So to start off I want to note that the CR-10 I'm working with is actually from my work, but since I'm the only one who knows much about 3D printing in the office, I'm the one using it all the time (I am also the one who suggested getting this specific printer). We bought it from Banggood.com and it seems as though the seller knew about the temperature issues because the board we received had a capacitor already in place as seen in the image below.
The capacitor they put is a 100uF 16V capacitor across the ground and coltage pins of EXT-A2 (the signal pin of which corresponds to pin 29 on this board) which I've outlined here:
- Creality Melzi V1.1.2 circuit board
- Any capacitor over 16V and around or more than 400uf
- Soldering iron + solder
- Solder sucker
- Multimeter (optional)
This is actually very straight forward, remove the capacitor with your soldering iron and sucker and simply replace it with a larger one. I used a 470uF 25V capacitor like so:
WARNING: These are polarized capacitors so make sure the pins are soldered correctly. Typically the pin with the gray stripe down the side is the ground pin, it is also usually shorter.
I originally wanted to use pin 29 to drive a servo so I soldered pins in parallel to the capacitor as well as you can see here
Well that's really it. I plugged in my circuit board to my computer and made sure I was reading 5V or close to it (I was getting 4.93V) through the capacitor. After that you can plug everything in and start printing! I can now print PETG reliably after tuning my PID and my hotend holds temperature beautifully.
I hope that this small simple tutorial has helped at least one other fellow maker out there. May your filament always be dry, your extrusion always be even, and your temperatures always be stable.