After making the previous vid, Guanu convinced me to try his method - which is awesome.
So here's a vid showing quickly how calibrate the Rostock / Orion!
Took this link down, check the one below
I'm intending to do more of these covering a range of topics, not specifically Rostock/Orion but also general 3d printing usefulness - so let me know if there's something you want covered in video form.
**EDIT
There are some changes I need to make to the video to make it more accurate, thanks to Guanu for pointing those out Read his more thorough guide on page 2.
I'm intending to do more of these covering a range of topics, not specifically Rostock/Orion but also general 3d printing usefulness - so let me know if there's something you want covered in video form.
Very good video! Who was that cool looking dude at the end?
“ Do Not Regret Growing Older. It is a Privilege Denied to Many. ”
I'm intending to do more of these covering a range of topics, not specifically Rostock/Orion but also general 3d printing usefulness - so let me know if there's something you want covered in video form.
Very good video! Who was that cool looking dude at the end?
That definitely wasn't me - I'm into privacy and not letting my personal image get out there. I printed a mold of some cool dude I found and just puppeteer it from below. That's why he has that crooked smile.
Guanu's method is actually the first method that I ever tried once I learned that my towers needed adjustment. However, I must not have an eagle eye like the rest of you because I couldn't ever get it right. Once I started using a dial indicator I was able to get things within a couple thousandths of an inch.
After owning my printer for months now, I'm just getting to the point where I'm finally getting half way decent at calibrating my towers quickly. This was the most frustrating thing that I had to learn.
I'm intending to do more of these covering a range of topics, not specifically Rostock/Orion but also general 3d printing usefulness - so let me know if there's something you want covered in video form.
Very good video! Who was that cool looking dude at the end?
That definitely wasn't me - I'm into privacy and not letting my personal image get out there. I printed a mold of some cool dude I found and just puppeteer it from below. That's why he has that crooked smile.
Yeah right!
“ Do Not Regret Growing Older. It is a Privilege Denied to Many. ”
heathenx wrote:Thanks for the video. Always appreciate those.
Guanu's method is actually the first method that I ever tried once I learned that my towers needed adjustment. However, I must not have an eagle eye like the rest of you because I couldn't ever get it right. Once I started using a dial indicator I was able to get things within a couple thousandths of an inch.
After owning my printer for months now, I'm just getting to the point where I'm finally getting half way decent at calibrating my towers quickly. This was the most frustrating thing that I had to learn.
It not being accurate was my first concern when I heard this technique, but after trying I'd say it's on par with the standard per tower paper method, but a heck of a lot faster!
I'd still like to set up a dial indicator like you have, but that's on my list of mods-I-want-to-do-someday-maybe-soon so who knows when it will happen :/
1) Preheat hot-end and bed to the material you use. If you use both, just use the “Preheat ABS”
in the printer settings menu on the LCD.
2) Once the hot-end and bed are up to temp, on the LCD, click the knob to bring up the menu,
go to Advanced Settings (at the bottom of the list). Click the knob.
3) Go to the bottom of the next menu to Calibrate Z Height. Click the knob.
4) Now you are in the calibration menu. Click Home Towers. The machine will go up and hit all
the end-stops.
5) Go down to Z Position and click the knob.
6) Turn the knob Counter-Clockwise to lower the nozzle. Bring the nozzle down till its a couple
millimeters from the glass like the following pic.
7) Turn the knob counterclockwise SLOWLY and look eye level with the bed, and bring the
nozzle down till it just barely meets the glass (this is easiest with a white wall in the background
so you can watch the reflection of the nozzle – if you don't have a white background to use, you
could tape a sheet of paper between the towers to give you enough contrast). When the nozzle
touches the glass, click the knob.
8) Go down to Set New Z=0.00 and then click the knob.
9) Go to Home Towers. Click the knob. You have now set the z height, and now it is time to
calibrate the towers.
The next steps can be done through a computer or SD card. I find it is easier on a sd card so
you can keep close to the machine to watch the movement.
10) Open notepad or a text editor of your choice.
11) Paste the following into the text editor: ***This is for Rostock Max, NOT Orion!***
; Tower endstop calibration script
G28
G1 Z.2 F15000
G4 S1
G1 X-77.94 Y-45 F2000
G4 S2
G1 X0 Y0
G1 X77.94 Y-45
G4 S2
G1 X0 Y0
G1 Y90
G4 S2
G1 X0 Y0
;
12) Save the file as “Towers.gcode” and place it on an SD card, or if you are going to be using
a computer, load it into your host software that you use.
