Thank you so much, that means a lot. I try and make my videos easy to understand, which sometimes means they can be very long lol in the end I just hope they help. Thanks for leaving a comment to let me know!
Thanks! This video has become so useful for me, i'm using it to install the bltouch on my second machine, EVERYONE should at least give you a couple of bucks EVERY time they use this excellent video (actually all your videos), It saves me so much work, thanks. Don't believe you don't have millions of viewers yet. Best of luck
Thank you ssoooo much! Not only for the generous contribution but the extremely kind words!! Reading this comment was the best way to start my week! Thank you and I hope this video and all the rest help you in some way. Much appreciated!
I have said once, I'll say it again. This guy is under rated. 700 subs? That is ridiculous. I am going to be posting this video up on the official site because people ask this question a lot. *Fantastic* and very helpful video.
Thank you, you're the best!! Really appreciate the generosity. I love making these videos and I plan on making a lot more. Thanks for the support, it's truly appreciated!
@@PrintsLeo3D Well, no need to reply, everyone should send you a patreon because you teach very well. I never would have been able to put in my bltouch as fast as I did if it wasn't for your excellent step by step instructions. That's why they're so good, you don't leave anything out, and that's rare, thanks.
A reply is the least I can do! I can't say it enough and I'm honest every time, I really appreciate all the feedback and the support, it really helps this channel and my mental health lol thank you!
You got a sub pal your a hero thanks so much man for the information and for not rushing through things that are important I hate when I have to stop a video and watch a part of a video 5 times to catch someone trying to give half ass explanations in tutorial videos. This was done as professional as it could be done much respect to you sir.
Thank you so much for the compliment!!! I try and explain everything as best I can and also be as active as I can with my comments. So if you ever need anything drop me a message !
Thanks to your helpful videos, I replaced my Aquila S2 H32 board with an N32 board and installed the BL Touch. I also printed the S2 TPU enhancement piece and the BL Touch bracket. I would not have had the necessary confidence or understanding to do all of this without your help! Thank you! As a side note, the N32 board works much better than the H32 board did. I had issues with the H32 not reading the memory card consistently, and noticed big fluctuations in Octoprints temp graph...both of those issues are now resolved!
Dave, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to write this. These videos are only ever mean to help people, and hearing that they are working makes my entire weekend! Thank you thank you! I'm glad you were also able to get your printer to a point where you can enjoy it, as that is what this is all about!! I Appreciate the comment and I promise to keep making helpful videos! (or at least try lol)
You're welcome! It can be a lot to tackle but it really isn't all that tough once you get the concept of what you're doing. If you have any problems or questions just drop me a line ! Good luck!
Thought I'd post some of what helped me. I have an Aquila X2, originally came with the H32 board, I purchased an N32 board and replaced it. I was having fits with updating the screen firmware and after about 5 hours of frustration I came across this on reddit: " if the blue residence time is very short, the screen program update fails. When the screen program is updated with the accompanying TF card, you need to format the TF card, select FAT32 format, and select 4096 bytes for the size of the allocation unit.". Once I formatted one of my micro sd cards to 4096 bytes it worked like a charm. If you're getting the quick blue to red/orange, try formatting your micro sd card with the 4096 bytes. Hope this helps someone else! Edit: Thank you Leo for all your help in this video and the Sprite direct drive video, saved me a bunch of time and headache! Really appreciate what you do!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with us! I know a lot of people who ran into troubles with one side of this install, so sourcing information from everyone who has ran into trouble, and then solved that trouble is extremely worthwhile. Thanks for taking the time to help! Also thanks for the shout, I'm happy to help and happy to make videos that aim to do that as well. Glad to be of service! Thanks again!
I just got into printing and bought a used Aquila and upgraded the tubing, as well as getting a metal dual gear extruder and along with a BL touch, your videos were the most useful from any others!! Everything is running great and I'm loving the new firmware!! Worlds better than the stock!! Its like a different machine now!
Wow that's great, congratulations! I'm happy I was able to help and I'm impressed you got so much working on a printer while still being new to the hobby! Very very awesome! Thanks for watching and I appreciate the comment. Happy printing!
Thanks for providing this video! I was able to set up my Voxelab Aquila X2 (H32 chip) to use Creality's BL Touch with Alex's v1.3.6 for H32 Beta 2 (BLTouch-5x5-H32.bin) successfully by following your video. I watched other videos on how to get it wired up, but couldn't find anything on first steps once I had the BL Touch hooked up and the firmware installed. Thanks for providing an in depth walkthrough on those critical first steps. :)
You are welcome! I never intended to make a video that is nearly an hour long, but I just try and squeeze in as much information as I can, even some niche scenarios that maybe only a few people will encounter, in the end it's all about helping people. Thanks for watching and contributing!
Thanks Chris! It's such a balancing act of adding necessary info, making sure the steps are thorough, but also not being too long of a video. I never can get the too long of a video problem solved 😆 but I'm getting better. I'll never skimp on information or the necessary steps, so I appreciate it when someone takes the time to watch a video like this back to front. Thank you!
Thanks for the video. It worked excellently with my trianglelab 3d touch. Your modded fan shroud actually fit the specs for the triangle labs version down to the 10th milimeter lol. I've never gotten better prints and it only cost 14 bucks. Thanks again, perfectvideo
@@PrintsLeo3D I'm actually pretty impressed with myself at how much I've learned in the last 2-3 weeks thanks to people like yourself. I can't even imagine doing this before the internet
Leo Kudos on you fine tutorial. Your teaching style is excellent and your coverage of the subject was comprehensive. I had no trouble installing my 3D touch using your method. Well ... there was one problem but only because I used the 3D Touch 3.0 instead of the BL Touch. The color codes used by 3D Touch are like no one elses. The electronics community has always used red for positive, 3d Touch uses black. The other colors are equally as screwy. The do supply a cable which is supposed to convert their color scheme to the one BL Touch uses but the supplied cable is way too short. Unusable on the Aquila. They do however supply a second cable which is long enough, but it uses their weird color scheme. But it does work and it's a direct plugin on both ends. The smaller end can be snaked through the wiring harness as you suggest. Even though its a direct plug in I would suggest anyone installing the 3D Touch trace each color in the cable from the printed legend on the 3D Touch PC board to the legend on the Aquila mainboard, just to be sure. Again, fine tutorial!
Thank you ! I'm glad you were able to figure that out, some of the off brand ABL devices have all different wiring colors. For the most part they are lined up properly regardless of color, but it always helps to trace the wires and make sure. Thanks for finding my video, happy printing!
Just received my Aquila X2 and the BL Touch and although it is printing great out of the box, I'll be adding the BL Touch soon'ish. Great video and keep them coming!
Thank you so much! It's always a tough proposition to modify a printer that's producing quality prints , but at least you have a great base line to use as a litmus test for all your prints after you make any changes. Again, thank you for the comment !
getting a bl touch in a couple of days, definitely saving this vid to reference during the whole process as you were super thorough even on the calibration portion which is always the trickiest part, thank you very much for making this guide
Hey thanks! I try and cover these topics from all angles, so after you watch it, feels like you have already gone through the process yourself once. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment !!
@@PrintsLeo3D I do actually have a question for you, I am looking at your model for the fan shroud and was wondering what material you would recommend for it? I was thinking at least petg given what it surrounds but honestly don't know if that is enough. alsio you have 2 versions of the print, which would you recommend doing, the 1.25mm shorter one or the 2mm?
Brother! Love your channel! Ive seen quite a few videos and i cant understand why you have so little subs, i would recommend a few more lights for your filming (specially white lights), those will come a long way when filming everything, but that aside, if you keep the good content up your channel will grow a lot! Greetings from Argentina!
Thank you so much for the comment and the advice. You're absolutely right about the lighting, I was using these super cheap white lights from Amazon and told myself I would upgrade at some point, but it sort of got shuffled down the list of things to do. This is a great reminder that I need to constantly reevaluate my setup. Thank you so much again for the kind words, really means a lot, I know sometimes we make comments on videos or posts and don't think how they might affect the people receiving them, but I have to say your compliment and positive outlook definitely made my day, like the others who've posted on my channel! I'll be looking into upgraded lighting this upcoming week!
@@PrintsLeo3D man! Obviously i tried to say it as polite as possible so it can be taken as a constructive message, not a destructive one! (Like most of youtube comments) Much love and keep it up!
Thank you so much! Comments like this mean a lot , the fact that you took time to write it especially! I try and make easy to understand content that's informative, whether 1 person is watching or 1 thousand. Thank you!
For *Voxelab Aquila C2 with H32 mobo;* First off, thank PrintsLeo3D for all of the amazing information in all of your aquila videos. I have watched all of them multiple times and just bit the bullet yesterday to try and do Klipper...and that was going fine until my old computer I had running Debian with Kiuah literally gave up the magic smoke and sent me here as a backup. I found that my Voxelab Aquila is a C2 model with H32 mobo and could not get Alex to run nor could I get any of the voxelab firmwares to run, with the added bonus of not having a port for a BL touch even though I bought one. I eventually found *Smokey's Aquila Modified Firmware* and am currently back up and about to try out its newest features. Its an older Marlin (pre 2.1.2) and has manual bed mesh along with a couple other goodies.
Wow that's awesome! I don't like to hear that you have to bob and weave through all these different firmwares but I'm happy you got one working! Thanks for the kind words and I hope you can find another way to get back into Klipper!!
Hey man just wanted to come back and say thanks again brother installed this and the firmware and it’s a completely different printer it has worked first time everytime for last 5 days it’s been amazing how great the firmware makes the printer it made the chipset feel like it’s from this decade it’s so much faster and more responsive . But the autobed level with the 5x5 probe is amazing how well it makes the printer work and also I did your E step adjustment video to because I put the red metal dual gear extruder on it ended up being 137 esteps to be accurate so that was nice ,at same time put the blue Capricorn tube and yellow bed springs haha they all 3 came together on Amazon for $15 then the Bl touch on Amazon was $43 but man was it all worth it $60 ish on Amazon for upgrades makes this printer a plug n play printer it hasn’t failed a print yet it’s been amazing I think I might look into doing the fan upgrade on the power supply and horned they or the only thing I think making noise at all and they aren’t horrible but I think a good quality silent fan upgrade would make this thing run like you didn’t know it was in the house that or maybe put the entire printer in a enclosure and maybe vent it to a window so it’s always exhausting the plastic fumes out the house even though the odor is very very mild so far all I have printed is with esun pla + and polymaker Pla + but they both have been great and make very strong parts . Again though ,thank you Sir for your Videos , Happy New Years(lil late) and God bless!
Wow! Your comment has me grinning from ear to ear, stuff like this makes me so happy, thank you so much for sharing it with me. It's awesome how a few little touches here and there can make this printer feel like a powerhouse. At this point we are basically running the same setup (springs, capricorn, BLTouch, etc) and it's a great setup because those upgrades aren't all that difficult but they really make a huge difference in print performance and ease of printing. I would say though watch out for that extruder, months after I installed mine I found out it began to grind itself into dust because there was no washer on the second gear that is in the extruder arm. It worked for a while but then I started seeing this black dust everywhere and eventually had to replace it, so no I only recommend the BMG clone style extruder. You are right fans are the only thing on this machine you can hear at all, I'm sure upgrading them would make this whisper quiet. I just swapped a fan out on my Ender 5, a no name brand from Amazon, and this thing is loud! lol I didn't think fans could cause so much noise, but it certainly pays off to do some research on them before you replace it (which I am sure you would do). Really thank you so much for coming back and not only thanking me but updating me with your progress, it means the world to me!! Happy new Year and Keep on Printing!
Great video and instructions. I bet a lot of the failures ppl in the amzn reviews have is due to that little detail regarding the distance between hot end and bltouch sensor tip. I will give it a rewatch before i install mine.
Yes you're absolutely right ! They're so many minor details that go into this setup there's no shortage of issues you can run into lol hopefully this video can get you up and running without too many complications. Thanks for the comment and good luck !
Glad to hear it! Hope your on the Nice list lol this process is not hard it's just can seem daunting so if this helps reduce some stress I'm glad! If you need any help once you get it going let me know.
Hey thanks man , i just bought my aquila S2 off of amazon last night im sure this amazing video you made here will help me get the bl touch working in short order 😉👍
That's great and good luck! If this video alone doesn't help you just drop a comment or join the Discord and we'll get you up and running!! Thanks for watching!
@@PrintsLeo3D Hey man i just got it done , finally , and i gotta say , it was quite the job , took me a couple days , (not full days ofc but still ) , had to reprint the support for my s2 , and then i had to use a cut piece to straighten out the probe , and i ended up choosing the 5x5 probe mesh , i got the HIGH SPEED😎 one for the TRIANGLE LAB 3d Touch 👀 and its working fantastic 💯 , cant wait to make full use of my printer now and keep upgrading it to the max , now im off to KLIPPERIZE IT , but i want to take a break for now , im spent 😴 , took me a couple tries like i said but i enjoyed it , learned a lot thanks to you , i dont know how much harder this would have been without a guide like yours so Thank You man you are the man 😎 😸💯
Thank you so much! There's alot of time and effort in this video. I have to print the fan shroud again due to the lack of height between nozzle and the probe. Thanks for that fixed shroud stl. I'll get back to it after that 10h print :-)
Thank you for taking the time to comment and for the kind words. I'm glad this video helps and if you need anything else drop another comment. Also don't forget that fan shroud prints support free! So you don't have to contend with removing a lot of supports after it's done
Thank you this is an absolutely brilliant guide into the BL touch (or in my case a CR touch) installation and setup easy and understandable if you follow the step by step guidance 👍👍
Thank you so much for saying that and for commenting!! I try and break down some of these harder to reach topics, and make them a little more accessible. It's good to know it's helping. Thank you!
Thanks very useful information. Only thing I had to do differently was to wire new connectors. As the extension cable had the wrong one’s. Good thing Antclabs provided the extra hardware to wire it in. Keep up the good information 👍🏽
Thank you very much and good job being proactive with that! Wiring up a bl touch for the first time can be daunting especially when you need to swap the cable ends. Thanks for sharing !
Great video. It’s great to see someone that does a step by step video for people like me that knows very little about computers. My question is do you really need to upgrade the firmware on 3D printers for better print quality or is it just for cosmetic reasons on the display.
Thanks for commenting, I try to keep my videos aimed towards someone who just got into the 3d printing world. Upgrading firmware is mostly for cosmetic/quality of life upgrades. However one major reason to upgrade is for safety. As far as I recall the original printers shipped with firmware that did not have 'thermal runaway' protection enabled. Alexs firmware has it enabled, as well as the firmware upgrades from Voxelab (as far as I've been told). This protection prevents the printer from heating up indefinitely if one of the temperature gauges isn't working properly, which could lead to a fire. So it's important with any printer to make sure that this protection is enabled.
Awesome I am so happy to be able to help! You got yourself a good printer, but even then there will always be some headaches along the way. If you have any problems in the future come on back and drop a comment and I'll try and help as best I can!
Usually the probe you buy will come with a set of screws. If not you can purchase a variety pack of M3 screws that should be a perfect fit. If I had to guess I think these screws are M3x10 maybe slightly longer.
What an awesome project to do together! Thanks for supporting the video by dropping a comment I appreciate it! This new UI really feels like a night and day transformation that takes the printer to the next level.
Awesome Video! Followed everything to a T and I was able to ditch using a glue stick for bed adhesion. I've watched many of your videos and they are all great.
Did you perform the firmware update for the screen as well? Sometimes people have issues with the firmware for the screen taking, if that's the case it's always good to try an alternate SD card if you have one, and reformat it before trying to flash the screen.
So glad to hear it! These probes can add a lot of utility to our printers, and make printing on those warped beds a lot easier! Thanks for watching and leaving a comment to tell me the video helped, it means a lot to the channel!
I just did this for my Aquila x2 N32. I changed out the H32 board for the N32 board and after that the only difference was I had to click Live Z offset before I could adjust the Z at all. Other than that, this was bang on!
When I was doing this there was some weird functionality with the 'live adjust'. I'm glad you found a way to make this work ! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment .
As a note, the first time I started the printer the x axis wouldn't lower with the bltouch installed (probe would go up and down). I found a separate video, but basically, I had to set my printer to the bed, and turned on the Aquila for it to realize that the printer was at the bed. Now when I autohome it does so correctly.
