Neptune 4 Max Review and a FIX for the PROBLEMS EVERYONE IS HAVING
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ม.ค. 2024
- STL's and links: fpfdesigns.com/
My starting GCODE (for OrcaSlicer):
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;ELEGOO NEPTUNE 4 MAX
M220 S100 ;Set the feed speed to 100%
M221 S100 ;Set the flow rate to 100%
M104 S140 ;set nozzle to 140C, but don't wait for it
M190 S[bed_temperature_initial_layer_single] ;set bed temp and wait for it
G4 P1500000; wait 25 minutes for the bed temp to stabilize further
G29 ;auto bed-leveling
G90 ;absolute positioning
G1 Z10 F300
G1 X1.5 Y10 F6000
G1 Z0 F300
M109 S[nozzle_temperature_initial_layer]
G92 E0 ;Reset Extruder
G1 X1.5 Y10 Z0.4 F300 ;Move to purge start position
G1 Y110 E30 F400 ;Draw purge line
G1 Z0.6 F120.0 ;Move up a little
G1 Y105 F3000
G92 E0 ;Reset Extruder
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My N4Max Orca Profile: fpfdesigns.com/software/N4Max...
N4 Camera Mount: • 3D Printed Camera Moun...
Outro music is "Quantum" by "Vapora", used with explicit permission from the artist. • Quantum
New videos published every Friday, featuring a new 3D printed functional object, how I use it, and design considerations.
The work depicted in this video is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License or other non-commercial license.
elegoo
n4max
n4m
overextrusion
underextrusion
gcode
fixed
layer shift
orca slicer
heatbed
saturation
dial indicator
klipper
functional
print
fpf
PLA - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
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I ordered this printer yesterday and it will arrive tomorrow. Although it is going to need a lot of modifications, I'm NOT disappointed in my choice. I am glad that you have pointed out these issues AND the fixes so that I can address them. It is intended to be my only 3D printer and so I didn't want to run into size constraints for some of my projects. Thank you for this information.
I'm new to the hobby and this is my first printer, i was very frustrated going through everything trying to get better results and basically came around to the same solution you showed here, just not as efficiently, i was just manually heating my bed setting a 15 timer and then coming back and doing bed leveling before starting each print. it was really cool to see actually evidence of what what i thought was happening and hear someone that actually knows what they are talking about explain it.
Yeah 3D printing right now can be a pain. It is a long learning process.
Very nice, Thank you, I really enjoy my 4 max, I see it's quirks as a challenge, when I finally got it tuned up, it does really good, what you have discovered explains some of my issues
Thankyou soo much I modified for Cura based on your G-Code.This was an awesome find. Nice Work.
;ELEGOO NEPTUNE 4 MAX
M220 S100 ;Set the feed speed to 100%
M221 S100 ;Set the flow rate to 100%
M104 S140 ;set nozzle to 140C, but don't wait for it
M190 S{material_bed_temperature_layer_0} ;set bed temp and wait for it
G4 P1500000; wait 25 minutes for the bed temp to stabilize further
G29 ;auto bed-leveling
G90 ;absolute positioning
G1 Z10 F300
G1 X1.5 Y10 F6000
G1 Z0 F300
M109 S{material_print_temperature_layer_0}
G92 E0 ;Reset Extruder
G1 X1.5 Y10 Z0.4 F300 ;Move to purge start position
G1 Y110 E30 F400 ;Draw purge line
G1 Z0.6 F120.0 ;Move up a little
G1 Y105 F3000
G92 E0 ;Reset Extruder
thanks for your comment, and thanks for sharing your modified version for Cura
I compared the G-code of the orca listed to your Cura version. I do not see anything different between the 2. Am I missing something?
So do I just wipe out the code? And put this? How do I?
I'd come to the same conclusion, but my bed also has enough distortions that a 9x9 grid doesn't capture enough detail for good part adhesion. My solution has been to install KAMP and use the adaptive bed mesh, which only probes the parts of the bed that will be printed on, then I turned *up* the mesh density to 25x25. If the print area is smaller than the full bed, it only goes to those points on a 25x25 that fall inside the area.
For temperature, I just pre-heat and let the printer sit for half an hour or so. But wow did I go through some machinist-related contortions to come to that conclusion, as you did!
Thank you so much, this starting GCODE has made this printer usable to me again. My first print was flawless and then I had nothing but problems. Now using your Gcode, I am able to print again. It's not perfect on the extreme edges of the plate, but its usable!
Thanks for this in-depth review with actual solutions. 👍👍😎👍👍
this is what youtube should be.
Thank you for this video and sharing your finding.
So tldr - pre heat your bed, remember thermal expansion is a thing so let it get its wiggles out, auto level, profit.
What’s up with the single frame of the Benchy in the last couple videos?
