1. Got a question or need help troubleshooting? Post to the troubleshooting forum or Search the forums!

Leveling

Discussion in 'General Questions' started by Lance Weston, Jun 15, 2021.

  1. Lance Weston

    Lance Weston Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 2, 2018
    Messages:
    664
    Likes Received:
    230
    I manually level my bed. My new "R2" printer has a 12"x12" print surface. I clip on dial gauge to the print head and can level all four corners to 0.01mm. The problem I have is the print head deflects downward 0.1mm in the center of the bed. My parts have to have z height set to 0.02mm for proper appearance.

    I have read much about leveling that I do not understand. I can not use the PIR auto level because is not accurate to even 0.05mm on my surface.

    Is there a way to set up a map of the bed surface that the R2 will use with out auto level? I would love to be able to map the surface with a dial gauge then use that map to print with. If there is, please leave instructions on how to accomplish the task for someone who has no clue.
     
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2013
    Messages:
    23,912
    Likes Received:
    7,338
    Lance Weston likes this.
  3. Lance Weston

    Lance Weston Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 2, 2018
    Messages:
    664
    Likes Received:
    230
    Does the Robo support LCD bed leveling
     
  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2013
    Messages:
    23,912
    Likes Received:
    7,338
    Yes? Not sure exactly what you are after... if you are using a version of Marlin that supports it, any of the leveling can be used.
     
  5. Lance Weston

    Lance Weston Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 2, 2018
    Messages:
    664
    Likes Received:
    230
    Marlin describes enabling LCD leveling. It states that after enabling the LCD screen will walk you through the steps. I have not seen anyone describe those screens on the Robo.
     
  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2013
    Messages:
    23,912
    Likes Received:
    7,338
    If you are on a semi-current version of Marlin (1.1.6 or 1.1.8 I think on the R2/C2 IIRC) then try:

    --------------------
    Mesh Bed Leveling using an LCD controller: (Requires LCD_BED_LEVELING)

    1. Select Level Bed then choose Level Bed (not Cancel) in the sub-menu.
    2. Wait for Homing XYZ to complete.
    3. When Click to Begin appears, press the controller button to move to the first point.
    4. Use the controller wheel to adjust Z so that a piece of paper can just pass under the nozzle.
    5. Press the controller button to save the Z value and move to the next point.
    6. Repeat steps 4-5 until completed.
    7. Use Control > Store memory to save the mesh to EEPROM, if desired.
    Notes
    Requires the MESH_BED_LEVELING option in Configuration.h.

    Similar to AUTO_BED_LEVELING_BILINEAR with PROBE_MANUALLY but uses less SRAM.

    For automatic probe-based leveling enable one of the AUTO_BED_LEVELING_* options instead.

    G28 disables bed leveling. Follow with M420 S to turn leveling on, or use RESTORE_LEVELING_AFTER_G28 to automatically keep leveling on after G28.

    -------------------


    You will need to enable it in the firmware and reload the firmware.
     
  7. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2013
    Messages:
    23,912
    Likes Received:
    7,338
    I don't use any auto bed leveling so I am not the best person to give you all of the options (although I have toyed with all of them at various points). Manual bed leveling for the win.
     
  8. Lance Weston

    Lance Weston Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 2, 2018
    Messages:
    664
    Likes Received:
    230

    Yup, this is what I read. Which led me to the question " does the LCD display have a screen to support this" The machine described was not a Robo.
     
  9. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2013
    Messages:
    23,912
    Likes Received:
    7,338
    Ah, it is clear now.

    The R2/C2 do not use the standard Marlin driven LCD screens in fact the LCD screen on the R2/C2 is driven by code on the Raspberry Pi and not the Arduino compatible controller board. The RepRap Discount and Rep Rap Full-graphic LCD displays are completely rendered in Marlin (directly) and in the R2/C2 case ... not. All of the display for the Robo is done via code on the Raspberry Pi and not Marlin at all -- but... they may have added hooks for it (but I would be surprised if that were true).

    I suspect the answer is "No" but perhaps they added that into the custom code that drives the LCD...

    The R1 series has everything driven directly by the firmware.
     
