How reliable is ABL?

[Chadd]

Just curious if ABL is a setup and forget it type of mod or do you have to fiddle with it?

I still have to mess around with Z axis home position now and then and I am tired of messing with it. I have a servo laying around I could use to convert to ABL but was wanting to see how reliable/trouble free it is once complete.

Thanks,
Chadd

[paulpangrazzi]

In my experience, it's nearly set and forget. I'm sold.

As shipped, the Makerfarm i3V z-switch setup is so frustrating, that I immediately took on the effort (investment in time and intense head-scratching) in hopes that it would pay off later... and it does. Thankfully, there are good, nearly turn-key solutions available on Thingiverse, and great info in these forums. I had to learn a lot, just to understand the basics of the operation. I'm still not quite "there" but close enough where I don't worry.

- I've probably done everything you can do wrong in setting up ABL, including repeatedly breaking the z-switch wiring because of poor strain relief/planning. That spunky servo will eventually stress your connections to failure unless you loop wiring properly. I'm denser than most, so it took me two complete failures before I did it right. (Knock on wood.)

If you decide to do it, I don't think you'll be satisfied with anything less.

[sniffle]

...the only real failure point of abl, is how securely the servo is connected to the x acarriage, the foot is connected to the servo an the switch is connected to the foot so long as those things are all tight enough(but not too tight as you can prevent the servo from turning) it is a set and forget thing... and you can see if things are coming loose occasionally by going a z probe repeatability test :-) if you have a high deviation on your repeatability test then something is loose and moving, so it wont be accurate


as for wiring strain relief... i would suggest heat shrink, works wonders because it becomes so stiff...