I am not having any problems, but am wondering when the Auto Z-Level should be checked? If I understand correctly, the SV04 will use this function to adjust the Z axis stepper motors so they are properly aligned relative to the current bed position. Is this correct?
When following the document - SV04 Bed Leveling Guide, the guide indicates to auto align the Z axis right after auto-home completes.
Since leveling the bed comes afterwards, what good would the auto-Z align do if the bed was out of level. It seems that the auto-Z align should come more toward the end of the leveling guide. It could be done after completing the left extruder or after finishing up with the right extruder.
There seems to be a misunderstanding: The ‘Auto Z-align’ button calls g-codes G28 X “home X-axis” and G34 “Z Steppers Auto-Alignment”. That alignment adjusts the Z-axis stepper motors current settings.
So, G34 = “Align multiple Z stepper motors using a bed probe by probing one position per stepper…”
Since the bed leveling guide indicates to run Auto-Z Align the steppers relative to the bed and I later move the bed to level it, wouldn’t the aligned Z steppers now be out of alignment?
Oh, that is an interesting one - it seems that Sovol left two implementations of G34 in their firmware. The one I had a look into seems to compare & adjust the current of both Z-motors, but there is an other one that is named “G34_M422.cpp”. Maybe I’ll have time to look into that source code in the weekend…
Edit: So, thinking about this for a day, it probably doesn’t mater when Z-Align is ran because even if the bed was initially slanted slightly, all that matters is that the extruder tip-to-bed distance is then measured, saved and observed as it prints. Am I just over-thinking this? As mentioned, the printer is working just fine.
I had a look in the source code of Sovol’s G34 implementation. It uses several probe measurements iot to calculate the Z-alignment. It would be a good idea to complete tramming before starting this ‘Auto Z-align’ procedure.
level the arm using the plastic parts that come with the printer. This left both z-axles in a near position.
do the tramming. First only adjust the opposite nut, don’t touch front left and only touch rear rght. Repeat tramming until you have a nice value.The repeat only touching front right and rear left nuts.
do the z-alignment
do the bed measure and store it
Now, include in your slicer this gCode at the begging and delete all the G28 lines because this disable the mesh leveling:
M413 S0 ;disable Marlin power off resume
M420 S1 ;load mesh leveling
G34 T0.01 ;level Z bridge with a precision of 0.01mm
I am wondering if the Auto Z-Align is available just the make sure the two Z axis motors are still in sync? If one motor lost a few steps somehow, the Auto Z-Align would correct this without re-leveling the bed-to-extruder tip relationship?
If using the plastic shims for initial setup and then run Auto Z-Align, that will affect the tramming. If you go through the tramming first, that will change the reference for Auto Z-Align. So, if the shim setup is close, running Auto Z-Align after tramming, would be best and the run Auto Z-Align periodically to ensure there were no lost steps that occurred during past prints.
Does this sound like the best-practice routine(s)?