Monoprice MP10 manual bed leveling

[Kyle M.]

Hello all. I'm trying to figure out the correct way to manually level the bed on my MP10 "not mini." I've already asked a few other places and people just keep parroting the same info, which does not work on this printer! It is touch screen, and hitting the move buttons moves the corresponding axis an arbitrary amount based on how long you hold your finger on the screen therefore you cannot simply move down to 0, disable steppers, and level. There isn't even a way to disable the stepper motors in the menu. I've had this printer about a year and when I first got it I was of course able to just run the "auto level" command and everything was a ok. Well after enough moving around and use you do eventually have to manually level a printer bed, the auto level does not move the bed. It uses an inductive sensor in the extruder to measure points on the magnetic bed. The bed has the normal springs and knobs in each corner to level it but there isn't any way that I've found to home the nozzle then level the bed. When you hit home the printer will home all axis but then the z moves up.

The only thing I have been able to figure out is to start a print then shut the printer off on the first layer and level the bed. That sure doesn't seem right to me, after that I run the auto level and from there fine tune the offset. Like I said it works but it doesn't seem right. There is nothing in the manual about this, and a call to monoprice simply ended in me being told to use the "auto level" so I asked the question "Well what if I replaced the whole heated bed and need to get it close to level before running the auto level?" There response was that the MP10 is not user serviceable and I would have to replace the whole printer. I already know that that is not true. Is there any way to write a short Gcode program that would home the Z axis and turn disable the steppers so that I can level the bed? I would have to double check but I also don't believe the Z axis hits a limit switch when it homes, I believe it just comes down so far, stops, and goes back up a few mm. Almost like it's all programmed into the firmware somehow. I could be wrong about that and I probably am but I swear I've never seen a limit switch on it or heard one click.