Piezo Sensor - its been in use for over a year

I have a pretty unique piezo sensor glued under the bed of my delta printer. It works just as well with any printer architecture. The sensor has no moving parts, doesn't need to be deployed or connected at need, and works with any bed. It has no levers, springs, extending probes, or any other extraneous paraphernalia. It needs only connection to a 7-35 VDC power source, and the controller Z axis pin (Z min probe). No servos or other monkeyshines are involved.

I've been using it for over a year now, and it's been discussed fairly heavily in the "TECH" section of this forum. I don't provide units or parts, but it's trivially easy to build for the technically inclined, and the details are here:
[www.thingiverse.com]

Becase it senses nozzle contact on the bed with no reliance on microswitches, optics, magnetics, or mechanical piezo deflection, it's repeatability and resolution are extremely good. A cat hair on the bed may cause a bed leveling failure, while an M48 repeatability test generally has a standard deviation of 0.000000mm.

Video here:
[www.youtube.com]

Because it's a single sensor under the bed, and doesn't rely on mechanical deflection of the piezo, there are no "dead spots" on the bed. It can detect a BB dropped four feet away, while ignoring motor movement vibration.

I hope someone finds this useful, but please give credit where it's due.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/23/2022 06:53PM by rq3.

Hi,

Have you tested that system with a movable bed?

I see your claim that it is not only for delta printers but it occurs to me that the acceleration of a moving bed could trigger it too.

Thanks,

misan

Quote
misan
Hi,

Have you tested that system with a movable bed?

I see your claim that it is not only for delta printers but it occurs to me that the acceleration of a moving bed could trigger it too.

Thanks,

misan

I have 3 printers, only one is a delta. The probe works fine on a moveable bed, with the sensitivity adjusted down a bit.

Thanks a lot for the info. It was implied but it is always good to know that it has been tested.