That's a pretty interesting condition. Generally when an issue like that happens it has to do with the connection of the bl touch, either at the touch itself, or more commonly, at the board. Either way I'm glad you were able to get it sorted out and I appreciate you taking the time to tell me about your experience and how you solved it. I'm sure this will help someone in the future! Thank you!
Don't worry, for this purpose the CR touch and the BL touch will operate the same. Now that you have a properly formatted SD card find the firmware you want to use. First you need to know what chip is in your printer. Do you know what chip is in your printer? Should be STM32, G32, or N32. If you have a printer with an H32 chip you will have to get firnware from a different site but I can still help. When you find the firmware copy it into the SD card. Then on the SD card create a folder named 'firmware' and move the firmware file into it. Make sure the folder is named exactly 'firmware' no capital letters and no extra spaces. Then insert the SD into the powered down printer and turn it on.
@@PrintsLeo3D ok i got the N32 4x4 file i have downloaded it to the printer Edit: ok i got my sd card in and the screen will show the bark loading and everything is there but won't let me select anything
Yea I'll definitely do everything I can to help. I'm guessing you're trying to flash new for ware to the printer, and it's not showing anything different on the printer menu ?
I hope youll find this seeing the videos a year old. I have the firmware installed and the screen updated too. Now the knob for the lcd screen does nothing. Have you ever heard of this before?
Usually when running into a screen issue it has to do with the firmware not being updated. If you updated properly then I'm not too sure where to start. It's possible the knob loosened up and came off it's rotor? Maybe just depress the knob or try and jiggle it around a little to see if you can get some response from the screen. Speaking of the screen does it look garbled and glitched ?
At the time I made that video I don't think there was but now there just may be. I can't say for certain though as I haven't used Marlin firmware in quite sometime.
You're welcome! My videos are longer but I want to try and get people as familiar with the process as possible before they attempt it. I'm glad this was helpful!
Sound like it's better to print a shorter shroud. If the tip turns out to be too far, we can insert some spacers anyway. On the other hand, if it's too close, you probably have to re-print the whole thing. Sanding some plastic down and keeping it level don't sound that simple. Thanks for the detailed explanation. I will receive my 3D touch tomorrow. Let's see what will happen.
I would agree it's easier to use the shorter shroud and make any adjustments (shims) then trying to make a larger shroud work by removing layers. Good luck with the install I'm sure it'll go smooth! If you run into any issues leave a comment abd we'll get your sorted! Thanks for the comment !
@@PrintsLeo3D I do have one small question. How bad are the stock springs and knobs (for the bed)? People keep saying they need to be changed. If so, I guess I should replace the springs first, then install the BLTouch. Thanks again!
My suggestions for intial replacements would include the bed springs (the knobs are fine for me), and changing the PTFE tubing from stock to Capricorn tubing. Those are pretty simple upgrades (inexpensive also) that are major improvements. After those two things I would recommend replacing the stock plastic extruder with either a single geared metal one , or preferably, a BMG style dual geared extruder. That upgrade requires a little more elbow grease but also is well worth the time and effort.
Thankyou so much for showing the install. Only problem is I dont know how to use the software. I did everything you said in the video as far as install but, I dont know how to use the bl touch after install. the bed is always to high or to low on one side. Am I mistaken in thinking I do not have to use the leveling wheels anymore? the grid always shows green and red. what do i need to do from here?
Thanks for watching, and I'm glad you got it installed properly. Installing this ABL(auto bed leveling) system doesn't mean we don't need to 'level' the bed anymore(leveling wheels), it means we don't need to do it nearly as often. After installing you should still level your bed, so that the ABL can get an accurate mesh, from there you should not have to level your bed that much at all, but it does have to start off being level. Also when looking at a probed mesh (the red and green sections) your bed will most likely not appear to be level. That probing mesh is showing you what the bed looks like as it stands, the ABL then makes adjustments while it's printing the first layers to compensate for those rises and dips in the bed. Make sure you measure and input the X and Y offsets for your probe (that's the distance the probe is from the nozzle) you'll need to manually measure these yourself. Then calibrate your Z-offset (which is the distance of the nozzle tip from the bed), there is a menu you can navigate to in the printer that will help with this calibration. After those offsets are taken care of make sure to add either G29(probe before each print) or M420 S1(Use a saved mesh) in your starting Gcode (of your slice) and make sure those are added after any G28 codes. As this is your first time using an ABL I would recommend adding G29, as it will probe before each print.
my comment got deleted because i used a link so i have to write again without a link this time... great video u helped me a lot with some of your videos but i have a problem at the installation of the firmware... i choosed the right chip, the right formating settings,... but when i plug the sd card in my voxalab aquila x2 there doesnt appear a bar instead there is just a wishy washy buggy half english half chinese overface (now i would insert the link but yeah maybe u can check in the deleted comment section or so) edit: infos i got the N32 sticker choosed the N32_5x5 firmware edit2: i checked i really got a N32 chip the installation of the N32_4x4 and the second installation of the N32_5x5 changed nothing is the next step just the update the display firmware and then is everything fine? edit3: nvm u said its gonna look wonky bonky so i now update the display next edit will follow edit4: yep the display is working now :D edit5: NEW PROBLEM :D yeah now i got the funny problem that the Z-Axis doesnt go down anymore... not while homing and not when i say the printer to move down and i only put the z-axis limit port out edit6: okay weird now it worked (its a run and run from room to room to share my latest knowledge and go back and fix it xd edit7: okay i lied it doesnt work at homing but it worked by moving + info: when it hits a surface the leds blinks blue and red in a fast change but it doesnt do it while not moving while homing so it does not detect a holy invisible surface atleast edit8: yeah that looks like a problem i can simply fix my own... so sometimes it goes down when i move it down the problem is near the bed but not at the distance that the bltouch can recognice the bed... and while homing it complete doesnt go down edit9: ok it looks like a problem with the wiring (read on reddit with someone with the same problem) I also dont got the same colors i got white,black,yellow,red,green or so (my BLTouch knockout is this one "B08ZCYDPM7" (its a amazon id)) + but idk whats wrong because i did them right like they were in the thing edit10: omg hahahah its unbelievable... yeah it was a wiring problem but the thing is that the black/white cable was near the pins but not on the pins xd... they were between the white plastic corner and the pins so they seemed to be fixed and i thought there were inside but they werent haha now its homing normaly... so thank you alot (and after that fix and error marathon also me xd) if there is another problem i gonna update :D
This comment was quite the rollercoaster ride of emotions!!! Lol thanks for following up on every aspect and I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to reply until now. Seems like you did a great job of fixing the issues in your own, and I would have came to the same solution as you (wiring). Thanks for watching and I appreciate you taking the time to comment and then update !
where are you going to change the z offset?? I absolutely love your videos for Voxel !! One other problem. I replaced the bed springs with silicone spacers. When I Home all, my nozzle is 1 1/2 to 2 inches above the bed. How do I lower the Z closer to the bed so I can do the Z offset??
To set the z offset for the touch, there is a dedicated menu under the leveling option. There should be a menu called z offset. Within that menu select 'live z', that should home the printer and then you can start lowering the nozzle towards the bed. As you do that the number for the z offset should be changing. Once the nozzle is close enough to the bed (you can use a post it note to feel for tension of the nozzle on the bed), select apply (or done?), and that should save your z offset. You can then do a more precise tuning of the z offset during a calibration print. The live z offset can be adjusted directly from the menu while a print is happening. As for the nozzle being so far from the bed after auto home, can you check what the z coordinates are. I believe the auto home finds each endstop (X, Y, and Z) and then brings the print head to a z height of 10mm, so that's what I'm thinking is throwing you off. Try adjusting that offset and tell me how it goes. Also make sure you don't have any z offset value saved in your slicer
Definitely worth it! It's not a super hard upgrade and it adds a nice level of repeatability to your prints. If you need any help during the process just reach out ! I always appreciate you taking the time to comment .
After you've Auto home'd your printer , and then access the z offset menu, click the 'Live adjustment' box. It should move as you adjust after that box is ticked. However I know there are times when people have had issues with that. When you auto home the machine what does the Z height say in the bottom right of the screen(not the Z offset number but the actual Z position)? Then after entering the z offset menu and clicking live adjust does the printer bring your nozzle to what it thinks Z=0 is? Does the Z number in the bottom right change from the number it was after an auto home?
I knew my bltouch was going to give me a headache this weekend. Lol for some reason bltouch stops probing when I'm trying to print the test squares.it would do the first row then completely stop.
@@PrintsLeo3D yeah did that. It will start probing and randomly stops. I've gotten up to 11 out of the 16 points then stops or even just stops at the beginning.
I would double check you have the correct firmware downloaded for the CHIP in the motherboard. Assuming you do I would try another firmware, for instance if you downloaded Alex's 3x3 BLTouch, I would try the 4x4 BLTouch and see if you get some consistency. Weird that it will just stop working out of nowhere, seems like firmware troubles to me.
Works great on Voxelab Aquila X2 with H32 chip. But it is extremely important to format the card with a fixed allocation unit size of 4096KB. I wasted two hours figuring out why I couldn't update the display software because I was convinced that the format default was set to 4096KB when apparently it wasn't.
This is a great point. Even if you've flashed firmware in the past, or if you're doing the screen after the printer, it's such an important step to re-format the card (Fat32 4096 bytes). It's a quick step and you're better being safe than being sorry. Thanks for spreading some good advice!
So having out beds level is still an important part of having a bl touch. So we still need the leveling knobs and we want to make sure our beds are as level as we can make them. After that though we can basically "set it and forget it" meaning you shouldn't have to level anymore, just leave the knobs where they are and the auto bed leveling should compensate if they go out of level at all. I know some people have actually screwed a nut up under the knobs to keep they affixed in place once it's level, and I think that's a good idea.
I have the Aquila X2 printer, which according the sticker had a H32 chip. However, when I upgraded with a BLTouch, and the Voxelab firmware, nothing worked properly. It turned out, to be a HC chip where no firmware was available for the X2 printer. Voxelab have sent me the main board free of charge that should of been installed according to the serial number, a N32 chip. So watching your excellent video, I have installed the new board and the Alex 1.3.5 Marlin firmware, However, I have two problems still; 1. the printer will not do the 16 point levelling (4x4), it is probably something I have not done or setup on the screen menu. Can you advise me here please. Also 2. I have PLA coming out of the extruder when I load it up, but when I try and print anything, no PLA is extruding. Is my print head in need of replacement? Thank you in Advance
Pretty wild it was neither an H32 or N32 board from the factory. I haven't heard of the HC boards at all. As for the firmware, were you also able to install the screen firmware that accompanies this? I would also double check you are downloading the correct firmware for your chip (N32) and make sure to format the SD card you're using before installing (Fat32 / 4096 bytes). If PLA is not extruding while printing it could be a number of issues. Is the extruder motor moving while printing? What temperatures are you printing at? Have you changed from the stock extruder motor, and if so have you adjusted your e-steps? Let me know!
@@PrintsLeo3D found out by taking out the pla, it was all bent and zig-zag-ed. The nozzle area was all black and completely blocked. Tried to repair with some spare parts I had, but with removing the white wires from the heating block, and reattaching them, I now have no heat to my extruder. So will be ordering a new part on Friday. When you say e-steps, not exactly sure what you mean unless I know them by something else maybe?? Apart from that the screen is fine and printer homes correctly with the Alex Marlin firmware. But will not do the auto levelling, just does 1 point then says complete.
When you were removing the wires to the extruder (and then got no heat) was that while the printer was still plugged in and powered on? It's possible you may have done some damage to the mainboard if so. Those wires can back feed into the mainboard and fry parts of it (or all of it) and it would need to be replaced. You'll be able to tell when you open the bottom of the printer to inspect the board, there will likely be a darkened or burnt areas to some of the connectors or board. As for e-steps, I am referring to the motor steps that controls the amount of filament that exits the nozzle. I have another video on this process, but basically we want the extruder motor to be pushing out the exact amount of filament we ask for. No more, no less. E-steps is the number that dictates this rate. Let me know about the other things, hopefully this all turns out ok.
@@PrintsLeo3D just to confirm printer was unplugged when I took the wires of the extruder. Although they were actually melted to the extruder so I expect were damaged when I pulled them off. I have ordered a new extruder with new wires. What scares me, was how close was this printer from catching fire?? Just glad the main board has been replaced.
Have put in the new hotend, with new wires. Turned printer on, it now will not home, but this could be down to connections on X and Z becoming lose, haven't checked as yet. The most worrying one, bed temperature was fine at 60, but extruder got to 200 and printer failed on heat being to hot!! Could this be a faulty board, hotend or wires, or does something need updating in the firmware/menu??
Great video! Any input on the clone listed? Money is tight...so if I can save a few $$ then all the better. But if I am going to waste $$ buying something that won't work then why do it. Thanks
I have purchased both clones listed and have had no issues with them whatsoever. It's hard to go by some of their reviews, as installing an auto bed leveling device is not easy, and sometimes user error can be held against the equipment you're using. I have 3 (4 but one is still in the box) clones all working just as well as the 6 official touches I have. The only benefit to the official bl touch link I provided is that you can purchase an extra long cable, which while not necessary, makes initial install a little easier.
The Aquila and the Aquila X2 are for all intents and purposes the same machine, so if you own an X2 you could equip it with a BL Touch. The X2 doesn't really 'improve' upon anything the base Aquila did (at least that's my understanding , I do not own an X2). The X2 only offers a filament runout sensor (which will stop the machine and alert the user that the filament being used has been exhausted mid print), and a handle (handles are used to grab things... not sure why this was added or how this is an upgrade lol). If I was buying a new printer and had the choice between the Aquila and the Aquila X2, I would save a few bucks and grab the base Aquila. If you wanted to add the filament sensor in the future it's a pretty simple upgrade and the sensors are priced very affordably. Of course if you are currently in the market for an Aquila the biggest landmine you face is the mainboard chip differences. Right now you will receive a printer with one of three different chips (G32, N32, H32). The G32 and N32 are able to be upgrade to community released firmware, which has more functionality and is iterated upon more rapidly. The H32 chip can only be upgraded with stock firmware, which for BL Touch related modifications has not been received well.
I noticed in Thingiverse that the your Satsana fan shroud (shorter ABL arm) was printed without supports. Was it printed as shown in the pics? How? Asking for an intermediate noob!😁
Hi, I'm so sorry I think I saw a comment like this on Thingiverse that I forgot to answer! Yes, it's meant to print just as you see it on thingiverse with the two fan vents touching the build plate. There's some bridging that will have to print(bridging is long straight unsupported lines - like bridges), and if you don't feel comfortable with them, you can add supports to your model, and then, in CURA, you can use the support blockers to 'turn off' supports on all the model except for the bridging in the middle. If that last part about support blocks is confusing, just send me an email and I'll send you over a picture of what I am talking about. I should also note this is not an original model by me, this model is amazing and I only shortened the ABL arm. The orginal model was created by Eric-Anastas for the Ender 3. Good luck!
The original Satsana was designed (by me) to print without support on its back. There's a link to my model on thingiverse in the description where I have photos of the correct print orientation.
Is this firmware for BL touch only or does it work with both BL and CR touch? I think that will be my deciding factor on going with the BL. I like the black look of the CR. I guess I could paint the BL lol.
Yes, this will work for both the BL and CR touches. For the most part I believe they are (mostly) universally cross compatible, except for some of the BTT boards needing certain features to be changed firmware side for it.
still works for current Aquila's only issue i have it my screen is not fully working with the screen firmware things arent loading or they are grey after load.
Someone else recently had a similar issue and their solution was to re-flash the SD card (FAT32 4096 bytes) and then upload the screen firmware again. If that doesn't work let me know.
@@PrintsLeo3D formating and trying to upload a new firmware to the screen does nothing goes right into the menu. im using the 9x9 grid on the printer side
Bed levelling is done prior to z offset. Anytime we re-level the bed you also want to make sure to adjust the z offset. I prefer to do all leveling while the bed is cold (or at room temperature). Some people prefer to do it while heated, because the bed will expand. To me both options make sense, but I would stress whichever you choose stay consistent. If you level the bed while heated, then also adjust z offset while heated. The same goes for if you level the bed cold.
