Some of the newest Creality firmware, downloaded from the official Creality download page, seems to have a built in communication issue, making the printer impossible to communicate with. It's unknown whether any printers are shipped with this firmware.
On top of this issue, the firmware tested also has the Creality Double Temperature issue, which is fixed by a plugin, but the plugin solution does not fix this communication issue.
Example of how it looks in the terminal;
Recv: echo:Unknown command: "þE"
Recv: ok
Recv: echo:Unknown command: "@·\xff\x8d"
Recv: ok
Recv: echo:Unknown command: "µ\x9c\x01á\xff\x02"
Recv: ok
Recv: echo:Unknown command: ""
Recv: ok
Recv: echo:Unknown command: ""
Recv: ok
Recv: echo:Unknown command: "è-P\x15"
Recv: ok
Recv: echo:Unknown command: "ê¯"
Recv: ok
Recv: echo:Unknown command: "ñ/\x01"
This seems to happen no matter which GCODE command is sent to the printer.
So far this has been confirmed on;
-
Creality Ender-3 Pro;
- 32 bit firmware from 16 Jan, 2021 (latest version from that day)
The firwmare called;Marlin2.0.1 BLtouch V1.1.2 without transfer board TMC2225
- 32 bit firmware from 16 Jan, 2021 (latest version from that day)
But chances are that multiple other Creality printers are affected by this (most likely the other models in the Ender-3 series, but yet unconfirmed)
Solutions tried (whereas none have worked)
- Different USB cables
- SD card in and out of printer
- All the different baud rates
- Different (working) firmware on same printer, same Pi, same cable works, so bad setup is not to blame
It seems the only solution is flashing a non-broken firmware version onto the printer. I can't confirm if any of the latest firmwares from the Creality download page has the same issues, but building a non-Creality-specific Marlin firmware fixed our printer.
Got any more info on the issue? Any more printers or firmware types affected, or possibly a solution that doesn't require a firmware flash? Leave it in a comment and the thread will be updated.