By the way, you did a phenomenal job reviewing that unit. I hope other companies see this level of attention to detail and invite you to review more moving forward.
Great work here and thanks for all your hard work and efforts!
This is what I’m struggling with. Super glad I stumbled across this. Thanks!
this video was exactly what i needed right now! thanks buddy
Thank you so much for posting this. I’m going to add all that you done to my Goode. I normally wait for 30 minutes to an hour depending on how cold it is outside but never thought about having it do an automatic bed level prior to printing. Guess we’ll see how it goes.
Thank you, i look forward to trying this out.
Yes, the time before the print is definetly important. I mentioned this when i moved my Printer in the basement before i got an enclosure. Before, I had just under 21-23°C (69.8-73.4°F) in the apartment. The temperature in the cellar is 15-18°C (59-64.4°F). The prints immediately became worse until I accidentally left the printer on for a while and the print bed probably settled during that time. Since I got a case, the prints have been significantly better overall.
Thanks for the video. Cura has been a staple of the low-end printer market for years. It shipped with the Creality machines and most of the other clones that came after. Cura is also used for both Resin and FDM printers. I got it with my Mars 2Pro and the Npttune 2S. Most people do end up switching to more advanced slicers.
Thanks for doing this in depth review. It solves a lot of the issues I had with this printer.I think it will also help a lot of people struggling with this printer.
I really appreciate the way you include all the software and code changes. Unfortunately early on I was just pushing through before I understood all the issues and ended up with a massive blob of death on an early long print. Elagoo did send me a new nozzle and heat sink but it was very difficult to get the old one off.
It's a shame that the companies themselves don't find a way to resolve the issues and release a video like this.
I find it hard to believe they don't realize what the problems are.
Thanks again and keep up the good work.
I will also subscribe to your channel I have already liked the vid
I recently purchased the 4Max. I am new and as green as it gets. I value you input and love your channel. I have printed caned stuff and had great quality but all small stuff. I bought it to print oscale buildings so I will need to preheat.
Welcome aboard!
Great info in this video, fixed a lot of issues.
Nice video, thanks. It confirms some of my suspicions and validates some advice I was reading in the various support communities around ensuring your printer is fully heat soaked before printing. Heat soak I think by your measurements means heat the bed to 60F for 30 minutes. I think some good advice for any that don't want to get into modifying print start GCODE for every print, and furthermore to avoid running a bed mesh prior to every print would be to simply heat soak your printer prior to running a standalone bed mesh, and then heat soak your printer prior to each print. That should align the variances well enough for the average person.
I have the Neptune 4 I heat soak for about 10 minutes prior to starting my prints and I do notice it has helped. Not thrilled about the Klipper implementation of this machine but once I worked the little issues out it’s been a solid machine.
Awesome content, thank you! I pre-ordered this printer within the 1st 5 min of the pre-order going live. Printed pretty much non stop October thru Christmas then let it sit for 3 months. Between sickness and life I just didn't feel like dealing with all of this machines little quirks so mainly stuck to printing on my smaller and more worry free printers. I've had time recently again to tackle the big boy and make some upgrades, added Oldham couplings to the Z lead screw nuts to help with Z banding and updated the FW. My biggest issue now is with parts warping, PLA parts. I've got my N4 Max on a bottom shelf in my basement, it might just be too cool down there. I wrap the shelf in a drop cloth as a makeshift enclosure but it doesn't help a lot. I'm going to move it to my dining room tomorrow and give it a shot as the temperature is more stable there. I've been printing for 5 years but printing big is a whole new set of challenges.
Just because of your „we don’t do multicolor garbage of the week“ i subscribed to you. Thanks a lot.
I tried out the gcode profile for orca slicer and for some reason after the heat up and autoleveling processes, the x and y axis for the prints seemed off and it tried to print off the bed for some reason. abandoned the gcode update and now I just preheat the bed manually before I level and print and haven't had an issue since.
thanks for shedding light on something I would never of picked up on.
Thanks so much for putting this info out!
Would appreciate seeing how you've modified your printer.cfg? I'm still also a little unsure how to add screws tilt for the max... Thanks!
I have a Neptune Max, I totally agree this printer is not a out of the shelf printer, but the community is good and we have all the feature you would expect from a printer for reasonable price and the build volume is my biggest selling point.
