Alternative to BLtouch
-
I have a printer with a BLtouch (genuine) and I am having one heck of a time getting a bed map done with more than 100 points. I probe up to 10 times for consistency, I probe extremely slow and I have it set that two consecutive points have to be within 0.025mm for a reading to be valid. Yes, I could go to 0.030 mm or even larger but I am not comfortable with that kind of a wide range of valid readings. I would be happy with measurements being within 0.01 mm range of each other but that seems to be wishful thinking.
I did a test to probe the same spot a bunch of times and the readings weren't bad: -0.040 -0.037 -0.034 -0.035 -0.037 -0.033 -0.039 -0.035 -0.043 -0.034 this is a range of 0.043 to 0.033 or 0.01 difference between highest and lowest measurement.
It is not unusual to see 4 or 5 probing cycles before a reading is declared as valid.
I tried a new sensor pin but that didn't seem to help. Doing a bit of web surfing, I see I should get readings in the +_-0.005 range but there seem to be a lot of people out there that are not happy with the BLtouch.
I am wondering if there is an alternative to the BLtouch that might be more reliable. I measure onto glass if it makes a difference and I would prefer a physical touch type activation if possible.These are my probing parameters: M558 P9 C"^zprobe.in" H3 F60 T6000 A10 R1.25 S0.025 B0
-
@jens55 I've stumbled upon the CR-Touch by creality which seems to be a beefed up "upgrade-clone" of the BL-Touch. It does make a more sturdy impression with the metal pin. There seems to be some confusion as to how exactly it needs to be connected, case in point I've actually fried one before trying to hook it up to the duet (2). However this shouldn't hold you back, it still looks like a promising package to me. It does seem to be a tad more accurate than the BL-Touch too.
https://the3dprinterbee.com/de/cr-touch-vs-bl-touch/
best, Niklas
-
@jens55 "For what it's worth" , have you made sure that the probe is perpendicular (normal) to the bed? Any binding of the pin could cause the reading to differ (I think). Also, try turning the bed off while probing just to see if it makes any difference.
The BLtouch creator (I can't think of her name right now) originally used a metal pin. I think she found that a self lubricated plastic pin was both more accurate and self-sacrificial (and cheaper to the end user) if there was a catastrophic probe failure. -
@GeneRisi I prefer the Euclid Probe setup. a bit more finicky to setup at first with Macros. but I like it better. I have ripped off two BLtouch so far..
-
@Adamfilip, thank you for mentioning the Euclid probe. I had forgotten they existed. The Euclid does indeed sound like it's ticking all the boxes for desired features.
I am curious if anyone has an example of how to use the Euclid on a Creality CR10 bed slinger printer? -
@GeneRisi, thank you for mentioning the probe mounting position - I will verify that.
-
I had a good look-see to figure out how the Euclid probe could be mounted on a CR10 bed slinger and unfortunately I don't see a way for doing it. The dock would need to be on the cross arm which means I can't lift the head relative to the dock which means the probe can't be docked - it always stays on the printhead.
On the bright side, I think I have found my (very strange) issue with inconsistencies. It turns out that the trigger point of the BLtouch was VERY close to where the nozzle would touch the bed. In some positions the nozzle did actually touch the bed and it deflected the carriage causing all kinds of havoc with measurements but visually there was no indication anything was wrong. I am testing the printer with a slightly lowered BLtouch (meaning it will trigger a touch earlier) -
My apologies for not mentioning that I was working with a Creality CR10 right from the beginning.
-
I am happy to report that not only did the 441 point mesh bed generate without a hitch but it also did that with a tighter "S" specification of 0.01 in my M558 command. The problem clearly was that my BLtouch was ever so slightly too high which caused the nozzle to touch the print bed in some areas of the build plate.
-
-
@jens55 Euclid has sucessfully installed on Ender3's with auto deploy and stow.
You can always simplify and nad deply.disclaimer: I am the one behind Euclid probe.
