This is an initiative to create an overview of the issues found with the Creality CR-6 SE.
As of this writing (2020-09-19) the large number of the motherboard issues have not been publicly acknowledged. Hopefully this overview forces Creality to acknowledge the issues with the Creality CR-6 SE leveling free 3d printer.
The power switch fails. This can cause it to turn off mid-print, not turn off at all, or smoke coming from the switch. It appears that the issue is two-fold:
- Creality used the wrong crimps for the switch: the switch is rated 10A, but 16A crimps were used for connecting the wires to the switch.
- The switch itself is of bad quality and does not make good contact internal contact. Eventually the switch fails.
Some users have been replacing the switches proactively. It is very hard to get into contact with support, and otherwise it takes weeks for something as trivial as a switch to arrive.
This issue has been sort-of acknowledged by Creality.
It appears that in the newer batches Creality has switched to a new switch. You can identify this switch by that it has three prongs.
The filament run-out sensor seems to have a high failure rate. There appear to be multiple issues happening:
- The PCB of the filament run-out sensor is not fixed in the housing. This appears to be fixable by the user though (video on YouTube).
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The wiring to the filament runout sensor can become loose due to vibrations. Fixable as seen in this video.
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The filament sensor fails entirely: it never detects filament. It is not fixable, but can be bypassed by using a 10K resistor.
The largest issue with the CR-6 SE is the motherboard issues. It cannot be worked around by the user and requires a replacement.
** These issues have not been (fully) acknowledged by Creality**
There appear to be several issues happening:
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The printer motherboard can be powered up via USB, and this causes boot failures because the motherboard gets confused. This can be worked around by using an USB optocoupler or preventing the USB 5V pin connecting.
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The printer works fine, but connecting it via USB blows up the USB host ports on the Raspberry PI or computer attached.
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The printer work fine, but plugging in an USB cable blows up the printer. Sparks may occur.
Several reports have been made that the motherboard PCB itself melts down, accompanied with smoke. Sometimes this happens shortly after first power on or shortly after the first print. However, it can and has happened after two weeks too.
This issue has been partially acknowledged by Creality, stating that 0.15% of the motherboards are affected.
Back on the envelope calculation: 0.15% means that on 10.000 units only 15 motherboards are affected. That seems reasonable, but as of this writing only 4000 units were received. Count maybe 1000 sold in retail and you come to about 5000 units "in production".
Let's count. To protect the privacy of the people who posted it I'm using the initials of the people, so you can see there is no double counting.
- 17 August by JW - Put the cr-6 se together last night, ran an eevee test. It worked awesome. This morning turned it on and it popped with a puff of smoke.
Seems not as horrible as it seems, but it does seem that the failure rate is slightly about 0.15%.
We're not at the end of the Kickstarter yet. The units sent on 4-10 August are now arriving in Europe. This means that over 50% of the units did not arrive yet.
Secondly, this has already been a horribly handled Kickstarter. Creality has been either dishonest about shipping ("express shipping") or has switched their decisions multiple times ("no sorry, we ship by top countries first, oh and we forgot to mention that add-ons orders will be shipped last").
If you live in Europe or Australia, and ordered add-ons, that means you're at the back of the line. Those printers are now (mid-September) being shipped. With shipping times being over 40 days, imagine receiving your printer at the end of October, only to have it go up in a puff of smoke.
