BL Touch and Makerfarm.

[uncle_bob]

I believe so... But I don't know the answer for sure. It mostly depends on how well RC-8 goes.

Hi

Well, it would be a really good idea to get a stable release out there. There have been a *lot* of changes since the last one.....

Truth in lending: I seem to have errr ... a piece of firmware of my own .... that ... errr ... should have been finalized back in June .... just a few more tweaks. It's not like lives depend on it ... ummm ....errr .. they do ... YIKES !!!

Bob

[BLKKROW]

I may purchase one or two of these units and attempt to implement Bed Leveling/Mesh Leveling over my sabbatical. I will most likely also switch firmware's from the Makerfarm default.

[Roxy]

Hi
Well, it would be a really good idea to get a stable release out there. There have been a *lot* of changes since the last one.....

I hear you! And in fact... In general, new features should not be added to a 'Release Candidate'. But the argument being made by the people that will be supporting the new 'Stable' branch is they want things (and especially the code) cleaned up before it goes 'Stable' because they will have to live with it for a long time.

So, while I'm philosophically opposed to adding new code or even changing code that is working in a 'Release Candidate', I do see their point. The good news is these people are starting to feel good enough about the current code base I think Christmas is a definite possibility.

[TopJimmyCooks]

to respond to the original post - My brother and I installed a BLtouch on his 10" I3v. we set it up like a servo and used the angles given by BL touch's directions. It worked fine. it is screwed to the underside of the x carriage with some spacers to get it at the right elevation in relation to the nozzle. I programmed the reset angle into a button on pronterface and it works very well. This is a version of marlin compiled more than a year ago, not sure which one but nothing current.

[BLKKROW]

to respond to the original post - My brother and I installed a BLtouch on his 10" I3v. we set it up like a servo and used the angles given by BL touch's directions. It worked fine. it is screwed to the underside of the x carriage with some spacers to get it at the right elevation in relation to the nozzle. I programmed the reset angle into a button on pronterface and it works very well. This is a version of marlin compiled more than a year ago, not sure which one but nothing current.

Thanks for your input!

I have been manually leveling my bed for 3 years now and never had a problem. My concern with ABL/Mesh Leveling is the fact you are relying upon a servo and its movement to ensure you get repeatable results. That is why the BL Touch intrigues me because the only part that moves is the pin which theoretically should provide better results.

I will also have a month off of work to get everything dialed in.

[Roxy]

I have been manually leveling my bed for 3 years now and never had a problem. My concern with ABL/Mesh Leveling is the fact you are relying upon a servo and its movement to ensure you get repeatable results. That is why the BL Touch intrigues me because the only part that moves is the pin which theoretically should provide better results.

Actually... I think it can be the opposite of that. If you design your probe leg such that when it is straight down, the switch lever is a little bit off center what will happen is the probe leg will get a slight rotational force (toque) applied to it when you are actually depressing the lever arm. If you make it so the probe leg hits a stop when fully deployed, you just tell the servo to go a few degrees past that point and turn off. From then on, all probed points just gently press the probe leg against the stop.

With that kind of a setup, you can get better results with a micro-switch than with an inductive probe. The micro-switches trigger at the same place every time.

[uncle_bob]

Hi

At least the last time I went through the servo leg approach, simply finding a servo that was temperature stable was a major chore. I wound up with a collection of servos that drifted between 30 and 90 degrees as the temp changed from room up to 100C on the bed. Even with the one I finally used the change was around 10 degrees between an 80C bed and a 110C bed. Not a lot of fun.

I have been running my Pegasus for about six moths now. I find that it needs a re-level roughly every month or so. Each time it's off by at least 0.05 mm on a couple of points. Since that's half of a 0.1 mm layer ( or 1/4 of a 0.2) .. it's a big deal. Yes, I could over-extrude the bottom layer and make things less sensitive. I don't like ugly bottoms on parts .....

Bob

[xuanle]

not yet. I'll learning about it

[BLKKROW]

Hi At least the last time I went through the servo leg approach, simply finding a servo that was temperature stable was a major chore. I wound up with a collection of servos that drifted between 30 and 90 degrees as the temp changed from room up to 100C on the bed. Even with the one I finally used the change was around 10 degrees between an 80C bed and a 110C bed. Not a lot of fun. I have been running my Pegasus for about six moths now. I find that it needs a re-level roughly every month or so. Each time it's off by at least 0.05 mm on a couple of points. Since that's half of a 0.1 mm layer ( or 1/4 of a 0.2) .. it's a big deal. Yes, I could over-extrude the bottom layer and make things less sensitive. I don't like ugly bottoms on parts ..... Bob

That was my concern with the servo arm and is the exact reason why I have not used it yet. I saw a video of the BL Touch the other day and loved the idea and design. While I have a month of of work, I thought I might as well try it and get it dialed in. If you use Nylon Lock Nuts on your bed, manual bed leveling should stay "level" for a while like you mentioned. Now if I switch to ABL/Mesh leveling, would you replace the springs on the bed with spacers?

[Roxy]

Now if I switch to ABL/Mesh leveling, would you replace the springs on the bed with spacers?

I can't do this because I need to have springs on my bed. (Any error in the software being developed can crash the nozzle and I need a little bit of give.)

But if it were not for that, I would mount the bed with no springs on a rigid plate. And if you are thinking about bringing up a Mesh bed leveling scheme, This is the Cat's Meow right now: https://github.com/MarlinFirmware/Marlin/tree/devel-ubl It is a development branch (as opposed to a 'stable' branch). But it works very well.