I'm new to the hobby and this is my first printer, i was very frustrated going through everything trying to get better results and basically came around to the same solution you showed here, just not as efficiently, i was just manually heating my bed setting a 15 timer and then coming back and doing bed leveling before starting each print. it was really cool to see actually evidence of what what i thought was happening and hear someone that actually knows what they are talking about explain it.

@stevenbjerke2825

5 ай бұрын

Yeah 3D printing right now can be a pain. It is a long learning process.

@oktaymercan

24 күн бұрын

Would you recommend it for a beginner? Also, what is its current status, have the mentioned issues been resolved? this probbly be my first 3d printer but first ı want to ask.

Thankyou soo much I modified for Cura based on your G-Code.This was an awesome find. Nice Work. ;ELEGOO NEPTUNE 4 MAX M220 S100 ;Set the feed speed to 100% M221 S100 ;Set the flow rate to 100% M104 S140 ;set nozzle to 140C, but don't wait for it M190 S{material_bed_temperature_layer_0} ;set bed temp and wait for it G4 P1500000; wait 25 minutes for the bed temp to stabilize further G29 ;auto bed-leveling G90 ;absolute positioning G1 Z10 F300 G1 X1.5 Y10 F6000 G1 Z0 F300 M109 S{material_print_temperature_layer_0} G92 E0 ;Reset Extruder G1 X1.5 Y10 Z0.4 F300 ;Move to purge start position G1 Y110 E30 F400 ;Draw purge line G1 Z0.6 F120.0 ;Move up a little G1 Y105 F3000 G92 E0 ;Reset Extruder

@FunctionalPrintFriday

6 ай бұрын

thanks for your comment, and thanks for sharing your modified version for Cura

@danwalters6613

3 ай бұрын

I compared the G-code of the orca listed to your Cura version. I do not see anything different between the 2. Am I missing something?

@aw111986

2 ай бұрын

So do I just wipe out the code? And put this? How do I?

@zeemz0554

Ай бұрын

@@aw111986 I agree, need a quick step by step where to insert or copy the code for newbies

I ordered this printer yesterday and it will arrive tomorrow. Although it is going to need a lot of modifications, I'm NOT disappointed in my choice. I am glad that you have pointed out these issues AND the fixes so that I can address them. It is intended to be my only 3D printer and so I didn't want to run into size constraints for some of my projects. Thank you for this information.

@kbranchjr

2 ай бұрын

how it's going? I got mines on monday.

@Keithsciguy

Ай бұрын

You guys having any luck. I got mine last week and if I print basic geometry I'm fine but anything fancy I'm fucked. Print in place collapsible sword became a giant fused paper weight. Tried breaking it up into pieces and printing them together but the supports on the blade are stronger than the blade. I'm using their slicer provided.

Thank you so much, this starting GCODE has made this printer usable to me again. My first print was flawless and then I had nothing but problems. Now using your Gcode, I am able to print again. It's not perfect on the extreme edges of the plate, but its usable!

I'd come to the same conclusion, but my bed also has enough distortions that a 9x9 grid doesn't capture enough detail for good part adhesion. My solution has been to install KAMP and use the adaptive bed mesh, which only probes the parts of the bed that will be printed on, then I turned *up* the mesh density to 25x25. If the print area is smaller than the full bed, it only goes to those points on a 25x25 that fall inside the area. For temperature, I just pre-heat and let the printer sit for half an hour or so. But wow did I go through some machinist-related contortions to come to that conclusion, as you did!

@user-rt2dr8mt9z

Ай бұрын

Hi! How did you do that? Klipper is only 9+ on neptune 4, [exclude_object] is only on 10+. I struggle to install it myself now

Very nice, Thank you, I really enjoy my 4 max, I see it's quirks as a challenge, when I finally got it tuned up, it does really good, what you have discovered explains some of my issues

i bought this as my first 3d printer about a month ago and its been amazing

@Muffnsausn

5 ай бұрын

Same here, first on Neptune 3 Pro, second one Neptune 4 Max

@dexterousx92

5 ай бұрын

*Im thinking about buying this as my second 3d printer coming from a ender 3 v2. Im looking for an upgrade thats bigger and faster. Its good to hear you had great luck with it being your first printer!*

I'm using my 4 Max now, and printint like a charm, 250 mms without any issues. Using Orca Slicer, latest firmware !

Saw this video today. Just got my 4 Max last week. All the issues you mentioned seem to be fixed. Dont care for the 120 point level but I am enjoying this gal. Shes got a huge ass, but she is rocking away

Yes, the time before the print is definetly important. I mentioned this when i moved my Printer in the basement before i got an enclosure. Before, I had just under 21-23°C (69.8-73.4°F) in the apartment. The temperature in the cellar is 15-18°C (59-64.4°F). The prints immediately became worse until I accidentally left the printer on for a while and the print bed probably settled during that time. Since I got a case, the prints have been significantly better overall.

