Steps/mm, extrusion problems, camera mount

Checked X/Y/Z Steps

Finally checked step accuracy and repeatability. All axes are repeatable within +/- 10 microns, often half that. Didn’t make any changes.

Switched to 3-point bed levelling

Removed the front-right corner screw from the bed to turn the printer into a completely 3-point system. A bonus of doing this (aside from better levelling) is that I can now use the free corner of the carriage to mount my Raspberry Pi camera. I am working on a compact camera mount for it now.

The downside of this conversion is that the free corner can flop around a bit because the levelling springs are now so far away. This problem could be addressed by printing a Z endstop lowering block so that I could load the springs as much as possible to give the bed extra stiffness, but the proper fix would be to drill a new levelling hole in the middle of the right side of the bed and carriage. The new anti-flex carriage has such a hole already so I’d have to drill the bed anyway, so it may as well be tomorrow.

Is ringing gone?

I printed a few tall PLA objects today and was surprised to find that the ringing wasn’t around anymore. Did unconstraining the bed help? Will need to do another ringing test print to confirm.

Bed-mounted RasPi camera

Now that the lower-left screw hole is free, I’ve been able to design a really nice bed-mounted camera holder for print monitoring and timelapses. The support arm has proper clearance, and I’m now working on designing the post and holder for the actual camera and its wide-angle lens.