1 Topic by Alex_B

  • Alex_B
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Topic: Calibration issues / ideas

Hello! Newbie here, I have bought myself a Davinci 1.0. Been wanting a 3d printer for a while and also being an engineering student it is a handy gadget to have!

Anyway, I haven't had chance to read too many topics on here about the XYZ but I am having a few issues, the main one is the what seems like arbitrary calibration system it uses. I can understand how it calculates bed height however I have been finding that it goes out of calibration with a changing wind! Even to the point of sucessfully calibrating and then come back later when its all cold and its failing a calibration without changing the bed adjusters.

I was wondering what peoples thoughts are about this? Is it normal for these printers to need a calibration before every print? My own ideas are residing around the chassis the bed is mounted on, being plastic I think the heating and cooling cycles are allowing the plastic chassis to bend and move slightly thus throwing out the calibration. Does this hold up?

Anyway I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this issue. I will try the calibration by eye method I have read about today as well to see how well that works, I also plan to print the bed adjustment knobs that I have seen on thingiverse (brilliant idea) to make it a little easier. (I plan to print them just as soon as I can get it to receive jobs that is! currently its receiving the job then rebooting and thus loosing the job and not printing)

2 Reply by carl_m1968

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Re: Calibration issues / ideas

Don't use auto calibration. Use it once to get a passing value then store it. After that start a demo print. As soon as the machine moves over the bed, lowers, and begins to print the purge line turn it off. Get a feeler gauge or even a thin business card. Something around .2mm. Move the head by hand to the three corners being careful it does not drag across the bed. Raise or lower each corner so that you can just slide the gauge/card under the nozzle with a slight drag. Do that on all three corners then never touch auto cal again. Just manually check sometimes in the same manner to makes sure it is still level. There seems to be some creeping in this setup.

Printing since 2009 and still love it!
Anycubic 4MAX best $225 ever invested.
Voxelabs Proxima SLA. 6 inch 2k Mono LCD.
Anycubic Predator, massive Delta machine. 450 x 370 print envelope.

3 Reply by scobo (edited by scobo 2014-11-04 21:27:17)

  • scobo
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Re: Calibration issues / ideas

Hi Alex, I think those are my bed adjusters you're referring to. Thanks for the comments.
I would agree with carl m1968, the auto cal is a waste of time.
I tend to just go by the first layer of each print and adjust the bed height slightly if it isn't sticking properly. If you get a nice, slightly squashed first layer your print should be good.

Davinci 1.0 with repetier firmware & E3D V6 Lite
Anycubic Photon DLP printer, Einscan-S 3D scanner
Simplify3d, 123D Design, Meshmixer
http://www.thingiverse.com/scobo/designs

4 Reply by Alex_B

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Re: Calibration issues / ideas

Ahh thanks for the comments. I will try that method next time.

And yeah they are indeed, nice job!

5 Reply by Alex_B

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Re: Calibration issues / ideas

Update:

I calibrated manually after the advice above, print came out pretty good and also managed to successfully send a print to the printer, not sure what was stopping that before but reinstalling xyzware seemed to fix it, now I am getting better prints I will be looking into hacking the printer to rollback firmware and also investigate different slicing programs. Let the adventure begin!

6 Reply by scobo (edited by scobo 2014-11-11 08:04:20)

  • scobo
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Re: Calibration issues / ideas

I had to level the bed last night. My prints were not sticking properly even the though it was fine a few days ago and nothing's changed ??
I did the auto cal and got a Z offset of 250 which should have been good but the nozzle was even higher from the bed and my print still didn't stick.
So I turned all 3 adjusters a quarter turn to the left to raise the bed slightly and bingo, a perfect 1st layer !
Reckon I'll go with this method from now on.

Davinci 1.0 with repetier firmware & E3D V6 Lite
Anycubic Photon DLP printer, Einscan-S 3D scanner
Simplify3d, 123D Design, Meshmixer
http://www.thingiverse.com/scobo/designs

7 Reply by Alex_B

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Re: Calibration issues / ideas

I am now getting reliable prints (bar a surface issue which may be a loose x axis belt, but now I am managing decent prints I will get your adjusters printed and fitted, fed up with the little silly wheels already (in fact the front one looks cross threaded and won't adjust as smoothly as the rest so hopefully yours will allow more accurate adjustments!)

8 Reply by scobo

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Re: Calibration issues / ideas

I got another tip on here yesterday for calibrating.
There's an android app on Amazon which works out how much to turn the adjusters during auto cal. It seems to work pretty well and takes all the guess work out of it.

Davinci 1.0 with repetier firmware & E3D V6 Lite
Anycubic Photon DLP printer, Einscan-S 3D scanner
Simplify3d, 123D Design, Meshmixer
http://www.thingiverse.com/scobo/designs

9 Reply by Alex_B

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Re: Calibration issues / ideas

I am now adjusting manually instead of the auto calibration so doing it by feel is easier than working out how much to turn the adjusters, but thanks smile