As a someone looking at getting into the 3D printing hobby, I'm so interested in this machine because of its build volume. But the issues with the firmware(s), the proprietary slicer, lack of support for mainstream slicers, and all of the other problems just means it's not an option, which is pretty disappointing. This machine has a great price point, but I'd frankly pay twice that if Elegoo would join us here in 2024 and provide a UX comparable to something like the X1C. I'm not interested in screwing around with and constantly having to fix a printer. I just want it to print what I want, when I want, and do a good job of it. Really hope Elegoo listens to all of the reviews of this machine and comes out with something better. I would still love to have a printer with this build volume, but this is just too much headache.

Very helpful for any 4 Plus/Max user. I figured it out myself that bed thermal expansion plays a big role in inconsistent prints and manually heat up the bed 15 minutes before print (enough for Plus which is identical to Max only slightly smaller). For manual bed leveling I recommend Bed Leveler 5000 which is really helpful in microadjusting the bed position before I run auto bed leveling (all with bed preheated for at least 15 minutes)

@christopherperry9242

6 ай бұрын

Do you still run the mesh level before each print, or did you do it once after letting the bed sit hot for a while and then just add the pause before each print?

@rafalg2113

6 ай бұрын

@@christopherperry9242 No. I don't run bed levelling before each print. Just in case I remesh the bed once a week, but once the bed warms up it doesn't really change between the prints (it changes while it warms up). When it comes to pausing I haven't yet added the gcode shown in the video. I just turn on the printer set the temperature (nozzle 140C, bed 60C) manually either from display or Klipper and wait 15-30 minutes. Most of the time I slice my models just before printing, it keeps me occupied while the bed warms up.

@corywilmott2814

5 ай бұрын

Probably be batter putting kamp on it so it levels the print area only on each print

Thanks for this in-depth review with actual solutions. 👍👍😎👍👍

@xacttoeblade

3 ай бұрын

this is what youtube should be.

It's great to see folks join the hobby and find issues we've banged our head against back 8-10 years ago, and heat soaking was always advised. Even if you're using mic6 beds on corexy machines, heat soak for a good 20-30 min. Let the bed stabilize, especially on large beds. I know everyone wants fast printers, but pretty sure can't fight physics.

@FunctionalPrintFriday

6 ай бұрын

Bambu made everyone's marketing dept. over-pivot to speed. The N4MAX is a flatbed truck trying to wear a Porsche wrap. There's nothing wrong with just admitting it's a flatbed truck, we need those too, but marketing dept's don't think like that.

@kazolar

6 ай бұрын

@@FunctionalPrintFriday I heat soak bambu too. Even best heated bed surface we've found - mic6 aluminum needs heat soaking, see my response to another post.

So tldr - pre heat your bed, remember thermal expansion is a thing so let it get its wiggles out, auto level, profit. What’s up with the single frame of the Benchy in the last couple videos? By the way, you did a phenomenal job reviewing that unit. I hope other companies see this level of attention to detail and invite you to review more moving forward.

First things first, I bought this thing back in October of 2023. It was my 2nd 3d printer after I started having issues with how slow my Flashfire Guider 2 was. I could not for the life of me get good prints out of this printer. I was positive I had a bad gantry out of the box and was trying to work with Elegoo forever to get a new gantry shipped. After watching this video, I was positive I had a bad gantry. Yours was the first video of someone running a print on it so I could hear what it sounded like normally. The second thing was back layers as I got near the edges of the build plate. Hallelujah, you have found the issue. I don’t know why I did not think of this myself. My dad claimed he would dream about a car problem and diagnose it in his sleep. I guess it is true if you dream it it will become reality. After almost 6 months of this thing collecting dust and my moving on to now 4 Bambu Lab Printer I tried this with a new gantry, and I have a good print. Thanks so much for finding this fix. I now can print large prints like I wanted to when I bought this thing.

Very useful!! I inserted your gcode, I also don't care about waiting 30 minutes more when with this printer I print huge things that require more than 24 hours. Half an hour is nothing and if I want more speed, I use other printers. As soon as it arrived I leveled, immediately inserted your gcode and started the print I wanted. The first layer was already precise (among other things, the printer was bought used). Excellent and useful! Thanks!

I've had mine for 8 months, never had a problem sourcing larger nozzles - the app actually does give info on print times and jobs. For those who are wondering about the neptune 4 - rubber wheels, and levelling system were deal breakers for me

I have a Neptune Max, I totally agree this printer is not a out of the shelf printer, but the community is good and we have all the feature you would expect from a printer for reasonable price and the build volume is my biggest selling point. Build Plate: I been scratching my head to make the build plate flat, literal spend a month and write to Elegoo about the issues, for me the Firmware and Cura 5.6 update had some success it started print flat still not a good result, STILL THE BUILD WAS NOT FLAT, I ripped of the entire build plate to check each nut and bolt and the moving the Spirit level all over the place, still not make it work, after seeing your video i can imagine what did i miss and your brilliance and in depth knowledge in the subject is appreciated, i am going to try your solution and i am very positive, Thanks for this in-depth review with a solutions. 👍 Love your Bro 😎

