Does anyone with a late 2013 model PrintrBot Simple know what the layer heights

3D Printing
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1

Does anyone with a late 2013 model PrintrBot Simple know what the layer heights are to slice for an even number of steps? @Printrbot / @Brook_Drumm ? I’ve got my PB-Simple printing well after my upgrades, so I’m looking to tweak it as close to perfection as I can.

0.25mm layers have been working for me pretty well, but there is obvious regular banding where the fractions catch up in the calculations. I’d like to find a few layer heights that are exact numbers of steps so I can print fine or coarse, without the banding.

2

What kind of Z screw does it have. Printrbot uses a lot of SAE screws, which really means that you’re the one who is screwed. You can divid your microstepping ratio as a whole number (e.g. 1/16-step is a 16:1 ratio) by your Z steps/mm to get your full-step length. For an M6 screw, this would be 16/3200=.005mm or 5 microns. If you have an SAE or acme screw, this is likely to be a non-terminating decimal.

3

Despite @Whosa_whatsis predictions of doom, if you’re using a non metric screw, as long as you know the pitch in mm, you can use the prusa or Tantillus calculators to get a 4 decimal place layer height that will result in limited rounding errors. I used to use these when I was using acme screws and eliminated visible Z artefacts as a result.

4

Much like @Tim_Rastall , back when I used 5/16th imperial lead screw on my Prusa Mendel I eliminated Z artifacts by using a close-enough calculation for Z. Though I was printing much thicker layer heights, and those kind of artifacts are simply more visible the lower layer height you go.

5

Okay, maybe I should have asked: Does anyone know what size Z screw a late 2013 model PB-Simple uses? I could measure it, but I would probably be off on the thread pitch.

6

@Carlton_Dodd Just send it an M503 to retrieve the current settings. What you REALLY need to know to avoid (or at least minimize) rounding errors is the Z steps/mm setting, not the thread pitch, because if the steps/mm setting has been rounded (or is just wrong), you’ll still get rounding errors if your layer heights don’t match that number.