I am looking for some help. Seth96 made an awesome makerbot upgrade using printed bevel gears and continuous servos on a3 point automatic bed leveling system. It used 3 metal tabs on the outer edge of the bed that were grounded and the hot end tip to close the circuit. The tip grounded the stationary point first then set that as 0 for z. Then the other two. It went down to touch, and then up to z0. The servo turned the bevels attached to the level nut until it grounded out then the other point. This can be run before each print which is awesome if you swap glass often. I am hopeless at coding. But wiring, designing, and mechanics I know. Could someone please help me? Seth took it off YouTube said he’d put it back up a month ago and it disappeared completely in all places previously mentioned on the Web. There was a fellow on the forums (andy-net) http://forums.reprap.org/read.php?1,150849,246934 working on this but nothing came from it but initial servo movements. I know there is the active z marlin mod to compensate uneven beds, but I want a true leveling system. I’m actually considering, cheaper, dc brushed motors and worm gears which will save space and can easily be wired for bi directional use and use lego worms if you really wanted. They have tight tolerances.
Would love to see this in action.
@ThantiK It was truly awesome. The worm and dc motor is my spin though. haven’t seen it anywhere else. I just don’t yet have the skills to assign pins and functions in arduino code or what pins are capable or are free. I have actually considered programming a tiny or micro separately to control and use the front end for for moving the head and a momentary switch for motors. 1st point acts as z end stop. Then move to second point via pronterface cura etc.1 press levels the 2nd point 2 rapid presses does the third point. And tip to point sends the stop signal.this stops the need to store g c ode locations or have the z constantly moving. Also the second micro controller would make this a truly stand alone a system compatible with all electronics and firmwares. ebay had super cheap tiny mini and micro clones. Based on leonardo.i have one already.
Automatic mechanical adjustment is certainly the way to go if we can make it work in a practical way. Sounds like you might be onto something, but I’ll have to sit down and take a closer look when I’m back at my computer.
@Whosa_whatsis I saw it in action though on a makerbot. The video was pulled by creator. I’d like to make stand alone as above. Making it a breeze for any bot to use it as an upgrade with only bed mods Leonardo micro could even be powered by bots electronics
@Whosa_whatsis Also be better for heated chambers by remotely placing the controller outside of the heated area. And dc motors are cheap and should stand the kind of heat better than servos and are much smaller. Many build plates could integrate with little or no z height lost
@Whosa_whatsis Alternatively a normal z probe could replace tabs and using the hotend as a contact point. The button presses would select the point to adjust and the same circuit (z probe) could always signal stop and the one time z offset setup in firmware. This would require using either the z microswitch connected to 2 microcontrollers (this would work as the bed motors are independent of actual z axis movement). Or using it in the primary electronics and firmware edit. I truly like the stand alone idea and just patching into a parallel circuit with the existing z probe would be easily done. Or adding a z probe. If marlin isn’t moving the z stage then it won’t affect the home because it is parked at home but the second microcontroller would read the contact after the appropriate single or double momentary switch signal only and stop the motors using the double connected z probe. Would just have to make sure the level controller doesn’t even look for the probe signal until the appropriate point selection signal is sent.
Sorry for my long winded posts
+D Rob if you were to use the hot end as a grounding point to signify a contact how would you make sure that there was no plastic on the tip of the hot end insulating it and keeping it from making ground?
@Mike_Smith G code with a wipe and retract series of commands. But after chasing this rabbit a bit you’ll see my other comments pretty much leaning toward a multi use z probe
@D_Rob , use @Steve_Graber 's method of mounting the hot end on a pivot against an endstop. =D (Check his posts)
Thought about that but I’m using dual heads on a ulti style cartesian. Seems like the pressure would eventually bend something or there would at least be complications with my 4 point hotend level system
Dual extruders, bah! =D
Will my hot end tip be damaged over time if I do figure out the mechanics for dual hotends
@ThantiK but that is an awesome idea. I want to come up with a setup that can be easily added to any existing systems and especially I want it to be able to just patch into an existing z probe. Like the spring loaded wire/nail ones or the servo or other method dropped microswitch