# Specific 3D Printers, Scanners, & Hardware > Other 3D Printers / Scanners / Hardware > M3D Forum >  The micro. New video. 3dp tests

## icanthinkofanid

I just got it back.. Have a look.

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## Duck

Looking good!  Is the filament tube issue fixed?  Like can you put the spool in the base and feed it through the tube?

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## icanthinkofanid

I hope to get time to show a video feeding filament internally and externally tonight. At the moment I think they only recommend external filament feeding.

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## icanthinkofanid

As promised.


How to load in unload filament video. One is internal, one is external. I recommend external.

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## Duck

Once again, thank you so much for these videos! With M3D being so sporadic in their updates and provision of media, you're the first/only person showing is the thing actually working. 

How's the bed levelling routine look, is it all sorted now?

How about homing at the beginning of a print? Does it still do that horrible grinding move where it just slams the head against a hard stop for a fixed period of time?  I was really appalled at that - I thought they would have used their accelerometer in the head to detect an impact/jerk, and imediately stop the motor for that axis and zero it.

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## icanthinkofanid

> Once again, thank you so much for these videos! With M3D being so sporadic in their updates and provision of media, you're the first/only person showing is the thing actually working. 
> 
> How's the bed leveling routine look, is it all sorted now?
> 
> How about homing at the beginning of a print? Does it still do that horrible grinding move where it just slams the head against a hard stop for a fixed period of time?  I was really appalled at that - I thought they would have used their accelerometer in the head to detect an impact/jerk, and immediately stop the motor for that axis and zero it.



I don't think the auto leveling bed feature is live in the software yet. They have done a nice job with the bed calibration setting tho. It's made it a lot easier in the long run. 

I'll do a real time video later of the beginning of a print. It's much better now, no grinding noises or crashing. 

Also have a look at this video. Its a maker fair robot printed in high quality.

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## Duck

If the bed levelling isn't live that's probably why they force the massive raft.  That's disappointing.

When you say bed calibration do you mean Z-gap adjustment?

Bed levelling (compensation) - touch off on several points and calculate the skew of the bed relative to the gantry, and adjust Z actively while the head moves across each layer to compensate for the hardware misalignment.
Z-gap adjustment - setting the offset from the extruder tip to the bed.  If it is out by much more than 0.1 mm you will get a bad start to the print (either too high or too low - nozzle scraping across the BuildTak).

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## WayTooManyHobbies

As always, thanks for the videos!  I've been monitoring the comments on Kickstarter, and with the lack of updates it can get somewhat negative.  Your videos, though, show considerable progress.  Now, if the software interface is standard so I can use Slic3r and Octoprint, all will be well with the world!

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## icanthinkofanid

Yea duck the bed calibration I meant is the same as z gap adjustment. 

As for the bed leveling a friend pointed out to me last night that it appears that it could be taking bed leveling measurements with the first pass off the raft. When it gets to the corners(all 4) it seems to be stoping and checking the gap the going on all while filament is extruding(slightly). When it's doing that the screen says "warming up" but you know it's already warm when it's extruding. The second pass it doesn't stop it just keeps on moving.  That could be the bed leveling on those stops. 

Honestly I have never stopped and read the kickstarter comments yet, until now. I'm shocked some people are being so negative. Most complaints are lack of updates, surprising tho because m3d has been updating monthly if not more often. This is the first month they missed their update by a few days. Last update was December 19. Some people need to lighten up and realize this is a upstart thing. There will be delays. I've backed 23 different KS campaign's(4 other 3d printers) and not a single one of them has given updates as often as m3d. Also every single one of them were 3+ months late on delivery, does that surprise anyone?

Thanks to those folks whom are linking my videos in those comments. I'm glad I could keep people updated. More to come tonight once I get done printing this tripod mount for my iPhone.

Also @waytomanyhobies if you give me an idea how to send gcode to this damn thing without the m3d software let me know. I'm willing to try loading code with octo print or cura.  For my CNC machine I've been using Mach 3 but I couldn't get the m3d to connect to Mach 3(not surprising).

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## curious aardvark

raft with pla ????????

Why ? 
The main reason I like pla is because I don't need to use rafts.

Looking at the robot, either needs retraction sorted or some active cooling. Lot of spiky bits on that. 

Looks like they're still got a fair way to go, print quality wise.

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## WayTooManyHobbies

> Also @waytomanyhobies if you give me an idea how to send gcode to this damn thing without the m3d software let me know. I'm willing to try loading code with octo print or cura.  For my CNC machine I've been using Mach 3 but I couldn't get the m3d to connect to Mach 3(not surprising).


Thanks - that would be great if you can manage it.  In my experience, Cura doesn't connect that well to different printers.  MatterControl is pretty easy, free, and simple to use - it's available at http://www.mattercontrol.com/.  If you don't have Octoprint working, installation and setup can be a hassle.

