http://www.soliforum.com/topic/8408/bed … beginners/

To be honest most printers on the market except very high end ones all rely on manual leveling. Even the high ends ones that auto level still do it wrong. It will be either too high or too low based on your layer thickness which the machine does not know during the level routine.

So just don't use the auto function it is useless and was just an add in to boost sales hype. Just follow the above procedure and you will find it much faster and easier.

I guess the point is you may have to clean the sensor tip, and the vendor needs to resolve their offset issues.

edit:
Just installed firmware 1.2.3, ran calibration and it looks like it is printing noticeably better.  Offset looks correct.  printing a test now.

If I adjust the Z height using the manual method (machine off + paper sheet), then the next time I run the calibration check routine the printer seems to think that the bed is too high and proceeds to apply some offset of its own, so again the bed is placed way too low. The only way around this seems to be compensating with a negative value in slic3r's Z offset.

Did you hear back from customer support? do they at least acknowledge the issue?

That is why you don't use the calibration after you do a manual leveling.

And customer support don't seem to care about this issue, as I have told them a complete solution to this issue, but it requires firmware editing, which I cannot do.

skestes wrote:

How have you disabled auto leveling? Does this Zero out the stored offset or simply direct the printer to ignore it?

Even when I level the bed with respect to 'Home' the printer wants to add it's own (and very very wrong) Z-offset. This has led me to the process manually setting the extruder .038mm above the plate when Z=0 and then to add a -3.45mm offset in slicer .

So auto-leveling (part of the pre-print routine for every job) was in the original firmware, but I've had versions 1.1.g and 1.1.l since then and this feature no longer exists.  That being said, when I run the calibrate routine, the z offset is about 4x the desired value of 0.2mm.

Instead of using slicer to fix the offset, I let the printer believe whatever it wants since the last calibration.  I then manually adjust the height using a feeler gauge in between the nozzle and the bed.  From this point forward, there will be no more automatic leveling, only manual.

I am currently talking with customer support, because this is a pretty serious defect--I'll update if they have anything interesting to say.

This is exactly the same thing I'm noticing on my new printer with 1.1.1J. The bed always starts off way too low (1mm or so the nozzle), which results in filament sticking issues and in a quite bad first layer. If I adjust the Z height using the manual method (machine off + paper sheet), then the next time I run the calibration check routine the printer seems to think that the bed is too high and proceeds to apply some offset of its own, so again the bed is placed way too low. The only way around this seems to be compensating with a negative value in slic3r's Z offset.

Did you hear back from customer support? do they at least acknowledge the issue?

Interestingly enough, I leveled the other day and it was "out."  I popped the table down a few times and let it spring back and then it leveled out PERFECTLY--75/75/75.  So the table itself does NOT repeat 100% of the time.

With regard to manually setting the Z offset, exactly how do you go about it?  This is how I assume it being done; 
1) allow the printer to start to print the first layer,
2) turn the printer off,
3) manually adjust the bed at three locations on the bed to get the desired .2mm clearance between the extruder tip the and bed.

Is this how you do it?

How have you disabled auto leveling? Does this Zero out the stored offset or simply direct the printer to ignore it?

Even when I level the bed with respect to 'Home' the printer wants to add it's own (and very very wrong) Z-offset. This has led me to the process manually setting the extruder .038mm above the plate when Z=0 and then to add a -3.45mm offset in slicer .

So auto-leveling (part of the pre-print routine for every job) was in the original firmware, but I've had versions 1.1.g and 1.1.l since then and this feature no longer exists.  That being said, when I run the calibrate routine, the z offset is about 4x the desired value of 0.2mm.

Instead of using slicer to fix the offset, I let the printer believe whatever it wants since the last calibration.  I then manually adjust the height using a feeler gauge in between the nozzle and the bed.  From this point forward, there will be no more automatic leveling, only manual.

I am currently talking with customer support, because this is a pretty serious defect--I'll update if they have anything interesting to say.

I seem to always need to clean the probe and razor blade the corner contacts to get it to actually make contact properly. I have since disabled the auto bed calibration and have set it manually. I print a large skirt around each print that allows me to make slight adjustments before the object starts printing.

How have you disabled auto leveling? Does this Zero out the stored offset or simply direct the printer to ignore it?

Even when I level the bed with respect to 'Home' the printer wants to add it's own (and very very wrong) Z-offset. This has led me to the process manually setting the extruder .038mm above the plate when Z=0 and then to add a -3.45mm offset in slicer to negate the printer's stored offset.

My stored offset is 240 and I can't really figure out what that number means. According to the company's video on bed leveling the offset should be anywhere from 200-250 but a https://skydrive.live.com/download.aspx … 9827%21156 states that a homed extruder should be .2mm about the bed. When I home my extruder it's somwhere around 2.6mm *below* the bed.

BUT, the glass is loose and it slides, so try pushing it towards the rear of the machine.  If you're using foil then you're throwing off all your calibration.  Most aluminum foil is around .2mm thick.  Even using it on all 3 pads you're telling the machine that the bed is .2mm higher than it is, so the bed is going to be .2mm lower on your first layers than it's expecting.  That's going to cause you problems.

The sensor not contacting the third corner...?

That means your bed isn't just not level...it's *really* not level.

The bed is level; the problem I was having was the nozzle pushing down on the print bed when calibrating the 3rd corner. This stopped the calibration sensor from contacting properly, as soon as i used the single layer of foil it worked fine.

I added the foil to ll three corners though so it wouldn't alter the calibration results

Leigh

That means your bed isn't just not level...it's *really* not level.

I just wanted to let you guys know about the issues I have been having with the Da vinci 1.0 'automatic bed levelling' feature.

I have been doing the normal bed calibration and didn't have any success with the xyzprinting video, I kept getting +999 on the 3rd reading, even as I was getting close to the 200-250 range. I was sure I was not setting the screws correctly but then I noticed something interesting.

The sensor on the print nozzle touches the first two corners of the bed fine but it doesn't contact the third corner correctly and the sensor cannot detect it touching and complete the circuit.

I have heard a few people complaining about the +999 issue on forums, but i solved it by putting a small piece of aluminium foil on each corner so the sensor could complete the circuit. (I attached the image below)

This may be an issue with the design of the printer, I just wanted to highlight this to you all as it has taken me 2 days of my time before I realised this and worked a fix for it.

Leigh