I have a CR-6 Max which has a 400x400 bed. I encountered this same issue with that bed as well. It wasn't quite as much variance due to the stiff spacers that hold the bed to the carriage, but it did cause inconsistent extrusion and layers. I had to do MANY things to get consistency from the printer. The first thing was to add insulation to the underside. That made a huge difference in the stability of the bed. I also removed the stiff plastic spacers and added rigid silicon spacers that allowed me to adjust the roller coaster surface of the bed as it was quite uneven when i got it with a high point of 2.8mm and a low point of 3mm using the 7x7 mesh. I increased the mesh but that just added more time to the startup as you did. I eventually learned I needed to heatsoak the bed for about 15 minutes and then invested in a Beacon3D bed scanner. That allows me to now pull a 40x40 mesh in about 90 seconds. Unfortunately that meant I had to redesign the whole printer to eliminate the strain gauge leveling system which had it's own issues as plastic extruding from the nozzle would lift up on the hotend as witnessed by the probe triggering during extrusion and would cause uneven top surface layers. By going to a rigid hotend without the strain gauge (used a Micro Swiss NG setup) and the Beacon 3D scanner for a very detailed mesh that takes almost no time to do, I now get perfect adhesion and layers. I am loathe to invest in a bed slinger in the future after all the experiences I've had in making then consistent. My latest printers are coreXY and although more expensive and more complex, are super consistent and have had zero down time with them.

I have the Neptune 4 I heat soak for about 10 minutes prior to starting my prints and I do notice it has helped. Not thrilled about the Klipper implementation of this machine but once I worked the little issues out it’s been a solid machine.

I just took a look at mine with a thermal camera. It's 3 hours into a print job, so presumable has stabilized by now. The bed is set to 60C. The temp of the back third of the bed is registering as 58C on the thermal camera, whereas the front half varies between 48 and 51C. This is with ambient temperate in the space at 18C. Pretty clear the large part fan is managing to cool the bed itself, which cannot be good for avoiding the bed distorting. This is the first proper job I've printed on it, but I think I'll be turning the part fan off for now until the summer comes round.

When I first took mine out of the box the bed was so loose that I could rock/twist the bed about 1/4" It was a simple turn of the nuts on the rollers to take the slack out. It was very obvious that whoever assembled my machine could care less though.

I've been looking to add a larger format fdm printer to my collection, and been waffling between something like the neptune 4 max/plus vs the neptune 3 max/plus. This video has sold me on the 4 series, not because they are issue free but because it shows that you can tackle the problems they present with a little critical thinking and experience. I've been using an ender 3 s1 pro for almost 2 years, and have enough experience in fdm printer maintenance and operation, I think, to tackle the challenges of the 4 max/4 plus, in order to achieve the faster printing speeds and larger build volume that I want to add to my repertoire. I always let my bed heat up, even on my ender 3, for like 15-20 minutes before leveling or before a print, so doing so on the larger printer not only sounds logical but would have been part of my process anyway even without seeing this video - and if you're printing at 250mm/s instead of 50-80 anyway, that extra 30 mins on the front end, to get a 3 day print done in 20 hours, will have been worth it!

i can't say much about the n4 max but i got the n4 pro and it took me a while to get this to lvl the way i want. The thing is with the neptune4 pro that the leveling of the auxiliary (the 4 knobs) bed corners are done in cold condition when you start the leveling from the menu. It only heats up for the auto leveling part which is not helping at all. First I tighten the 4 corner knobs completely and then loosen it a few turns so that i have some play. My fix is to manually heat up the nozzle to 150 - 200 and also the bedplate to 50-60 and then do all the leveling. But be aware if you finish a part of the leveling and save it ...your heating will be reset so keep an eye on the temps and maybe heat up again if it was reset. Then i start Auxiliary leveling the 4 corners but if its way off then do it on every corner 2 or 3 times this is where i got the best results. Then after the auto leveling starts let it finish and do the z offset also in heated state. In heated state i do the leveling with paper if you feel a slight resistance its good. That helped alot so that i can print flawlessly for a few days and then if a print starts to fail i will do it again. That is ok for me maybe it helps someone. I don't have to wait 20-30 minutes... i just start and it prints perfect if lvled

@StewartHoo

5 ай бұрын

I too also have a N4 Pro and noticed the same thing as you and also did my levelling with the nozzle and bed pre heated.

Use a little silicon grease on the rollers, works great. Just make sure it's plastic safe. Also make sure there isn't a nub of plastic hanging off the nozzle when doing Z-offset calibration. Every time I've done a Z-offset 9 out of 10 times there was a nub which affects offset directly.

I had this issue with an Anet A8. Re-engineered the Y carriage and the bed, added heat insulation and calibrated the mesh at the temperature i'm printing on (this printer doesn't have ABL). I also took the calibration in the same way displayed here. My printer has been super reliable since. Reducing the print area to within the area where the bed is screwed down will help a lot.

I recently purchased the 4Max. I am new and as green as it gets. I value you input and love your channel. I have printed caned stuff and had great quality but all small stuff. I bought it to print oscale buildings so I will need to preheat.

@FunctionalPrintFriday

5 ай бұрын

Welcome aboard!