Hey Leo, I’m installing my BLTouch but the cable that came in my kit that connects to the BLTouch doesn’t match like yours. 11:16 the 2 connectors are what mine is missing. Did you have to add your own ends or does that cable have a PN# or something. I can’t seem to find that exact cable that goes from BLTouch plugs to motherboard plug.
Hey Ruben, your bl touch should come with a total of 5 cables. However sometimes, if it's an older Creality kit usually, the 3 pins cable and the extra 2 pin cable will have different connectors. In that case you'd have to plug the seperated 2 pin connector into the old z endstop port and your firmware would be different. If it's possible can you send me a photo through email? printsleo3d@gmail.com
I just installed my CR Touch onto my Aquila X2 and this guide worked perfect! I'm also pretty new to 3D Printing, is there anything in the G-Code that can make it, so I don't ooze onto my build plate after the heat up before the pre-wipe while it's doing its leveling?
Thanks for watching and I am so happy to help! There are some commands you can insert directly after the call to probe the bed. The idea would be to make a call to a lower temp (160c for example) , then probe the bed, and then make a call after that to your printing temperature. Before that though what does your current start gcode look like ?
@@PrintsLeo3D so atm I have g92>g28>g29> and then a few g1''s which I believe are the lines and extrusion for the pre wipe, then a g92 two more tiny g1's then it prints. As I understand the format but not the language, I hope this helps. Update: So Found with the M190, M104, M109, and M140I can control temps. So I'll heat my bed and warm up my nozzle, level, then heat the nozzle and bed to their full temps. Again, thank you for the video and helping me have one less headache.
Yes, you got it! Sorry I didn't respond earlier , sometimes I won't get notified when someone responds to a comment I've already responded too. I was coming back through to check and I'm happy to see you figured it all out 👍
Great tutorial, thanks for posting this! I'm having an issue tho: My BLtouch seems to be zeroing out the read temperature of the bed and nozzle when it is activated. I can see the live temps briefly drop to 0C from ambient when I do a bed mesh or even if I just push the probe in manually. So I can run a mesh with a cold bed but if I turn on pre-heat or if I go to print something and the heating turns on, the print fails as soon as it tries to probe the bed to home Z and instead beeps and gives "Err: MINTEMP" error. I have tried running it with the Z limit switch still plugged in and not, same symptoms either way. There seems to be some electrical shenanigans caused by the BL touch making the thermistors give a false temperature reading when it is depressed. Any ideas?
Thanks for the video. I managed to get a 3D Touch installed on my Aquila X2. I couldn't see it mentioned in the video, but should the build plate and extruder be preheated prior to running the auto-bed level with G29 in the start gcode? If so, what is the command to add prior to G29?
Hey Josh, I'm glad this video was helpful. As far probing with a preheated or cold bed, I've gone back and forth on that. I used to always pre-heat my bed before probing but then after some some discussions with others I started to probe while the bed was cold and I have not noticed a discernable difference. If you DO want to get everything up to temp it will depend on the slicer you're using. The gcode to call for heating (of the bed) is either M109 Sxx or M140 Sxx. The M109 line sets the temperature and waits while the M140 sets the temperature then let's the printer go about other operations while it heats. For me I believe Cura inputs the M109 line prior to my start gcode (which is to wait for heating), so the printer-hot end and bed- would be at temperature when probing occurs. Nowadays though I choose to use M420 S1 over the G29 probing routine, this allows me to create a mesh outside of printing, save it, and then call it before each print so I don't have to spend time probing each print. Anyway, let me know what slicer you have and what desired effect you want and I should be able to help with some start gcode.
@@PrintsLeo3D Terrific, thanks for the detailed explanation. I am also using Cura, and you had me convinced in the video to run a mesh prior to each print. But if that's overkill, I could just use a saved mesh. If you don't preheat the bed/extruder prior to running a mesh, do you set the z-offset with hot or cold bed/extruder? I've noticed on my X2 the gap between extruder nozzle and bed grows significantly when hot, so struggling to understand how to account for this difference in the probing and/or z-offset steps.
Hey I followed the tutorial and everything worked great! I have one question. Is there a way to setup the machine settings start G-code so that the bed and hotend heat up WHILE the leveling is happening? It would save a lot of time in the long run i think
Yes absolutely! I am using Cura so the start code I am showing is for that software, its possible PrusaSlicer/SuperSlicer might be slightly different. You can find my start code here: www.printsleo3d.com/bltouchstartcode Just copy and paste the Probe before each print start code into your start code. Also if you want to save a lot of time you could probe outside of a print, and then just recall that data before the start of the print. That way is under Use a Saved Mesh on that link I sent. I'm glad you got it working and good luck!
So got an issue with 3dtouch. I am all good up to your video time stamp: 42:02 the unit touches the bed twice then just raised up about 7cm and stops??? Any ideas?
I'll do my best to help! So the problem you're having is when your attempting to adjust the Z offset, correct? When you auto home the machine outside of the z offset menu does everything work as it should ? Print head probes the bed and then lifts itself up a few mms to idle? Also what does the screen display after the unit touches the bed twice and then raises up ?
@@PrintsLeo3D Actually I got it working. Was acting strange for about 30 mins. The unit started flashing and the probe did not go back in. So I manually pushed it in and power cycled. Did that about 5 times, testing in between. Now for some reason, it is working flawless. But again. Thank you for the very quick reply and offer to assist. This has been a hair raising experience for me. Still having issues with the print not sticking to the bed. Did a bed level strip and it started moving around. I guess I will have to manually re-level and then get the auto level to fix the last bit, one more time. Such a learning curve. Also, never used this firmware before. The one from Alex. It is much better but a ton more features, that I have to do a steep learning curve on. Lol Love 3DPrinting... Take care...
OMG! So been leveling and leveling the bed over and over manually. lol. Just realized I had to adjust the Z offset again. All seems to be perfect now. I do notice on canceled prints the touch goes a little wonky and does not work, you have to push the pin in manually and restart. Is that normal. Kinda feels a little bit buggy.
Thxs will be doing this to my one when it arrives! A little confused initially with the portrait display but that's part of this upgrade have i got that correct? If Aquila intended use of the the BL Touch and it would appear they did with provison of the psu connector, why are you not able to just to bolt this onto the existing extruder mount? It also looks like the display fonts have been improved too as the original display was not great! Thxs in advance :o)
The portrait display is sort of a consequence of the firmware, but it's a good consequence as most people prefer it. The new firmware is based off the framework of firmware that was developed for the Ender 3 V2, which has the portrait display by default. So anything built on top of that, as Alex has done with his firmware, will likely adopt a lot of the settings and preferences. I don't have my machine in front of me right now, but I think the Aquila has threaded mounts for the addition of an Auto bed leveling device (BL touch) built into the X axis carriage plate (right next to where the hot end is located). I chose to change the entire fan shroud (to the Satsana) because I liked the design and that had a version that includes a bl Touch mount. Also with the updated firmware we have the option of changing the icons to a few different UI packages . There's a base blue version , Voxelab red and a few others with minors changes. It's all just aesthetics but I think it's a nice change. Thanks for watching the video and asking questions!
@@PrintsLeo3D My Printer arrived yesterday & busy doing modifications (not powered up yet)! Just watched someone on TH-cam who had an Aquila with a cheap (his words) inductive bed level sensor that worked a treat, as Prusia use them - not fully understood why manufactures don't just bundle these in as very low cost and what about you doing a video on a small Prusa style version for the Aquila? :o)
Yea there's a hope that they can start bundling ABL sensors with your printers, they don't cost much and they add a lot of usability. I just bought an Eryone ER20 that does come equipped with it , and I've been very happy. I would love to look into the Prusa line of printers but the cost of them is just out of my budget unfortunately lol
I'll look into the indictive sensor to be sure but presumably yes it can be added to the Aquila. I know that TH3D makes an inductive probe (EZAbl) that fits the Ender 3 so if imagine that would work
5 months later and I'm back LOL it's time to update my firmware, feeling comfortable enough with my machine that its time to tackle the really scary stuff for me. I'll let you know how it goes, thanks again for helping us newbs. I'd like to know how you got your logo on the startup screen? It would be cool to have my logo pop up on mine, was that difficult?
I think you're approaching this in a really great way, it's smart to be comfortable with your machine before you start diving into certain topics. If something does go wrong you know where to drop me a line and I'll be sure to try and help. Getting the startup logo is super simple, and it looks really cool. It's all done with the DWIN_SET folder. If go into the DWIN_SET folder the first three files you see all start with a numbered prefix (0_ , 1_ , 2_ ). The first file "0_start" is what we want to change. You need to create a start up screen that is 480 x 272 pixels. This can be done by something as easy as editing in MS PAINT and then changing the canvas size and having the program scale your picture with the canvas. The caveat here is you want to make sure the logo/picture has been rotated 90 degrees to the left. Because are screen will be vertical now the left side of the image will be the top and the right side will be the bottom, so you need to rotate your image according to that. Once it's been rotated and scaled save the image somewhere on your computer as "0_start" it needs to be named exactly as the first file in the DWIN_SET folder. After you've saved your custom image, go into the DWIN_SET folder and delete the original "0_start" image (might be a smart idea to copy that image and store it somewhere on your computer just in case), after you've deleted "0_start" image it's time to move yours into the folder. Just copy it from it's current location and paste it into the DWIN_SET folder and viola! you're done! If you have any questions regarding this or want more explanation let me know and I'll be happy to provide. You actually inspired me to add a section to my website for tips and tricks like this! I've been wanting to spread these cool tips but I don't know if a full video is worth it, now I can add all these cools features in one spot without having to attach a video to it! Once I have this tip updated on my site I'll drop a link in this comment because aside from the text there will be some images accompanying the instructions that will help! Good luck and keep on printing!
@@PrintsLeo3D oh wow, thank you. I'll give it a try. I won't have to rotate it tho because I have the X2 which has the vertical screen but thanks for mentioning it. I guess I'm more patient than others and I'm in no rush. I see people in groups on FB and discord and they've never done anything like this, they can't even level their bed properly and they're installing all these add ons and updating firmware and they get frustrated because they don't know why they're printer isn't printing. 🤷🤦 they have no clue because they've got so much crap duct taped to the poor machine, (seriously, duct taped) they don't know where to start mostly because they never took the time to understand the basic operating principles. I point them to your videos and say "watch this!"
Yea I think the biggest pitfall that people who immediately modify their printer face is, if everything goes right the first time. Because inevitably something will go wrong and it becomes an uphill battle trying to diagnose an issue with all those modifications possibly affecting it. I misspoke in my first response about the custom image. We have to rotate the image, not due to the display being vertical for the first time, but because that's how the firmware displays the image. The left side will be the top and the right side will be displayed as the bottom. I added a section on my website that uses some images to help with this process. Thank you so much for the inspiration! www.printsleo3d.com/tipsandtricks
Thanks for the info! I guess you my mostly only hear of the cases when it all goes wrong , but recently I had seen a number of people running into an issue with formatting so I just wanted to put that out there. Thanks for watching and thanks for sharing your results!
@@PrintsLeo3D I was just talking to someone who couldn't get the firmware to update, but he was on a PC and all seemed OK until someone else mentioned the size of the SD card. The guy with the problem was using a 32Gb card and that was what caused his issue as an SD card that size can not be (reliably) formatted as FAT32. Maybe that is the real source of the cases you heard about. Thanks for your videos. Even though this one came just a few days too late for me, I did learn a thing or two here and there. And some of the others definitely helped me understand my printer and the process better.
Awesome! Great job and I'm glad you were able to set this up, it's definitely a nice quality of life improvement, and it offers so great features the more you familiarize yourself with it. Those H32 machines can be a little finicky so I'm glad you made this work. From New York 🍕 I thank you for watching and commenting!!
I think I will make a short article about some steps to help with this, because there are a large number of people who run into issues during this part. I will try and help you now though if I can. There's usually two main reason this does not work, the first is to flash your SD card. Even if you've done it already it doesn't hurt to redo it if you're running into issues. Flash it Fat32 4096 Bytes allocation. This is going to wipe everything from the sd card so keep that in mind. Next would be to make sure there is nothing written in the title after DWIN_SET. It's possible there can be hidden spaces after that title yo would need to remove in order for this to work. If neither of these solutions help please either email me (printsleo3d@gmail.com) or join my Discord for more direct help (discord.gg/YHFJEjFv). Good luck!
The video is very useful, thank you very much! I still have questions. I'm not putting the BLTouch in yet. In this case, do I have to download the ManualMesh version? If so, what instructions do I write in the Printer Settings in Cura? How do I set the bed level in this case?
If you're not going to use the bl touch probe yet you have two options. You can select default no probe, which would have you level the bed as normal and then when you print it simply prints as is without modification. If you select manual mesh, you would level the bed as normal and then you run through a manual probing grid. So this option would give you the benefit of a probe without actually having one. Of course the manual mesh process takes a little bit of time as you are manually moving through each probe point and making z offset adjustments. After you finish the probing grid you need to save that mesh, and then you can call on that mesh in your start code so the printer can apply it. In Cura you'll want to amend the start code by adding M420 S1 after (or below it as the code is vertical) the call for G28. M420 S1 loads a saved mesh (which would be the one you saved after creating it manually) for the printer to use while printing. The more I write this the more I think I should make this topic its own video. Thanks for the question, if you have anymore or this isn't clear let me know!
@@PrintsLeo3D Thank you for the detailed answer! You are doing a great job of helping newcomers to 3D printing. Did I understand correctly that by installing UBL-NoProbe-3x3-G32.bin, I just get a new screen and new settings for Aquila? I will add that I want such a vertical screen and advanced settings. I subscribed and will look forward to your new tutorials. P.S. In the case of ManualMesh, will I have to adjust the level before each print?
@@PrintsLeo3D Hi! I finally put 3dtouch and Alex's firmware on my printer. Connected everything correctly, as in the diagram. The contacts are there, I tested the wires on a multimeter. I have not removed the Z axis end switch yet. But when I turned on the 3dtouch, the light never came on. After the Home Z command, the Z-axis somehow crashes into the glass. Both the end switch and the 3dtouch do not work now. What else could be the cause other than incorrect connection and defective 3dtouch? And why has the Z-axis end switch stopped working? I would be very grateful if you could tell me how to solve this problem. Would you be more comfortable if the discussion was moved to the reddit group?
Hey I am really very sorry, as I said in a few of your previous comments TH-cam flagged so many of your responses and I never saw them. If you are still having this or any issues please either respond to this comment, make a comment in a newer video, or email me directly at printsleo3d@gmail.com So sorry about this I want to help and always answer every comment!
I'm in the midst of upgrading my Aquila with a MS direct drive and hot end. I figured I'd add a 3d touch. Now on my Satsuna shroud the 3d touch probe reached beyond my nozzle. I hadn't watched this video yet, had no clue what to do and given that I have spare needles I clipped the probe. I admit it's a little crude but if that provides the correct distance, is there anything wrong with this? Or perhaps until I get the printer running and I can alter and print a new shroud. In the end the touch requires a correct installation distance to work off of. Being mounted higher or having a shorter probe should give the same result IMHO.
Diedrick, as far as I could think that is a crude but useable modification ! Lol the nozzle itself is only used to trigger the internal sensor, and as long as that tip is within the 2.3 - 4.3 range I can't see an issue. Of course you want to make sure the end is clipped nice and flat, so that it triggers at the same spot each time. If you're lucky the touch may have even came with a a new probe tip so you can swap it out when the direct extruder kit comes!
@@PrintsLeo3D Thanks for your reply. You make a very good point. I'll head down this way for now at least to get the printer up and running again. One last question for now: I noticed Alex's firmware 1.3.5 is no longer being maintained and since I'm rookie I'm not yet up to speed with all types of firmware. Would you still recommend me installing this firmware or are there better alternatives 2 years down the line? Mind you I'm not yet in the market for a Raspberry Pi etc. I just want to get everything setup nicely and start printing some cool stuff. Thanks again!