Build Plate: I been scratching my head to make the build plate flat, literal spend a month and write to Elegoo about the issues, for me the Firmware and Cura 5.6 update had some success it started print flat still not a good result, STILL THE BUILD WAS NOT FLAT, I ripped of the entire build plate to check each nut and bolt and the moving the Spirit level all over the place, still not make it work, after seeing your video i can imagine what did i miss and your brilliance and in depth knowledge in the subject is appreciated, i am going to try your solution and i am very positive,
Thanks for this in-depth review with a solutions. 👍 Love your Bro 😎
First things first, I bought this thing back in October of 2023. It was my 2nd 3d printer after I started having issues with how slow my Flashfire Guider 2 was. I could not for the life of me get good prints out of this printer. I was positive I had a bad gantry out of the box and was trying to work with Elegoo forever to get a new gantry shipped. After watching this video, I was positive I had a bad gantry. Yours was the first video of someone running a print on it so I could hear what it sounded like normally. The second thing was back layers as I got near the edges of the build plate. Hallelujah, you have found the issue. I don’t know why I did not think of this myself. My dad claimed he would dream about a car problem and diagnose it in his sleep. I guess it is true if you dream it it will become reality. After almost 6 months of this thing collecting dust and my moving on to now 4 Bambu Lab Printer I tried this with a new gantry, and I have a good print. Thanks so much for finding this fix. I now can print large prints like I wanted to when I bought this thing.
I have a CR-6 Max which has a 400x400 bed. I encountered this same issue with that bed as well. It wasn't quite as much variance due to the stiff spacers that hold the bed to the carriage, but it did cause inconsistent extrusion and layers. I had to do MANY things to get consistency from the printer. The first thing was to add insulation to the underside. That made a huge difference in the stability of the bed. I also removed the stiff plastic spacers and added rigid silicon spacers that allowed me to adjust the roller coaster surface of the bed as it was quite uneven when i got it with a high point of 2.8mm and a low point of 3mm using the 7x7 mesh. I increased the mesh but that just added more time to the startup as you did. I eventually learned I needed to heatsoak the bed for about 15 minutes and then invested in a Beacon3D bed scanner. That allows me to now pull a 40x40 mesh in about 90 seconds. Unfortunately that meant I had to redesign the whole printer to eliminate the strain gauge leveling system which had it's own issues as plastic extruding from the nozzle would lift up on the hotend as witnessed by the probe triggering during extrusion and would cause uneven top surface layers. By going to a rigid hotend without the strain gauge (used a Micro Swiss NG setup) and the Beacon 3D scanner for a very detailed mesh that takes almost no time to do, I now get perfect adhesion and layers. I am loathe to invest in a bed slinger in the future after all the experiences I've had in making then consistent. My latest printers are coreXY and although more expensive and more complex, are super consistent and have had zero down time with them.
Hi, I have just bought the Neptune 4 Max last week, and I had it sent to me, to the UK. In Europe we do use Cura a lot... Basically I printed out of the box, just after making a manual bed levellling and then an automated one. So far, I have only been printing small objects (the biggest is a drawer adaptor for the little drawer on the side of it, which goes inside the drawer and you can store the L keys etc), a filament out sensor bracket, to place it a bit more centered, two spool holders (a rotating one and a 3KG one), the extruder clip adaptor (The original one is indecent). The only times the print failed, was on four occasions: on three of them, I did not put any support during the slicing process in Cura, so the object did not have support in some areas; the fourth case, during a print job of a corner camera adaptor, at 50% (several hours), I have decided to switch off the led lights on the top, and for some reason the printer crashed, returning an error about reaching the max extrusion... I pressed the emergency stop on the webpage of the printer administration area (I have been experimenting both physical touches on the pad and the LAN management), and restarted the whole services a couple of times. In some cases, like when I tried to print a small nut and a bolt for a cosplay caliper, the threads did not come out well. It is too early for me to tell you if there are other issues. I did not upgrade the firmware or do any of the annoying things you mentioned, which made me think that probably I have no idea of the printer's flaws yet. This is my third printer, after a Prusa MKII Ephestos and a Creality Ender 3 S1 Plus which went on fire and smoke - seriously - last week, while trying to install a Sonic Pad (Still waiting for Creality to reply back to me about that) . I will follow you and keep your video as a reference, shall I have to do all the stuff you said. I really hope I do not have to upgrade the firmware or open the pad because it is very annoying...
-- 15 February update --
Actually I tried a 10 hours' job with PLA/carbon fiber, and at 87% I had to do a stop, because the printer started printing off Z-axiz, and it was all screwed up. Also, all the prints were opening in half, like a toast :-( I have experienced also that part of the first bed layer, in some areas was having visible spots in it, as described by someone, and after some time the fans bar, attached behind the extruder, started scratching the printed layers, when the bed was going back and forth. I had done a manual calibration before starting any job, and also an automated one. So, probably I will have to change the printer configuration as you guys said.
How can I check if the firmware is the latest version?
Excellent video. I'm about to buy this printer only for large jobs. I already own 2 Bambu X1C and one A1. But need this volume. There's no good large printer out there even at a higher price point. Could you make a video guide on how you tweaked the code shown in this video?
I honestly just bought one, so I have not got to try it out yet. But thank you. I can see the issues by your video. I will. most likely be putting on one of my H2O's or H2 v2s extruders in place because I already seen multiple blobs of death as a complaint. but this helps me a lot. Thank you very, very, very much.!!!! It's nice knowing what to expect.!
