Mesh bed leveling fails, Z calibration loop, faulty PINDA?
Hi all.
I was printing more or less flawlessly for several months and suddenly, I cant go past mesh bed leveling. It always fails at some spot, forces Z calibration, passes Z calibration and starts over, until its done 3 times and fails ultimately.
I havent changed anything in my printer. Part of solving the problem was to lower PINDA (up to nozzle level) and rescrewed heatbed. Printer passes every calibration, self test is ok. Factrory reset helped for less than a day before problem reoccured.
Could it be faulty PINDA?
According to https://help.prusa3d.com/en/article/pinda-probe-testing_2091 , its ok. How do you even recognize faulty PINDA?
RE: Mesh bed leveling fails, Z calibration loop, faulty PINDA?
Hi, The PINDA is a fairly simple device. I believe it either works or not. It doesn't change over time. The magnets in the build plate do change. Magnets don't like heat. They loose strength over time especially in heat. If you put a really good magnet in an oven at 300 C for a couple hours, it will be completely demagnetized. My printer lost it's calibration and crashed. I used a feeler gauge to lower it less than the tie wrap method and after some playing around it's working again. This PINDA height seems to be very sensitive but the adjustment of the PINDA is not user friendly. The bracket that holds it is not very stable and is not designed for fine adjustment. It was aggravating but I finally got it in a spot it was happy. I think the best fix will be to replace the aluminum base giving you new magnets. Mine is working well again and many prints with no problem except for bed adhesion which is different issue. I think my flexible steel plate has seen better days. It's not easy to get the PINDA in the right spot but all the effort will pay off when you get it in the right spot. That terrible PINDA holder can move even after you tighten the screw so I could see this thing failing after it worked once. I do think the PINDA has to be closer as the magnets in the build plate age. If you get it to work with the PINDA closer you'll notice a larger Z adjustment during first layer calibration print. If you're only adjusting the Z to about .200 - .400mm during first layer, the PINDA is still to far up. If the Z adjustment is around .600 to .800, you should be OK. That's how you can tell how far you have the PINDA height set. That's from my observation. I hope I'm right. Anyway, mines working again for now. I think It's time I order a new aluminum build base and flexible steel sheet. Hope this helps.
RE: Mesh bed leveling fails, Z calibration loop, faulty PINDA?
Try oiling the bearing bars. That helped my calibration a lot. Sorry I forgot about that in my last post.