Yea Alex hasn't been able to update that repository for some time now, but I would still recommend it to anyone looking to upgrade from the stock firmware. It still adds options that the stock does not have any is stable. There's another firmware out there right now called 'Professional firmware' it's looking to supplant exa for the Aquilas. I have no experience with it though so I can't vouch for it. Ultimately the firmware I recommend long term is Klipper, which is a different firmware entirely (while Alex's and professional are different branches of the overall firmware Marlin). It's not for everyone, and it does require an additional device (you mentioned a pi, but a thing that runs Linux can operate it - $35 Inovato Quadra, t95 TV box, old laptops, etc), but overall it offers so many features, better print quality, added speed, the ability to make changes to your printer on the fly. There's so much it offers. A lot of my newer videos have been Klipper related because I believe in it so strongly. So while it might not be for everyone, or at least not for everyone right now, it ultimately is an amazing option.
hey im posting this almost a year later but its worth a shot. I installed the bltouch axactly as you did and everything is working fine but when i go to do a print and it does its 16 points it wants to print incorrectly. even with manually leveling the bed it wants to print closer to the bed on one side and further on the other and i cant understand why. if i could get help with this it would be very appriciated.
It's never too late to post! I would love to be able to diagnose your problem within these TH-cam comments so others having the same issues might be helped as well, but I find it's usually better if you email me directly so we can trade some pictures and video. I will say this. Is the distance between the probe tip and the nozzle tip within specifications (2.3-4.3mm)? Is the mount that's holding the bl touch on tight and in good condition? Is it possible the bl touch is hitting something while it probes (bed clips)? Under the mesh preview what does it look like, what does the deviation read? You can answer me back here but at some point I'd love to hear from you via email so I can see exactly how this is printing. printsleo3d@gmail.com
I don't own a CR touch but from what I've read and seen you should be able to mount a CR Touch to any mount that a BL Touch mounts up to. The top mounting holes for the CR touch and BL touch are identical. The larger body of the CR Touch can make getting the wires plugged in a little more difficult but it will still work. If you print this out and find you need some alterations to make it work, drop me a message and I'll see what I can do.
Alex's firmware has Z safe homing, and that will put the probe in the center of the bed. So without any X and Y offsets the nozzle will be in the center of the bed after homing (because the probe at 0,0 would be aligned directly with the nozzle tip). However once you set the correct X and Y offsets the nozzle will shift over and the probe will be centered on the bed. I hope this helps !
@@PrintsLeo3D ok so when I have my Offsets correctly the probe (not the nozzle) should be in the center? If so, I think I got it. Thank you for your help
@@PrintsLeo3D ugh I'm about to cry. It won't let me get the nozzle close enough to the bed. Even putting z offset to max which is infeasible. I'm at a loss for what to do. I don't have my z end stop on or even connected for that matter. I just can't get the nozzle to go any lower than it is which is atleast 1-2mm away from the bed when it probes, then when it's done probing it's atleast 15-20mm away from the bed
Thank you so much for this tutorial, first and foremost. I am running into some trouble now with my X2. I suspect it's because the new fan shroud (Santana one you linked) is much more efficient at cooling the hotend. When my printer is trying to print the Z offset test (your prime blocks with a skirt) it's getting a thermal runaway error. Any suggestions on what to do?
If this is happening right after you installed the bl touch and firmware, then it's likely you'll need to run a PID tune. PID tune calibrates the temperature settings of the hot end, when you download new firmware there's a number of original settings that get changed, and the PID temperature settings are one of them so this sort of issue happens a lot. Alex's firmware makes this process extremely easy though, go into control > temperature > PID > Hotend. From there set the Temperature to your normal printing temperatures (for me with PLA it's usually 205) and the run the auto tune. It will take some time, the printer will heat up and cool a bunch, but after it's done your temperature should be good to go. Just remember to save those settings so they persist after you power the machine down. I believe there's an option to save in the PID tune menu, but if not in the control menu you can find the Store Settings command. Let me know how this goes!
@@PrintsLeo3D still getting a lot of variance with this. PID tuning did enable me to get a print or 2 off, but I'm still getting temp issues (sometimes Thermal Runaway, sometimes mintemp). And now another challenger has entered the fray, my "3DTouch" no longer extends when homing, so the nozzle attempts to crash. It lights up and everything, and it extends and retracts when powering on the printer, just doesn't when homing. Any ideas?
Is the probe tip also loose ? There's an Allen key opening at the top of the touch, that lets you tighten up the probe, possible that could be the issue with it not deploying? Could also be a wiring problem, maybe the cable got snagged on the bed and unplugged from the board. I've had that issue before as well. Because the cable is a little shorter than you'd like it can be pulled out from the back of the bed while moving. Are you saving the settings after the PID tune so they stay when you turn the printer off?
@@PrintsLeo3D I'll have to check up on the wiring to see if anything has come loose, yeah the wiring is not a great length so maybe that's what's going on there. I do Store Settings after each PID as well.
I'm sorry you're having trouble. When you updated the firmware for your screen, did it turn from blue to orange? Also did you format the SD card before you tried flashing the screen ? I actually ran into a problem last night where when I copied the DWIN_SET I erased all the post fix (Voxelab Red) but I left an empty space after DWIN_SET. When I flashed the screen it took but the screen was scrambled. I had to go back to the SD card and properly delete all the spaces after DWIN_SET.
I have a few suggestions of what might help. First would be to try a different SD Card if you have one available. Format the SD Card just as I did in the video and then try flashing the screen again . What type of computer are you using to transfer the information, a Mac or a PC? Some users who have ran into screen troubles have flashed the official Voxelab Firmware back onto their printer and then tried to flash Alex's firmware and the second time it worked. Not sure why that is but I know people have had success trying that. I would try another SD card ahead of all these ideas , and I would try to reformat the SD card you have one more time . Also, and I'm sure you checked this already, but did you make sure to flash the correct chipset onto your printer either N32 or G32?
Hi there i have an Aquila x3 that im trying to upgrade to a BL touch i have followed your video and have installed the firmware but now i can not find on the screen where to input the X y Z offsets any pointers would be helpfull regards Ken
It's been a long while since I've used Marlin firmware, but I believe there is a settings menu (maybe called machine) and then through that menu there should be an offsets option to set up all of those values.
Hello, New to 3d printing. I just got the Aquila version N32 for christmas. I picked up the BLtouch today. I think i have everything down im just wondering if the shroud that you made to hold the fans and the BLtouch work with the stock fans. or if you happen to have just a simple attachment that i can make to attach the bl touch to the stock model?
Welcome to the 3D printing community! So glad you found my video. The mount in this video holds the stock fans just fine without any added screws or other attachments. There's a few other mounts I found online that should work with the stock fan shroud so you don't need to replace that if you don't want to. Here's a couple I found: Ender 3 V2 3DTouch/BLTouch Mount by jkostenov www.thingiverse.com/thing:4462870 Creality Ender 3 V2 BLTouch Mount by ct16k www.thingiverse.com/thing:4670240 Our Aquilas are a clone of the Creality Ender 3 V2, so any modifications you can find to fit the Ender 3 V2 should work also for the Aquila! Good luck and happy printing!
Regarding the "mintemp" error on an N32 board... looking around I came across other discussions where people flashed their boards with the Alex firmware that is NOT marked "HS". So I gave that a try... and it works! I have NO idea why the HS version would cause the BLtouch to cause the thermistors to read 0C when activated while the non-HS version doesn't. But this really needs to be mentioned in the github repository as a note/warning. It took me quite a bit of searching to find. Posting this here just in case anyone has a similar issue.
So I followed your vids when I installed my bl touch on my aquila. Ive been chasing an issue where my z offset isnt correct. I can get the first layer good but then the second layer drags so I have to raise the z offset. worst part is that its never the same. some prints i might have to move it .3 some prints ive had to move it close to .8. Ive done xyz cubes, e step, and flow calibrations. tempted to just reset the printer settings and start over. or remove the bl touch entirely because I didnt have problems until I installed it. Printing PLA 200/60 4x4 mesh
This sounds like something other than a BL Touch may be at fault. It sounds like you are getting inconsistent rise from your Z axis. When you say the first layer is good, but then you need to raise the z offset for the second layer. Are you doing that through the ‘Tune’ option while the print is printing? I have found that any adjustments I make through that ‘Tune’ option never seem to save properly and persist from print to print. I make sure I go back into the Z-offset menu (outside of printing) and then click on the ‘live adjust’ option and begin to adjust my z offset from there. Then I make sure to Save Settings, to make sure this new z -offset saves after I power down my printer. It also wouldn't hurt to check the Zsteps (which can be found in the same menu as the E-steps) to make sure your Z stepper motor is taking the appropriate amount of steps (should be set to 400 steps/mm). When you installed the BL Touch, you had to have installed new firmware, was this the first time installing this new firmware (likely Alex’s if you followed my video), or had you already performed a firmware upgrade (no probe or manual mesh) prior to the BL Touch? A few other aspects to check is to make sure that probe tip to nozzle tip distance is correct (between 2.3 - 4.3), make sure your fan shroud and BL Touch are tight and not shifting while probing. On the extruder bracket (that z-rod runs through) there is a thread piece with two screws attaching it. Those screws aren’t supposed to be tightened down, it can cause some z-binding, so make sure both of those screws have been loosened just a little. Lastly, I would do a double check on the eccentric nuts that are holding up the x-axis gantry. They are located on the inner side of the vertical extrusion. You want to make sure you can spin them with your hand while using some force, but they should not be able to pin freely or spin with only a light touch.
@@PrintsLeo3D yeah I just cant figure out what the issue is been just dealing with it for a few months but the other day just had the "I'm over this" vibe. So I revisted the series. I have done the x gantry and x gantry ecentric nuts. I did alexs firmware when i installed the bl touch. Was gonna just reinstall the firmware on the printer but its gone and dont really trust anyone elses so ill just assume that the firmware is fine. I have watch sooo many videos on z offset that my mind is z offset now. z steps is at 400. I will check that bracket that the z rod runs through. I also have printed the satsana shroud with the bl touch mount built in so do away with the stock shroud. my bl touch bracket isnt loose by anymeans but it isnt exactly tight by anymeans either. Hopefully i can get it sorted soon though. Thanks for the reply!
I'm sorry I couldn't be more help. I hate when these ghostly issues persist without any cause. If you want to drop me some emails with pictures or videos, please be my guest, I'll do whatever I can to help. Printsleo3d@gmail.com
Thanks for the very detailed guide. It was easy to follow, step by step. I am using the G29 in Cura to probe before each print. My back center test square appears to have too much gap and is stringing compared to all the other test squares. It feels like although the bed is probing, it is not actually using it. Any recommendations?
When using G29 you want to make sure there is no G28(auto home) anywhere after it, as that will ease any probing data the G29 has sampled. Of course also you want to make sure you manually level/tram your bed before using the probe. The bl touch can only account for so much , so you have to make sure the bed is nice and level before you begin. Also, and I've had this problem in the past, make sure the probe itself isn't coming into contact with any bed clips as it probes the back and front sections. As always I would say double check your X and Y offsets also, so the probe knows where the nozzle is and can make the prior adjustment! Thanks for the kind words and let me know if any of this was a help.
im having a lot of trouble getting it leveled. i did all the steps in the video and went through multiple times and my first layer is completely off and uneven. my bed isnt warped and i even manually leveled then used the g codes bedore printing and it still doesn’t level correctly. i check my mesh in the viewer and it has few green spaces meaning its nkt leveled.
Ok, let's see if we can get to the bottom of this. Manually leveling the bed before we use the bl touch the first time is important. When you start a print what are you using in the start gcode, G29 or M420 S1? Is it possible to see you start code ?
@@PrintsLeo3D i use g29 and i have tried manually leveling multiple times. my first layer just doesn’t seem to stick so incase it wasnt a leveling issue i researched and i tried cleaning the bed with alcohol and that was no good either. i copy and pasted ur code into my own cura settings.
When the first layer is printer, can you put your hand onto the coupler holding the z rod. You should feel it making tiny movements as it prints, this is the nozzle following the mesh. If that coupler isn't moving then we can go from there. Also did you properly input your X and Y offsets for the probe mount?
@@PrintsLeo3D im assuming what your talking abt is this fast rigid feeling like frictiony type feeling other than that its just vibrations. so i would say yes i feel movement?
Yea that's likely it. It's hard to put into words, it's mostly vibrations, with some sudden and short jerks, which signifies the mayer is being adapted to the mesh. I would double check your X and Y offsets. The probe adjusts the nozzle based on the offsets, and if those aren't correct it will be adjusting the first layer based on an incorrect nozzle position. Is adhesion an issue or just uneven adhesion?
Honestly one of the best tutorials I've seen!
Thank you so much, that means a lot. I try and make my videos easy to understand, which sometimes means they can be very long lol in the end I just hope they help. Thanks for leaving a comment to let me know!
Thanks! This video has become so useful for me, i'm using it to install the bltouch on my second machine, EVERYONE should at least give you a couple of bucks EVERY time they use this excellent video (actually all your videos), It saves me so much work, thanks. Don't believe you don't have millions of viewers yet. Best of luck
Thank you ssoooo much! Not only for the generous contribution but the extremely kind words!! Reading this comment was the best way to start my week! Thank you and I hope this video and all the rest help you in some way. Much appreciated!
I have said once, I'll say it again. This guy is under rated. 700 subs? That is ridiculous. I am going to be posting this video up on the official site because people ask this question a lot. *Fantastic* and very helpful video.
Thank you so much, I can't say enough how comments like these make my week!! Really appreciate it, I promise to keep the content coming!
Thanks! For the aquila videos they’re great.
Thank you, you're the best!! Really appreciate the generosity. I love making these videos and I plan on making a lot more. Thanks for the support, it's truly appreciated!
@@PrintsLeo3D Well, no need to reply, everyone should send you a patreon because you teach very well. I never would have been able to put in my bltouch as fast as I did if it wasn't for your excellent step by step instructions. That's why they're so good, you don't leave anything out, and that's rare, thanks.
A reply is the least I can do! I can't say it enough and I'm honest every time, I really appreciate all the feedback and the support, it really helps this channel and my mental health lol thank you!
You got a sub pal your a hero thanks so much man for the information and for not rushing through things that are important I hate when I have to stop a video and watch a part of a video 5 times to catch someone trying to give half ass explanations in tutorial videos.
This was done as professional as it could be done much respect to you sir.
Thank you so much! I appreciate all the comments that's what makes the channel work, feedback and conversation.
this guy is the best person i have ever watched for 3d printing to me 3 days till i found this dude and he did it in an hour
Thank you so much for the compliment!!! I try and explain everything as best I can and also be as active as I can with my comments. So if you ever need anything drop me a message !
Thanks to your helpful videos, I replaced my Aquila S2 H32 board with an N32 board and installed the BL Touch. I also printed the S2 TPU enhancement piece and the BL Touch bracket. I would not have had the necessary confidence or understanding to do all of this without your help! Thank you! As a side note, the N32 board works much better than the H32 board did. I had issues with the H32 not reading the memory card consistently, and noticed big fluctuations in Octoprints temp graph...both of those issues are now resolved!
Dave, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to write this. These videos are only ever mean to help people, and hearing that they are working makes my entire weekend! Thank you thank you! I'm glad you were also able to get your printer to a point where you can enjoy it, as that is what this is all about!! I Appreciate the comment and I promise to keep making helpful videos! (or at least try lol)
I ordered my bl touch tonight after watching the entire video I think it’s something I can handle now haha thanks again so much
You're welcome! It can be a lot to tackle but it really isn't all that tough once you get the concept of what you're doing. If you have any problems or questions just drop me a line ! Good luck!
Thought I'd post some of what helped me. I have an Aquila X2, originally came with the H32 board, I purchased an N32 board and replaced it. I was having fits with updating the screen firmware and after about 5 hours of frustration I came across this on reddit: " if the blue residence time is very short, the screen program update fails. When the screen program is updated with the accompanying TF card, you need to format the TF card, select FAT32 format, and select 4096 bytes for the size of the allocation unit.". Once I formatted one of my micro sd cards to 4096 bytes it worked like a charm. If you're getting the quick blue to red/orange, try formatting your micro sd card with the 4096 bytes. Hope this helps someone else!
Edit: Thank you Leo for all your help in this video and the Sprite direct drive video, saved me a bunch of time and headache! Really appreciate what you do!