I've been looking to add a larger format fdm printer to my collection, and been waffling between something like the neptune 4 max/plus vs the neptune 3 max/plus. This video has sold me on the 4 series, not because they are issue free but because it shows that you can tackle the problems they present with a little critical thinking and experience.
I've been using an ender 3 s1 pro for almost 2 years, and have enough experience in fdm printer maintenance and operation, I think, to tackle the challenges of the 4 max/4 plus, in order to achieve the faster printing speeds and larger build volume that I want to add to my repertoire.
I always let my bed heat up, even on my ender 3, for like 15-20 minutes before leveling or before a print, so doing so on the larger printer not only sounds logical but would have been part of my process anyway even without seeing this video - and if you're printing at 250mm/s instead of 50-80 anyway, that extra 30 mins on the front end, to get a 3 day print done in 20 hours, will have been worth it!
i bought this as my first 3d printer about a month ago and its been amazing
Same here, first on Neptune 3 Pro, second one Neptune 4 Max
*Im thinking about buying this as my second 3d printer coming from a ender 3 v2. Im looking for an upgrade thats bigger and faster. Its good to hear you had great luck with it being your first printer!*
It's great to see folks join the hobby and find issues we've banged our head against back 8-10 years ago, and heat soaking was always advised. Even if you're using mic6 beds on corexy machines, heat soak for a good 20-30 min. Let the bed stabilize, especially on large beds. I know everyone wants fast printers, but pretty sure can't fight physics.
Bambu made everyone's marketing dept. over-pivot to speed. The N4MAX is a flatbed truck trying to wear a Porsche wrap. There's nothing wrong with just admitting it's a flatbed truck, we need those too, but marketing dept's don't think like that.
@@FunctionalPrintFriday I heat soak bambu too. Even best heated bed surface we've found - mic6 aluminum needs heat soaking, see my response to another post.
I bought this printer a while ago and had nothing but problems with it. I just found this video and I can now try to solve my issues. For months it has just sat and done nothing and I bought a bambu P1S. I don't care about the heat up time, I just want to be able to print large items. Thank you so much.
How did Elegoo not catch any of this? Up to the community to fix poor quality again. Great job and thanks!
Have you tried running different spacers under the bed? Like silicone or metal? Maybe that would change something for the better. Great video!!
Very helpful for any 4 Plus/Max user. I figured it out myself that bed thermal expansion plays a big role in inconsistent prints and manually heat up the bed 15 minutes before print (enough for Plus which is identical to Max only slightly smaller). For manual bed leveling I recommend Bed Leveler 5000 which is really helpful in microadjusting the bed position before I run auto bed leveling (all with bed preheated for at least 15 minutes)
Do you still run the mesh level before each print, or did you do it once after letting the bed sit hot for a while and then just add the pause before each print?
@@christopherperry9242 No. I don't run bed levelling before each print. Just in case I remesh the bed once a week, but once the bed warms up it doesn't really change between the prints (it changes while it warms up). When it comes to pausing I haven't yet added the gcode shown in the video. I just turn on the printer set the temperature (nozzle 140C, bed 60C) manually either from display or Klipper and wait 15-30 minutes. Most of the time I slice my models just before printing, it keeps me occupied while the bed warms up.
Probably be batter putting kamp on it so it levels the print area only on each print
I just took a look at mine with a thermal camera. It's 3 hours into a print job, so presumable has stabilized by now. The bed is set to 60C. The temp of the back third of the bed is registering as 58C on the thermal camera, whereas the front half varies between 48 and 51C. This is with ambient temperate in the space at 18C. Pretty clear the large part fan is managing to cool the bed itself, which cannot be good for avoiding the bed distorting. This is the first proper job I've printed on it, but I think I'll be turning the part fan off for now until the summer comes round.
Thank you very much. Rather new to editing gcode on this machine and in orca. what line is the start g-code on? I really don't want to screw up the code since it's "running", though not well.
This is my first printer, and I have been having bed adhesion issues. I found if I scrapped a part early in the print process, and immediately reprint, the issue seemed to evaporate. I also noted bed temperature variance with a non-contact thermometer when performing the auto leveling task. I had not yet done the dial indicator test. Still running Cura 4.8.xx that came with the machine. Printing a part about 3x10 inches, I found the corners and edges curling up away from the bed. My first thought was thermal residual stress due to the cooling of the molten plastic away from the bed. My fix was to place engineered breakaway supports in the model, and this was relatively successful. So far only tried PLA filament from Elegoo.
I would like to see detailed tech info provided by Elegoo ( schematic, wiring diagrams, parts lists, to aid in accurate troubleshooting). Have had two incidents of death blobs requiring parts from Elegoo, which were promptly supported by Elegoo warranty. It was just a bit unnerving to appear to be throwing parts at it without my understanding exactly what had failed and why.
