Creality Ender 3 – 2nd upgrade

It’s pretty much granted that Octoprint would be my first “upgrade” but I went a little further and added excellent mobile notifications, Sonoff POW R2 to measure the cost of the prints and turn the darn thing off when it’s not needed. My 2nd Ender 3 upgrade was to limit cables.

Ender 3 upgrade

I have seen modifications online which splice the power supply cord in order to power the Raspberry Pi running Octoprint. That’s fine, but you will have to power the printer on first to access the Octoprint. I had a different idea. Since Sonoff POW R2 already controls when the printer is turned on, I just wanted to power up the Octoprint using the same plug.

Instead of splicing the cable coming from the power supply, I added a pretty strong 5V 3A switching power supply in line with the Sonoff. This way my Ender 3 upgrade will keep the Octoprint running, while the rest of the printer can sleep.

What’s needed for the 2nd Ender 3 upgrade?

You will need just a couple of things:

• This switching power supply
• microUSB cable (can be power only)
• mains wire
• bolt with rail screw
• (I assume that you already have a sonoff device inline)

First of all, be careful. Take your time, as you wire the mains power supply. Disconnect everything before you start splicing wires.

The mains input has to be spliced and connected with the switching power supply. This way, the Octoprint and Sonoff POW will be powered on. Then cut the microUSB cable.

If you have a data cable, just isolate the red and black wires. If your cable is just for power, you will have no other colours. Connect cut ends to the terminal (check the positive and negative) and make the final inspection.

For now, the Sonoff is attached to the Creality Ender 3 printer with a 3M tape. The new power supply for the Raspberry Pi is bolted down to the rail using an M5 bolt. I had to make the mounting bracket hole a little bigger. Time will tell if the power supply stays here. I’m planning to hide all of the added electronics in a custom enclosure. But this has to wait for my 180-degree camera contraptions first.

Conclusion

This is a very small and inexpensive upgrade. It keeps the printer off as much as possible while powering up the Octoprint. Since the printer will be in my garage, I want to make sure I can start the print without going all the way to the garage to start the server. It would kill the purpose of it. Next one, filament monitor and the camera jig for awesome timelapse. Any questions? Let me know in this Reddit thread.