BDsensor is a high resolution inductive Bed Distance Sensor, it can measure the distance from bed to nozzle with distance resolution 0.01mm. there is now no distance sensor used on the 3D printer for it's high price with this high resoluion for example IWFK20Z8704,all the bed level sensor used now on 3D printer is proximity switch e.g. the BLTouch.
-
with this sensor the printer can adjust the z axis in real time if the bed plate is not flat in every point,also no need to do probe points before every print.not only the plate not flat itself but also the high and uneven temperature will also cause the plate to expand and contract.
-
you can do mesh bed leveling like normal proximity sensor but much faster with this sensor, because it's no z axis down and up at every probe point.so you can do more probe points in short time.
| features | . | |
|---|---|---|
| Distance resolution | 0.01mm | |
| Operating Range | 5mm | |
| Repeatability | +/- 0.005mm | |
| Communication port | I2C | |
| Support bed plate | metal plate | |
| Connection | only 4 wires: GND,5V,I2C_Data,I2C_Clk | |
| Support main board | any board which have 2 free gpio connector |
This is a new Sensor, so now only support Marlin firmware,we just have pulled the code to Marlin: MarlinFirmware/Marlin#24303
Enable this features by #define BD_SENSOR 1 in the Configuration.h , enable #define BABYSTEPPING in the Configuration_adv.h and add lib_deps = markyue/Panda_SoftMasterI2C in the ini file,and also do not forget to configure the pins for example:
#define I2C_BD_SDA_PIN PC6
#define I2C_BD_SCL_PIN PB2
#define I2C_BD_DELAY 10
Firmware for PandaPi (run marlin on raspberry pi) , PandaPi standalone mode (run marlin on stm32), PandaZHU/M4 (ESP32 marlin),
This BDsensor detect the distance between bed plate and nozzle in real time and use babystep function in marlin to adjust z height.
Any board which have 2 free gpio would work, now we have tested it on the stm32 and esp32 based board.
Why calibrate?
we need to calibrate this sensor before first use or the bed plate have been changed to different materials, Because different metal plates may have different electromagnetic properties. normally this process will take about within one minute in 3D printer .
Calibrate steps:
1)Move the Nozzle down until it just touch the bed plate(as the 0 distance).
2)Power on the printer, Send gcode M102 S-6,then it will move the z axis slowing up 7mm to calibrate itself until it stop.
we can easily enable or disable this auto level by sending gcode command or and adding gcode in the gcode file.
To enable bed leveling in Cura, add the M102 G-Code right below the G28 (Home All Axes) G-code in the Start G-code section of your printer’s Machine Settings.
For example M102 S2 below the G28 , that means it will only do bed leveling below 0.2mm of Z axis height.
Send M102 S0orG28or M18 will disable bedlevel with BDsensor,BTW,this is disabled by default.
//M102 S-5 Read raw Calibrate data
//M102 S-6 Start Calibrate
//M102 S4 Set the adjustable Z height value,e.g. M102 S4 means it will do adjusting while the Z height <=0.4mm , disable it by M102 S0.
//M102 S-1 Read sensor information
Here is the data diagram of this sensor, we can see that the distance resolution can be 0.005 to 0.01mm below the 5mm.
Test video:
Project status:https://hackaday.io/project/185096-0006mm-distance-resolution-sensor-for-3d-printer
Store: www.pandapi3d.com