I received my Zero today. It’s a little beast of a printer. I did the OTA firmware update.
The Sovol Zero website claims that it supports Windows and Mac. Linux is conspicuously missing. I usually don’t pay too much attention to that and it hasn’t been a problem. The USB thumb drive has no easy profile for the Linux version of OrcaSlicer. I tried creating a generic Klipper printer for the Zero as I’ve done with other printers. I sliced my own semi-fast Benchy but when I homed the printer and tried to print the Benchy that I sliced, it homed fine then carved a groove in the PEI build plate when it started to print, without ever trying to do an Eddy bed mesh. Fortunately I was hovering the mouse over the Emergency Stop button in Mainsail and it stopped immediately. There must be some magic in the start G Code or something else specific to the Mac or Windows OrcaSlicer configurations.
I got a very late start, it’s 3 AM and I’m not feeling well. I’ll try again tomorrow, but any suggestions are appreciated. Maybe someone could provide the OrcaSlicer start and end G code for the Zero?
Thank you @Lion! That was the secret sauce. My Zero now preheats the bed, homes the printer, preheats the nozzle, cleans the nozzle, cools the nozzle and does a full bed mesh before printing.
I tried printing a 20 minute Benchy that I sliced using my own made-up PLA profile. It peeled off the bed halfway through but the print quality looks very good. I look forward to importing the proper Zero profiles but I should now be able to use my filament profiles for TPU-LW to print the parts for my small business, including the custom end G code to auto eject the parts. That’s going to be so cool.
I almost missed the END_PRINT end G code because the Klipper default is PRINT_END, which superficially looks the same.
Initial Zero Impressions: It’s a hefty little speed demon. The speed and acceleration on the travel and infill moves is a bit scary and I’m far from the machine maximums. 500 mm/s for the external wall looks slow by comparison. I put the Zero on my sturdy desk and it’s shaking items off the top of the laser printer. I’ll use very relaxed slow speed and slow acceleration profiles for my TPU parts. The Zero’s stepper motors and fans are loud. It’s been a few years since I had a printer with loud stepper motors. I will probably see if there are any Noctua fans that I can use to quieten the Zero.
Get the current OrcaSlicer nightly build for version 2.3.1 from Releases · SoftFever/OrcaSlicer · GitHub until that version (or later) is officially released. There’s an AppImage and flatpaks for Linux available and those contain the Sovol Zero profiles unlike version 2.3.0.
As for replacing the fans, pay attention to the air flow values if you do end up going forward with replacements. Noctua fans have often lesser air flow that makes them more quiet but that may not be desirable in this application. Printing PETG also isn’t as noisy with the Zero as PLA due to the fans not needing to run at high rpm. Note that there’s a difference in the fan behaviour between firmwares 1.3.x and 1.4.x with the chassis fan being temperature controlled in the later and creating extra needless noise when printing with the door and lid open.
I regret that I have but one like to give this post, Vergo. Thank you very much. Not only was I able to install the Zero profile in the Linux version of OrcaSlicer along with all of its related filament profiles, I was also able to install the SV08 profiles. OrcaSlicer 2.3.1-dev apparently fixed the blank printer setup screen that happens in Linux with some Nvidia graphics cards so I didn’t need to run OrcaSlicer in Mesa mode to install everything, and as a double added bonus, the flatpak installed OrcaSlicer can be pinned to my desktop panel so I can click the icon to run it rather than double clicking the AppImage file in the file manager. I’m back where the Windows and Mac people are! Super easy! Barely an inconvenience!
I’d been checking for the latest OrcaSlicer hoping it would solve some of my problems but hadn’t checked today and the latest version dropped 10 hours before I downloaded it. Thanks again for the hot tip. I didn’t imagine 2.3.1-dev would solve ALL of my problems!
I’ve been printing and exploring the Zero for the past few hours. It’s the most precise printer I’ve ever had. I’ll almost always run the Zero much slower than its max speed. My production jobs are limited by the speed the TPU-LW filament can be printed. Coming from the SV08, I appreciate the perfect first layer.
Even though I seldom print high temperature filament, I’m going to design and 3D print magnetically attached thermal insulating panels for the inner walls of the Zero so the passively heated chamber will reach a higher temperature for ABS, ASA, etc. I’ll upload that project to Thingiverse and Printables.
I try to give back more than I take but so far, I’m running a deficit on the Sovol forum. I’ve gotten some very good help here and I’m very grateful.
