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Beta Robo 3D Printer :(

Discussion in 'General Questions' started by Alex Moule, Oct 26, 2016.

  1. Alex Moule

    Alex Moule Member

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    I was a kickstarter backer; not an early bird and even upgraded to a heated bed after the campaign ended. I have now realised that I have a beta version of the printer and I'm a bit miffed. I pledged for a R1 not a beta machine!

    No auto leveling and trying to get the z end stop to stay consistent is a total pain in the bum, like I have to reset it every print. Is there anything you guys can do to get me upgraded to a proper R1?

    Really quite annoyed.
     
  2. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    None of us work for robo so cant help with the mifed part :) but as far as adding autolevel to a bet @mark tomlinson is your man. I believe with the beta you can utilize mesh bed leveling, @WheresWaldo can verify that :) i bought the plus a few years back so not familiar with the earlier models
     
  3. danzca6

    danzca6 Well-Known Member

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    Your right @Geof , there is a mesh version for the beta. That would be better than working on abl. Loved to see someone with a beta using mesh. Hopefully you have an LCD. If not, it can be done over commands but not as easy.
     
  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    You can for few dollars and some time installing them buy the Z switches and convert a beta into an R1.
     
  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I have two betas and they never promised we would get any features that it is missing as part of the KickStarter.
    :)

    The fact that they immediately improved the design and sold a new model was annoying, but not super surprising.
     
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  6. Alex Moule

    Alex Moule Member

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    To be honest I'm almost ready to just toss it out, I've ordered a prusa i3 Mk II which I know works.

    I don't have the LCD display but do have the Titan and V6 hotend from E3d, its just so frustrating as the z endstop is utterly useless and I spend more time leveling the damn thing than I do actually printing with it. Very demoralising.

    I'm hoping I can use the prusa to print any new parts for my robo to make it better but I really am ready to give up on the thing its just too much of a pain in the ass. I spent 3 hours last night trying to calibrate it properly and I got the first layer perfect but it just gets worse from there and then the z decides its out and when I home it for the next try the carriage pops of the nuts and I'm back to square one.
     
  7. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    If you buy one extra Z switch and spent about an hour you can add autoleveling to the beta and (with the exception of the bed) turn it into an R1. I have done this a number of times :)
     
  8. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Hang in there buddy :) if you decide to junk it shoot me a pm
     
  9. Printed Solid

    Printed Solid Volunteer Admin
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    They really learned a lot with the beta. To be totally fair to Robo... The pictures of prints they posted in the kickstarter were complete and total garbage. If someone posted a campaign like that now, even if it was for $100, I bet they wouldn't fund. The machines that they ended up sending out printed much better than that. I received mine pretty early. It wasn't part of the 'rats nest of wires' vintage, but it was shipped in a home depot box stuffed with packing peanuts :). It has absolutely no ability to make fine adjustments to the limit switch so I designed my own little part and posted to thingiverse. I believe they incorporated that into the design for a little while. All in all, IMO, that printer performs better than a lot of the R1s I've seen, but poorer than most R1+. We went through a very bumpy period on the forum where everyone with new printers was getting garbage prints. They fixed all that with the R1+ for the most part.

    To echo above comments. No need to bother with auto bed leveling. Just go to mesh. I think the auto bed leveling is less consistent than fiddling with the z-limit switch, but mesh should be much better for you.

    And like they said, @mark tomlinson and @Geof both totally love a good Robo at a bargain price...
     
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  10. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Hey! I am too busy cursing at a Delta right now :)
     
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  11. vanghis109

    vanghis109 New Member

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    Is there any link for this type of Upgrade Id like to do this as well
     
  12. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    No link directly to the Z switch upgrade by itself.
    I can help you with that. The entire bed replacement including Z switch upgrade is documented over here:

    http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:681894
     
  13. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    If you just want to add autoleveling it is far easier. You need to print two Z switch mounts, add the second switch in with the original, remount the original and then modify the firmware :)
    We have a PM on this so I can assist you there. You might want to add a thread to the mods/upgrades section later and describe how it worked for you.
     
  14. John Collinsworth

    John Collinsworth New Member

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    I have a beta as well. I have already upgraded the Y axis and the hot end. I wold really like to upgrade to auto leveling. What is the difference between autolevel and the mesh bed leveling? Any help would be appreciated...
     
  15. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Autoleveling samples 9 points and mathemagically creates a flat plane that intersects all 9 points and then applies that as a correction to the Z. Mesh leveling is different in that it uses a 'mesh' of sense points and creates an actual (or more correct) model of the bed and can adjust for sections of the bed that are unlevel in specific ways (too high, too low, etc.)

    First step to any autoleveling on the beta is adding a second Z switch in the correct place and re-positioning the one Z switch it does have.
     
  16. John Collinsworth

    John Collinsworth New Member

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    Thank you Mark. Could you send me the PM you mentioned above?
     
  17. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Mesh just needs the one z switch yea? Should be able to implement mesh as it is ?
     
  18. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I meant send me a private message via the forum and we can discuss it there.
     
  19. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Good point. I have not done this yet on mine...
     
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