Waggster X-1 BLTouch v1.5

[furious1y]

Wow, just got around to this from v1.4, you weren't kidding about the speed of ABL. Did it have a load of waits in there for testing or something?
With 1.4 I'd also get thermal runaway errors for the bed heating occasionally, especially when warming from cold - like the temp wasn't reaching the range quick enough, so will report back if still get it now that I've tuned the bed after this 1.5 install

Thanks, and keep up the good work.

[Waggster]

Let me know how you get on :-)

[Pointy]

Hi,

First off thanks for taking the time to share this mod, with the video and excellent PDF instructions, I was quite confident of being able to install the BLTouch.

I finally fitted mine yesterday and the whole process took many hours thanks to various issues, starting with the simple task of taking the base off, only to find 3 of the hex bolts had been rounded by whoever assembled it. Anyway I eventually got it done and I also fitted a switch in the LCD power line so I can easily flash the firmware in the future.

I was hoping I could just edit my already tweaked 1.1.9 firmware but I was unable to get it working fully. I edited the configuration.h settings and swapped the x max/min pins in the pins_RAMPS.h file. It almost worked but was doing some weird things and seemed unreliable, I also didn't get the blue LED and at times had the red flashing issue. Without touching the wiring I tried your v1.5 firmware and it seems to be working perfectly. I am using a BLTouch v3.1 with an X1 V4 in case it is relevant.

I am wondering what changes between v1 and v1.5 would have fixed it...

v1.4
Turned off the LED pins as they were causing problems with the BLTouch Pins

I am not sure how you turned these off, as the LED was connected to D4,D5 & D6 (servos 1 & 2) and these are still defined in pins_RAMPS.h.

v1.5

Added BLTouch reset gcode command on start

I can see where the command has been added, but not sure if 1.1.9 has startup commands.

Added BLTouch 5v
Added BLTouch High Speed

I can see some settings relating to these in Configuration_adv.h but they are commented out. Do I need to look elsewhere?

Any suggestions, help or info much appreciated.

Regards,

Les

[furious1y]

Just to reply back with my experiences with 1.5

So, it was down to the bed tuning - looks like 1.4 was not saving it, so when you had too much temp differential between current and target, it wouldn't get there in time and the firmware would stop the printer, with the thermal runaway error.

1.5 allowed me to tune and it saves, so it heats the bed in seconds rather than the minute or so it used to. Also, no more thermal runaways.

One thing I will comment on - after trying ABS with a bed temp of 105, I'm thinking that the thermal expansion is too much on my magnetic bed and PEI sheet combo.
After getting a major clog and constant under extrusion, I decided to check the ABL mesh generated. At 105C, I get a massive high spot in the centre of the bed. Like 0.6 to 0.7 higher than the edge where it does a wipe.
I'm thinking there's some kind of limit that the ABL is hitting, as I have to baby step at least 0.5mm higher when printing ABS otherwise I just get an extruder stall where it grinds the filament due to it literally touching the bed.

What do you think? Is such a thing in the firmware, so that it can only compensate a certain difference? Comparing the mesh stored to the mesh generated manually, I'm seeing that there is a slight difference in the high spot of at least 0.2mm.

[Martin92]

Hi there,
having a pretty warped bed on my X1, I decided to go for autobed levelling. Performing the guide went relatively smoothly and my printer calibrates itself before every print.
I am currently facing two problems though:
1) High vibration especially during the first layer, I retightened the part cooling fan since this is a part I removed, but it only helped a bit.
2) With higher speeds (positioning with ~150mm/s, printing with 50 mm/s) the axis don't move smoothly anymore. Could it be that the original board can't handle the calculations anymore, causing the movement to slow down? I own a V4 Sidewinder, 3.1 BLTouch and original Board.

Cheers,
Martin

[nicedevil]

Hey Steve,

I upgraded to SKR 1.4 turbo now and all the guys are still using your guidelines to add Bl-Touch functionality for the X-1
Pretty cool. Unfurtunately I got some problems with it now There are so many guys out that use 32 bit boards now with bl-touch and mine is doing problems

Could it just be that my sensors is just broken?

