Calibration and bed level

Silly question...

If I do the calibration and bed leveling in MatterControl, is that saved on the printer and then carries over into whatever program I'm using or is it only valid for MC?

 

I haven't tested this thoroughly, but when I switched to repetier the calibration did not appear to carry over.

 

Good question... I printed now directly with Simplify 3D via USB - the custom commands for Auto Level, Z-Offset, etc. saved in the Simplify 3D Start G-Gode Commands. This is working perfectly.

Currently I'm printing the saved Simplify 3D G-Code Files incl. the same custom commands via OctoPi without problems - auto level working during start up and while printing also without propbems.

I assume that the normal (static) bed levels are saved partly on the printer, but the autopilot routine in the individual Slicer customers software (if applicable),

Regards,

Matthias

 

I tried a print with matter control, the autoleveling worked fine, then I tried with repetier and it didn't work (the printer probed the 9 points in the bed, but the probing was not acurrate enough it seems) so I'd say that the calibration does not carries over to different software.

 

Matter control uses a sort of user guided auto level routine that overrides the marlin firmware auto level.

Repetier et all uses the marlin which requires a z offset

 

I'm Not sure the original question has been answered yet, and I have the same question. I installed MatterControl and did calibration using one of my laptops (Win 7), then I had to use a different one (Win 8) and it asked me to do the calibration again, which was surprising to me, so far my tests shows it's not saved in the printer; if I print the same object from both laptops I get different results and I can see one starts with the nozzle higher than the other, consistently. So here are two more questions:

• Is there any way to send the calibration to the printer, and permanently save it in there?
• How can I move the calibration settings/values from one MatterControl installation to another?

Thanks

 

Thanks Mark, I was aware of #1, but I thought they were the same, or somehow it was updated by the MC software process.

I just looked at the installation folder for MC and it seems there are a few setting files. I'll compare them with what I have in the other laptop and make some tests by replacing them. I'll update here after I'm done.

Thanks

 

I think you can port the autolevel from one matter control to another by copying the measured points in the configuration tab.

Go to "Configuration" (Blue rectangle in the screenshot), then click the wrench and hammer next to automatic calibration (Red rectangle) and copy the values from one computer to the other.

 

Hi Everyone, sorry it took this long to update this thread but I have been busy at work. Nonetheless, in case you have been trying to do the same thing as I did, that is to use a different computer and not go through the calibration process again, or go through it for the new one and find out it's not producing the same printing results, then this is what I found.

If you are using MatterControl (MC) software, then MC uses a configuration/database file to keep all the settings for your printer called "MatterControl.db". The file is located in a hidden folder and it should be at 'C:\Users\USER_NAME\AppData\Local\MatterControl' where USER_NAME is the username you use for logging into your Windows computer, this works for for Windows 7 & 8 users, I'll update later for Mac users. For those interested into this, in Windows this is a SQL-Lite database file, or at least appears to be a SQL-Lite DB file; since I was mostly interested in making my printer work then I have not open it yet with software to corroborate this, but a simple inspection shows that.

So, after you have correctly calibrated your printer with one computer and now you want to pass this calibration to another one to use the same printer* then you just have to copy this file into the same location in the other computer. You'll find there is an existing file at the same location which you'll either override or rename and copy the new one in place.


Additional Findings:
Looking at the same hidden folder location I noticed MC also saves all processed objects (STL --> gcode) into another folder 'C:\Users\USER_NAME\AppData\Local\MatterControl\data\gcode'. This seems to be the temporary place for all gcode files, and from where MC will use an already processed gcode file if you want to re-print an object in your queue. I compared the created gcode file for one of my objects to the one generated by the "Export" option in the object's queue and they are definitely different, most notably by the absence of the Z coordinate in every gcode command line. I tried however to use both gcode file to print the same object using a different 3D print software and it looks like it generates same results; I didn't print the whole object, just part of it to compare results. Now, if you want to increase space in your computer then you should look into this folder for cleaning up all those old 3D print file you might not need any time soon, MC will re-generate those gcode files anyway. Or you could save those that took forever to get generated by MC so even if you delete them from the folder you could put it back for re-prints and or use it directly to print again.

As summary, if you want to do the same thing as I was trying to do then copying the "MatterControl.db" configuration file should work for you.



*since I only have one Robo3D printer then I am not sure all printers will have same results with the same calibration from a different one. I think it is safe assumption that all printers will have its own hardware variances that will create unique calibration parameters. but if you have ore than one and would like to try then please do so at your own risk, and update here your findings.

 

Thanks zegpi, I tried that but somehow it gave me inconsistent results.