Just because of your „we don’t do multicolor garbage of the week“ i subscribed to you. Thanks a lot.

this video was exactly what i needed right now! thanks buddy

I bought this printer a while ago and had nothing but problems with it. I just found this video and I can now try to solve my issues. For months it has just sat and done nothing and I bought a bambu P1S. I don't care about the heat up time, I just want to be able to print large items. Thank you so much.

Awesome content, thank you! I pre-ordered this printer within the 1st 5 min of the pre-order going live. Printed pretty much non stop October thru Christmas then let it sit for 3 months. Between sickness and life I just didn't feel like dealing with all of this machines little quirks so mainly stuck to printing on my smaller and more worry free printers. I've had time recently again to tackle the big boy and make some upgrades, added Oldham couplings to the Z lead screw nuts to help with Z banding and updated the FW. My biggest issue now is with parts warping, PLA parts. I've got my N4 Max on a bottom shelf in my basement, it might just be too cool down there. I wrap the shelf in a drop cloth as a makeshift enclosure but it doesn't help a lot. I'm going to move it to my dining room tomorrow and give it a shot as the temperature is more stable there. I've been printing for 5 years but printing big is a whole new set of challenges.

Most people in 3D printing aren't using cutting edge technology. My guess is Cura is still the most popular. I sell 3D printers for a living and do a lot of trouble shooting. My customers only use Orca when I tell them to unless they have used multiple printers in the past and are into upgrades.

@rusgib3648

4 ай бұрын

Yep, most people I know use Cura or some version of Prusa Slicer. I've used a ton of slicers. I always go back to Cura, maybe it's familiarity, but it just seems to be the easiest to use. I'm currently trying to get used to the software that comes with the Bambu Lab X1-C.

I got two of these for slow relible printing on a large bed, But have found it a a constant battle to keep leveled. Thank you for the info!

Very similar issues with the Neptune 4 plus. Being new to 3D printing I considered myself lucky so far with the results I've had with the printer given some of the nightmare stories I've seen on Reddit. With that said I was content living with the overextrusions. Though the 4 plus does have a much smaller bed I'm thinking literally the only difference between mine and the max is size. Thus issues would be similar though likely exagerated on the max. I'll probably be able to safely cut the wait time in half for the bed heating. All the other GCode/Config settings changes would probably be the same (purge line will need some tweaking I'm guessing). I'm going to give this a shot tonight. Great job!

Nice video, thanks. It confirms some of my suspicions and validates some advice I was reading in the various support communities around ensuring your printer is fully heat soaked before printing. Heat soak I think by your measurements means heat the bed to 60F for 30 minutes. I think some good advice for any that don't want to get into modifying print start GCODE for every print, and furthermore to avoid running a bed mesh prior to every print would be to simply heat soak your printer prior to running a standalone bed mesh, and then heat soak your printer prior to each print. That should align the variances well enough for the average person.

Hi, I have just bought the Neptune 4 Max last week, and I had it sent to me, to the UK. In Europe we do use Cura a lot... Basically I printed out of the box, just after making a manual bed levellling and then an automated one. So far, I have only been printing small objects (the biggest is a drawer adaptor for the little drawer on the side of it, which goes inside the drawer and you can store the L keys etc), a filament out sensor bracket, to place it a bit more centered, two spool holders (a rotating one and a 3KG one), the extruder clip adaptor (The original one is indecent). The only times the print failed, was on four occasions: on three of them, I did not put any support during the slicing process in Cura, so the object did not have support in some areas; the fourth case, during a print job of a corner camera adaptor, at 50% (several hours), I have decided to switch off the led lights on the top, and for some reason the printer crashed, returning an error about reaching the max extrusion... I pressed the emergency stop on the webpage of the printer administration area (I have been experimenting both physical touches on the pad and the LAN management), and restarted the whole services a couple of times. In some cases, like when I tried to print a small nut and a bolt for a cosplay caliper, the threads did not come out well. It is too early for me to tell you if there are other issues. I did not upgrade the firmware or do any of the annoying things you mentioned, which made me think that probably I have no idea of the printer's flaws yet. This is my third printer, after a Prusa MKII Ephestos and a Creality Ender 3 S1 Plus which went on fire and smoke - seriously - last week, while trying to install a Sonic Pad (Still waiting for Creality to reply back to me about that) . I will follow you and keep your video as a reference, shall I have to do all the stuff you said. I really hope I do not have to upgrade the firmware or open the pad because it is very annoying... -- 15 February update -- Actually I tried a 10 hours' job with PLA/carbon fiber, and at 87% I had to do a stop, because the printer started printing off Z-axiz, and it was all screwed up. Also, all the prints were opening in half, like a toast :-( I have experienced also that part of the first bed layer, in some areas was having visible spots in it, as described by someone, and after some time the fans bar, attached behind the extruder, started scratching the printed layers, when the bed was going back and forth. I had done a manual calibration before starting any job, and also an automated one. So, probably I will have to change the printer configuration as you guys said. How can I check if the firmware is the latest version?