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience with us! I know a lot of people who ran into troubles with one side of this install, so sourcing information from everyone who has ran into trouble, and then solved that trouble is extremely worthwhile. Thanks for taking the time to help! Also thanks for the shout, I'm happy to help and happy to make videos that aim to do that as well. Glad to be of service! Thanks again!
I just got into printing and bought a used Aquila and upgraded the tubing, as well as getting a metal dual gear extruder and along with a BL touch, your videos were the most useful from any others!! Everything is running great and I'm loving the new firmware!! Worlds better than the stock!! Its like a different machine now!
Wow that's great, congratulations! I'm happy I was able to help and I'm impressed you got so much working on a printer while still being new to the hobby! Very very awesome! Thanks for watching and I appreciate the comment. Happy printing!
Thanks for providing this video! I was able to set up my Voxelab Aquila X2 (H32 chip) to use Creality's BL Touch with Alex's v1.3.6 for H32 Beta 2 (BLTouch-5x5-H32.bin) successfully by following your video. I watched other videos on how to get it wired up, but couldn't find anything on first steps once I had the BL Touch hooked up and the firmware installed. Thanks for providing an in depth walkthrough on those critical first steps. :)
You are welcome! I never intended to make a video that is nearly an hour long, but I just try and squeeze in as much information as I can, even some niche scenarios that maybe only a few people will encounter, in the end it's all about helping people. Thanks for watching and contributing!
I have the H32 but Alex's v1.3.6 source.zip doesn't have a DWINN folder. How did you deal with that? Thx
Excellent video, exactly what I was looking for, thanks... Keep the Aquila videos coming.
Thank you so much ! There's more to come
Thank you for all your work on this. It would have taken me a month to find all the stuff needed to do this. you put it all in one spot. well done!
Thanks Chris! It's such a balancing act of adding necessary info, making sure the steps are thorough, but also not being too long of a video. I never can get the too long of a video problem solved 😆 but I'm getting better. I'll never skimp on information or the necessary steps, so I appreciate it when someone takes the time to watch a video like this back to front. Thank you!
Thanks for the video. It worked excellently with my trianglelab 3d touch. Your modded fan shroud actually fit the specs for the triangle labs version down to the 10th milimeter lol. I've never gotten better prints and it only cost 14 bucks. Thanks again, perfectvideo
So glad it helped! It's amazing the quality and piece of mind this upgrade brings. Thanks for the comment and the kind words !
I don't think I'm ready to tackle this yet. But I'm saving this for later. Thanks Leo, you're my very favorite3D teacher
Yea it's a lot to take to tackle, I'm sure when you're ready thought it will be a breeze.
@@PrintsLeo3D I'm actually pretty impressed with myself at how much I've learned in the last 2-3 weeks thanks to people like yourself. I can't even imagine doing this before the internet
Leo
Kudos on you fine tutorial. Your teaching style is excellent and your coverage of the subject was comprehensive. I had no trouble installing my 3D touch using your method. Well ... there was one problem but only because I used the 3D Touch 3.0 instead of the BL Touch. The color codes used by 3D Touch are like no one elses. The electronics community has always used red for positive, 3d Touch uses black. The other colors are equally as screwy. The do supply a cable which is supposed to convert their color scheme to the one BL Touch uses but the supplied cable is way too short. Unusable on the Aquila. They do however supply a second cable which is long enough, but it uses their weird color scheme. But it does work and it's a direct plugin on both ends. The smaller end can be snaked through the wiring harness as you suggest. Even though its a direct plug in I would suggest anyone installing the 3D Touch trace each color in the cable from the printed legend on the 3D Touch PC board to the legend on the Aquila mainboard, just to be sure. Again, fine tutorial!
Thank you ! I'm glad you were able to figure that out, some of the off brand ABL devices have all different wiring colors. For the most part they are lined up properly regardless of color, but it always helps to trace the wires and make sure. Thanks for finding my video, happy printing!
Just received my Aquila X2 and the BL Touch and although it is printing great out of the box, I'll be adding the BL Touch soon'ish. Great video and keep them coming!
Thank you so much! It's always a tough proposition to modify a printer that's producing quality prints , but at least you have a great base line to use as a litmus test for all your prints after you make any changes. Again, thank you for the comment !
getting a bl touch in a couple of days, definitely saving this vid to reference during the whole process as you were super thorough even on the calibration portion which is always the trickiest part, thank you very much for making this guide
Hey thanks! I try and cover these topics from all angles, so after you watch it, feels like you have already gone through the process yourself once. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment !!
@@PrintsLeo3D I do actually have a question for you, I am looking at your model for the fan shroud and was wondering what material you would recommend for it? I was thinking at least petg given what it surrounds but honestly don't know if that is enough. alsio you have 2 versions of the print, which would you recommend doing, the 1.25mm shorter one or the 2mm?
Brother! Love your channel! Ive seen quite a few videos and i cant understand why you have so little subs, i would recommend a few more lights for your filming (specially white lights), those will come a long way when filming everything, but that aside, if you keep the good content up your channel will grow a lot! Greetings from Argentina!
Thank you so much for the comment and the advice. You're absolutely right about the lighting, I was using these super cheap white lights from Amazon and told myself I would upgrade at some point, but it sort of got shuffled down the list of things to do. This is a great reminder that I need to constantly reevaluate my setup. Thank you so much again for the kind words, really means a lot, I know sometimes we make comments on videos or posts and don't think how they might affect the people receiving them, but I have to say your compliment and positive outlook definitely made my day, like the others who've posted on my channel! I'll be looking into upgraded lighting this upcoming week!
@@PrintsLeo3D man! Obviously i tried to say it as polite as possible so it can be taken as a constructive message, not a destructive one! (Like most of youtube comments) Much love and keep it up!
Your videos are great!
Better than MANY TH-camrs who have so many more followers.....crazy!
Thank you so much! Comments like this mean a lot , the fact that you took time to write it especially! I try and make easy to understand content that's informative, whether 1 person is watching or 1 thousand. Thank you!
For *Voxelab Aquila C2 with H32 mobo;*
First off, thank PrintsLeo3D for all of the amazing information in all of your aquila videos. I have watched all of them multiple times and just bit the bullet yesterday to try and do Klipper...and that was going fine until my old computer I had running Debian with Kiuah literally gave up the magic smoke and sent me here as a backup. I found that my Voxelab Aquila is a C2 model with H32 mobo and could not get Alex to run nor could I get any of the voxelab firmwares to run, with the added bonus of not having a port for a BL touch even though I bought one. I eventually found *Smokey's Aquila Modified Firmware* and am currently back up and about to try out its newest features. Its an older Marlin (pre 2.1.2) and has manual bed mesh along with a couple other goodies.
Wow that's awesome! I don't like to hear that you have to bob and weave through all these different firmwares but I'm happy you got one working! Thanks for the kind words and I hope you can find another way to get back into Klipper!!
Hey man just wanted to come back and say thanks again brother installed this and the firmware and it’s a completely different printer it has worked first time everytime for last 5 days it’s been amazing how great the firmware makes the printer it made the chipset feel like it’s from this decade it’s so much faster and more responsive .
But the autobed level with the 5x5 probe is amazing how well it makes the printer work and also I did your E step adjustment video to because I put the red metal dual gear extruder on it ended up being 137 esteps to be accurate so that was nice ,at same time put the blue Capricorn tube and yellow bed springs haha they all 3 came together on Amazon for $15 then the Bl touch on Amazon was $43 but man was it all worth it $60 ish on Amazon for upgrades makes this printer a plug n play printer it hasn’t failed a print yet it’s been amazing I think I might look into doing the fan upgrade on the power supply and horned they or the only thing I think making noise at all and they aren’t horrible but I think a good quality silent fan upgrade would make this thing run like you didn’t know it was in the house that or maybe put the entire printer in a enclosure and maybe vent it to a window so it’s always exhausting the plastic fumes out the house even though the odor is very very mild so far all I have printed is with esun pla + and polymaker Pla + but they both have been great and make very strong parts .
Again though ,thank you Sir for your Videos , Happy New Years(lil late) and God bless!
Wow! Your comment has me grinning from ear to ear, stuff like this makes me so happy, thank you so much for sharing it with me. It's awesome how a few little touches here and there can make this printer feel like a powerhouse. At this point we are basically running the same setup (springs, capricorn, BLTouch, etc) and it's a great setup because those upgrades aren't all that difficult but they really make a huge difference in print performance and ease of printing. I would say though watch out for that extruder, months after I installed mine I found out it began to grind itself into dust because there was no washer on the second gear that is in the extruder arm. It worked for a while but then I started seeing this black dust everywhere and eventually had to replace it, so no I only recommend the BMG clone style extruder. You are right fans are the only thing on this machine you can hear at all, I'm sure upgrading them would make this whisper quiet. I just swapped a fan out on my Ender 5, a no name brand from Amazon, and this thing is loud! lol I didn't think fans could cause so much noise, but it certainly pays off to do some research on them before you replace it (which I am sure you would do).
Really thank you so much for coming back and not only thanking me but updating me with your progress, it means the world to me!! Happy new Year and Keep on Printing!
Great video and instructions. I bet a lot of the failures ppl in the amzn reviews have is due to that little detail regarding the distance between hot end and bltouch sensor tip. I will give it a rewatch before i install mine.
Yes you're absolutely right ! They're so many minor details that go into this setup there's no shortage of issues you can run into lol hopefully this video can get you up and running without too many complications. Thanks for the comment and good luck !
Ace vid! Looks like Im going to be asking Santa for a BL Touch for xmas. Your video is just spot on for what I needed, so many thanks from a newbie!
Glad to hear it! Hope your on the Nice list lol this process is not hard it's just can seem daunting so if this helps reduce some stress I'm glad! If you need any help once you get it going let me know.
Sweet. I bought the BL touch months ago but never installed it. Appreciate the video.
You're welcome! It can definitely be worth it , as long as you have the time , patience, and a decent video to watch lol
Hey thanks man , i just bought my aquila S2 off of amazon last night im sure this amazing video you made here will help me get the bl touch working in short order 😉👍
That's great and good luck! If this video alone doesn't help you just drop a comment or join the Discord and we'll get you up and running!! Thanks for watching!
@@PrintsLeo3D right on man , thank you i will
@@PrintsLeo3D Hey man i just got it done , finally , and i gotta say , it was quite the job , took me a couple days , (not full days ofc but still ) , had to reprint the support for my s2 , and then i had to use a cut piece to straighten out the probe , and i ended up choosing the 5x5 probe mesh , i got the HIGH SPEED😎 one for the TRIANGLE LAB 3d Touch 👀 and its working fantastic 💯 , cant wait to make full use of my printer now and keep upgrading it to the max , now im off to KLIPPERIZE IT , but i want to take a break for now , im spent 😴 , took me a couple tries like i said but i enjoyed it , learned a lot thanks to you , i dont know how much harder this would have been without a guide like yours so Thank You man you are the man 😎 😸💯
Thank you so much! There's alot of time and effort in this video. I have to print the fan shroud again due to the lack of height between nozzle and the probe. Thanks for that fixed shroud stl. I'll get back to it after that 10h print :-)
Thank you for taking the time to comment and for the kind words. I'm glad this video helps and if you need anything else drop another comment. Also don't forget that fan shroud prints support free! So you don't have to contend with removing a lot of supports after it's done
Thank you this is an absolutely brilliant guide into the BL touch (or in my case a CR touch) installation and setup easy and understandable if you follow the step by step guidance 👍👍
Thank you so much for saying that and for commenting!! I try and break down some of these harder to reach topics, and make them a little more accessible. It's good to know it's helping. Thank you!
Leo you are awesome you referred me to this video on reddit. I really appreciate your detailed video!!! Its awesome!!!
I'm glad you followed my link on reddit!
My aim is always to help, I hope I was able to do so for you!!! Thanks!
Thanks very useful information. Only thing I had to do differently was to wire new connectors. As the extension cable had the wrong one’s. Good thing Antclabs provided the extra hardware to wire it in. Keep up the good information 👍🏽
Thank you very much and good job being proactive with that! Wiring up a bl touch for the first time can be daunting especially when you need to swap the cable ends. Thanks for sharing !
Great video. It’s great to see someone that does a step by step video for people like me that knows very little about computers. My question is do you really need to upgrade the firmware on 3D printers for better print quality or is it just for cosmetic reasons on the display.
Thanks for commenting, I try to keep my videos aimed towards someone who just got into the 3d printing world. Upgrading firmware is mostly for cosmetic/quality of life upgrades. However one major reason to upgrade is for safety. As far as I recall the original printers shipped with firmware that did not have 'thermal runaway' protection enabled. Alexs firmware has it enabled, as well as the firmware upgrades from Voxelab (as far as I've been told). This protection prevents the printer from heating up indefinitely if one of the temperature gauges isn't working properly, which could lead to a fire. So it's important with any printer to make sure that this protection is enabled.
Just done my aquila and 1st print was perfect after watching your video so just a thank you so much for the help :)
Awesome I am so happy to be able to help! You got yourself a good printer, but even then there will always be some headaches along the way. If you have any problems in the future come on back and drop a comment and I'll try and help as best I can!
where did you get your screws to mount bl touch mount to the extruder? please help me 😊
Usually the probe you buy will come with a set of screws. If not you can purchase a variety pack of M3 screws that should be a perfect fit. If I had to guess I think these screws are M3x10 maybe slightly longer.
Thanks
Welcome!
I just got them they work thank you so much
I’ll make sure to subscribe 😁
for the x and y offsets what unit of measurement do you use to get the offset number
Just completed installation and test, thanks so much for the detailed tutorial, don't know how I would have done without it!
I'm excited for you! really brings this printer to a while other level. You're welcome!
Very nice video! thank you. my daughter and I did this for hers. She loves the new UI and all the new features
What an awesome project to do together! Thanks for supporting the video by dropping a comment I appreciate it! This new UI really feels like a night and day transformation that takes the printer to the next level.
Awesome Video! Followed everything to a T and I was able to ditch using a glue stick for bed adhesion. I've watched many of your videos and they are all great.
That's great to hear!! Glad I'm able to help, makes it all worth it ! Thanks for watching.
my screen will not let me select menus or move the button
Did you perform the firmware update for the screen as well? Sometimes people have issues with the firmware for the screen taking, if that's the case it's always good to try an alternate SD card if you have one, and reformat it before trying to flash the screen.
@@PrintsLeo3D yes i did do the screen update and you responded so quick thanks
Of course! I want everyone watching to succeed so I try and be as active and quick as possible.
Hey there! I'm a 3-year-old kid and I installed my BL touch with one hand thanks to this MORE THAN EASY tutorial. Thanks for the work
You're welcome!!!
Thank you for the great tutorial. finally got my 3D touch up and running.
So glad to hear it! These probes can add a lot of utility to our printers, and make printing on those warped beds a lot easier! Thanks for watching and leaving a comment to tell me the video helped, it means a lot to the channel!
Great video. Everything worked flawless. Thanks for taking the time to go through this whole process
I'm glad everything worked out for you. I am happy to help !
thanks from El Salvaodor, i was stuck but this amazing video help me to much!!
Happy to help from New York! Thanks for leaving a comment !
I just did this for my Aquila x2 N32. I changed out the H32 board for the N32 board and after that the only difference was I had to click Live Z offset before I could adjust the Z at all. Other than that, this was bang on!
When I was doing this there was some weird functionality with the 'live adjust'. I'm glad you found a way to make this work ! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment .
As a note, the first time I started the printer the x axis wouldn't lower with the bltouch installed (probe would go up and down). I found a separate video, but basically, I had to set my printer to the bed, and turned on the Aquila for it to realize that the printer was at the bed. Now when I autohome it does so correctly.
That's a pretty interesting condition. Generally when an issue like that happens it has to do with the connection of the bl touch, either at the touch itself, or more commonly, at the board. Either way I'm glad you were able to get it sorted out and I appreciate you taking the time to tell me about your experience and how you solved it. I'm sure this will help someone in the future! Thank you!
ok so if the extra SD card dose not work what should i do
If it's at all possible try and find another SD card. Make sure the formatting is correct (Fat32 / 4096bytes) and try and use a PC not a Mac.
