Creality Ender-4 GPL violation?

I just got a Creality Ender-4; its ultimately a pretty solid printer- though it does suffer from low production values (my heater cooling fan broke within 14 hours and I had no way to interact with it, so it was just that it died on its own- the board cooling fan squeals like something about to die, etc)

Weirdly my Y axis is reversed.

So I figured 'well this is a standard Marlin firmwear, I'll just hop into the source invert the Y axis and be good to go'.

Then I noticed that no source was included, just 4 hex files.

I contacted the company and they are claiming that it is not open source.

I purchased through ali-express which I at least have found to be very good about applying reasonable penalties to companies for misdeeds.

Can anyone confirm that this is a marlin derivative, is there anything myself or the community can do beyond my either demanding they release the source to me?

If your Y axis is reversed then you should be able to just plug the motor connector the other way around to change its direction. make sure you turn the printer power OFF first tho.

Yea, I've thought about that- the cords are directional (IE will only plug in one way), so I'd have to cut and rebind;

Its not the end of the world even if I don't address it, just need to remember to mirror things that should not be mirrored in the y direction.

The issue is more the lack of source code, which the company not only did not provide, but then got cagey when I asked for it. That would be fine if they wrote there own software, but I recognize every part of the printer from any of the dozens of other marlin/reprap variations out there (with the exception of the core-XY movement)

definitely ....

I downloaded your attached Ender-4 automatic leveling.hex

Using Linux I converted it to a binary "objcopy -I ihex Ender-4\ automatic\ leveling.hex -O binary Ender-4\ automatic\ leveling.bin"

then using strings I dumped all readable Strings "strings Ender-4\ automatic\ leveling.bin"

And sure enough I found "FIRMWARE_NAME:Marlin 1.1.0 From Archive SOURCE_CODE_URL:http:// ... PROTOCOL_VERSION:1.0 MACHINE_TYPE:ENDER 3D EXTRUDER_COUNT:1 UUID:00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"

Dust, thank you so much for confirming my suspicion.

I am confronting the company representative now, hopefully this is just a language issue and once explained they will realize they need to release the code.

Hi I also had the same trouble as you with the y axis and it wouldnt home properly, eventual found that the endstop was wired wrong with the 2 wires close together on the plug instead of 1 either end as in the pictures in the manual. Also mine had the auto level option and this to was wired wrong but on the mainboard end causeing the lcd display to not work properly. uploading the hex file didnt seem to do anything with autolevel either so source code or at least the config file would be helpful.hope this helps.
Geoff

Be careful with the Y axis wiring- it only works one way:

IE- one end MUST be the 'board side' and one end must be the 'switch side'.

However that still does not address the 'reversed Y axis' and 'no source code' issues.

I would not mind getting $120 off if Aliexpress supports the claim, but grand scheme I'd just as well have them release the source, like they are supposed to, and I can patch the reversed Y axis and release the code to anyone else who's have the problem.

As for the Z-axis leading to system reset:

Be sure you:
1. Are using a proxmity sensor. (I found that the one that htey provided is cheap, mine broken within 22 hours of use)
2. Have loaded a firmwear that references the proximity sensor
3. Are using the proxmity sensor wiring to your Z endstop.


I did have the same problem, and it appears that the code on that board initially sets the Z axis to be a reset switch (for some strange reason).

Man, it has been ages since I last posted this.

UPDATE:
GPL violation: Aliexpress refused to recognize the GPL violation, but they did have me get refunded $120 for other reasons. My guess is that they did not want to admit that something that is currently selling on their store was breaking the law (and then need to pull it), so instead they picked some other random things and said that was worth $120. Being that Creality did not fight paying $120 for 'bad fan, wrong power adapter' I'm guessing that some conversation to that effect took place. Not the best result, but good on my pocketbook.

Y-axis; As the unit uses an H-bot carriage system, it turns out that the issue is that 'x' and 'y' are mislabeled on the board, swapping the x and y motor cables fixed the y axis without affecting the X.

And it looks like marlin now supports the ender-4 natively, so I could flash a real version of it now.