Can I Use An Ender 3 S1 Pro Board Just To Control Stepper Motors?

I have a control board out of an Ender 3 S1 Pro, and a touchscreen from the same. Can I get them to work for something other than their intended purpose, or are they too proprietary?


I have only done the simplest of things with an Arduino (LED flashing, etc.), but if there are libraries or firmware anyone can point me to, I will do the research.

How do you program that board?

For printer use, you have to flash firmare to both using the SD card on the board and micro SD card on the touch screen.

So you have the software for programming?

No, I downloaded the firmware from Creality and flashed it when it needed to be updated. At this point, I am just wondering if there is a way I can access it via the Arduino IDE and control the stepper motor drivers, and repurpose the touch screen for some other project.

It has a USB-C port, I suppose I could just plug it in and see what the IDE makes of it.

The board will run Marlin firmware, so as long as you can locate the proper configuration for the compiler (not sure if you need Platformio or if the Arduino IDE can be used), it should be possible to repurpose the board.

Doubtful the board has a bootloader that will allow programming over the USB port, all the updates appear to be done via the SD card.

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Unless you can locate a board package for it, I don't think it is possible.
I see it has a USB port, connect it and see what happens.

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The Creality Ender boards do run a version of Marlin, which could help with the pinouts, but you have to get the right setup to do the development.

Your chip is a STM32F401RTC6:

Ok, I recall seeing a video of the STM IDE in use. That is going to require far more investment in time than I am willing to spend. Thank you!

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So another board for the junk box!

Unfortunately.

Hi @arrowj. Arduino framework support for the STM32F401RC is provided by the 3rd party "STM32 MCU based boards" platform (AKA "STM32duino"):

Most 3D printers use the open source Marlin firmware, which is actually an Arduino sketch. The Creality Ender 3 S1 is no exception:

It looks like Creality uses PlatformIO instead of Arduino IDE to compile Marlin for the STM32F401RC-based control board, but the PlatformIO STM32 platform is based on the Arduino STM32 MCU based boards platform.

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This file from that Marlin fork goes a long way toward using the board for any other purposes:

...

Or maybe it is this one:

This is all extremely interesting and extremely over my head. It would take me weeks to get the thing to do anything. I am going to save the board for now, dig deeper into controller stepper motors using the Uno or Mega I have, and maybe a Pi Pico. I think I have steper driver somewhere. Alternatively, if anyone wants it, I will mail it free to the lower 48 rather than have it be in danger of never being used.