XYZ Calibration failed. Please consult the manual.
Dear PRUSA and fellow members,
Hello! After my 14 year old son spent several weekends building the Prusa i3 MK2S kit, he was unable to get the printer to calibrate. We get the "XYZ calibration failed. Please consult the manual."
Well, as the father, I took over the building project and spent over 10 hours trying to figure out what went wrong with the build, but cannot seem to find the problem. What I have is several questions.
Here they are:
1. Why can't the printer give more information on the failed calibration, like, cannot find calibration point 1 or 2 or 3 or 4?
2. Step 3 on assembling the Y-axis rods(p.3 manual) mentions to keep 100mm distance between a washer and Y-axis corner. Ok. But later on, in 3D Printing Handbook, I made adjustments to the M10 nuts according to step 6.3.5.1 Y-Axis Alignment. This ended up changing the 100mm distance to 99mm. Is this a problem for XYZ calibration later on?
3. The printer always passed the Selftest. The printer also passed the PINDA probe height test for the 4 initial calibration points (that is, lowered the PINDA until a sheet of paper does not catch the printhead in any of the 4 points). What I did observe was that a zip-tie was a loose fit (under the PINDA) on the front left of the bed, zip-tie was just right (under the PINDA) on the front middle of the bed, and zip-tie was very tight (under the PINDA) on the front right of the bed. This is probably less than 1mm of height difference from the left to the right side of the bed. Is this a problem for the XYZ calibration? If yes, how to adjust the bed heights or the z-axis motors to compensate for this height difference?
4. Using a caliper, I measured the bed height to the floor (level ground). I pushed the bed to the back of the printer (away from the control panel) and got the following heights (bed top to floor): back left 70.3mm, back right 70mm, front left 70mm, front right 69mm. Then I moved the bed to the front of the printer (near the control panel) and got the following heights (same bed top to floor): back left 70.2mm, back right 69mm, front left 70.6mm, front right 70mm. Should these small differences in bed height (compared to ground floor) affect the XYZ calibration? If yes, how to adjust the bed heights in each of the four corners?
5. In step 12 Placing the Z-axis Top Parts, both LeadScrews in the upper part of the printer shouldn't touch the edges of the printed parts. In my case, the left LeadScrew is dead-center of the plastic part, but the right LeadScrew is closer to the edge of the plastic part but still not touching the edge. Does this affect the XYZ Calibration? If so, how to re-center the LeadScrew?
6. If the right LeadScrew pops out at the top of the plastic part by maybe 1mm, does this affect the XYZ Calibration?
Maybe the best question to ask you guys is: When you get the message "XYZ calibration failed. Please consult the manual.", what would be the next 10 things I should verify before running another test?
Thank you!
Dwight
Re: XYZ Calibration failed. Please consult the manual.
It sounds like your PINDA probe is too high.
Please try the steps found here, and let us know what you find.
If that does not help, please comment back here and we can see what we can figure out.
Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage or loss. If you solve your problem, please post the solution…
Re: XYZ Calibration failed. Please consult the manual.
Dear PRUSA and fellow members,
Hello! After my 14 year old son spent several weekends building the Prusa i3 MK2S kit, he was unable to get the printer to calibrate. We get the "XYZ calibration failed. Please consult the manual."
Well, as the father, I took over the building project and spent over 10 hours trying to figure out what went wrong with the build, but cannot seem to find the problem. What I have is several questions.
Here they are:
1. Why can't the printer give more information on the failed calibration, like, cannot find calibration point 1 or 2 or 3 or 4?
2. Step 3 on assembling the Y-axis rods(p.3 manual) mentions to keep 100mm distance between a washer and Y-axis corner. Ok. But later on, in 3D Printing Handbook, I made adjustments to the M10 nuts according to step 6.3.5.1 Y-Axis Alignment. This ended up changing the 100mm distance to 99mm. Is this a problem for XYZ calibration later on?
