I'm designing a new 3D printer, a very rigid and well built D-Bot style design.
One of the design elements I’m stuck on, is the z axis motor arrangement. I want the ultimate in leveling, both in the initial plane of the bed, as well as the mesh support for any unevenness in the bed. I will be using a 3/8” thick aluminum tooling plate, 400mm x 400mm size. My preferred design is one z motor positioned at each corner, with two 12mm linear shafts and bearings on two opposite sides keeping the bed from rotating or shifting (and almost perfectly level, but for the small clearance in the linear bearings). I know that most designs will just use 2 or 3 z motors, but I like the idea of securing all 4 corners, eliminating any slight oscillations of the bed on the 2 unsupported corners, and even more important if I scale the design up to larger build volumes.
My question is, what is the support for the Duet with 4 active independent motors? I have seen the support page detailing this, but the 4 z motors aren’t recommended if the bed isn’t flexible, which in my case it won’t be (I hope!). What I was hoping for was the ability of the software to keep the steps in sync (even through power cycles) enough for it to be very close, and then a leveling step or calibration routine that would bring the bed up, position at each corner, and go through an iterative process to really zero this in. Then the mesh leveling would take care of any other discrepancy and/or bed unevenness.
Thanks for any advice or comments on this!