Upgrade a complete failure. Hire someone to do it for me?  

Re: Upgrade a complete failure. Hire someone to do it for me?

I am in the UK, sothat's a bit far...

you might be able to attend a 'Hack Space' or Maker space and get some help!

https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/Hive_76
https://nextfab.com/make-moves/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIlt7ij_e74QIVmKztCh0UrgOPEAAYASAAEgJkk_D_BwE

regards Joan

Re: Upgrade a complete failure. Hire someone to do it for me?

I tried upgrading to the 2.5, however no matter what I do the Z calibration will not work. The print head won't lower enough and so it just prints plastic into the air. The whole reason I decided to get the 2.5 was for better print adhesion. Now it's been months and I can't print anything! I'm at my wits' end. I never signed up to be a technician. I just want to print.

Is it "far" up in the air? Assuming here this is all new for you (hope that's okay):

If everything is assembled correctly, this is usually a problem with the height difference of the PINDA vs the nozzle or/and possible a wrongly set "Z"
If you manually lower the X-axis until the nozzle touches the buildplate (lightly), the pinda should be about the height of a zip-tie higher (I'd say about a mm - so 0.04in)
If it's lower than that (say the same height), it will force your Z=0 point up. You'll need to raise the PINDA.
After that you'll need to make sure the Z value is correctly set (usually via a First Layer Calibration)
The Z value indicates how far the buildplate is from the pinda down. So it will be a negative value.
Both things kind of work together, every time you change the height of your pinda, you'll have to make sure that Z value is also updated.

Hope that helps

Re: Upgrade a complete failure. Hire someone to do it for me?

That's really helpful information, thank you! How does one change the Z-value?

Re: Upgrade a complete failure. Hire someone to do it for me?

How the nozzle "finds" the bed to print on is based on 2 things: The mount height of your pinda probe (that's something you do during assembly) and the "z-value" which is the value you adjust with either the 'first layer calibration'-program in the printers' calibration menu or during a regular print with the "live adjust z" function.

The pinda probe detects the reference points that are distributed in the heatbed.
It always stays a fixed distance above them when it homes.
That is why lowering the pinda will result in a higher default nozzle position (the pinda is closer to the heatbed, so the extruder needs to go up to maintain that fixed distance).
And the opposite for a higher pinda (the nozzle will drop because the extruder has to go lower to get to that distance).

By convention, the height difference between the bottom of the nozzle and the the bottom of the pinda should not exceed 2mm (2000 Z).
This is why the manual usually speaks about lowering the nozzle to the bed and then setting the pinda height by putting a zip tie underneath it (about a mm high).

With the above mentioned calibration or live modification you tell the printer how much more it should drop the extruder after reaching that distance to reach the bed with the nozzle.

You can read more about this first layer calibration here (it also has a YT video)

Re: Upgrade a complete failure. Hire someone to do it for me?

Thank you! That was massively helpful. I lowered the print head and finally got adhesion!

Although now my filament is not feeding properly. Something is getting stuck. The feeder is turning and just spinning around itself.

Two steps forward, one step back...