13) Again with the bed at eye level and looking close, Run Towers.gcode from either your host
software or SD card. Watch closely as the machine will home, then the nozzle will drop to
0.2mm ABOVE the glass.
After it drops to the center like that, it will travel to the X tower. DO NOT pay attention to what
the nozzle does while traveling, what you must pay attention to is when it pauses.
The nozzle will pause at the X corner, then return to the center, and move to the Y tower and
pause. After the pause, it will again move to the center, and move to the Z tower, pause, and
return to the center.
14) What you want to remember is the nozzle when it pauses. You want to compare the
movement to the gap at the center.
– If the nozzle at the tower RAISES (compared to the CENTER), you want to adjust the screw
that hits the end-stop by turning it counterclockwise (moving the screw up).
– If the nozzle at the tower LOWERS (compared to the CENTER), you want to adjust the screw
that hits the end-stop by turning it clockwise (moving the screw down)
15) After you have adjusted the screws, You have changed the Z height, so you want to go back
and re-set the Z height the way you did earlier in this guide.
16) Re-run Towers.gcode and watch as you did before, again noting the changes in the nozzle
at each pause. You will run through these steps till the nozzle remains the same height at each
tower when compared to the center.
If the nozzle goes the same direction on all 3 towers (such as you have the gap in the center,
and at every tower the nozzle lowers. Or you have the gap at the center and at all 3 pauses the
nozzle raises), you will adjust the radius in the following way
17a) If from the center gap, the nozzle goes DOWN toward the glass at ALL 3 TOWERS, load
your host software and bring up the EEPROM information. You will look for Horizontal Radius.
You want to RAISE that number. I suggest raising it by 0.2 and run towers.gcode to see the
change, and keep raising the number till the gap evens out (changing this number will not make
you need to re-set your z height, it will just raise the outer edges where the nozzle pauses).
17b) If from the center gap, the nozzle goes UP toward the glass at ALL 3 TOWERS, load your
host software and bring up the EEPROM information. You will look for Horizontal Radius. You
want to LOWER that number. I suggest raising it by 0.2 and run towers.gcode to see the
change, and keep raising the number till the gap evens out (changing this number will not make
you need to re-set your z height, it will just lower the outer edges where the nozzle pauses).
After doing this, you will see any changes where one tower may be higher than another, if this is
the case, go back to adjusting the end-stop screws as before.
Typically it can take anywhere from 5-10 or so re-runs of the tweaks to get the gap to remain the
same at all 3 pauses compared to the center of the machine. Once the gap is the same at each
tower compared to the center, your machine is calibrated and ready to print!
i was never aware of step 15 - (After you have adjusted the screws, You have changed the Z height, so you want to go back
and re-set the Z height the way you did earlier in this guide.)
Going off previous methods documented on here, i never had to recalibrated the Z after the initial Z Height Set? If the nozzle was too low/high in the centre, i would change the horizontal radius accordingly which would essentially raised/lowered the nozzle for the Z Height. I would then have to fine tune the end stop screws either up or down whilst going through the whole scripts 1-4 method.
In saying this, my bed has been calibrated at each tower pretty evenly bit it tends to go out abit in between the the tower points either up or down.
Ill have to try this method and see if it makes a difference.
1) Preheat hot-end and bed to the material you use. If you use both, just use the “Preheat ABS”
in the printer settings menu on the LCD.
2) Once the hot-end and bed are up to temp, on the LCD, click the knob to bring up the menu,
go to Advanced Settings (at the bottom of the list). Click the knob.
3) Go to the bottom of the next menu to Calibrate Z Height. Click the knob.
4) Now you are in the calibration menu. Click Home Towers. The machine will go up and hit all
the end-stops.
5) Go down to Z Position and click the knob.
6) Turn the knob Counter-Clockwise to lower the nozzle. Bring the nozzle down till its a couple
millimeters from the glass like the following pic.
7) Turn the knob counterclockwise SLOWLY and look eye level with the bed, and bring the
nozzle down till it just barely meets the glass (this is easiest with a white wall in the background
so you can watch the reflection of the nozzle – if you don't have a white background to use, you
could tape a sheet of paper between the towers to give you enough contrast). When the nozzle
touches the glass, click the knob.
8) Go down to Set New Z=0.00 and then click the knob.
