CTC Anet A8? Print not centering on bed. Advice needed.

[curious aardvark]

well if you work out how to change the firmware - let me know :-)

I have the exact same machine - and NO it is NOT a beginner machine, not no way no how.

The board does NOT come with a bootloader, neither does it have the requisite connector to add a hardware bootloader type thing.
So good luck with that :-)
They have pared the cost to the bone and that included the atmega 128 (might even be a 64) version of the board itself.

As the screen is also the cheapest on the planet and the version of marlin used is so god-awful you can't even do something as simple as easily loading filament, I eventually gave up and ordered a new board and screen combo.
Around £34 - though for that price you pay in post time.
According to ebay it'll arrive somewhere between the start of june and the end of july :-)
This is what I ordered:

screenbioardcombo.jpg

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/IGTREETEC...936e%7Ciid%3A1

Hmm not sure why the picture won't display larger - usually does.

I did think about going for the tmc drivers. But noise is not an issue and they pull a lot more power (heatsinks are twice as large as normal stepper drivers) so went for the a4988s instead. They allow you to use half and quarter steps if you want to. Which is enough fiddling around for me.
The board does have dual z motor sockets too - which saves a lot of mucking about with firmware.
Personally I like repetier for firmware - but this board will take pretty much anything including - probably - smoothieware (well it's 32 bit so it should).

bltouch too much hassle - plus once you swap the bed levelling wingbuts for decent knobs with nylock locking nuts - that's almost a set once and never bother again exercise.
Well once you've bolted the frame to something solid anyway. I used a sheet of 5mm aluminium for a base. But plywood would just as well. I just happen to be able to get free aluminium from a client.

I don't like cura, so can't exactly help there.

But in simplify3d getting a print to start in the centre of the bed took me a while.
You set the origin to 0,0 and tick a box that says to centre designs.

Normally, for all my other printers, you set the origin to the centre of the plate. But not with these.
Origin is where it ends up after homing - bottom left.
And the slicer - which does know where the bed centre is - needs to be told to put the model there.

There are a few modifications to make on these - but the basic machine is actually very capable.

At the end of the day this is still the cheapest 3d printer it's possible to buy - it's designed as a good base to rebuild into a decent machine.

If you ever figure out how to stop the carriage wobble/wave/rocking - let me know.
That's one thing i never cracked.