First guy I've heard to relate 3D printing to machining and started adjustjng the machine as such. Subbing. I appreciate that you also acknowledge that you've been pondering this for weeks. I think 3D printing is a great intro to machining and the processes involved, but I think manufacturers are trying not to intimidate new users with how much effort goes into zeroing equipment. My primary example is the "piece of paper" height setting for the z offset. I think it would be better to assign a designated gap and send people an appropriate feeler gauge. Personally, I use a .7 mm feeler gauge. The same applies to belt tensions. There should be a designated tension set by the manufacturer and a simple tool included or for affordable purchase. Torque value for carrier wheels... I digress. 😂 Again, these machines are a great value to introduce people to machining processes, but manufacturers need not fear specific tolerance, and consumers need to understand better prints require more setup time and constant machine "maintenance". You don't win Lemans in a daily driver where you change the oil once a year.

This was my first printer. I got it because I wanted to do large prints, but started out with small prints for practice. Got blob death 1 week into owning it. Fixed it, and I've been tuning it and tuning it video after video, and even my small prints either end up not sticking to the bed or over extruding somewhere. Warming up the bed and waiting now to level. I hope this works. I have a huge back log of prints I want to do in the weeks I was waiting for my new hot end.

How did Elegoo not catch any of this? Up to the community to fix poor quality again. Great job and thanks!

This is what I’m struggling with. Super glad I stumbled across this. Thanks!

For the price it’s a freaking miracle - let’s not forget that.

@FunctionalPrintFriday

5 ай бұрын

this right here. .

It takes a while for all the corners of the bed to heat up equally and fully expand to do an accurate mesh leveling = 42:48

Is it springs warming up and expanding or just the bed? Would nylon spacers help with leveling?

@fyerfighter11

6 ай бұрын

That’s what I was thinking as well.

Thanks for the video. Cura has been a staple of the low-end printer market for years. It shipped with the Creality machines and most of the other clones that came after. Cura is also used for both Resin and FDM printers. I got it with my Mars 2Pro and the Npttune 2S. Most people do end up switching to more advanced slicers.

I think Cura is actually still quite popular. Not sure if you have actual statistics for market share. I think especially for Marlin users, like anyone just using an Ender, it's still very prevalent. I personally prefer the Cura interface to most other slicers, but I have moved over to Orca slicer quite a bit because there are certain aspects which allow me to get better print quality, especially on certain prints. Sometimes, I actually find Cura provides a more logical slice of a part, but it is also missing features like support and seam painting that I really appreciate in other Prusa based slicers.

@saitekh

6 ай бұрын

Ya I don't know where this guy is coming from with that. Maybe most enthusiasts aren't using cura? I think 90% of people who buy an out of the box printer are going to go get cura.

@802Garage

6 ай бұрын

@@saitekh Yeah just a bit of confirmation bias I think. I do think Orca is superior in a few ways, but I think Cura is very competent.

@yoululauren5340

5 ай бұрын

I have used other slicer, Cura is still the one I like. Especially, the rich set of plug-ins. It's really a nice software.

@martinrayner6466

5 ай бұрын

I like Cura because is works on all my different machines, and yea I'm used to it. _(Love the lightning infill)._ That was a factor when buying the machine.

Thank you so much for posting this. I’m going to add all that you done to my Goode. I normally wait for 30 minutes to an hour depending on how cold it is outside but never thought about having it do an automatic bed level prior to printing. Guess we’ll see how it goes.

This is my first printer, and I have been having bed adhesion issues. I found if I scrapped a part early in the print process, and immediately reprint, the issue seemed to evaporate. I also noted bed temperature variance with a non-contact thermometer when performing the auto leveling task. I had not yet done the dial indicator test. Still running Cura 4.8.xx that came with the machine. Printing a part about 3x10 inches, I found the corners and edges curling up away from the bed. My first thought was thermal residual stress due to the cooling of the molten plastic away from the bed. My fix was to place engineered breakaway supports in the model, and this was relatively successful. So far only tried PLA filament from Elegoo. I would like to see detailed tech info provided by Elegoo ( schematic, wiring diagrams, parts lists, to aid in accurate troubleshooting). Have had two incidents of death blobs requiring parts from Elegoo, which were promptly supported by Elegoo warranty. It was just a bit unnerving to appear to be throwing parts at it without my understanding exactly what had failed and why.

Thanks for doing this in depth review. It solves a lot of the issues I had with this printer.I think it will also help a lot of people struggling with this printer. I really appreciate the way you include all the software and code changes. Unfortunately early on I was just pushing through before I understood all the issues and ended up with a massive blob of death on an early long print. Elagoo did send me a new nozzle and heat sink but it was very difficult to get the old one off. It's a shame that the companies themselves don't find a way to resolve the issues and release a video like this. I find it hard to believe they don't realize what the problems are. Thanks again and keep up the good work. I will also subscribe to your channel I have already liked the vid

I tried out the gcode profile for orca slicer and for some reason after the heat up and autoleveling processes, the x and y axis for the prints seemed off and it tried to print off the bed for some reason. abandoned the gcode update and now I just preheat the bed manually before I level and print and haven't had an issue since. thanks for shedding light on something I would never of picked up on.

Nice video! One thing to mention is, that is not a dial test indicator! That in fact is a test indicator, non linear and very sensitive over a short range. The other type is a dial indicator with a plunger type probe, those give linear measurements and generally have a much larger range. DTI is basically slang workshop language for a small distance measuring device that looks like a clock.

