Oleksandr ShyshatskyiandClaude Opus 5
764af2aacd
FlashForge's virtual_sdcard tracked a channel so it could rewrite bare
M104/M109 to " T<channel>" and SET_PRESSURE_ADVANCE to pa_value_t<channel>.
The upstream virtual_sdcard we ship does no such rewriting and needs none:
both apply to the ACTIVE extruder, which _grab (or the ACTIVATE_EXTRUDER on
the same-tool path) has just set to this tool. That is also why the stock
start block's bare `M104 S<t>` lands on the right hotend.
Like the four SDCARD_* calls in 848db02 this was never breaking anything --
cmd_default responds 'Unknown command' rather than raising -- just one console
line per toolchange.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
creator5-custom-firmware
Custom firmware for the FlashForge Creator 5 and Creator 5 Pro.
It installs the way a normal FlashForge update does: copy one file to a USB stick, plug it in, power the printer on. No jailbreak, no soldering, no opening the case, no ssh needed to get started — the printer's own updater does the work.
Unofficial and unaffiliated with FlashForge. It voids your warranty and you are responsible for your machine. Nothing here has been installed on a printer yet — see Status before you flash anything.
What you get
| Mainsail in your browser | The full Klipper web interface at http://<printer-ip>/ — upload gcode, watch the print, tune on the fly. Moonraker comes with it, so anything that speaks the Klipper API works. |
| A shell on your printer | ssh as root. Dropbear is already running on stock firmware; this simply gives you a password you know — the installer picks a random one and writes it to anvil-password.txt on your USB stick. |
| Real toolchanger Klipper | A current Klipper with proper tool-change support, replacing the 0.12-era tree FlashForge ships. |
| A modern touchscreen UI | HelixScreen replaces the stock interface on the printer's own screen. |
| Nothing you cannot undo | Flashing the stock FlashForge package puts every file back. |
The stock boot process and the stock recovery path are left in place: the mod
replaces one file (firmwareExe) and nothing in rcS or app_startup.sh is
patched, so flashing the stock FlashForge package puts the printer back exactly
as it was.
What you give up
That one file is FlashForge's whole application, so anything that lived inside it rather than in a separate service goes with it:
- The FlashForge network API on
:8898, and with it FlashPrint, Orca's FlashForge profile and the mobile app. Moonraker's API takes over, which is what Mainsail, OrcaSlicer's Klipper/Moonraker upload and Fluidd speak. Slice for the toolchanger and send it there instead.
The camera is not on that list, though the app did serve it: mjpg-streamer is already on the printer, unused, and this firmware simply starts it. The stream shows up in Mainsail as usual.
Flashing the stock package brings the API back.
Which file do I need
Creator 5 and Creator 5 Pro are not interchangeable. Each package is built for one model and the printer refuses a package meant for the other, so pick the file whose name matches your machine:
| Your printer | The file |
|---|---|
| Creator 5 | Creator5-anvil-<date>.tgz |
| Creator 5 Pro | Creator5Pro-anvil-<date>.tgz |
Not sure which you have? On the printer: Settings → About.
How to flash
- Format a USB stick as FAT32. Not exFAT, not NTFS.
- Copy the file for your model to the root of the stick. Not in a folder. Leave the name exactly as it is — the printer looks for that pattern.
- Power the printer off.
- Plug the stick in and power the printer on. It finds the package by itself, shows the update screen and installs. This takes a few minutes.
- Wait for it to reboot on its own, then pull the stick.
Afterwards, http://<printer-ip>/ gets you Mainsail. The install log is on
the printer at /usr/data/anvil-install.log.
Two things to do first
One file per model, one flash — but do these before you start, because they are the cheap version of every problem people hit:
- Check the model. A
Creator5Pro-package will not install on a Creator 5 and vice versa; the printer refuses it outright, which is annoying rather than dangerous, but it is the most common reason a flash "does nothing". - Put the stock FlashForge package for your model on a second stick, and keep it separate. That stick is the undo button — see below.
The go/no-go checks — what to look at after the flash, in what order, and what means stop — are in docs/hardware-testing.md. Read it before the first flash.
If something goes wrong
Keep a copy of the stock FlashForge package for your model on a spare USB stick before you start. That stick is the undo button: flashing it restores every file this firmware touches. It is a normal FlashForge update, so it installs the same way — stick in, power on.
A few things are deliberately built in so a bad flash cannot cost you the machine:
- A crashing UI cannot lock you out. If HelixScreen cannot start or
crashes repeatedly, the printer latches SAFE-MODE and boots headless —
no UI at all — instead of looping. Delete
/usr/data/anvil/SAFE-MODEover ssh to try again. - ssh stays up even when the screen does not, so you can get in and look.
- Your
printer.cfgis never overwritten — it is not a file this firmware ships. Of the configs it does ship, one you have edited is left alone and the new version lands beside it as.mod-new; one you never touched is updated in place. - The kernel and the motion board are never touched by a normal package.
More detail, including what to do when the printer will not boot at all: docs/hardware-testing.md.
Status
No package has been installed on a real printer yet. The build pipeline and the full test suite pass — including the end-to-end update test, where the package sits on a real FAT filesystem in a replica of the printer and the machine's own boot script finds it, installs it, and boots again with the mod running. That replica is the printer's real filesystem running its real binaries. It is still not a machine.
Have the stock package for your model on a spare stick before you begin.
Documentation
| docs/hardware-testing.md | The on-hardware procedure, with the checks that say go or stop |
| docs/how-it-works.md | How the mod hooks into the stock firmware, and what the stock firmware does that surprises people |
| docs/building.md | Building your own packages from a stock FlashForge one |
| docs/testing.md | The test suite, and how we know a package does not brick a printer |
| docs/printer-replica.md | The printer replica: what is authentic, what is not |
| docs/toolchange.md | The toolchanger mod: the ff_* Klipper extras, the ff-*.cfg configs, and the Z offsets to get right before you print |
| docs/notes/ | Reverse-engineering notes on the stock firmware, behind the toolchanger work |