Thankyou for all your effort. I believe you've helped point me towards a solution for getting decent prints on my N4 Max. A few observations though:
1) 0.004 inches is 0.1016 mm, which translates to 1/2 a layer height.
2) Would an enclosure help?
3) The default tolerance is 0.05, which incidentally lets it accept almost all samples, regardless of deviation
4) With 3 samples taken, wouldn't 'average' be better than 'mean'?
5) With bed levelling done on every print wouldn't it make sense to look into the Beacon probe?
Regardless, thanks! I didn't fully realise the amount of heat expansion on such a large bed
I had this issue with an Anet A8. Re-engineered the Y carriage and the bed, added heat insulation and calibrated the mesh at the temperature i'm printing on (this printer doesn't have ABL). I also took the calibration in the same way displayed here. My printer has been super reliable since.
Reducing the print area to within the area where the bed is screwed down will help a lot.
I mainly only print helmets are you recommending to just leave the Part cooling fan in the off position on top of the printer, or adjust it in filament settings to turn off keep fan always on, min /max fan speed threshold 0%??
Thank you, excellent video.
Use a little silicon grease on the rollers, works great. Just make sure it's plastic safe. Also make sure there isn't a nub of plastic hanging off the nozzle when doing Z-offset calibration.
Every time I've done a Z-offset 9 out of 10 times there was a nub which affects offset directly.
I’m using Elegoo Cura 5.4 and it works great. Planning to try other slicers out of curiosity.
Same
That is great I have the plus but still can apply all you showed
This was my first printer. I got it because I wanted to do large prints, but started out with small prints for practice. Got blob death 1 week into owning it. Fixed it, and I've been tuning it and tuning it video after video, and even my small prints either end up not sticking to the bed or over extruding somewhere. Warming up the bed and waiting now to level. I hope this works. I have a huge back log of prints I want to do in the weeks I was waiting for my new hot end.
Спасибо! Благодаря твоим исследованиям я сегодня получил полноценную печать на всей поверхности стола Neptune 4 Max !!!
so glad to hear, thx for sharing!
Awesome video. Thank you. I got a neptune 4 max and I've been printing cosplay props like weapons and helmets and some parts of the bed print with a layer where I can see the bed thru it and some points on the same layer are rippled so its too close. I gotta give this a try.
That's really interesting. I've got the N4Pro as our first printer, and was suddenly getting layer shifts on the Y axis on small (3in by 4in in bed center) but tall (6in) prints. The shifts would happen about 45 minutes into the print in a room that's typically about 50 degrees F. Temp fluctuates a lot when the furnace heat kicks on and off throughout the day.
I fiddled with the y axis belt a lot to try to fix the shifting, until it eventually broke. Elegoo is replacing it for free, but I'm suspecting that the thermal changes in the various parts might be the culprit. I'll have to try preheating once the new belt arrives.
Awesome video! I got my 4 Max about 2 weeks after release. I had same firmware issues and did the upgrades with Elegoo support. I am also using OrcaSlicer for my Elegoo printers. I prefer the interface and it’s same as Bambu Studio.
I have bed meshed/trammed so many times it’s ridiculous! I too suspected thermal expansion, but I use thicker.28 layers for functional parts and wasn’t too concerned with surface quality. Most of my prints were passable like you were saying at the start of this video. I have yet to print anything really big, but have used most of the bed to print multiple functional parts at the same time. I agree, adding 20-30 min warmup for a 20+ hour print is worth it. Less likely to have print failures on really long prints. And you are still printing at Bambulab like speeds.
Have you done any max flow testing on stock 4mm nozzle? I was really impressed when I got better than 26mm^3/s with some old Hatchbox filament. I can’t believe how well this 12mo old filament performed and it has never seen a dryer box.
Thanks again!
I have had so many issues getting my prints to work properly. I noticed the exact same things you did, but I don't have enough experience to have identified the issue as you have here. In fact, recently my printer had the dreaded blob of death, and ruined my hot end, one of the wires came off when trying to remove the blob. I was leveling non-stop and I also noticed the issue with Screw_tilt_adjust not being accurate. I hope this resolves my issues, once my new nozzle comes in. I have also ordered some of the new nozzles form Elegoo for the 1mm size, and I hope to be able to make larger objects more quickly and accurately with your guidance here. Thank you.
OMG bro I have been pulling my hair out with my 4 plus trying to get a solid 1st layer.... Thank you.
Glad I could help
Is it springs warming up and expanding or just the bed? Would nylon spacers help with leveling?
That’s what I was thinking as well.
really on the ropes regarding getting the neptune 3 max or 4 max. Mainly for the size. I rebuilt my ender 3 several times including with the full ender extender kit. Loved the size but i need a printer actually built for size. I will be using it for cosplay and props.