@FunctionalPrintFriday

2 ай бұрын

Thanks for the info!

EPIC video, well what can I say you are totally correct....the only thing I can add to this is that I have the same issues with my Ender 3 S1 plus and my CR10 Smart Pro - I think you are going to have similar issues with any large area 3D CONSUMER 3D PRINTER WITH A cheap 6061 alloy print bed... - I think you will have Dimensionally a totally new print bed very time you heat cycle it. so you can't call this a Neptune 4 Max problem...... Before every print job I heat up the bed to 90 and then auto bed level, mesh save to memory, and then the print job starts ( this adds 8 minutes to every print job )....Epic video thank for making it ! keep the technical content flowing ! I just bought a 4 max - frikkkk - any way to upgrade the psu to the 500wt psu from the 3 max

Considering the size, even with that bed issue it's been amazing printer. Coming from CR-10 S5 30minute wait is no go for most prints. Only for say 5kg+ prints -- at which point just the weight of the print is going to affect level over time, fortunately spread over the full print. Right now doing ~2kg print. Insane how fast these new printers get stuff done, that's only 1½ days.

I’m using Elegoo Cura 5.4 and it works great. Planning to try other slicers out of curiosity.

@farnirwolf

5 ай бұрын

Same

finally honestly saying not for beginners

This would make sense why I was having issues. I was trying to do smaller prints quick and notice the first one would be amazing. Then the second ones would having first layer issues. I'm guessing from not having the bed warmed up enough after cooling down.

Спасибо! Благодаря твоим исследованиям я сегодня получил полноценную печать на всей поверхности стола Neptune 4 Max !!!

@FunctionalPrintFriday

3 ай бұрын

so glad to hear, thx for sharing!

All I did to fix this is alter the ending g code to set the hotbed to the same temp instead of turning it off so it is always hot when turned on. And just do the autoleveling every print only waiting 2 minutes. ANother theoretical way I want to try but have not had the chance is to have the bed heat up 5-10 degrees more than the printing temp. Then lowering to the temp to printing before leveling, so it is all heated up

Thank you for this video and sharing your finding.

I've had 0 problems out of the box with mine. I've got a 60 hour print on it now and I've done nothing but go through the configuration settings and hit print. I did relevel before this 60 hour print. Because it takes up the entire build area. But that's it. It's run great

I honestly just bought one, so I have not got to try it out yet. But thank you. I can see the issues by your video. I will. most likely be putting on one of my H2O's or H2 v2s extruders in place because I already seen multiple blobs of death as a complaint. but this helps me a lot. Thank you very, very, very much.!!!! It's nice knowing what to expect.!

Thank you man for such explaning For me im waiting my machine to reach but i had already 5 Neptune 4pro and i have some of that issues Any time im printing and keep the machine running i have no issues what so ever Thank you again for that information and i really wish you good luck

@FunctionalPrintFriday

Ай бұрын

Glad I could help

OMG bro I have been pulling my hair out with my 4 plus trying to get a solid 1st layer.... Thank you.

@FunctionalPrintFriday

5 ай бұрын

Glad I could help

Thanks so much for putting this info out! Would appreciate seeing how you've modified your printer.cfg? I'm still also a little unsure how to add screws tilt for the max... Thanks!

Thanks for posting this video, I'm very new to 3d printing! This is my 2nd Elegoo Printer I now have the 4 Pro and the 4max. I have not had very good luck with this 4 max so far, I have only been able to print 1 piece with it. I am hoping this video instruction will fix my problems.

@FunctionalPrintFriday

2 ай бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

I wanted to post an update. I implemented your advice and I'm getting successful prints now, but I have discovered a new issue. Every time I start a new print, the z-offset changes. It seems like the previous Z-Offset is not being saved, and each successive print I have lower the z-offset further and further. In my first print, the offset was about -0.4mm, with the second print, exact same model, the z-offset is -1.1mm. Any ideas?

@FunctionalPrintFriday

6 ай бұрын

have you updated the firmware as well?

@nephalem_d3887

6 ай бұрын

@@FunctionalPrintFriday yep

@stephenhenry1038

5 ай бұрын

But if you implemented the start code changes, isn’t it running a bed mesh at the start of each print?

watching this video and using cura while your saying no one uses it. i use cura and prusaslicer for a ender 3 v2. {marlin} cura profile is great for supports and xy compensation . prusaslicer tends to weld print in place functional parts.

@FunctionalPrintFriday

6 ай бұрын

Appreciate the reply. The comments section is proving to me that a lot more people are using Cura than I would have otherwise thought. I do find that the supports seem to work a lot better in Orca over prusaslicer, even with the same settings. Not sure why.

Thank you for your inisights, this printer has given me a lot of grief, especially with surface quality and over extrusion.

I mainly only print helmets are you recommending to just leave the Part cooling fan in the off position on top of the printer, or adjust it in filament settings to turn off keep fan always on, min /max fan speed threshold 0%??