9) Go to Home Towers. Click the knob. You have now set the z height, and now it is time to
calibrate the towers.
The next steps can be done through a computer or SD card. I find it is easier on a sd card so
you can keep close to the machine to watch the movement.
10) Open notepad or a text editor of your choice.
11) Paste the following into the text editor: ***This is for Rostock Max, NOT Orion!***
; Tower endstop calibration script
G28
G1 Z.2 F15000
G4 S1
G1 X-77.94 Y-45 F2000
G4 S2
G1 X0 Y0
G1 X77.94 Y-45
G4 S2
G1 X0 Y0
G1 Y90
G4 S2
G1 X0 Y0
;
12) Save the file as “Towers.gcode” and place it on an SD card, or if you are going to be using
a computer, load it into your host software that you use.
13) Again with the bed at eye level and looking close, Run Towers.gcode from either your host
software or SD card. Watch closely as the machine will home, then the nozzle will drop to
0.2mm ABOVE the glass.
After it drops to the center like that, it will travel to the X tower. DO NOT pay attention to what
the nozzle does while traveling, what you must pay attention to is when it pauses.
The nozzle will pause at the X corner, then return to the center, and move to the Y tower and
pause. After the pause, it will again move to the center, and move to the Z tower, pause, and
return to the center.
14) What you want to remember is the nozzle when it pauses. You want to compare the
movement to the gap at the center.
– If the nozzle at the tower RAISES (compared to the CENTER), you want to adjust the screw
that hits the end-stop by turning it counterclockwise (moving the screw up).
– If the nozzle at the tower LOWERS (compared to the CENTER), you want to adjust the screw
that hits the end-stop by turning it clockwise (moving the screw down)
15) After you have adjusted the screws, You have changed the Z height, so you want to go back
and re-set the Z height the way you did earlier in this guide.
16) Re-run Towers.gcode and watch as you did before, again noting the changes in the nozzle
at each pause. You will run through these steps till the nozzle remains the same height at each
tower when compared to the center.
If the nozzle goes the same direction on all 3 towers (such as you have the gap in the center,
and at every tower the nozzle lowers. Or you have the gap at the center and at all 3 pauses the
nozzle raises), you will adjust the radius in the following way
17a) If from the center gap, the nozzle goes DOWN toward the glass at ALL 3 TOWERS, load
your host software and bring up the EEPROM information. You will look for Horizontal Radius.
You want to RAISE that number. I suggest raising it by 0.2 and run towers.gcode to see the
change, and keep raising the number till the gap evens out (changing this number will not make
you need to re-set your z height, it will just raise the outer edges where the nozzle pauses).
17b) If from the center gap, the nozzle goes UP toward the glass at ALL 3 TOWERS, load your
host software and bring up the EEPROM information. You will look for Horizontal Radius. You
want to LOWER that number. I suggest raising it by 0.2 and run towers.gcode to see the
change, and keep raising the number till the gap evens out (changing this number will not make
you need to re-set your z height, it will just lower the outer edges where the nozzle pauses).
After doing this, you will see any changes where one tower may be higher than another, if this is
the case, go back to adjusting the end-stop screws as before.
Typically it can take anywhere from 5-10 or so re-runs of the tweaks to get the gap to remain the
same at all 3 pauses compared to the center of the machine. Once the gap is the same at each
tower compared to the center, your machine is calibrated and ready to print!
Thanks Guanu, looks like I have a few errors in my method then Including my assumption that it works on Orion!
I'd better fix these.
Since I didn't include any z-height checks (either before or after) I didn't mention turning heaters on - having to recheck the z-height afterwards would definitely require heaters...
I also didn't include any Printer Radius information since I have assumed they've done the printer radius checks beforehand. Do you think I should mention it again?
Is the code the only reason this wont work on Orion? If so, what gcode do I use for Orion?
it does work on the orion, there is just different gcode.... this is the method I use for calibrating all orions before they are shipped... but they already come with the towers.gcode file on the sd card they are shipped with in the calibration folder..
regardless heres the code for Orions:
I'll probably reference your solid rundown in this thread in the video description.
Not owning an Orion, perhaps this technique is covered in the manual - is it?
I'll probably reference your solid rundown in this thread in the video description.
Not owning an Orion, perhaps this technique is covered in the manual - is it?
yup, I'm the one who wrote that section of the manual lol.. the steps I posted here is pretty much a copy-paste from the manual.
Read his more thorough guide on page 2.
Including my assumption that it works on Orion!