My BLT has been working pretty well. I’m going to do multiple bed meshes and compare the results to each other to check repeatability.
1 advantage of touch probes is they work on pretty much any bed surface. I just switched back to a glass bed. It’s thicker than the steel sheet but I didn’t adjust anything.
UPDATE
Here are some results for BLT repeatability. I ran a 3x3 mesh matrix 3 times. I then compared run 1’s values to run 2’s, and run 2’s values to run 3’s. The differences are listed below (I didn’t bother to list the actual values, but if you want them I will):
Run 1 vs Run 2
0.021383 0.015094 0.015094
0.013836 0.012578 0.020125
0.011321 0.015094 0.005031
Run 2 vs Run 3
0.007547 0.011320 0.011320
0.008805 0.002516 0.011320
0.000000 0.005031 0.001258
If I remember my high school math correctly, the 1st entry is 21 thousandths of a millimeter, or 21 microns. That seems pretty close to me. After all, we’re pushing plastic through relatively inexpensive machines.
There is a Marlin gcode that test the accuracy of a probe. I seem to remember doing this when I installed the EZABL to see if the install was and adjustments were correct. M48 Probe Repeatability Test | Marlin Firmware
You would think that if nothing was moved that it would get the same mesh every time. I SV04 does a 4x4 grid but because of the 3DTouch not being reliable I use a M420 S1 in the startup gcode to read the stored mesh. On the E3V2 I probe before each print. Don’t really know which is best or if it makes a difference.
My EZABL works fine on the glass bed on the E3V2 but I am printing with the black side up. The EZABL is one of the inductive type probes. I might flip my glass plate and see what happens. You right the touch probes should work with any surface. They just seem finicky to me or at least for. me.
I wouldn’t expect exactly the same readings from a bed mesh, no matter what probe is in use. That would be a perfect result, but there’s no such thing as perfection. The trick is to get close enough results from subsequent bed meshes that the values are useful for making prints.
only used the 3x3 mesh pattern for simplicity and speed. Normally, I use 5x5.
Mine defaults to 4x4 when I recompile the source code so I can use Octoprint and get messages from Marlin I’ll probably change mine to 5x5 too, makes sense on the bigger beds.
Knock on wood the 3DTouch has been working since I cleaned it haven’t had but one failure on a home. I haven’t been probing before each print as I do on the Ender. I’ll try that next.
To compensate for the warp I used Irv’s trick of Post-it-Notes. Wondering how good of an idea it is to put paper between the build surface and heating plate. Saw on another video where they used aluminum foil. Think I’ll try some foil tape I have.
Aluminum foil is handy if you have an inductive probe. I don’t think using paper is any kind of risk. The bed on hobby class printers rarely go over 110C/230F. I’m sure you recall the movie Fahrenheit 451, and that the 451 relates to the ignition temperature of many kinds of paper. Seems like plenty of headroom to me.
While it’s true that some people do have trouble with probes, I am very happy with my BL Touch; so much so that, when my previous 1 got fried, I replaced it with a new 1. For me, it just makes life easier.
After much back in forth, like 2 weeks worth but one was Chinese Nw Year I finally got them to replace the bed and probe. At least they said they sent them and gave me a tracking number that hasn’t worked yet. They kept referring me to videos on how to level the bed. I kept referring them to. the video of the bed being warped and the probe not working. I finally had enough of their crap and told them this was the worst printer I had ever bought. That it has been a problem since day one. I also reverend them to an email where they agreed to send me a new bed kit. I didn’t get real nasty with them but I wasn’t sweet either so I guess I made my point. We. will assume that they shipped it like they said. They also kept referring me to Fakebook and I had told them a dozen times I wasn’t on FB.
If it weren’t for the issues that I had I think that it could be a good printer. Can’t say that I’m impressed with the magnetic build plate. Maybe it’s because I and use to printing on glass and this this is different. for one thing it is or was pretty rough I mean sandpaper rough. I will say there really wan’t an issue getting this to stick but getting them off was another thing. As it getting used it’s getting less and less rough. Still ting I’ll end uo putting a glass bed on it.
Haven’t really messed with 2 colors much other than print some 2 color part for alignment test. Can print in the duplicate mode straight from the slicer to Ocotprint. So far I haven’t been able to accomplish the samething with the mirror mode. Don’t think it’s a printer issue but a slicer issue. Was messing with that until I started messing with Klipper and that has been taking up most of my free time.
I was looking at SOVOL IDEX videos today and was quite impressed. It will be interesting to see how your ordeal with them turns out. I wish Prusa slicer would take up IDEX.
It will for sure take up multi-tool printers pretty soon. That’s because Pruse is bringing out a new model, called the XL, which will be able to have up to 5 print heads. It won’t be true IDEX, because only 1 printhead can be active at a time, but Prusaslicer will still have to be able to handle multiple printheads.
The SV04 came with Cura profiles or should I say you can download them from the Soval site. You have to have separate printer profiles for each mode. So each mode is set up as a printer along with it’s configuration. I’m sure PrusaSlicer could be setup the same way. I just never tried it I started messing with Ideamaker and finally got my head around it. Works pretty well. Everything I ever sliced in Cura always took longer to print and I’m talking a couple of minutes either.Plus I just don’t like the interface. I’ve been using PrusaSlicer since it was Slic3r PE. I agree with Ender PrusaSlicer will starting multihead printers when they release the XL. I’ll bet the slicer is the works now and just waiting for the Xl to be released.
Sovoal and I came to an agreement about 10 days ago that the bed on my SV04 was warped and they sent me a replacement. It was in a Creality box and the same size as a CR10. I wasn’t a big fan of their flex build plate so I put a Creality Borosilicate glass build plate. They also replaced the 3D Touch ABL. Getting them to agree was like pulling hens teeth. Got the new bed installed and the z-offset set, think it still might need a little tweaking.
I found a profile for Prusa Slicer and used it to print a couple of things. Decided to try 2 color printing so I printed a kitchen sink strainer and made the lift knob a different color. Worked well it used a wall when changing colors which is actually just the brim that is added to every layer. The only issue I had was the knob didn’t totally line up. I thought I had the offset between the 2 hotends set but apparently not. Looks like I have about a 3mm X shift. I’ll run some calibration squares and correct this tomorrow. Now I can get this thing fine tunes and get to some serious printing.
This is the 2nd print since I replaced the bed. The 1st was the same file printed in only 1 color. It was printed with Coex PLA and sliced with PrusaSlicer 2.4
I’ll print another one after I get the XY offset between the 2 extruder calibrated. I don’t like the calibration stl they include on the Sd card to me it’s to hard to read. So I decided to make my own. In Freecad I made a 30x30 square and exuded it .2mm then I made a 60x060 square and extruded to to .2mm. I imported the 2 files together into PrusaSlicer and set the inner square to the left extruder and the outer square to the right extruder. Tomorrow I print it using 2 different colors and if all goes well I should be able to measure the offset with either a ruler or caliber. I’ll test my theory tomorrow, at least that’s the plan unless the boss lady has other ideas of what I should be doing.
Basically, my thinking is that it’s a good test because you can see just how well the letters line up with the surround. I printed mine with extra layers across the back, but it might be useful to print the white and black the same height, so you can check the front and back sides.
BTW, if you want an STL of this one, I’m happy to post it.