  10. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2013
    Messages:
    23,912
    Likes Received:
    7,338
    I have been able to experiment with different LCD software on the R2/C2 since the existing one run as a plugin to OctoPi. YOu can install a generic OctoPi image and load in an LCD driver and THAT does work ... does it work with Marlin? I have no idea :) There may be one that is configured to deal with this...
     
  11. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2013
    Messages:
    23,912
    Likes Received:
    7,338
  12. Lance Weston

    Lance Weston Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 2, 2018
    Messages:
    664
    Likes Received:
    230
    mark tomlinson likes this.
  13. Jerome Helbert

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2017
    Messages:
    90
    Likes Received:
    33
    I made the switch to Klipper a few weeks ago (replaces Marlin completely and offloads most of the heavy gcode processing to the Raspberry Pi.)

    It does the same Mesh bed levelling, but then all the setting are stored in the printer.cfg on the RPi itself. You can edit the values stored there by hand to create your own manual map.

    I'm incredibly happy with Klipper, it definitely feels like it has given my R2 new life and made it more capable and easier to tune.
     
    mark tomlinson likes this.
  14. Lance Weston

    Lance Weston Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 2, 2018
    Messages:
    664
    Likes Received:
    230

    Sounds worth looking at.

    Please give step by step detailed instructions on how; to someone who can not walk and chew gum at the same time.
     
    Yopz3d likes this.
  15. Jerome Helbert

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2017
    Messages:
    90
    Likes Received:
    33
    This does blow away Marlin, so be prepared that if you don't like Klipper you will have to recover that. If you have a copy of the FW image it wouldn't be too painful. This is also likely to be completely incompatible with RoboOS and their touchscreen stuff will need to be replaced. It's a pretty drastic change to the printer, and I wouldn't jump straight to it just for bed levelling without giving it a fair bit of thought and planning. Luckily someone else on the forum has already created a default config for R2, so that makes everything quite a bit easier.

    It took quite a bit of fiddling, tweaking, and learning to get it to work, so if that's not something you're good at, it might not be the best idea.

    Klipper is just the FW level component, and still needs a front-end to operate, but there are several options to choose from:
    Here is the default R2 config someone created for Klipper: https://github.com/KevinOConnor/klipper/blob/master/config/printer-robo3d-r2-2017.cfg

    It worked really well for me, it uses the IR sensor for z-homing (along with all the flaws that come with that) but there are comments in there for how to reconfigure to use the z limit switch. Not sure if it was related to the IR sensor homing, but I did have a problem that the z direction was backwards initially.
     
    #15 Jerome Helbert, Jun 21, 2021
    Last edited: Jun 21, 2021
    mark tomlinson likes this.
  16. Lance Weston

    Lance Weston Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 2, 2018
    Messages:
    664
    Likes Received:
    230

    I completely misunderstood. I thought Klipper was replacing the Robo Os and I could use new LCD software. I am not facile enough with software to modify anything. I can follow instructions however and it you get to the point where it will install on the Robo hardware I have an interest.
     
  17. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
    Staff Member

    Joined:
    Feb 21, 2013
    Messages:
    23,912
    Likes Received:
    7,338
    Wouldn't be too hard to create an image that has everything staged/working. The firmware would be the only part that requires an extra step.
     
  18. Jerome Helbert

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2017
    Messages:
    90
    Likes Received:
    33
    Definitely, I would do that except my printer has deviated from stock quite a bit. I think most things would be fine, except that I have replaced the display and that had its own custom tweaks to work properly
     
    mark tomlinson likes this.
  19. Jerome Helbert

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2017
    Messages:
    90
    Likes Received:
    33
    I found this after I had already set everything up, but this tool simplifies the process greatly: https://github.com/th33xitus/kiauh

    It would probably still require some linux setup to get it working though.
     
    mark tomlinson likes this.
  20. Lance Weston

    Lance Weston Active Member

    Joined:
    Jun 2, 2018
    Messages:
    664
    Likes Received:
    230
    You may not remember Byte magazine. I built the original 8008 micro board. I bought a teletype machine and began programming before any compilers existed entering code with switches until I wrote a loader and wire wrapped an interface for my teletype. I have written complex programs in 8051's by blowing proms. When I retired 10 years I was really quite good at C+ and assembly language for embedded micros. So I can bump around in the Arduino code but anything else is beyond my ken.
     
    LordPeq likes this.

Share This Page