@@PrintsLeo3D ok I used a pc formatted it correctly what should I do now
edit the only difference is that i am using a CR touch not BL touch
Don't worry, for this purpose the CR touch and the BL touch will operate the same. Now that you have a properly formatted SD card find the firmware you want to use. First you need to know what chip is in your printer. Do you know what chip is in your printer? Should be STM32, G32, or N32. If you have a printer with an H32 chip you will have to get firnware from a different site but I can still help. When you find the firmware copy it into the SD card. Then on the SD card create a folder named 'firmware' and move the firmware file into it. Make sure the folder is named exactly 'firmware' no capital letters and no extra spaces. Then insert the SD into the powered down printer and turn it on.
@@PrintsLeo3D ok i got the N32 4x4 file i have downloaded it to the printer
Edit: ok i got my sd card in and the screen will show the bark loading and everything is there but won't let me select anything
ive tried everything youve said with the same chip and all and nothing is changing on my printer do you think you have an idea what it could be
Yea I'll definitely do everything I can to help. I'm guessing you're trying to flash new for ware to the printer, and it's not showing anything different on the printer menu ?
@@PrintsLeo3D yes thats what im
doing
and thanks for helping man
i got i to work thanks man thats a sub
Oh wow I didn't even do anything lol thanks for giving me a shot to help and I'm glad you got it working !
Thanks ! You save my printer! My Bl touch did not retract on finger in my first z home.
Always good to be extra safe! Glad it was helpful.
i succesfully install bltouch on my voxelab aquila (N32) , thanks to you :D
Nice Work, I'm glad I was able help out! Thanks for watching and commenting!
Thanks very much, this was really really useful. First time ever installing a 3D Touch and it's working perfectly :)
I'm so glad to hear that!! This installation can. Seem daunting, but it's not. Just have to take each step one at a time. Happy printing!!
I hope youll find this seeing the videos a year old. I have the firmware installed and the screen updated too. Now the knob for the lcd screen does nothing. Have you ever heard of this before?
Usually when running into a screen issue it has to do with the firmware not being updated. If you updated properly then I'm not too sure where to start. It's possible the knob loosened up and came off it's rotor? Maybe just depress the knob or try and jiggle it around a little to see if you can get some response from the screen. Speaking of the screen does it look garbled and glitched ?
Thanks for the video.
Is there a screen option to keep it in landscape orientation?
At the time I made that video I don't think there was but now there just may be. I can't say for certain though as I haven't used Marlin firmware in quite sometime.
Thank you very much for the video, very complete explanation!
You're welcome! My videos are longer but I want to try and get people as familiar with the process as possible before they attempt it. I'm glad this was helpful!
Sound like it's better to print a shorter shroud. If the tip turns out to be too far, we can insert some spacers anyway. On the other hand, if it's too close, you probably have to re-print the whole thing. Sanding some plastic down and keeping it level don't sound that simple.
Thanks for the detailed explanation. I will receive my 3D touch tomorrow. Let's see what will happen.
I would agree it's easier to use the shorter shroud and make any adjustments (shims) then trying to make a larger shroud work by removing layers. Good luck with the install I'm sure it'll go smooth! If you run into any issues leave a comment abd we'll get your sorted! Thanks for the comment !
@@PrintsLeo3D I do have one small question. How bad are the stock springs and knobs (for the bed)? People keep saying they need to be changed. If so, I guess I should replace the springs first, then install the BLTouch. Thanks again!
My suggestions for intial replacements would include the bed springs (the knobs are fine for me), and changing the PTFE tubing from stock to Capricorn tubing. Those are pretty simple upgrades (inexpensive also) that are major improvements. After those two things I would recommend replacing the stock plastic extruder with either a single geared metal one , or preferably, a BMG style dual geared extruder. That upgrade requires a little more elbow grease but also is well worth the time and effort.
@@PrintsLeo3D Cool! Let me get some springs first, so that I can install my BLTouch earlier.
That's a great upgrade! Good luck
Thankyou so much for showing the install. Only problem is I dont know how to use the software. I did everything you said in the video as far as install but, I dont know how to use the bl touch after install. the bed is always to high or to low on one side. Am I mistaken in thinking I do not have to use the leveling wheels anymore? the grid always shows green and red. what do i need to do from here?
Thanks for watching, and I'm glad you got it installed properly. Installing this ABL(auto bed leveling) system doesn't mean we don't need to 'level' the bed anymore(leveling wheels), it means we don't need to do it nearly as often. After installing you should still level your bed, so that the ABL can get an accurate mesh, from there you should not have to level your bed that much at all, but it does have to start off being level. Also when looking at a probed mesh (the red and green sections) your bed will most likely not appear to be level. That probing mesh is showing you what the bed looks like as it stands, the ABL then makes adjustments while it's printing the first layers to compensate for those rises and dips in the bed. Make sure you measure and input the X and Y offsets for your probe (that's the distance the probe is from the nozzle) you'll need to manually measure these yourself. Then calibrate your Z-offset (which is the distance of the nozzle tip from the bed), there is a menu you can navigate to in the printer that will help with this calibration. After those offsets are taken care of make sure to add either G29(probe before each print) or M420 S1(Use a saved mesh) in your starting Gcode (of your slice) and make sure those are added after any G28 codes. As this is your first time using an ABL I would recommend adding G29, as it will probe before each print.
my comment got deleted because i used a link so i have to write again without a link this time... great video u helped me a lot with some of your videos but i have a problem at the installation of the firmware... i choosed the right chip, the right formating settings,... but when i plug the sd card in my voxalab aquila x2 there doesnt appear a bar instead there is just a wishy washy buggy half english half chinese overface (now i would insert the link but yeah maybe u can check in the deleted comment section or so)
edit: infos
i got the N32 sticker
choosed the N32_5x5 firmware
edit2:
i checked i really got a N32 chip
the installation of the N32_4x4 and the second installation of the N32_5x5 changed nothing
is the next step just the update the display firmware and then is everything fine?
edit3:
nvm u said its gonna look wonky bonky so i now update the display next edit will follow
edit4: yep the display is working now :D
edit5: NEW PROBLEM :D
yeah now i got the funny problem that the Z-Axis doesnt go down anymore... not while homing and not when i say the printer to move down and i only put the z-axis limit port out
edit6: okay weird now it worked (its a run and run from room to room to share my latest knowledge and go back and fix it xd
edit7: okay i lied it doesnt work at homing but it worked by moving + info: when it hits a surface the leds blinks blue and red in a fast change but it doesnt do it while not moving while homing so it does not detect a holy invisible surface atleast
edit8: yeah that looks like a problem i can simply fix my own... so sometimes it goes down when i move it down the problem is near the bed but not at the distance that the bltouch can recognice the bed... and while homing it complete doesnt go down
edit9: ok it looks like a problem with the wiring (read on reddit with someone with the same problem) I also dont got the same colors i got white,black,yellow,red,green or so (my BLTouch knockout is this one "B08ZCYDPM7" (its a amazon id)) + but idk whats wrong because i did them right like they were in the thing
edit10: omg hahahah its unbelievable... yeah it was a wiring problem but the thing is that the black/white cable was near the pins but not on the pins xd... they were between the white plastic corner and the pins so they seemed to be fixed and i thought there were inside but they werent haha now its homing normaly... so thank you alot (and after that fix and error marathon also me xd) if there is another problem i gonna update :D
This comment was quite the rollercoaster ride of emotions!!! Lol thanks for following up on every aspect and I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to reply until now. Seems like you did a great job of fixing the issues in your own, and I would have came to the same solution as you (wiring). Thanks for watching and I appreciate you taking the time to comment and then update !
where are you going to change the z offset?? I absolutely love your videos for Voxel !! One other problem. I replaced the bed springs with silicone spacers. When I Home all, my nozzle is 1 1/2 to 2 inches above the bed. How do I lower the Z closer to the bed so I can do the Z offset??
To set the z offset for the touch, there is a dedicated menu under the leveling option. There should be a menu called z offset. Within that menu select 'live z', that should home the printer and then you can start lowering the nozzle towards the bed. As you do that the number for the z offset should be changing. Once the nozzle is close enough to the bed (you can use a post it note to feel for tension of the nozzle on the bed), select apply (or done?), and that should save your z offset. You can then do a more precise tuning of the z offset during a calibration print. The live z offset can be adjusted directly from the menu while a print is happening.
As for the nozzle being so far from the bed after auto home, can you check what the z coordinates are. I believe the auto home finds each endstop (X, Y, and Z) and then brings the print head to a z height of 10mm, so that's what I'm thinking is throwing you off.
Try adjusting that offset and tell me how it goes. Also make sure you don't have any z offset value saved in your slicer
Very well explained .excellent!!
Thank you so much!!!
Thanks! I'm late to the auto bed leveling party with my Aquila but I might give it a try. lol
Definitely worth it! It's not a super hard upgrade and it adds a nice level of repeatability to your prints. If you need any help during the process just reach out ! I always appreciate you taking the time to comment .
Hello great video I'm just having trouble with VZ offset it will not move up or down when I'm trying to calibrate it to the bed
After you've Auto home'd your printer , and then access the z offset menu, click the 'Live adjustment' box. It should move as you adjust after that box is ticked. However I know there are times when people have had issues with that. When you auto home the machine what does the Z height say in the bottom right of the screen(not the Z offset number but the actual Z position)? Then after entering the z offset menu and clicking live adjust does the printer bring your nozzle to what it thinks Z=0 is? Does the Z number in the bottom right change from the number it was after an auto home?
I knew my bltouch was going to give me a headache this weekend. Lol for some reason bltouch stops probing when I'm trying to print the test squares.it would do the first row then completely stop.
Oh no,I was hoping everyone would havr somewhat of an easy time. You added G29 to the start gcode right ?
@@PrintsLeo3D yeah did that. It will start probing and randomly stops. I've gotten up to 11 out of the 16 points then stops or even just stops at the beginning.
I would double check you have the correct firmware downloaded for the CHIP in the motherboard. Assuming you do I would try another firmware, for instance if you downloaded Alex's 3x3 BLTouch, I would try the 4x4 BLTouch and see if you get some consistency. Weird that it will just stop working out of nowhere, seems like firmware troubles to me.
Just got my BLTouch and I’m running into this same issue. Randomly stops at different probe points when running G29. I tried 3x3 & 4x4.
Works great on Voxelab Aquila X2 with H32 chip. But it is extremely important to format the card with a fixed allocation unit size of 4096KB. I wasted two hours figuring out why I couldn't update the display software because I was convinced that the format default was set to 4096KB when apparently it wasn't.
This is a great point. Even if you've flashed firmware in the past, or if you're doing the screen after the printer, it's such an important step to re-format the card (Fat32 4096 bytes). It's a quick step and you're better being safe than being sorry. Thanks for spreading some good advice!
Awesome video! May I have a question? What do we have with the leveling knobs? Do we need to fix it somehow without the springs?
So having out beds level is still an important part of having a bl touch. So we still need the leveling knobs and we want to make sure our beds are as level as we can make them. After that though we can basically "set it and forget it" meaning you shouldn't have to level anymore, just leave the knobs where they are and the auto bed leveling should compensate if they go out of level at all. I know some people have actually screwed a nut up under the knobs to keep they affixed in place once it's level, and I think that's a good idea.
Very great video i subscribed helped me get my bl touch to work
Very well done, thank you sir!
Happy to be of service! Thanks for leaving a comment and watching!
I have the Aquila X2 printer, which according the sticker had a H32 chip. However, when I upgraded with a BLTouch, and the Voxelab firmware, nothing worked properly. It turned out, to be a HC chip where no firmware was available for the X2 printer.
Voxelab have sent me the main board free of charge that should of been installed according to the serial number, a N32 chip. So watching your excellent video, I have installed the new board and the Alex 1.3.5 Marlin firmware,
However, I have two problems still; 1. the printer will not do the 16 point levelling (4x4), it is probably something I have not done or setup on the screen menu. Can you advise me here please. Also 2. I have PLA coming out of the extruder when I load it up, but when I try and print anything, no PLA is extruding. Is my print head in need of replacement?
Thank you in Advance
Pretty wild it was neither an H32 or N32 board from the factory. I haven't heard of the HC boards at all.
As for the firmware, were you also able to install the screen firmware that accompanies this? I would also double check you are downloading the correct firmware for your chip (N32) and make sure to format the SD card you're using before installing (Fat32 / 4096 bytes).
If PLA is not extruding while printing it could be a number of issues. Is the extruder motor moving while printing? What temperatures are you printing at? Have you changed from the stock extruder motor, and if so have you adjusted your e-steps?
Let me know!
@@PrintsLeo3D found out by taking out the pla, it was all bent and zig-zag-ed. The nozzle area was all black and completely blocked. Tried to repair with some spare parts I had, but with removing the white wires from the heating block, and reattaching them, I now have no heat to my extruder. So will be ordering a new part on Friday.
When you say e-steps, not exactly sure what you mean unless I know them by something else maybe??
Apart from that the screen is fine and printer homes correctly with the Alex Marlin firmware. But will not do the auto levelling, just does 1 point then says complete.
When you were removing the wires to the extruder (and then got no heat) was that while the printer was still plugged in and powered on? It's possible you may have done some damage to the mainboard if so. Those wires can back feed into the mainboard and fry parts of it (or all of it) and it would need to be replaced. You'll be able to tell when you open the bottom of the printer to inspect the board, there will likely be a darkened or burnt areas to some of the connectors or board.
As for e-steps, I am referring to the motor steps that controls the amount of filament that exits the nozzle. I have another video on this process, but basically we want the extruder motor to be pushing out the exact amount of filament we ask for. No more, no less. E-steps is the number that dictates this rate.
Let me know about the other things, hopefully this all turns out ok.
@@PrintsLeo3D just to confirm printer was unplugged when I took the wires of the extruder. Although they were actually melted to the extruder so I expect were damaged when I pulled them off. I have ordered a new extruder with new wires. What scares me, was how close was this printer from catching fire?? Just glad the main board has been replaced.
Have put in the new hotend, with new wires. Turned printer on, it now will not home, but this could be down to connections on X and Z becoming lose, haven't checked as yet. The most worrying one, bed temperature was fine at 60, but extruder got to 200 and printer failed on heat being to hot!!
Could this be a faulty board, hotend or wires, or does something need updating in the firmware/menu??
Great video!
Any input on the clone listed? Money is tight...so if I can save a few $$ then all the better. But if I am going to waste $$ buying something that won't work then why do it.
Thanks
I have purchased both clones listed and have had no issues with them whatsoever. It's hard to go by some of their reviews, as installing an auto bed leveling device is not easy, and sometimes user error can be held against the equipment you're using. I have 3 (4 but one is still in the box) clones all working just as well as the 6 official touches I have. The only benefit to the official bl touch link I provided is that you can purchase an extra long cable, which while not necessary, makes initial install a little easier.
I see the bl touch being on the Aquila but not on the Aquila X2. Is this just as good on the X2 model?
The Aquila and the Aquila X2 are for all intents and purposes the same machine, so if you own an X2 you could equip it with a BL Touch. The X2 doesn't really 'improve' upon anything the base Aquila did (at least that's my understanding , I do not own an X2). The X2 only offers a filament runout sensor (which will stop the machine and alert the user that the filament being used has been exhausted mid print), and a handle (handles are used to grab things... not sure why this was added or how this is an upgrade lol). If I was buying a new printer and had the choice between the Aquila and the Aquila X2, I would save a few bucks and grab the base Aquila. If you wanted to add the filament sensor in the future it's a pretty simple upgrade and the sensors are priced very affordably. Of course if you are currently in the market for an Aquila the biggest landmine you face is the mainboard chip differences. Right now you will receive a printer with one of three different chips (G32, N32, H32). The G32 and N32 are able to be upgrade to community released firmware, which has more functionality and is iterated upon more rapidly. The H32 chip can only be upgraded with stock firmware, which for BL Touch related modifications has not been received well.
I noticed in Thingiverse that the your Satsana fan shroud (shorter ABL arm) was printed without supports. Was it printed as shown in the pics? How? Asking for an intermediate noob!😁
Hi, I'm so sorry I think I saw a comment like this on Thingiverse that I forgot to answer! Yes, it's meant to print just as you see it on thingiverse with the two fan vents touching the build plate. There's some bridging that will have to print(bridging is long straight unsupported lines - like bridges), and if you don't feel comfortable with them, you can add supports to your model, and then, in CURA, you can use the support blockers to 'turn off' supports on all the model except for the bridging in the middle. If that last part about support blocks is confusing, just send me an email and I'll send you over a picture of what I am talking about. I should also note this is not an original model by me, this model is amazing and I only shortened the ABL arm. The orginal model was created by Eric-Anastas for the Ender 3. Good luck!
