I bought the artist d pro about a week ago. I have to say all the test prints have been great. However, since I’ve had it, the bed as developed a serious bow in the middle. It is a full mm out from the corners, which is making large prints difficult. I haven’t had any extruder issues, they are working great. No under extrusion issues so far. But the warped bed is a serious problem. Also the way they have you set the Zed offset is crazy. There should at least be a Zed offset parameter on the display. I’m pretty sure I’ll be upgrading the board so i can get some better controls on the display. Other than that it is a good machine and with some work it will be a great machine.
You have to compensate for the fact that the Artist D has a fixed pin under the center of the bed. If you dial down the corners too much they will be lower than the center. What I did was loosen the corners almost completely, then I set the Z Offset for the left extruder using the Z Axis stop screw behind the left gantry upright. Then, I worked on the corners.
Yes, the Z Offsets are crazy, Why is there only a menu option to set the right hotend Z Offset? I do realize that Dual and Mirror modes present special issues, but why not have a Z Offset menu setting for both hotends?
I also believe the printer needs vertical micro-adjustment screws for both hotends. That way, the offsets could be dialed in quickly and easily, even in the middle of a print.
Lol…the problem is the middle of the bed is 1mm lower than the corners. I’m going to try tightening the corners down as much as possible. maybe that will bring them down to the center of the level. I will post it it worked or not.
A bit unusual to have to corners higher than the center but, hey, it is what it is. Good luck.
Hello,
So that seemed to do it. Still not optimal but way better than it was. I’m pretty sure if I decide to keep this printer I’m going to upgrade the mainboard. Probably to an Skr v2. or something similar. I like to be able to put led’s on my printers for lighting. MKS Robin pro has no ports for LED’s. Most definitely have to upgrade the firmware. I’ll keep posting as I go along.
Also really needs an ABL of some sort on these bigger build plates.
Glad it’s getting better. I do have to wonder about trying to use an ABL on an IDEX printer, especially. On the Artist D, where would the ABL be mounted so that it doesn’t get hit by the other extruder?
Well, I could definitely design a mount for it on the left side of extruder 1. Might need a whole different housing. If I decide to keep it I will most certainly figure something out for better leveling. I’m think about checking out the weed x40 as well. It’s and idex printer as well but it is bowden…so not sure. The whole reason i got this one is because it is dd. We shall see.
I meant Weedo x-40
If you try to mount an ABL on the left of the left extruder (left-left??) you would have to do something about the purge bucket. I love the purge buckets, although I did replace the OEM buckets with a different version from thingiverse. they do a really good job keeping the nozzles clean.
Hello,
Yep I agree. I did the same. Upgraded the purge buckets. They are very nice. I finally got the bed leveled pretty well. Getting nice prints now. I’m still gonna look into a design for an abl of some sort. I’ll keep you posted as well as the community. I have a highly modified ender 3 v2. and a somewhat modified ender 5 plus. The ender 3 has an exoslide on the xz axis. Gonna put one on the y as well. I really like it. Only thing is you have to mess with the Home and probe offsets to get it right for leveling. I have one for the ender 5 as well. Just haven’t had time to install it yet. But the ender 5+ has an BTT SKR 1.4 turbo on it. Had to upgrade the stock board. it was way to noisy. I really love that ender 5. I upgraded the firmware for neopixels as well so it does the RGB countdown as its heating up. Then goes to white for printing. Also upgraded the display to a BTT TFT35 touch screen. Took a while to get all that working properly. But works great now. I have an BTT Skr 2 now. I was gonna put it in my ender 3 v2. But now I’m thinking of putting in the artist d pro. That is if I decide to keep it. Which I probably will. I know it will give me a lot more control from the display… like baby stepping and z-offset while printing. I’ll keep posting as I go along…if anyone is interested.
Z Offset while printing is really handy. I am still very interested in the idea of having manual dial knobs on the Artist D extruders so I could raise and lower the nozzles independently from which control board is being used.
That would be cool as well. As it is, I had to fine tune extruder 2 with the knobs for the bed. But seems to be working pretty good for now. But I am most definitely keep looking into a way to mount an ABL device and most likely gonna switch out the board. I let you know how it goes.
I would like to know if anyone has tried the soluble filament that they use for supports. Does it work well?
@Irv_Shapiro has used them. I know for sure he printed “The Thinker” using dissolvable supports. He did make a video about it if you want to check.
I saw that video. I was think more of an intricate mechanical design or something impossible to do without soluble supports. Whatever that might be.