If I am not mistaken Cura is still the most used slicer. The UI experience of Orca slicer, also Bambu Slicer is still far from Cura. My wife who isn’t technical doesn’t even know how to change the print temp on Bambu slicer, just select the filament profile and print and if doesn’t work, then uses a different printer. Also I have a 500x500 printer and have up on Bicubic bed leveling and just do a 6x6 lagrange, it does a way better job when the big is multiple mm off between everything.

@FunctionalPrintFriday

6 ай бұрын

Thanks for your comment. Do you heat soak the 500x500 before printing? Do you notice any deflection?

@joseph-montanez

6 ай бұрын

@@FunctionalPrintFriday That depends on the tension of the springs under the bed, the heat will warp the bed differently based on the end-point tension. When the springs do not have enough tension and you do a multi-day print, the bed level over time doesn't stay the same (while its printing). So not only does heat affect this, but original bed level no longer applied. I printed some PLA washers to go under the springs to ensure everything is super tight, and then leave it heat for a while. I also have locknuts under each spring to ensure as little of the bed changes while printing. The locknuts make it a pain in the butt to level the bed so I made some custom nobs to go over the locknuts to act as the original nobs. I then run it with a polypropylene glass fiber bed, so it needs about 15 minutes of heating after. The high tension springs ensure multi-day prints have a relatively level bed throughout its print. I found that by using lagrange instead of bicubic the mesh can be super unleveled (mine was 3-4mm difference) and still print on every inch of the bed without issue. Bicubic seems to need the bed within 0.3mm to work as expected or maybe some additional more advance settings to work correctly.

What is the current status, have the mentioned issues been resolved? I am new to this hobby and plan to get started. I'm considering between the Elegoo Neptune 4 Max and the Artillery Sidewinder X4 Plus, but I will most likely choose the Elegoo Neptune 4 Max because of its larger print area. However, I wanted to ask first. Additionally, can it handle composite filaments, such as carbon fiber blends, at 300 degrees Celsius?

I was loving the printer (4 Plus) until today. Now I can't get anything to print. I did about 100 perfect prints out of the box just making sure everything was tight but today the nozzle just hits every print about 10 layers into it causing it to fail. I verified the Z offset and tried multiple files and different filaments and every setting I could think of in Cura to no avail. I just updated the firmware to the latest and doing a 30 minute heatup on the bed before I do a new level. I have no idea why it worked perfect for so many prints and now just fails every time now. I will try some of your fixes in this video and hope something changes for the positive. If nothing changes I will try replacing the nozzle. Thanks for the great video!

@GMAC84

7 күн бұрын

Did you fix it?

so I am going to be adding a .1mm Graphite foil sheet under the build plate to solve some of the uneven thermals heating up the BP should help drastically reduce the warping, from metal expansion being all over the place, also should help reduce some of those Minutes for preheat, thank you for this video

@FunctionalPrintFriday

4 ай бұрын

interesting, let us know how it works out

THANK YOU!! I was about to freaking hammer-throw this printer out in to the street and give up on printing completely! I was letting it pre-heat before prints but z-offset and bed mesh were always inconsistent I should've known there was a better way. Thanks for the G-code! The bed mesh before every print has helped a ton. Smaller prints are turning out fine now, haven't tried a large print yet but I have faith now that it will turn out fine :)

Excellent video. I'm about to buy this printer only for large jobs. I already own 2 Bambu X1C and one A1. But need this volume. There's no good large printer out there even at a higher price point. Could you make a video guide on how you tweaked the code shown in this video?

would it help if instead of waitning 25mins to heat to 60 evenly to just heat to like 70 or 80 and than after it reaches 70 or 80 to turn it back down to 60 so the whole plate is hotter and heats faster on all corners? My feel about it.. I bought it because it was great for the price and I thought it was more of a better quality printer where i will be able to print anything and to you maybe 20 to 30min is not much but to me it is when i have to print in my room, it is heating it up and noisy and i cant run it 20 hours because well I need to sleep..

Can't believe this video just came out 3 days ago. I've had my Neptune 4 Max sitting in a box since late Nov23'. Was beginning to look into Rails and other minor upgrades (nozzles, etc) only to find that theres still a few bugs being worked out. Good to know about the bed variation, i'm very curious to know if this video was based on the included springs, or if you've tried testing using silicone bed spacers, etc? As for my feel... I expected it honestly. Size comes with additional challenges. Eventually I'd hope to see some 3rd party upgrade to address/make thsi time less impacting.

It was my first printer, and I love it. But I am a tinkerer, so it's fitting for me.

Great work here and thanks for all your hard work and efforts!

I’ll have to check this on my Ender 5 plus. I have lots of issues with first layers. I run a mesh before every print and still end up with issues. I’ll probably end up just preheating for 20 minutes then mesh then print. It’s bed is 360x360

@FunctionalPrintFriday

6 ай бұрын

give it a try! let us know

I use cura have been since I got in 3d printing but I have seen some features orca slicer offers and I wanted to switch over just have not done it I'm still looking for some setting in orca and idk where they at

All I use is Cura. I was thinking of branching out to Orca but I am fully integrates with Klipper and Cura.

Great job. I was looking for a big printer like this one, but I will definitely avoid it.