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## Duck

Regarding the raft with PLA: I've heard rumblings that it cannot be shut off, and it is built in to the software. Simultaneously I've also heard that the automatic bed leveling is not functioning yet. If that's the case, the two are probably coupled. If the tip of the extruder is not traveling parallel to the surface of the bed, a workaround solution could be to lay down a large, oversized raft - the bottom of the raft doesn't care so much if it gets bad adhesion in the areas where it's too high, because it's large enough that a good majority of it is sticking properly to the build platform. The top surface of the raft (which is what your model prints on) would then be starting out on a plane which is guaranteed to be parallel to the gantry - since it was built by it. I imagine this is the temporary solution until automatic bed leveling is integrated into the software.

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## Duck

> As for the bed leveling a friend pointed out to me last night that it appears that it could be taking bed leveling measurements with the first pass off the raft. When it gets to the corners(all 4) it seems to be stoping and checking the gap the going on all while filament is extruding(slightly). When it's doing that the screen says "warming up" but you know it's already warm when it's extruding. The second pass it doesn't stop it just keeps on moving.  That could be the bed leveling on those stops.


Cool, a clip of the whole startup procedure would be good to see to pick apart what it's actually doing.




> Honestly I have never stopped and read the kickstarter comments yet, until now. I'm shocked some people are being so negative. Most complaints are lack of updates, surprising tho because m3d has been updating monthly if not more often. This is the first month they missed their update by a few days. Last update was December 19. Some people need to lighten up and realize this is a upstart thing. There will be delays. I've backed 23 different KS campaign's(4 other 3d printers) and not a single one of them has given updates as often as m3d. Also every single one of them were 3+ months late on delivery, does that surprise anyone?


It is probably not so unbearable for you because you already have yours and are in constant communication with M3D, but for the rest of us, we have no idea at all what is going on at M3D.  To us, it seems like they've just dropped off the face of the planet and nothing is getting done.  Your videos are really the only proof that the thing even exists and works... so we really appreciate what you're doing in keeping us up to date.

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## icanthinkofanid

> Cool, a clip of the whole startup procedure would be good to see to pick apart what it's actually doing.
> 
> 
> 
> It is probably not so unbearable for you because you already have yours and are in constant communication with M3D, but for the rest of us, we have no idea at all what is going on at M3D.  To us, it seems like they've just dropped off the face of the planet and nothing is getting done.  Your videos are really the only proof that the thing even exists and works... so we really appreciate what you're doing in keeping us up to date.


I completly understand being annoyed with the lateness of the product. But that's normal for KS. Most of us go into it now with experience knowing that and even making jokes about it. My main point was in reality the update really isn't that late "yet". They said somewhere in the beginning to expect monthly updates. I expected it again by the 19th, as their prior update was December 19. My guess is it was ready on the 19th, but on the 20th there was a change and now they are just awaiting some news. 

Did you see the pics on their Instagram from the education connfrence they were at in FL? They had a couple really short videos there as wel..http://instagram.com/themicro3d




@waytomanyhobies. I had no luck connecting the micro with matter control. I tried every version of printer there. If you have any other ideas let me know.

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## icanthinkofanid

> Cool, a clip of the whole startup procedure would be good to see to pick apart what it's actually doing.


Here is the video

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## WayTooManyHobbies

> @waytomanyhobies. I had no luck connecting the micro with matter control. I tried every version of printer there. If you have any other ideas let me know.


Thanks for trying - I see in their latest update that this issue is specifically addressed.  Inferring from their statement 

"Our goal right now is to get The Micro working perfectly on Windows first, then Mac and Linux, and then much more development will be needed to make the system completely open G-code compatible. For example, pre-processing is currently used by the M3D software to offload processing from The Micro electronics itself, such as with bed leveling compensation."

this may be a long term issue.  Hopefully it will get addressed soon.

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## WayTooManyHobbies

> Here is the video


Hmmm...slow, and quite a bit of material.  In the update, they mentioned that the raft would be minimized in the future, and could be turned off by expert users.  I wonder if this could be associated with their statement about off-loading processing from the printer.  If the bed leveling calculations are being performed by the computer, rather than the printer, communication and calculation could be occurring while the printer is stopped at the corners of the raft.

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## Duck

I'm a bit less annoyed about the rafts now after seeing a few more videos about how easily they peel off.  I guess it's just something I'll have to get used to.  Every printer is different, I guess.

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## icanthinkofanid

Haha, I am still very annoyed by the rafts. They take a ton of unneeded filamant. Also some of them are not so easy to remove, some are a bitch to get off. Also I have broken some of my prints by trying to remove them from the raft. These rafts got to go,

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