Take a look at my video if you got spare time pls. Take care of when the tip hit's the bed and when it just stops in the air and the LED won't light up red

[BaronVonPrints]

So I've spent all day trying to set up my BL touch on my V4, and it is just is refusing to work. I've rewired it more times than I can count, both through the Led mount and just bypassing that to write directly to the board. No matter what I do, I get the issue where when I try to home, it homes x and y, then moves up a little, extends the probe pin and retracts it 3 times before giving me the error telling me to fix my issues and use M999 to reset. The Z acid never drops at all during this. Also if I go into my Serial monitor and send M119, it always reports Z as triggered, and when I extend with a M280 P0 S10, sending M119 immediately retracts the pin and reports a triggered Z. I tried using the Teaching Tech's firmware, and that works if I plug my white and black wires into Z MIN, but I would prefer to be on Marlin 2.0.x instead of 1.1.19. I've attached a pictures of my wiring and a video of the triggered behavior as well.

Hopefully someone can help me, cause this has been incredibly frustrating! Thanks in advance!

[Waggster]

Hey Steve,

I upgraded to SKR 1.4 turbo now and all the guys are still using your guidelines to add Bl-Touch functionality for the X-1
Pretty cool. Unfurtunately I got some problems with it now There are so many guys out that use 32 bit boards now with bl-touch and mine is doing problems

Could it just be that my sensors is just broken?

Take a look at my video if you got spare time pls. Take care of when the tip hit's the bed and when it just stops in the air and the LED won't light up red

Morning, yes that does look like a faulty BLTouch but double-check your connection is good first for the white sensor wire.   How are you finding that board otherwise?  worth the upgrade?

[Waggster]

So I've spent all day trying to set up my BL touch on my V4, and it is just is refusing to work. I've rewired it more times than I can count, both through the Led mount and just bypassing that to write directly to the board. No matter what I do, I get the issue where when I try to home, it homes x and y, then moves up a little, extends the probe pin and retracts it 3 times before giving me the error telling me to fix my issues and use M999 to reset. The Z acid never drops at all during this. Also if I go into my Serial monitor and send M119, it always reports Z as triggered, and when I extend with a M280 P0 S10, sending M119 immediately retracts the pin and reports a triggered Z. I tried using the Teaching Tech's firmware, and that works if I plug my white and black wires into Z MIN, but I would prefer to be on Marlin 2.0.x instead of 1.1.19. I've attached a pictures of my wiring and a video of the triggered behavior as well.
Hopefully someone can help me, cause this has been incredibly frustrating! Thanks in advance!

So looking at your photos and description you are doing everything write. My firmware only uses the Z Max pin to make it easy to wire up but it's easy to change to Z Min if you want to do that? 

If you look in the following folder.. Experts only (Firmware source)\Marlin-2.0.x\Marlin\src\pins\ramps
Open pins_RAMPS.h file and look for...
  #ifndef Z_MIN_PIN
    #define Z_MIN_PIN      19
  #endif
  #ifndef Z_MAX_PIN
    #define Z_MAX_PIN      18
  #endif
and change the pin number around..
  #ifndef Z_MIN_PIN
    #define Z_MIN_PIN      18
  #endif
  #ifndef Z_MAX_PIN
    #define Z_MAX_PIN      19
  #endif

Then you can test to see if you have a problem with the Z Max pin since you have it working on the Z min.

If the axis is always moving up then no matter what the Z is always triggered. So, you will need to look at your white wire and make sure it's a good connection.

Let me know how you get on...  happy to try and work through this with you.

[Waggster]

Hi there,
having a pretty warped bed on my X1, I decided to go for autobed levelling. Performing the guide went relatively smoothly and my printer calibrates itself before every print.
I am currently facing two problems though:
1) High vibration especially during the first layer, I retightened the part cooling fan since this is a part I removed, but it only helped a bit.
2) With higher speeds (positioning with ~150mm/s, printing with 50 mm/s) the axis don't move smoothly anymore. Could it be that the original board can't handle the calculations anymore, causing the movement to slow down? I own a V4 Sidewinder, 3.1 BLTouch and original Board.

Cheers,
Martin

Hi Martin,  150mm/s is really high and would cause problems with vibrations.  You could lower your jerk settings to see if that helps.  Are you using Cura to test?  This out of the box comes with really high settings due to it being made for the Ultimaker and it only having a lightweight head and non-moving bed.

I doubt the original board isn't up to it.. just try reducing your jerk, acceleration settings and see if that helps. 

