Alternate auto bed leveling idea.

Hi All

I serched the forum but did not find this idea so let me know what you think of it.

im planning to create a new printer for myself so that i can print my didjeridoos in one go.
Since my printer will have 3 z spindels for the bed, (lower z, hotend on x&y) i had an idea for a simple auto bed leveling, without servos or probes.

The idea is quite simple:
Hook up each spindel to a own stepper driver. one left,right and the last on the back.
Then use 3 endstop and place them on the 2 front corners and one on the back. Calibrate the endstops.

Now the idea is that when one of the endstopps trigggers stop that spindel from turning, till all 3 endstops have triggerd and all spindels have stopped.
lower z and repeat till all 3 endstops trigger at the same time.

The bed is them perfectly plane to the endstops.
Cons: 3 controlled stepper drivers for Z (not caining them like with a megatronics)
will not work for the 2 spindel printers such as the prusa i3
pros: no extra hardware, no probes or servos. easy to understand

Since whenever i say that i print Didjeridoos a lot of questions start popping up i think a video says more than words, have a look at my latest one with 64 rgb leds. 3d Printed Dij

If youre an audio programmer from europe and would like to have one of my didjes or a Oversized Lamp (when my new printer is done), i need help with the fft from the mic! send me a pm.

Well thats it for now let me know what you think.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2014 06:13PM by technoshaman.

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TechnoShaman Didjeridoos www.ts-dij.com

Interesting idea but there is a flaw:

Is the bed is level relative to the end stops - yes

Are the end stops level relative to the XY axes - not necessarily!

You could have quite an angle in either the X or y axis and this system would never show it since there is no link between the two. That's the whole advantage of bed probing, it levels everything!

Putting a probe on your print head and levelling using 3 Z rods - this could be perfect and I don't think it is any more difficult than the 3 end stop system.