3. The printer always passed the Selftest. The printer also passed the PINDA probe height test for the 4 initial calibration points (that is, lowered the PINDA until a sheet of paper does not catch the printhead in any of the 4 points). What I did observe was that a zip-tie was a loose fit (under the PINDA) on the front left of the bed, zip-tie was just right (under the PINDA) on the front middle of the bed, and zip-tie was very tight (under the PINDA) on the front right of the bed. This is probably less than 1mm of height difference from the left to the right side of the bed. Is this a problem for the XYZ calibration? If yes, how to adjust the bed heights or the z-axis motors to compensate for this height difference?
4. Using a caliper, I measured the bed height to the floor (level ground). I pushed the bed to the back of the printer (away from the control panel) and got the following heights (bed top to floor): back left 70.3mm, back right 70mm, front left 70mm, front right 69mm. Then I moved the bed to the front of the printer (near the control panel) and got the following heights (same bed top to floor): back left 70.2mm, back right 69mm, front left 70.6mm, front right 70mm. Should these small differences in bed height (compared to ground floor) affect the XYZ calibration? If yes, how to adjust the bed heights in each of the four corners?
5. In step 12 Placing the Z-axis Top Parts, both LeadScrews in the upper part of the printer shouldn't touch the edges of the printed parts. In my case, the left LeadScrew is dead-center of the plastic part, but the right LeadScrew is closer to the edge of the plastic part but still not touching the edge. Does this affect the XYZ Calibration? If so, how to re-center the LeadScrew?
6. If the right LeadScrew pops out at the top of the plastic part by maybe 1mm, does this affect the XYZ Calibration?
Maybe the best question to ask you guys is: When you get the message "XYZ calibration failed. Please consult the manual.", what would be the next 10 things I should verify before running another test?
Thank you!
Dwight
1) Watching the printer during the calibration should tell you where it is failing.
2) Should be ok.
3) PINDA is too high. Height difference can be calibrated out using "Bed Leveling Calibration" Search forum for details.
4) Bed Level Calibration. See #3)
5) Should not affect calibration. Can be fixed by loosening the stepper and recentering, but should not be a big problem.
6) Should not affect calibration.
See these steps.
If that does not help, please comment back here and we can see what we can figure out.
Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage or loss. If you solve your problem, please post the solution…
Re: XYZ Calibration failed. Please consult the manual.
It sounds like your PINDA probe is too high.
Please try the steps found here, and let us know what you find.
If that does not help, please comment back here and we can see what we can figure out.
Hey Aaron, thanks for the prompt reply!
I did read the above link during my 10 hour ordeal...the problem with setting the PINDA one more notch down (towards the bed) is that the printhead starts touching the sheet of paper when it starts looking for the calibration point on the right side of the bed (where the zip-tie was tighter between the bed and the PINDA). According to the manual, if the printhead starts touching the paper (and moving it on the bed), move the PINDA up.
Also, a credit card here is about 0.8mm in thickness, while the zip-tie used to calibrate the initial height of the PINDA was around 0.6mm. Again, using the zip-tie to calibrate, I had differing heights between the PINDA and the bed, going from left to right on the bed.
Thanks!
Dwight
Re: XYZ Calibration failed. Please consult the manual.
1) Watching the printer during the calibration should tell you where it is failing.
2) Should be ok.
3) PINDA is too high. Height difference can be calibrated out using "Bed Leveling Calibration" Search forum for details.
4) Bed Level Calibration. See #3)
5) Should not affect calibration. Can be fixed by loosening the stepper and recentering, but should not be a big problem.
6) Should not affect calibration.
See these steps.
If that does not help, please comment back here and we can see what we can figure out.
Aaron, thanks again for your help!
1. The printer just keeps going left-right while moving forward-backwards in four different locations. Didn't really notice a difference in movement in each location. What exactly should I look for, in terms of erratic movement?
2. Great to know!
3. See previous post of mine.
4. Hmmmm, good to know that there is nothing to be done in terms of bed height adjustment, since I didn't see anywhere in the manual where you can adjust bed height.
5. Great to know!
6. Great to know!
So my focus goes back to PINDA only...question: does the SelfTest test for PINDA working condition? That is, how does one know if the PINDA is doing its job?
Thanks!
Dwight
Re: XYZ Calibration failed. Please consult the manual.