@@PrintsLeo3D Great content and quick responses! Anxiously awaiting your next video...thanks
Thanks, I appreciate that!
The original Satsana was designed (by me) to print without support on its back. There's a link to my model on thingiverse in the description where I have photos of the correct print orientation.
Is this firmware for BL touch only or does it work with both BL and CR touch? I think that will be my deciding factor on going with the BL. I like the black look of the CR. I guess I could paint the BL lol.
Yes, this will work for both the BL and CR touches. For the most part I believe they are (mostly) universally cross compatible, except for some of the BTT boards needing certain features to be changed firmware side for it.
@@PrintsLeo3D as always, you are the man! Thank you.
still works for current Aquila's only issue i have it my screen is not fully working with the screen firmware things arent loading or they are grey after load.
Someone else recently had a similar issue and their solution was to re-flash the SD card (FAT32 4096 bytes) and then upload the screen firmware again. If that doesn't work let me know.
@@PrintsLeo3D ill have to try that after this screen mount prints :D
Awesome! Keep me updated
@@PrintsLeo3D formating and trying to upload a new firmware to the screen does nothing goes right into the menu. im using the 9x9 grid on the printer side
When you upload the firmware to the screen are you getting the blue screen that eventually turns to orange ?
You did not level the bed prior, or heat the bed when doing Z offset?
Bed levelling is done prior to z offset. Anytime we re-level the bed you also want to make sure to adjust the z offset.
I prefer to do all leveling while the bed is cold (or at room temperature). Some people prefer to do it while heated, because the bed will expand. To me both options make sense, but I would stress whichever you choose stay consistent. If you level the bed while heated, then also adjust z offset while heated. The same goes for if you level the bed cold.
Almost 3 years later and I'm still sharing this for newbs 😂
You're the best! I probably need to circle the wagons back around and add a little bit of polish to this video and bring it into the future 😂
So im on version 1.3.6 and there isnt any display firmware folder. Things aredifferent and im super lost
Are you using the website I linked in the description? Also are you downloading the entire source code and then looking for the folder?
Hey Leo, I’m installing my BLTouch but the cable that came in my kit that connects to the BLTouch doesn’t match like yours. 11:16 the 2 connectors are what mine is missing. Did you have to add your own ends or does that cable have a PN# or something. I can’t seem to find that exact cable that goes from BLTouch plugs to motherboard plug.
Hey Ruben, your bl touch should come with a total of 5 cables. However sometimes, if it's an older Creality kit usually, the 3 pins cable and the extra 2 pin cable will have different connectors. In that case you'd have to plug the seperated 2 pin connector into the old z endstop port and your firmware would be different. If it's possible can you send me a photo through email? printsleo3d@gmail.com
@@PrintsLeo3D yes thanks. I’ll email you rite now.
I just installed my CR Touch onto my Aquila X2 and this guide worked perfect! I'm also pretty new to 3D Printing, is there anything in the G-Code that can make it, so I don't ooze onto my build plate after the heat up before the pre-wipe while it's doing its leveling?
Thanks for watching and I am so happy to help! There are some commands you can insert directly after the call to probe the bed. The idea would be to make a call to a lower temp (160c for example) , then probe the bed, and then make a call after that to your printing temperature. Before that though what does your current start gcode look like ?
@@PrintsLeo3D so atm I have g92>g28>g29> and then a few g1''s which I believe are the lines and extrusion for the pre wipe, then a g92 two more tiny g1's then it prints. As I understand the format but not the language, I hope this helps.
Update: So Found with the M190, M104, M109, and M140I can control temps. So I'll heat my bed and warm up my nozzle, level, then heat the nozzle and bed to their full temps. Again, thank you for the video and helping me have one less headache.
Yes, you got it! Sorry I didn't respond earlier , sometimes I won't get notified when someone responds to a comment I've already responded too. I was coming back through to check and I'm happy to see you figured it all out 👍
Great tutorial, thanks for posting this! I'm having an issue tho:
My BLtouch seems to be zeroing out the read temperature of the bed and nozzle when it is activated. I can see the live temps briefly drop to 0C from ambient when I do a bed mesh or even if I just push the probe in manually. So I can run a mesh with a cold bed but if I turn on pre-heat or if I go to print something and the heating turns on, the print fails as soon as it tries to probe the bed to home Z and instead beeps and gives "Err: MINTEMP" error.
I have tried running it with the Z limit switch still plugged in and not, same symptoms either way. There seems to be some electrical shenanigans caused by the BL touch making the thermistors give a false temperature reading when it is depressed.
Any ideas?
Thanks for the video. I managed to get a 3D Touch installed on my Aquila X2.
I couldn't see it mentioned in the video, but should the build plate and extruder be preheated prior to running the auto-bed level with G29 in the start gcode? If so, what is the command to add prior to G29?
Hey Josh, I'm glad this video was helpful. As far probing with a preheated or cold bed, I've gone back and forth on that. I used to always pre-heat my bed before probing but then after some some discussions with others I started to probe while the bed was cold and I have not noticed a discernable difference. If you DO want to get everything up to temp it will depend on the slicer you're using. The gcode to call for heating (of the bed) is either M109 Sxx or M140 Sxx. The M109 line sets the temperature and waits while the M140 sets the temperature then let's the printer go about other operations while it heats. For me I believe Cura inputs the M109 line prior to my start gcode (which is to wait for heating), so the printer-hot end and bed- would be at temperature when probing occurs. Nowadays though I choose to use M420 S1 over the G29 probing routine, this allows me to create a mesh outside of printing, save it, and then call it before each print so I don't have to spend time probing each print. Anyway, let me know what slicer you have and what desired effect you want and I should be able to help with some start gcode.
@@PrintsLeo3D Terrific, thanks for the detailed explanation. I am also using Cura, and you had me convinced in the video to run a mesh prior to each print. But if that's overkill, I could just use a saved mesh.
If you don't preheat the bed/extruder prior to running a mesh, do you set the z-offset with hot or cold bed/extruder?
I've noticed on my X2 the gap between extruder nozzle and bed grows significantly when hot, so struggling to understand how to account for this difference in the probing and/or z-offset steps.
Hey I followed the tutorial and everything worked great! I have one question.
Is there a way to setup the machine settings start G-code so that the bed and hotend heat up WHILE the leveling is happening? It would save a lot of time in the long run i think
Yes absolutely! I am using Cura so the start code I am showing is for that software, its possible PrusaSlicer/SuperSlicer might be slightly different. You can find my start code here:
www.printsleo3d.com/bltouchstartcode
Just copy and paste the Probe before each print start code into your start code. Also if you want to save a lot of time you could probe outside of a print, and then just recall that data before the start of the print. That way is under Use a Saved Mesh on that link I sent. I'm glad you got it working and good luck!
So got an issue with 3dtouch. I am all good up to your video time stamp: 42:02 the unit touches the bed twice then just raised up about 7cm and stops??? Any ideas?
I'll do my best to help! So the problem you're having is when your attempting to adjust the Z offset, correct? When you auto home the machine outside of the z offset menu does everything work as it should ? Print head probes the bed and then lifts itself up a few mms to idle? Also what does the screen display after the unit touches the bed twice and then raises up ?
@@PrintsLeo3D Actually I got it working. Was acting strange for about 30 mins. The unit started flashing and the probe did not go back in. So I manually pushed it in and power cycled. Did that about 5 times, testing in between. Now for some reason, it is working flawless. But again. Thank you for the very quick reply and offer to assist. This has been a hair raising experience for me. Still having issues with the print not sticking to the bed. Did a bed level strip and it started moving around. I guess I will have to manually re-level and then get the auto level to fix the last bit, one more time. Such a learning curve. Also, never used this firmware before. The one from Alex. It is much better but a ton more features, that I have to do a steep learning curve on. Lol Love 3DPrinting... Take care...
OMG! So been leveling and leveling the bed over and over manually. lol. Just realized I had to adjust the Z offset again. All seems to be perfect now. I do notice on canceled prints the touch goes a little wonky and does not work, you have to push the pin in manually and restart. Is that normal. Kinda feels a little bit buggy.
Thxs will be doing this to my one when it arrives! A little confused initially with the portrait display but that's part of this upgrade have i got that correct? If Aquila intended use of the the BL Touch and it would appear they did with provison of the psu connector, why are you not able to just to bolt this onto the existing extruder mount? It also looks like the display fonts have been improved too as the original display was not great! Thxs in advance :o)
The portrait display is sort of a consequence of the firmware, but it's a good consequence as most people prefer it. The new firmware is based off the framework of firmware that was developed for the Ender 3 V2, which has the portrait display by default. So anything built on top of that, as Alex has done with his firmware, will likely adopt a lot of the settings and preferences. I don't have my machine in front of me right now, but I think the Aquila has threaded mounts for the addition of an Auto bed leveling device (BL touch) built into the X axis carriage plate (right next to where the hot end is located). I chose to change the entire fan shroud (to the Satsana) because I liked the design and that had a version that includes a bl Touch mount. Also with the updated firmware we have the option of changing the icons to a few different UI packages . There's a base blue version , Voxelab red and a few others with minors changes. It's all just aesthetics but I think it's a nice change. Thanks for watching the video and asking questions!
@@PrintsLeo3D My Printer arrived yesterday & busy doing modifications (not powered up yet)! Just watched someone on TH-cam who had an Aquila with a cheap (his words) inductive bed level sensor that worked a treat, as Prusia use them - not fully understood why manufactures don't just bundle these in as very low cost and what about you doing a video on a small Prusa style version for the Aquila? :o)
Yea there's a hope that they can start bundling ABL sensors with your printers, they don't cost much and they add a lot of usability. I just bought an Eryone ER20 that does come equipped with it , and I've been very happy. I would love to look into the Prusa line of printers but the cost of them is just out of my budget unfortunately lol
@@PrintsLeo3D Agreed Prusia out of my budget too, but could the induction sensor they use be adopted on the Aquila as its small compared to others?
I'll look into the indictive sensor to be sure but presumably yes it can be added to the Aquila. I know that TH3D makes an inductive probe (EZAbl) that fits the Ender 3 so if imagine that would work
5 months later and I'm back LOL it's time to update my firmware, feeling comfortable enough with my machine that its time to tackle the really scary stuff for me. I'll let you know how it goes, thanks again for helping us newbs. I'd like to know how you got your logo on the startup screen? It would be cool to have my logo pop up on mine, was that difficult?
I think you're approaching this in a really great way, it's smart to be comfortable with your machine before you start diving into certain topics. If something does go wrong you know where to drop me a line and I'll be sure to try and help.
Getting the startup logo is super simple, and it looks really cool. It's all done with the DWIN_SET folder. If go into the DWIN_SET folder the first three files you see all start with a numbered prefix (0_ , 1_ , 2_ ). The first file "0_start" is what we want to change. You need to create a start up screen that is 480 x 272 pixels. This can be done by something as easy as editing in MS PAINT and then changing the canvas size and having the program scale your picture with the canvas. The caveat here is you want to make sure the logo/picture has been rotated 90 degrees to the left. Because are screen will be vertical now the left side of the image will be the top and the right side will be the bottom, so you need to rotate your image according to that. Once it's been rotated and scaled save the image somewhere on your computer as "0_start" it needs to be named exactly as the first file in the DWIN_SET folder. After you've saved your custom image, go into the DWIN_SET folder and delete the original "0_start" image (might be a smart idea to copy that image and store it somewhere on your computer just in case), after you've deleted "0_start" image it's time to move yours into the folder. Just copy it from it's current location and paste it into the DWIN_SET folder and viola! you're done!
If you have any questions regarding this or want more explanation let me know and I'll be happy to provide. You actually inspired me to add a section to my website for tips and tricks like this! I've been wanting to spread these cool tips but I don't know if a full video is worth it, now I can add all these cools features in one spot without having to attach a video to it! Once I have this tip updated on my site I'll drop a link in this comment because aside from the text there will be some images accompanying the instructions that will help! Good luck and keep on printing!
@@PrintsLeo3D oh wow, thank you. I'll give it a try. I won't have to rotate it tho because I have the X2 which has the vertical screen but thanks for mentioning it.
I guess I'm more patient than others and I'm in no rush. I see people in groups on FB and discord and they've never done anything like this, they can't even level their bed properly and they're installing all these add ons and updating firmware and they get frustrated because they don't know why they're printer isn't printing. 🤷🤦 they have no clue because they've got so much crap duct taped to the poor machine, (seriously, duct taped) they don't know where to start mostly because they never took the time to understand the basic operating principles.
I point them to your videos and say "watch this!"
Yea I think the biggest pitfall that people who immediately modify their printer face is, if everything goes right the first time. Because inevitably something will go wrong and it becomes an uphill battle trying to diagnose an issue with all those modifications possibly affecting it.
I misspoke in my first response about the custom image. We have to rotate the image, not due to the display being vertical for the first time, but because that's how the firmware displays the image. The left side will be the top and the right side will be displayed as the bottom. I added a section on my website that uses some images to help with this process. Thank you so much for the inspiration!
www.printsleo3d.com/tipsandtricks
Great video thank you. Helped out a great deal. My x axis was off by .35.
Glad it helped!!
I've done this exact process a few days ago and I formatted on a Mac using the Disk Utility and didn't have any issue.
Thanks for the info! I guess you my mostly only hear of the cases when it all goes wrong , but recently I had seen a number of people running into an issue with formatting so I just wanted to put that out there. Thanks for watching and thanks for sharing your results!
@@PrintsLeo3D I was just talking to someone who couldn't get the firmware to update, but he was on a PC and all seemed OK until someone else mentioned the size of the SD card. The guy with the problem was using a 32Gb card and that was what caused his issue as an SD card that size can not be (reliably) formatted as FAT32. Maybe that is the real source of the cases you heard about. Thanks for your videos. Even though this one came just a few days too late for me, I did learn a thing or two here and there. And some of the others definitely helped me understand my printer and the process better.
Super great video. Thanks a lot.
You're very welcome, glad it helped as thanks for dropping a comment!
I watched this a few times and using a H32 chip machine I got it to work!
Thank you so much man from Australia 🦘🌏
Awesome! Great job and I'm glad you were able to set this up, it's definitely a nice quality of life improvement, and it offers so great features the more you familiarize yourself with it. Those H32 machines can be a little finicky so I'm glad you made this work. From New York 🍕 I thank you for watching and commenting!!
The LCD update isn't working for me. Can you do a tutorial on how to fix it if it doesn't work?
I think I will make a short article about some steps to help with this, because there are a large number of people who run into issues during this part. I will try and help you now though if I can. There's usually two main reason this does not work, the first is to flash your SD card. Even if you've done it already it doesn't hurt to redo it if you're running into issues. Flash it Fat32 4096 Bytes allocation. This is going to wipe everything from the sd card so keep that in mind. Next would be to make sure there is nothing written in the title after DWIN_SET. It's possible there can be hidden spaces after that title yo would need to remove in order for this to work. If neither of these solutions help please either email me (printsleo3d@gmail.com) or join my Discord for more direct help (discord.gg/YHFJEjFv). Good luck!
@@PrintsLeo3D wow thanks so much for the reply! I'll try that
Anytime, thanks for taking the time to reach out. If you need any more help let me know !
Will this work for any Voxelab Aquila? I have an older Aquila C2
The video is very useful, thank you very much!
I still have questions. I'm not putting the BLTouch in yet. In this case, do I have to download the ManualMesh version? If so, what instructions do I write in the Printer Settings in Cura? How do I set the bed level in this case?
If you're not going to use the bl touch probe yet you have two options. You can select default no probe, which would have you level the bed as normal and then when you print it simply prints as is without modification. If you select manual mesh, you would level the bed as normal and then you run through a manual probing grid. So this option would give you the benefit of a probe without actually having one. Of course the manual mesh process takes a little bit of time as you are manually moving through each probe point and making z offset adjustments. After you finish the probing grid you need to save that mesh, and then you can call on that mesh in your start code so the printer can apply it. In Cura you'll want to amend the start code by adding M420 S1 after (or below it as the code is vertical) the call for G28. M420 S1 loads a saved mesh (which would be the one you saved after creating it manually) for the printer to use while printing. The more I write this the more I think I should make this topic its own video. Thanks for the question, if you have anymore or this isn't clear let me know!
