Bed Leveling Probe - Liquid Cooled Hot End

Snyggis 0

Greetings,

I just read through the documentation on choosing a Z-probe, but am struggling to decide which one to purchase. Wondering if I could get some help.

My Setup:

Glass print bed
4 Z Axis lead screws
Liquid cooled hotend from slice:
https://www.bondtech.se/product/mosquito-magnum-plus-liquid-cooled-285mm-hotend/

I have a very large gantry, 1,300mm print bed and certainly think a probe will be necessary. It looks like most fit directly onto the hot end. I dont understand the mounting particularly well, wondering if it would work with this liquid cooled head? Would anyone be able to give me a suggestion for a probe for this?

A second question about axis homing switches. Would I be able to forgo them on the Z axis altogether as long as I have a decent touch probe?

Thanks!

Scott

droftarts

@Snyggis-0 Most probes fit on the X carriage, rather than to the hot end. There are probes that use the nozzle itself as the probe, and the contact of the nozzle with the bed is sensed with something like peizo sensor, or the nozzle is mounted on a kinematic mount that disconnects, or a load cell that supports the nozzle. These would probably require a redesign of the carriage to implement.

Probes are more commonly mounted alongside the hot end, in whatever space that is available, and usually need a mount on the carriage to attach to. The firmware takes care of any offset of the probe from the hotend. Then it's what works best for you in the space available. The choice is generally between non-contact and contact probes. For non-contact, and as you're using a glass bed, inductive probes won't work. IR probes are usually quite small and accurate, but require a matt black surface behind the glass (I use one, with a piece of matt black paper behind the glass). Capacitive probes tend to be bulky and have low precision. Contact probes like the BLTouch and similar are a good option as they work on all surfaces and have good precicsion, and there also the option of dockable microswitch-type probes like the Klicky and Euclid probes.

I'd probably say you can't go too wrong with a BLTouch, but others may disagree!

Ian

Snyggis 0

@droftarts

Thanks Ian! I will give it a try! Is the general idea to get rid of the z switches, as this is now done with the touch probe?

Scott

droftarts

@Snyggis-0 said in Bed Leveling Probe - Liquid Cooled Hot End:

Is the general idea to get rid of the z switches, as this is now done with the touch probe?

Not especially, it's just that probes can measure at any point on the bed, are very accurate and repeatable, and can be used for bed levelling and creating the bed mesh.

The best use for endstops on Z, I think, is to have them at the maximum end. If you lose power during a print, and want to resume, but the Z has moved, you can home Z to the maximum end (so the nozzle doesn't hit the print if you try and use the probe to home), and then resume the print.

Ian