Hello, Printrbot & co.
I've been tasked with making a user's guide for students at a local HS. they have two Metal Plus printers. I'm hoping you can answer a few questions and take note of my experience so far. I have built at least one of every generation of Prusa printer, up to the MK2S.
Right away, I was surprised that finding information on the metal plus is very hard on your site - the model no longer appears in your top level menus, and only comes up in a few google searches.
I downloaded Cura 15.04.2 and installed without issue.
the printrbot firmware page was very confusing. I tried to click the image of the app thinking it was the app because I'm stupid. Then I tried top click the download link and was offered the Mac version. I'm on Windows, so... I'm sorry, this needs work to be more me-proof.
The Cura app has a bed leveling routine that doesn't appear to be made for the metal plus. It drives the nozzle down to all four corners with total disregard for the inductive probe. In the right hand corners the probe is not over the bed so it serves no use! Adjusting the inductive probe closer to the bed and re-running does not bring the nozzle up to prevent contact with the bed.
The message on screen in the Cura leveling wizard says to adjust the screws on each corner of the bed... which would make sense if this were a spring loaded system from 2014. As this is an all aluminum chassis with no flex, I'm not sure what to do here. The NEMA17 motors for the Z axis are locked at this stage, so I cannot easily adjust the z height to confirm level movement across the bed. There is no live-z adjust as in the Prusa MK2S
The Cura leveling wizard has buttons for Up and Down that appear to drive in the opposite direction - clicking up brings the nozzle closer to the bed. Is this intended?
By default the printer moves to the center of the bed, approximately 1500s microns above the bed. After adjusting (in 200 micro level steps!) to a short height above the b
Please: At what baud rate is this printer running? I tried to connect to it with Arduino and received no response at any baud rate. Which is atypical! I also see that Pronterface and Cura both seem to be actively hiding the connection settings.
Please: What method do you recommend to adjust the nozzle height relative to the bed? My first layer is obviously too high and the print does not stick to the bed.
PS: posting a link to printrbot's main website gets me "Your post looks too spamy for a new user, please remove off-site URLs." lol wut?