Creality Original Ender 3 Direct Drive Upgrade Kit, Comes with 42-40 Stepper Motor Hotend Kit, 1.75mm Direct Drive Extruder Fan and Cables Support Flexible TPU Filament

I find that buying OEM parts and replacements are usually the way to go. In this case I just want my Ender 3 V2 to keep printing. I bought this so that I could print TPU more reliably. Seems you need direct drive to do that! Just keep in mind that with this unit you can now reduce the amount of retraction from 6mm down to 1mm or less depending on the filament you are using. Direct drive does not need the extra length that a Bowden tube required. And when you do get a clog... it's easier to push it through. For the Ender 3, it doesn't seem to be an issue with the extra weight on the hot end. If you think that it does because of flexing you can always add an extra Z-axis for dual Z drive.

I bought this so I could began printing tpu. I was shocked at how well designed and built this assembly was. I usually refrain from doing printer upgrades because I hate having to do extreme, hacks to my printer (changing firmware, cutting or modifying the circuit, cutting or modifying the frame, modifying the belts). This piece is super easy to install onto the frame, If you loosen the bottom wheel, your old one will slide right off and your new one will slide right on, this is nice because you dont have to take your frame apart. I like that all the cables match the originals and there are no extras. Snap a picture of the circuit board before disconnecting your original, look at the picture and copy it with the new one! No looking at schematics, or having to solder and heat shrink. I like that the cable utilizes the original frame notch for securing. I like that the extrutruder cable is an extension to the original. You dont have to mess with the braided sheathing and take a chance at messing it up, you just plug the male end of the extension , to the female of the original. This keeps the printer looking good because your still concealing the majority of the cable in braided sheath. The MTA connector connecting two can only be plugged in one way and feels tight and snug. The head is fully assembled with a .4 nozzle, the head feels strong, and durable, bearings feel good. The images are right after I installed the head. Re-leveled my bed, and this is the first print to come out, it was my test print. I only made ONE change, I adjusted the temp up 30 degrees up to 250. No other printer changes or slicer changes. With as good as this part was designed, I plan on checking out other OEM Creality upgrades. I give this an A+ and cant wait to try other OEM upgrades.

Went from boden tube to direct drive. Best move to upgrade your system. No fee rate issues now. Clogging is gone. Good quality and fit perfect in place of the old head. Seems just as durable as the original. It does take some knowledge to remove the old and put the new one on.

Seems to be working well and reducing jamming so far, especially when printing areas with lots of retractions (large areas of small circles, in particular, like the top of dense clusters of support branches, used to jam almost instantly regardless of speed and retraction setting). Would be nice if it came with directions, or a wiring diagram for a version of the motherboard that has shipped in the last eight years. Has a diagram for the 1.1 board in the package, but nothing for the 2.4.4 board that the Ender 3 Pro shipped with, and no other assembly recommendations/instructions. The wiring on the actual device also doesn't match what's in the diagram - none of the cable colors or tags match, so you just have to kind of guess and pray.Found that the set screws on the extruder drive gear were not screwed in - after a short test print, extruder started clicking constantly. Since the set screws were not tightened before shipping, the extruder drive gear had walked itself nearly off the post, and the protruding screws were clicking were they dug against the housing. Had to reseat this gear and re-tighten the set screws (there's two of them) manually and then it has worked well since.

Great upgrade. Makes filament install much easier. Smooth prints. Only downside is install is very tideous. Requires going into processor board, removing hot glue securing very small connectors removing tape bundling wiring harness

Not very hard to installRemember to calibrate the E steps after installing this upgrade. New out the box first print , it was making a clicking sound, I found all the bolts aren’t very tight after re toque every bolt , noise would come and go , I started to watch the print and wait for the noise to happen, then I saw the noise is from the Extruder motor stuck moving back and forward skipping over the PLA . I attempted to adjust things up and nothing would make the noise stop. Luckily I had a extruder motor sitting around that was the same as this kit . Installed a replacement motor and re calibrate E steps. It printed very nicely(Nozzle that came installed didn’t like inland translucent PLA it got clogged fast )I did a nozzle upgrade work good so farUpdate….After 3 replacement direct drive extruder kitsEach kit had a different location for the belt I had to purchase a new belt kit cause some of this required a longer belt , each kit came with different heating unit.After messing around for week I learned that the motherboard of my 3 d printer went bad and it was the reason why the extruder was making a clicking noise , I could watch the PLA skipping while the motor was moving back and forwards very quickly.Oddly my ender 3 pro was working perfectly before I decided to upgrade some components. I feel like the first defective unit caused the motherboard to go bad.I removed the direct extruder kit and installed my old set up with the original motherboard and the extruder was acting up with the skipping and the noise . This was working fine prior to the upgrade installation, so I purchased a silent board upgrade and kept the original extruder and printer is working flawlessly.I would like to upgrade to direct extruder, I’m thinking about purchasing the newer version of direct extruder from creality that cost $100

Works great. A bit hard to get level but not sure if that's the machine or the house. Creates with a lot detail

I was able to print smaller items with my original Bowden tube setup on a Ender 3 pro but larger items would continuously jam in the feed gears. This direct drive solved the problem and I'm having no issues.Installation was pretty easy despite no included instructions. The only non-obvious step was the fact that wire colors for cooling fan power were different and the connector was not keyed but silkscreen on the control PCB v. 4.2.2 was pretty clear. I moved the bed leveling hardware from the original hotend, reset Z offset and printed a test sample successfully. Total time was less than 30 minutes.Very happy with this purchase. Now, what to do with the old filament feed stepper....

The box was pretty beat up, but the parts are good,