What is your honest opinion?
Nice video! One thing to mention is, that is not a dial test indicator! That in fact is a test indicator, non linear and very sensitive over a short range. The other type is a dial indicator with a plunger type probe, those give linear measurements and generally have a much larger range. DTI is basically slang workshop language for a small distance measuring device that looks like a clock.
Thanks for the info!
I am New to 3D Printing, and was just about to purchase this 4Max. Having fully watched this excellent video and reading all the comments, I am a bit confused. So here are some questions. Do all 3D Printers have similar problems? Is there something better out there at this price point? I too would like to print functional Prints only. Any valuable advice would be appreciated. Thanks
That make total sense... I don't have the 4 but I have the 3, I'll be looking into this.
Any chance of getting the Stl for your test prints?
So I am fairly new to 3D printing but I'm a bit of a control freak and the more refinements the machine has the more interest I have in working with it. You have actually made me more interested in the printer know how you were able to basically set a macro that resolved your issues. I would be curious how different this was from the Max 3 for start up and print consistency.
Considering the size, even with that bed issue it's been amazing printer. Coming from CR-10 S5
30minute wait is no go for most prints. Only for say 5kg+ prints -- at which point just the weight of the print is going to affect level over time, fortunately spread over the full print.
Right now doing ~2kg print.
Insane how fast these new printers get stuff done, that's only 1½ days.
i can't say much about the n4 max but i got the n4 pro and it took me a while to get this to lvl the way i want. The thing is with the neptune4 pro that the leveling of the auxiliary (the 4 knobs) bed corners are done in cold condition when you start the leveling from the menu. It only heats up for the auto leveling part which is not helping at all. First I tighten the 4 corner knobs completely and then loosen it a few turns so that i have some play. My fix is to manually heat up the nozzle to 150 - 200 and also the bedplate to 50-60 and then do all the leveling. But be aware if you finish a part of the leveling and save it ...your heating will be reset so keep an eye on the temps and maybe heat up again if it was reset. Then i start Auxiliary leveling the 4 corners but if its way off then do it on every corner 2 or 3 times this is where i got the best results. Then after the auto leveling starts let it finish and do the z offset also in heated state. In heated state i do the leveling with paper if you feel a slight resistance its good. That helped alot so that i can print flawlessly for a few days and then if a print starts to fail i will do it again. That is ok for me maybe it helps someone. I don't have to wait 20-30 minutes... i just start and it prints perfect if lvled
I too also have a N4 Pro and noticed the same thing as you and also did my levelling with the nozzle and bed pre heated.
AHA MOMENT!!! This would explain why the bed is shifting every time I try the auxiliary bed leveling technique. Glad to know I don't suck at bed leveling. Heat soak, test, heat soak, print. What method or material did you use for setting the z offset on the printer? Did you use A4 paper or some other spacer "device"? Also, have you used Cura with this printer? Do you prefer Orca over Cura? I've been using Cura, but may switch to Orca if you recommend it over Cura?
finally honestly saying not for beginners
THANK YOU!! I was about to freaking hammer-throw this printer out in to the street and give up on printing completely! I was letting it pre-heat before prints but z-offset and bed mesh were always inconsistent I should've known there was a better way. Thanks for the G-code! The bed mesh before every print has helped a ton. Smaller prints are turning out fine now, haven't tried a large print yet but I have faith now that it will turn out fine :)
I never shut the heat bed off, so no complaints over here!
I just bought one myself and I'm hoping it works out. I had another brand before but had to return it after an issue with the threaded rod ultimately resulted in the printer having to be returned. I got this one since the threaded rods are pre-installed in the uprights but all the stuff I'm going to have to try and remember is making my head spin.
I'm grateful this video is here I just hope I can figure it out.
it's *not* a turnkey machine, but it's still a great deal for the overall size and capabilities once you've tuned it
Thanks to you and others doing similar content I think I will be ok. The issue I am having at the moment I feel may have more to do with a bad model or my inexperience with Cura (Elegoo says it's the most popular but I see maybe 1% of people online saying they use it) but sadly the model I found was distributed as a Cura project instead of STL or SCAD. I am going to try a simple benchy in the center of the bed to examine for irregularities.
The model was a test for after you do auxiliary leveling that prints the 11 x 11 mesh patter in connected squares. Sadly it went horribly wrong and I had to stop immediately.@@FunctionalPrintFriday
Can't believe this video just came out 3 days ago. I've had my Neptune 4 Max sitting in a box since late Nov23'. Was beginning to look into Rails and other minor upgrades (nozzles, etc) only to find that theres still a few bugs being worked out. Good to know about the bed variation, i'm very curious to know if this video was based on the included springs, or if you've tried testing using silicone bed spacers, etc? As for my feel... I expected it honestly. Size comes with additional challenges. Eventually I'd hope to see some 3rd party upgrade to address/make thsi time less impacting.