@@PrintsLeo3D Thank you for the detailed answer! You are doing a great job of helping newcomers to 3D printing.
Did I understand correctly that by installing UBL-NoProbe-3x3-G32.bin, I just get a new screen and new settings for Aquila? I will add that I want such a vertical screen and advanced settings.
I subscribed and will look forward to your new tutorials.
P.S. In the case of ManualMesh, will I have to adjust the level before each print?
@@PrintsLeo3D Hi! I finally put 3dtouch and Alex's firmware on my printer. Connected everything correctly, as in the diagram. The contacts are there, I tested the wires on a multimeter. I have not removed the Z axis end switch yet.
But when I turned on the 3dtouch, the light never came on. After the Home Z command, the Z-axis somehow crashes into the glass. Both the end switch and the 3dtouch do not work now.
What else could be the cause other than incorrect connection and defective 3dtouch? And why has the Z-axis end switch stopped working?
I would be very grateful if you could tell me how to solve this problem.
Would you be more comfortable if the discussion was moved to the reddit group?
Hey this is one of your comments that TH-cam flagged. It appears your passed this point though so I will answer a newer comment. Thanks again!
Hey I am really very sorry, as I said in a few of your previous comments TH-cam flagged so many of your responses and I never saw them. If you are still having this or any issues please either respond to this comment, make a comment in a newer video, or email me directly at printsleo3d@gmail.com So sorry about this I want to help and always answer every comment!
I'm in the midst of upgrading my Aquila with a MS direct drive and hot end. I figured I'd add a 3d touch. Now on my Satsuna shroud the 3d touch probe reached beyond my nozzle. I hadn't watched this video yet, had no clue what to do and given that I have spare needles I clipped the probe. I admit it's a little crude but if that provides the correct distance, is there anything wrong with this? Or perhaps until I get the printer running and I can alter and print a new shroud. In the end the touch requires a correct installation distance to work off of. Being mounted higher or having a shorter probe should give the same result IMHO.
Diedrick, as far as I could think that is a crude but useable modification ! Lol the nozzle itself is only used to trigger the internal sensor, and as long as that tip is within the 2.3 - 4.3 range I can't see an issue. Of course you want to make sure the end is clipped nice and flat, so that it triggers at the same spot each time. If you're lucky the touch may have even came with a a new probe tip so you can swap it out when the direct extruder kit comes!
@@PrintsLeo3D Thanks for your reply. You make a very good point. I'll head down this way for now at least to get the printer up and running again. One last question for now: I noticed Alex's firmware 1.3.5 is no longer being maintained and since I'm rookie I'm not yet up to speed with all types of firmware. Would you still recommend me installing this firmware or are there better alternatives 2 years down the line? Mind you I'm not yet in the market for a Raspberry Pi etc. I just want to get everything setup nicely and start printing some cool stuff. Thanks again!
Yea Alex hasn't been able to update that repository for some time now, but I would still recommend it to anyone looking to upgrade from the stock firmware. It still adds options that the stock does not have any is stable. There's another firmware out there right now called 'Professional firmware' it's looking to supplant exa for the Aquilas. I have no experience with it though so I can't vouch for it.
Ultimately the firmware I recommend long term is Klipper, which is a different firmware entirely (while Alex's and professional are different branches of the overall firmware Marlin). It's not for everyone, and it does require an additional device (you mentioned a pi, but a thing that runs Linux can operate it - $35 Inovato Quadra, t95 TV box, old laptops, etc), but overall it offers so many features, better print quality, added speed, the ability to make changes to your printer on the fly. There's so much it offers. A lot of my newer videos have been Klipper related because I believe in it so strongly. So while it might not be for everyone, or at least not for everyone right now, it ultimately is an amazing option.
hey im posting this almost a year later but its worth a shot. I installed the bltouch axactly as you did and everything is working fine but when i go to do a print and it does its 16 points it wants to print incorrectly. even with manually leveling the bed it wants to print closer to the bed on one side and further on the other and i cant understand why. if i could get help with this it would be very appriciated.
It's never too late to post! I would love to be able to diagnose your problem within these TH-cam comments so others having the same issues might be helped as well, but I find it's usually better if you email me directly so we can trade some pictures and video. I will say this. Is the distance between the probe tip and the nozzle tip within specifications (2.3-4.3mm)? Is the mount that's holding the bl touch on tight and in good condition? Is it possible the bl touch is hitting something while it probes (bed clips)? Under the mesh preview what does it look like, what does the deviation read? You can answer me back here but at some point I'd love to hear from you via email so I can see exactly how this is printing. printsleo3d@gmail.com
great explanation on firmware.
Thank you so much I really appreciate that!
Is there version of this fan shroud for a CRtouch?
I don't own a CR touch but from what I've read and seen you should be able to mount a CR Touch to any mount that a BL Touch mounts up to. The top mounting holes for the CR touch and BL touch are identical. The larger body of the CR Touch can make getting the wires plugged in a little more difficult but it will still work.
If you print this out and find you need some alterations to make it work, drop me a message and I'll see what I can do.
I'm so confused. Is the probe x offset supposed to put the nozzle in the middle of the bed or the probe?????
Alex's firmware has Z safe homing, and that will put the probe in the center of the bed. So without any X and Y offsets the nozzle will be in the center of the bed after homing (because the probe at 0,0 would be aligned directly with the nozzle tip). However once you set the correct X and Y offsets the nozzle will shift over and the probe will be centered on the bed. I hope this helps !
@@PrintsLeo3D ok so when I have my Offsets correctly the probe (not the nozzle) should be in the center? If so, I think I got it. Thank you for your help
That's correct! Probe will be at center not the nozzle sounds like you got it! Happy printing !
@@PrintsLeo3D thank you!😁😁😁
@@PrintsLeo3D ugh I'm about to cry. It won't let me get the nozzle close enough to the bed. Even putting z offset to max which is infeasible. I'm at a loss for what to do. I don't have my z end stop on or even connected for that matter. I just can't get the nozzle to go any lower than it is which is atleast 1-2mm away from the bed when it probes, then when it's done probing it's atleast 15-20mm away from the bed
Thank you so much for this tutorial, first and foremost. I am running into some trouble now with my X2. I suspect it's because the new fan shroud (Santana one you linked) is much more efficient at cooling the hotend. When my printer is trying to print the Z offset test (your prime blocks with a skirt) it's getting a thermal runaway error. Any suggestions on what to do?
If this is happening right after you installed the bl touch and firmware, then it's likely you'll need to run a PID tune. PID tune calibrates the temperature settings of the hot end, when you download new firmware there's a number of original settings that get changed, and the PID temperature settings are one of them so this sort of issue happens a lot. Alex's firmware makes this process extremely easy though, go into control > temperature > PID > Hotend. From there set the Temperature to your normal printing temperatures (for me with PLA it's usually 205) and the run the auto tune. It will take some time, the printer will heat up and cool a bunch, but after it's done your temperature should be good to go. Just remember to save those settings so they persist after you power the machine down. I believe there's an option to save in the PID tune menu, but if not in the control menu you can find the Store Settings command. Let me know how this goes!
@@PrintsLeo3D still getting a lot of variance with this. PID tuning did enable me to get a print or 2 off, but I'm still getting temp issues (sometimes Thermal Runaway, sometimes mintemp).
And now another challenger has entered the fray, my "3DTouch" no longer extends when homing, so the nozzle attempts to crash. It lights up and everything, and it extends and retracts when powering on the printer, just doesn't when homing. Any ideas?
Is the probe tip also loose ? There's an Allen key opening at the top of the touch, that lets you tighten up the probe, possible that could be the issue with it not deploying? Could also be a wiring problem, maybe the cable got snagged on the bed and unplugged from the board. I've had that issue before as well. Because the cable is a little shorter than you'd like it can be pulled out from the back of the bed while moving.
Are you saving the settings after the PID tune so they stay when you turn the printer off?
@@PrintsLeo3D I'll have to check up on the wiring to see if anything has come loose, yeah the wiring is not a great length so maybe that's what's going on there.
I do Store Settings after each PID as well.
It's happened to me in the past so it's worth checking up on.
Hey I tried this I don’t know what I did wrong my LCD button does not move on the screen or click
I'm sorry you're having trouble. When you updated the firmware for your screen, did it turn from blue to orange? Also did you format the SD card before you tried flashing the screen ? I actually ran into a problem last night where when I copied the DWIN_SET I erased all the post fix (Voxelab Red) but I left an empty space after DWIN_SET. When I flashed the screen it took but the screen was scrambled. I had to go back to the SD card and properly delete all the spaces after DWIN_SET.
No it did not work do you know what i could do
I have a few suggestions of what might help. First would be to try a different SD Card if you have one available. Format the SD Card just as I did in the video and then try flashing the screen again . What type of computer are you using to transfer the information, a Mac or a PC? Some users who have ran into screen troubles have flashed the official Voxelab Firmware back onto their printer and then tried to flash Alex's firmware and the second time it worked. Not sure why that is but I know people have had success trying that. I would try another SD card ahead of all these ideas , and I would try to reformat the SD card you have one more time . Also, and I'm sure you checked this already, but did you make sure to flash the correct chipset onto your printer either N32 or G32?
Hi there i have an Aquila x3 that im trying to upgrade to a BL touch i have followed your video and have installed the firmware but now i can not find on the screen where to input the X y Z offsets any pointers would be helpfull regards Ken
It's been a long while since I've used Marlin firmware, but I believe there is a settings menu (maybe called machine) and then through that menu there should be an offsets option to set up all of those values.
Hello, New to 3d printing. I just got the Aquila version N32 for christmas. I picked up the BLtouch today. I think i have everything down im just wondering if the shroud that you made to hold the fans and the BLtouch work with the stock fans. or if you happen to have just a simple attachment that i can make to attach the bl touch to the stock model?
Welcome to the 3D printing community! So glad you found my video. The mount in this video holds the stock fans just fine without any added screws or other attachments. There's a few other mounts I found online that should work with the stock fan shroud so you don't need to replace that if you don't want to. Here's a couple I found:
Ender 3 V2 3DTouch/BLTouch Mount by jkostenov
www.thingiverse.com/thing:4462870
Creality Ender 3 V2 BLTouch Mount by ct16k
www.thingiverse.com/thing:4670240
Our Aquilas are a clone of the Creality Ender 3 V2, so any modifications you can find to fit the Ender 3 V2 should work also for the Aquila! Good luck and happy printing!
Regarding the "mintemp" error on an N32 board... looking around I came across other discussions where people flashed their boards with the Alex firmware that is NOT marked "HS". So I gave that a try... and it works! I have NO idea why the HS version would cause the BLtouch to cause the thermistors to read 0C when activated while the non-HS version doesn't. But this really needs to be mentioned in the github repository as a note/warning. It took me quite a bit of searching to find. Posting this here just in case anyone has a similar issue.
So I followed your vids when I installed my bl touch on my aquila. Ive been chasing an issue where my z offset isnt correct. I can get the first layer good but then the second layer drags so I have to raise the z offset. worst part is that its never the same. some prints i might have to move it .3 some prints ive had to move it close to .8. Ive done xyz cubes, e step, and flow calibrations. tempted to just reset the printer settings and start over. or remove the bl touch entirely because I didnt have problems until I installed it. Printing PLA 200/60 4x4 mesh
This sounds like something other than a BL Touch may be at fault. It sounds like you are getting inconsistent rise from your Z axis. When you say the first layer is good, but then you need to raise the z offset for the second layer. Are you doing that through the ‘Tune’ option while the print is printing? I have found that any adjustments I make through that ‘Tune’ option never seem to save properly and persist from print to print. I make sure I go back into the Z-offset menu (outside of printing) and then click on the ‘live adjust’ option and begin to adjust my z offset from there. Then I make sure to Save Settings, to make sure this new z -offset saves after I power down my printer. It also wouldn't hurt to check the Zsteps (which can be found in the same menu as the E-steps) to make sure your Z stepper motor is taking the appropriate amount of steps (should be set to 400 steps/mm). When you installed the BL Touch, you had to have installed new firmware, was this the first time installing this new firmware (likely Alex’s if you followed my video), or had you already performed a firmware upgrade (no probe or manual mesh) prior to the BL Touch? A few other aspects to check is to make sure that probe tip to nozzle tip distance is correct (between 2.3 - 4.3), make sure your fan shroud and BL Touch are tight and not shifting while probing. On the extruder bracket (that z-rod runs through) there is a thread piece with two screws attaching it. Those screws aren’t supposed to be tightened down, it can cause some z-binding, so make sure both of those screws have been loosened just a little. Lastly, I would do a double check on the eccentric nuts that are holding up the x-axis gantry. They are located on the inner side of the vertical extrusion. You want to make sure you can spin them with your hand while using some force, but they should not be able to pin freely or spin with only a light touch.
@@PrintsLeo3D yeah I just cant figure out what the issue is been just dealing with it for a few months but the other day just had the "I'm over this" vibe. So I revisted the series. I have done the x gantry and x gantry ecentric nuts. I did alexs firmware when i installed the bl touch. Was gonna just reinstall the firmware on the printer but its gone and dont really trust anyone elses so ill just assume that the firmware is fine. I have watch sooo many videos on z offset that my mind is z offset now. z steps is at 400. I will check that bracket that the z rod runs through. I also have printed the satsana shroud with the bl touch mount built in so do away with the stock shroud. my bl touch bracket isnt loose by anymeans but it isnt exactly tight by anymeans either. Hopefully i can get it sorted soon though. Thanks for the reply!
I'm sorry I couldn't be more help. I hate when these ghostly issues persist without any cause. If you want to drop me some emails with pictures or videos, please be my guest, I'll do whatever I can to help. Printsleo3d@gmail.com
@PrintsLeo3D thank you. I will be in touch after installation of the new shroud
Thanks for the very detailed guide. It was easy to follow, step by step. I am using the G29 in Cura to probe before each print. My back center test square appears to have too much gap and is stringing compared to all the other test squares. It feels like although the bed is probing, it is not actually using it. Any recommendations?
When using G29 you want to make sure there is no G28(auto home) anywhere after it, as that will ease any probing data the G29 has sampled. Of course also you want to make sure you manually level/tram your bed before using the probe. The bl touch can only account for so much , so you have to make sure the bed is nice and level before you begin. Also, and I've had this problem in the past, make sure the probe itself isn't coming into contact with any bed clips as it probes the back and front sections. As always I would say double check your X and Y offsets also, so the probe knows where the nozzle is and can make the prior adjustment! Thanks for the kind words and let me know if any of this was a help.
im having a lot of trouble getting it leveled. i did all the steps in the video and went through multiple times and my first layer is completely off and uneven. my bed isnt warped and i even manually leveled then used the g codes bedore printing and it still doesn’t level correctly. i check my mesh in the viewer and it has few green spaces meaning its nkt leveled.
Ok, let's see if we can get to the bottom of this. Manually leveling the bed before we use the bl touch the first time is important. When you start a print what are you using in the start gcode, G29 or M420 S1? Is it possible to see you start code ?
@@PrintsLeo3D i use g29 and i have tried manually leveling multiple times. my first layer just doesn’t seem to stick so incase it wasnt a leveling issue i researched and i tried cleaning the bed with alcohol and that was no good either. i copy and pasted ur code into my own cura settings.
When the first layer is printer, can you put your hand onto the coupler holding the z rod. You should feel it making tiny movements as it prints, this is the nozzle following the mesh. If that coupler isn't moving then we can go from there. Also did you properly input your X and Y offsets for the probe mount?
@@PrintsLeo3D im assuming what your talking abt is this fast rigid feeling like frictiony type feeling other than that its just vibrations. so i would say yes i feel movement?
Yea that's likely it. It's hard to put into words, it's mostly vibrations, with some sudden and short jerks, which signifies the mayer is being adapted to the mesh. I would double check your X and Y offsets. The probe adjusts the nozzle based on the offsets, and if those aren't correct it will be adjusting the first layer based on an incorrect nozzle position. Is adhesion an issue or just uneven adhesion?