You should try to shim the bed to be more level than that. Ideally, you can do this by adjusting where the X-Z gantry attaches to the Y bed parts.
The X-Z Gantry should not touch the ground, but be suspended up. You can loosen the bolts that hold it in place, and get it more square. 1mm is too much of a difference.
Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage or loss. If you solve your problem, please post the solution…
Re: XYZ Calibration failed. Please consult the manual.
You should try to shim the bed to be more level than that. Ideally, you can do this by adjusting where the X-Z gantry attaches to the Y bed parts.
The X-Z Gantry should not touch the ground, but be suspended up. You can loosen the bolts that hold it in place, and get it more square. 1mm is too much of a difference.
Hi Aaron and others!
I'm going to work on shimming the bed to be more level sometime today. I now understand that 1mm is too much of a difference from one side to the other.
On another note, I still have doubts on how much XY difference can one have. Please see attached photos on XY differences on the front of the bed and on the back of the bed. I used a simple A4 white sheet of paper across the Z frame to compare with the lines on the bed. Thanks for comments!
Re: XYZ Calibration failed. Please consult the manual.
The XYZ calibration, once successful, will tell you if that is too much misalignment, but from the pix, it looks okay to me.
Measurements to the floor are not very useful. What you want to measure is the distance from the nozzle to the bed at different positions.
Any advices given are offered in good faith. It is your responsibility to ensure that by following my advice you do not suffer or cause injury, damage or loss. If you solve your problem, please post the solution…
Re: XYZ Calibration failed. Please consult the manual.
The XYZ calibration, once successful, will tell you if that is too much misalignment, but from the pix, it looks okay to me.
Measurements to the floor are not very useful. What you want to measure is the distance from the nozzle to the bed at different positions.
Hey Aaron,
Thanks for helping out again! Since the pic looked okay to you I went hunting for the problem elsewhere. I started looking into the steppermotor/belt/pulley system for X and Y axis....and guess what!?
The pulley attached to the X-axis steppermotor was not exactly screwed on tight, so it was slipping (ever so slightly) during the calibration process.
https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-wwS6dD/i-8mbMngf
Once I re-attached the pulley to the X-axis steppermotor and ran the XYZ calibration process, I got the greatest news ever:
https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-wwS6dD/i-LBXhFtf
Hope this helps others....I spent two Saturdays and a total of 17 hours to figure this out!
Re: XYZ Calibration failed. Please consult the manual.
This is the exact same problem i was having. as soon as I read that the x-axis gear was loose, I looked at mine and saw the exact same thing. I believe there must be a step in the manual that has to do with the belt adjustment that never goes back to tightening the pulley. I will have to check that out. running xyz Cal again right now.....
point #1 good
point #2 good
point #3 good
point #4....
OMG it works!!!!!
RE: XYZ Calibration failed. Please consult the manual.
Awesome! Thanks so much - I had the same issue and it's now fixed.
RE: XYZ Calibration failed. Please consult the manual.
When attaching gear pulleys, the trick is the tighten order ... do it any other way and they will come loose.
Flat First: Drive gears must be tightened flat-first.
1) Start with both set screws fully loosened so the pulley is free to spin on the motor shaft.
2) Align one set screw dead center with the flat on the motor shaft, slowly tighten the screw until it fully contacts the flat surface.
3) Torque the flat set screw to spec.
4) Now tighten the jam set screw, and torque it to spec.
Once tightened, never touch the flat set screw unless the jam screw is first fully loosened.
Why Flat First? Set screws have flat ends. If you tighten the jam screw first the set screw on the shaft flat doesn't fully contact the shaft, only one small edge of the screw surface is biting on. Reversing torques can easily shift the shaft to a position the flat screw no longer contacts the shaft. This lets the jam screw wriggle loose. And after a while, vibration loosens the screws until the gear is free to rotate.
RE: XYZ Calibration failed. Please consult the manual.
@dkbann
Eager to check out your link to the before-you-ask troubleshooting video, but the link posted leads to the index page of the Czech language PRUSAPRINTERS FORUM.
Kindly update?