Hi great video. I am having similar issues with my Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro. Could this be a fix also for the smaller models? The Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro has a Bed with internal and external heating which means when leveling i should heat both to 60 degrees before leveling the Bed and wait 25mins? Thanks
Thank you for this video! I just picked this printer up over the weekend. I was gonna go for a Kobra2Max, but found a great deal on the Neptune4Max.
It was tedious to setup, but I have an ender 3v2, so I was used to the tinkering. I’m able finally pump car parts, but i’m still having printing smaller prints. I have under and over extrusion on my prints, but I can just fill it in with with fillers. I’m gonna have to try your starting g code and see if that helps
Sidenote: i prefer printing on PETG, so I turn off my part cooling and have the regular fan to 30%. I guess I should just take that part cooling piece off so it doesn’t wear out my z-axis
yeh, could just pull it off
@@FunctionalPrintFriday I’m going to once i finish this roll. Also, I was rereading the manual, and it actually states to set the filament’s temperature in the level settings. So your for the bed temp to even out makes alot more sense now.
I just put your g-code, but set the wait to just a few minutes because I wait awhile anyway after set bed temp before i print. I’ll report back after a couple of this fender flare prints!
im so glad you did not go with the kobra 2 max it is a pile of poo way worse than the N4MAX kept failing PETG prints
First and foremost great video! I appreciate all the time and effort that you put into this machine. However, I believe the only way manufactures are going to learn, is the hard way, and have customers return machines that simply do not work as advertised out of the box. A 25min heat soak? The when it already takes forever and a day for the bed to heat up. For a bed of this size, maybe it should have been an AC heated bed? To me this machine was rushed to the market, and didn't have a proper QC process. Keep up the great work!
Hi, i did as in the video described and still no good mesh/first layer.
In my research i found out that i get unreliable probe values at the edges/corners of my bed.
My hypothesis is that the probe delivers unreliable values in that area, maybe the screws of the bed levelling nobs etc interfere with the inductive probe.
All my 'bad' values are about~0,4mm too high, therefore the ABL moves the nozzle too far up and i get no adhesion.
So far i resolved the issue by manually editing the mesh in the cfg file in klipper.
My untested suggestion: getting a ferrromagnetic metall sheet in the size of the bed between PEI Sheet and printer, so the probe delivers better values.
Maybe some here has something like this laying around and get try it out and report. It will take my a bit to get one.
Good luck, cheers!
I'll be honest, I bought this printer for the parts to convert eventually to a pellet printer. But super appreciate your video that I will likely use to do a baseline setup. That said, do you think it would be worth it or know the availability of a bed heater mod for this printer that would heat the bed more evenly and reduce or eliminate the warmup time?
I think the bed itself needs to be a thicker aluminum with better insulation. probably not worth spending the cash on it. I've been just living with the long preheat. The parts are quite good if you wait it out
Fantastic video!!! I was thinking about getting this as a third printer for larger props/cosplay. I'm not really looking for a printer that's going to take a while to "dial in", looking more for a "plug and play". Wondering if you would recommend this or perhaps something else.
I'd still get this one, just know what you're getting into and be ready to do the workaround
Thanks for posting this video, I'm very new to 3d printing! This is my 2nd Elegoo Printer I now have the 4 Pro and the 4max. I have not had very good luck with this 4 max so far, I have only been able to print 1 piece with it. I am hoping this video instruction will fix my problems.
Glad it was helpful!
Hey Dude I'm loving your content so far thank you so much I imported your profile and I can't say I am as fussed about finer details, I just want my prints to actually happen without one defect swiping everything else off like dominos for the stuff I'm doing right now.
So I skipped the 25 minutes delay, however these are the best results I've had so far with orca slicer, and one thing I noticed was that klipper is showing light on and off commands as unknown command have you managed to fix this to have it work on your printer with elegoo's firmware? I came from the neptune 4 pro and I am about to return it because I can't justify having 2 3d printers for my use, i can't figure out for the life of me why they didn't include rails for y and x when it only cost an extra 50 bucks on the n4 pro and the experience was night and day better on the n4 pro it seems you can't just upscale these printers and pump them out with half baked R & D.
Very cool review.
I have two of the Neptune 3 Max, and have thought about a 4 Max. Yet, I see a lot off issues with it that keeping from getting it. I'll probably just pickup another 3 Max.
Oh, I jump around on slicers with using Simplify3D, Cura, and Orca (though I'm still learning it) 😅
I have a 3 Max and a 4 Max and I definitely wish I had just bought a second 3 instead of the 4.
I've been using an Ender 3 for a few months. It works fairly well, but the size limitations are.... Well, limiting. I've been very tempted to pick up one of these.
Still undecided, but this helps.
