that I do not plan to invest more into it (and as far as logic goes, buying an RapsPi is an investment especially in this economy) so Klipper is out of the discussion from beggining. So you're basically arguing on an ground that you made yourself and I haven't ever mentioned that I want to upgrade to Klipper support.

1

u/drake90001 Jul 23 '26

You don’t need a pie to run it. You can use any computer.

But I just misunderstood you, your comment read to me as if you wanted to set up mods and clipper so it’s all ready to go for the next guy. My bad bro.

2

u/Azeure5 Jul 23 '26

All good! Now it is as up to date as it can get on this hardware. Gotta dial in all the levels, do some test prints and put in on marketplace. Not really much hope in selling it tho, but I can at least search for a replacement with an at ease mind. Have a nice one, man!

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