[nicedevil]

Hey Steve,

I upgraded to SKR 1.4 turbo now and all the guys are still using your guidelines to add Bl-Touch functionality for the X-1
Pretty cool. Unfurtunately I got some problems with it now There are so many guys out that use 32 bit boards now with bl-touch and mine is doing problems

Could it just be that my sensors is just broken?

Take a look at my video if you got spare time pls. Take care of when the tip hit's the bed and when it just stops in the air and the LED won't light up red

Morning, yes that does look like a faulty BLTouch but double-check your connection is good first for the white sensor wire.   How are you finding that board otherwise?  worth the upgrade?

What should I say... the board itself with the 32 bit... I don't know for real if it makes this big difference BUT... the easier way to connect TMC2209 with UART and sensorless homing... I think that is worth! And those drivers... man they are SO much more silent then the standard ones are... and those are silent if we compare them to older ones.

I'm just not sure why the Bl-Touch isn't working as it did with my MKS Gen L.

That blinking seems to be "normal" to some users... same frequency of blinking at all of them that got this problem. It isn't a problem at all, just annoying. Especially if you like to do a timelapse/vid.

Did I tell you that big difference of the drivers!!!?
just listen to them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGp5YJ1ljYU take a note of my clicking on the wheel to a reference of the volumelevel....

[BaronVonPrints]

So looking at your photos and description you are doing everything write. My firmware only uses the Z Max pin to make it easy to wire up but it's easy to change to Z Min if you want to do that? 

If you look in the following folder.. Experts only (Firmware source)\Marlin-2.0.x\Marlin\src\pins\ramps
Open pins_RAMPS.h file and look for...
  #ifndef Z_MIN_PIN
    #define Z_MIN_PIN      19
  #endif
  #ifndef Z_MAX_PIN
    #define Z_MAX_PIN      18
  #endif
and change the pin number around..
  #ifndef Z_MIN_PIN
    #define Z_MIN_PIN      18
  #endif
  #ifndef Z_MAX_PIN
    #define Z_MAX_PIN      19
  #endif

Then you can test to see if you have a problem with the Z Max pin since you have it working on the Z min.

If the axis is always moving up then no matter what the Z is always triggered. So, you will need to look at your white wire and make sure it's a good connection.

Let me know how you get on...  happy to try and work through this with you.

Well, I got it to work right once doing this. But when I rewired back through the LED port and homed it, it ran right into the plate and didn't trigger. I tried M280 P0 S60, and now it is just reporting as always open. Ideas?

[BaronVonPrints]

So looking at your photos and description you are doing everything write. My firmware only uses the Z Max pin to make it easy to wire up but it's easy to change to Z Min if you want to do that? 

If you look in the following folder.. Experts only (Firmware source)\Marlin-2.0.x\Marlin\src\pins\ramps
Open pins_RAMPS.h file and look for...
  #ifndef Z_MIN_PIN
    #define Z_MIN_PIN      19
  #endif
  #ifndef Z_MAX_PIN
    #define Z_MAX_PIN      18
  #endif
and change the pin number around..
  #ifndef Z_MIN_PIN
    #define Z_MIN_PIN      18
  #endif
  #ifndef Z_MAX_PIN
    #define Z_MAX_PIN      19
  #endif

Then you can test to see if you have a problem with the Z Max pin since you have it working on the Z min.

If the axis is always moving up then no matter what the Z is always triggered. So, you will need to look at your white wire and make sure it's a good connection.

Let me know how you get on...  happy to try and work through this with you.

Well, I got it to work right once doing this. But when I rewired back through the LED port and homed it, it ran right into the plate and didn't trigger. I tried M280 P0 S60, and now it is just reporting as always open. Ideas?

So redid my Z wiring, and now it registers as always triggered, except when the probe pin is deployed, then it registers as open? It will at least home like this, but I feel like there is still an issue somewhere here.

[Waggster]

No that's correct.  It only shows open when the probe is down.  When the probe is retracted it shows triggers. :-)  It drops the probe always for homing, once homed it doesn't need it again and remains up.

[BaronVonPrints]

No that's correct.  It only shows open when the probe is down.  When the probe is retracted it shows triggers. :-)  It drops the probe always for homing, once homed it doesn't need it again and remains up.

Wondeful! Thank you so much for the help!!!!