THANKS FOR THE INFO! I am trying to use your shared profile in Orca but get an error when I try to export the gcode. It is looking for "the configured post processing script does not exist"
I see what its pointing to in the pps window, what does that script do?
If you cant return the
Printer, I would build an enclosure and add 10 degrees to your bed temperature. I build for me a craft paper box. My last autoleveling was 3 month ago when i added the box. But I would check the heatbed circuit too.
How do I add this starting GCODE to my project in orca slicer?
I've done the manual level after letting the bed heat as you stated but how do I change the default bed temp to something other than 60 degrees when I do the auto level? Thanks!
For a N4 Plus What differences would be needed on the Klipper and G Code?
I wonder if replacing the bed heater would help reduce start up time through more efficient heating.
THANK YOU FOR THIS!!!!!
you're welcome!
Great Video!!! Thanks!
Any idea how to integrate the 25 minute wait with KAMP? Ideally would like to run the KAMP program after the wait
I've had 0 problems out of the box with mine. I've got a 60 hour print on it now and I've done nothing but go through the configuration settings and hit print. I did relevel before this 60 hour print. Because it takes up the entire build area. But that's it. It's run great
Great job. I was looking for a big printer like this one, but I will definitely avoid it.
Damn... I picked up a Plus a few days ago, with the agreement that I could just return it if I felt like it. Now I feel like it :-)
This is very smart, i guess it will also effect other big printers and something we all should know that using big printers.
I wanted to post an update. I implemented your advice and I'm getting successful prints now, but I have discovered a new issue. Every time I start a new print, the z-offset changes. It seems like the previous Z-Offset is not being saved, and each successive print I have lower the z-offset further and further. In my first print, the offset was about -0.4mm, with the second print, exact same model, the z-offset is -1.1mm. Any ideas?
have you updated the firmware as well?
@@FunctionalPrintFriday yep
But if you implemented the start code changes, isn’t it running a bed mesh at the start of each print?
watching this video and using cura while your saying no one uses it.
i use cura and prusaslicer for a ender 3 v2. {marlin}
cura profile is great for supports and xy compensation .
prusaslicer tends to weld print in place functional parts.
Appreciate the reply. The comments section is proving to me that a lot more people are using Cura than I would have otherwise thought. I do find that the supports seem to work a lot better in Orca over prusaslicer, even with the same settings. Not sure why.
I have been having so many issues with my 4 Max, and id love to get your option on this! I have had issues with heat bed failure for weeks now. (I purchased the printer in dec 2023 and started her up on January 4) I’ve crack her and checked all of the wiring and plugs per elegoos rec and I’ve gone through the crazy process of updating the software and it’s still failing. It’ll hold heat for like ten minutes and then it’ll completely drop off. I’m not sure if it’s the fan or hardware at this point. It printed fine for five days and then it’s been heatbed failure ever since.
sounds like either the thermistor or an actual break in the heater circuit, which may be opening up as it heats. I would definitely just want it replaced.
Absolutely awesome video mate!!!... more people need to know this ....kinda pisses me off that so few youtubers have the technocal chops to do this level of depth.
Springs on beds for leveling are 2017 tech.....and 100% an absolute $h!t show!
I will NEVER buy another printer with a carriage being perpetually bent apart from the bed by stored spring forces. Anycubic historically shipped soft alloy carriages that exacerbated the disastrous results of springs. ALL printers that don't have heat treated hardened carriage frames that are thick and cast honed beds on bed slingers will suffer garbage unrepeatable bed leveling For-eh-vurrr!
Now to account for thermal expansion some different hard-mount bed mounts need experimentation to allow slight give or slipage....I'm waivering between nylon vs ASA vs ABS standoffs. I also have begin "soaking" all bed level tests and even my prints at bed temps of 65 or higher for a good 15 minutes. The fact this took almoat half an hour to settle the expansion is not surprising.
Tolerances stack over lengths so since my work is all functional mechanical and small, I'm leaning more towards an A1 mini with a .2 nozzle.
Im new to 3d printing and have a smaller unit ( Wanhao) now which has been working great, but want to make bigger parts and this is the unit I want to get. Im not really put off about the known issues as I can sort my way through it. I wonder if a thicker bed plate would stop most of the buckling or some supports.
I've noticed the same issue with the top layers on my Ender3 Pro that I just upgraded to use klipper. I've been having a hard time calibrating it. It could still be a different configuration issue, but I'm going to try this and see if it helps. Thanks!
Give it a shot, no harm in letting it heat soak. Try for 15 mins to start.
@@FunctionalPrintFriday That did it! I had to raise my z-offset as well, but letting the bed soak gave me better top layers.
@@vanillaike2304 awesome! Glad to hear it, and thanks for coming back to share results
Quick question, does that same starting gcode work with the N4Plus as well? I'm running into similar issues as well