Bed Leveller (3D Printer Assistant)

So you have written that new, must have program. Let us see it here.
PartierSP
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Re: Bed Leveller (3D Printer Assistant)

Post by PartierSP »

cogier wrote: Thursday 9th December 2021 1:18pm In my experience, a Splitter only wants 2 'top level' items to deal with. So I have put the 'Buttons' and the bottom panel in another VBox container so that the Splitter only has to deal with the 2. You need to use AutoResize OR Expand but not both. You can set the position of the split in Splitter with the Layout command, see line 37. vsMain.Layout = [40, 60] = 40% for the top and 60% for the bottom. You can set up a setting to save this array value if you want.

Bed-Leveller-beta-1.3.tar.gz
Ah, that worked out nicely. I guess I got to do some more research into the use of AutoResize and Expand. I got to figure out when to use each.
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stevedee
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Re: Bed Leveller (3D Printer Assistant)

Post by stevedee »

PartierSP wrote: Friday 10th December 2021 10:16am ...It was then I found out I should have been telling the printer to position its self the paper thickness above the bed and then level it. And that's what started this project. So in reality any shim with a known thickness will work. For that matter, even a decent quality drill shank could possibly be used.
So I may indeed be getting it wrong. Are you saying that after you have finished leveling, when you 'home' the printer, the nozzle just touches the bed?
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Re: Bed Leveller (3D Printer Assistant)

Post by PartierSP »

Yes. But since the first pass on a printer is always at a non zero height, the program is expecting to have that gap as your first pass, nothing more. And this makes sense compared to traditional CNC programming/machining practices in general (Z zero is usually top or bottom of the part, generally not somewhere in between).

So essentially your first pass wont have enough plastic resulting the expected pressure against the bed and/or each pass on the first layer will be spaced out too much not getting enough pressure against each other. Now the shim you're using is a very thin one so I don't expect you'll notice too much. Its just you're not at the 'theoretically perfect'. And if you use glue on your bed you may be easily making up for this extra gap and some. But one thing I've learned with automated equipment, if it works for you, then it works for you. ;)

I have heard of people getting so called 'elephant's foot' error on their prints. This is where the first layer (or first few layers) bulge out at the bed. I'm not sure if this is a sign of the nozzle being set too low on the first pass, or a temperature issue, or what. But its something to look out for if you try new techniques.
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stevedee
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Re: Bed Leveller (3D Printer Assistant)

Post by stevedee »

Hi Mike, can we continue this chat in the Lounge?...viewtopic.php?f=9&t=1240&p=5238#p5238
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Re: Bed Leveller (3D Printer Assistant)

Post by PartierSP »

This project is coming along. Here are some of the updates I've done since last beta.
  • I nearly have my clean function ready to enable. My printer has been busy all day so I haven't had a chance to prove out that code yet. So I've kept that section REM'd out for now.
  • I've forced a minimal size for fMain. It grows automatically if set too small. ;)
  • The fSettings is now rearranged to include tabbed sections.
  • If fSettings is sized too small, scroll bars appear as required within each tab. But not quit right yet, see below.
  • Numerous small tweaks here and there.
So the problem I've been having with the fSettings form are the text boxes and spin boxes combined with the scroll bars. When any of these items scroll off of the tab, they appear over everything else on the form (see attached pics). :cry:

I was thinking it was a layering issue and tried the 'Send to Background' and 'Bring to Forground' buttons on the various controls but to no avail. Then I realized the Combo boxes and Text boxes were working as expected. So now I'm left wondering if this is a Gambas bug? Some sort of bug with my window manager? Or is there a setting I'm just missing. Any help would be much appreciated.
Attachments
Bed-Leveller-beta.zip
(21.23 KiB) Downloaded 278 times
Scrolling issue example 2
Scrolling issue example 2
Settings2.png (34.07 KiB) Viewed 7674 times
Scrolling issue example 1
Scrolling issue example 1
Settings1.png (36.82 KiB) Viewed 7674 times
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Re: Bed Leveller (3D Printer Assistant)

Post by PartierSP »

For anyone in the future who comes across the above error. I fixed it by upgrading to the latest version of Gambas. See Scrollview Display Error thread.
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Re: Bed Leveller (3D Printer Assistant)

Post by PartierSP »

Released version 2.0.4.

This new release now:
  • Controls and monitors the printer's bed and hot end temperatures.
  • Supports extruder retraction.
  • Has many suggestions Steve offered within it.
  • Improved form resizing.
  • First time run check.
  • Other minor bug fixes/tweaks.
I've updated the first post of this thread to attach the latest version as well.
Last edited by PartierSP on Wednesday 29th December 2021 6:15am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Bed Leveller (3D Printer Assistant)

Post by PartierSP »

I'll be interested to see if the temperature monitoring works for you Steve. I am rather surprised at the 'mess' of a response my printer gives me. So I'm not too confident that this will work with very many printers.

For some reason when I turn on temperature reporting, I get information send back to me doubled up. Yet when Cura starts up reporting its nice and clean. I'm going to have to see if I can sniff the communications and see what its doing differently.
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stevedee
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Re: Bed Leveller (3D Printer Assistant)

Post by stevedee »

PartierSP wrote: Tuesday 28th December 2021 7:33am Released version 2.0.4....
I've downloaded this version and will check it out when time permits
...I've updated the first post of this thread to attach the latest version as well.
I would recommend that you keep updating/replacing the zip in the first post and add a new post just to give update information only (i.e. don't post twice).
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stevedee
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Re: Bed Leveller (3D Printer Assistant)

Post by stevedee »

OK Mike, I've looked at your code but it wont run with my printer because I don't have the stuttering serial link problem that you clearly have.

Instead of getting doubled-up characters for temperature, I just get this with my code:-
3DbedLevelComms.png
3DbedLevelComms.png (32.92 KiB) Viewed 7428 times
So I think you need to track down this comms problem first, before proceeding.
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