Creality3D, founded in 2014, is a 3D printer manufacturer based in China, offering more than 20 products. Their popular Ender 3 was recently voted “Best 3D Printer Under $200” by All3DP (review here).
Now, the company is making their most popular 3D printer, the Ender 3, completely open source.
This makes it the first Open Source Hardware Association certified 3D printer in China. This means not just a few files have been shared, but all hardware, CAD files, board schematics and firmware files are available. You can find the updated versions on the company’s GitHub page.
Creality 3D adds in a blog post that it’s proud to give back to the whole 3D community and sends out thanks to Naomi Wu (aka SexyCyborg), the YouTuber, DIY enthusiast and open-source evangelist turned Creality3D community liaison. Check out Wu’s video announcing the news:
Sexy Cyborg’s Take on the Open Source Ender 3
Wu explains: “As you know, here in China, respecting intellectual property and giving back to the community has been quite a struggle. It’s something young, educated Chinese here in Shenzhen find very embarrassing. We want to do better, but people said we never would. So, as a Chinese person, I’m very very proud to see progress like this and I hope you’ll be patient as we work towards our goal of having our own culture of innovation.”
Wu ends her video by asking a favor, that the 3D printing community continues to support companies which “play by the rules” instead of those which take advantage of open source products.
If you’d like to find out more, visit the Creality3D website.
Source: Creality3D YouTube Video
License: The text of "Creality’s Ender 3 3D Printer is Now Fully Open Source" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.