I just bought one myself and I'm hoping it works out. I had another brand before but had to return it after an issue with the threaded rod ultimately resulted in the printer having to be returned. I got this one since the threaded rods are pre-installed in the uprights but all the stuff I'm going to have to try and remember is making my head spin. I'm grateful this video is here I just hope I can figure it out.

@FunctionalPrintFriday

5 ай бұрын

it's *not* a turnkey machine, but it's still a great deal for the overall size and capabilities once you've tuned it

@trajedy-inspiredbyspiff148

5 ай бұрын

Thanks to you and others doing similar content I think I will be ok. The issue I am having at the moment I feel may have more to do with a bad model or my inexperience with Cura (Elegoo says it's the most popular but I see maybe 1% of people online saying they use it) but sadly the model I found was distributed as a Cura project instead of STL or SCAD. I am going to try a simple benchy in the center of the bed to examine for irregularities. The model was a test for after you do auxiliary leveling that prints the 11 x 11 mesh patter in connected squares. Sadly it went horribly wrong and I had to stop immediately.@@FunctionalPrintFriday

How do I add this starting GCODE to my project in orca slicer?

Thanks, plane is so huge it comes with its own set of issues :D Well, im gonna print large stage props on it. (of course in parts) So fortunately/unfortunately i'm in the market. But 30 minutes, doesn't sound like a tragedy. 3D prints aren't something that you need asap, waiting bit longer, not the end of the world.

i laughed so hard during the auto bed leveling. omg that was the worst. i hate the auto bed level on my elegoo 3 max. took 4 hourzsssssss to level the bed. took taco break and after refreshing my energy realized the bed wheels were looser than any screw in my brain. hahahaha. the bed wheels on the ender 3 pros i ave never came brand new loose. elegoo deff needs quality control. overall im happy with the 3 max. super quiet and prints petg and tpu better then my ender printers. great video!!

Absolutely awesome video mate!!!... more people need to know this ....kinda pisses me off that so few youtubers have the technocal chops to do this level of depth. Springs on beds for leveling are 2017 tech.....and 100% an absolute $h!t show! I will NEVER buy another printer with a carriage being perpetually bent apart from the bed by stored spring forces. Anycubic historically shipped soft alloy carriages that exacerbated the disastrous results of springs. ALL printers that don't have heat treated hardened carriage frames that are thick and cast honed beds on bed slingers will suffer garbage unrepeatable bed leveling For-eh-vurrr! Now to account for thermal expansion some different hard-mount bed mounts need experimentation to allow slight give or slipage....I'm waivering between nylon vs ASA vs ABS standoffs. I also have begin "soaking" all bed level tests and even my prints at bed temps of 65 or higher for a good 15 minutes. The fact this took almoat half an hour to settle the expansion is not surprising. Tolerances stack over lengths so since my work is all functional mechanical and small, I'm leaning more towards an A1 mini with a .2 nozzle.

This worked perfectly for me. I did enable adaptive mesh every print. but same file , same config, failed start from cold, perfect after 30 min heatup

Haven’t had these problems with my printer I did find that the cooling fans definitely made my prints worse but I print at 150 to 100 print speed I’ve done many prints that take 3 to 4 days to finish very few failed prints some of the failed prints were my fault being lazy although I do preheat the bed be for prints

I prefer cura as another said I like its interface over the others. As for the 25 min wait I’m use to that with my Voron printers I heat soak them for different amounts of time based on the filament type and temps.

@FunctionalPrintFriday

6 ай бұрын

Interesting. What is the primary reason you're heat soaking the bed on your voron? Is it dimensional stability of the bed, bringing chamber temp up, or something else?

@Fr0stByte917

6 ай бұрын

@@FunctionalPrintFridaymainly to get the chamber temp up but does help settle any flex in the bed etc from the heat. Also not sure with the Neptune I run KAMP (for klipper) you can have it bed mesh and prime in just the area you are printing in so you don't have to mesh the entire bed unless you are always printing a full bed.

I wonder how much of a difference a glass bed would make, since it expands and contracts less that a metal sheet.

That's really interesting. I've got the N4Pro as our first printer, and was suddenly getting layer shifts on the Y axis on small (3in by 4in in bed center) but tall (6in) prints. The shifts would happen about 45 minutes into the print in a room that's typically about 50 degrees F. Temp fluctuates a lot when the furnace heat kicks on and off throughout the day. I fiddled with the y axis belt a lot to try to fix the shifting, until it eventually broke. Elegoo is replacing it for free, but I'm suspecting that the thermal changes in the various parts might be the culprit. I'll have to try preheating once the new belt arrives.

Great Review !!!!, My question is, what other printer would you recommend if someone needs 420x420 build plate??? Beside the anycubic kobra max.... Thanks in advance....

Hi, i did as in the video described and still no good mesh/first layer. In my research i found out that i get unreliable probe values at the edges/corners of my bed. My hypothesis is that the probe delivers unreliable values in that area, maybe the screws of the bed levelling nobs etc interfere with the inductive probe. All my 'bad' values are about~0,4mm too high, therefore the ABL moves the nozzle too far up and i get no adhesion. So far i resolved the issue by manually editing the mesh in the cfg file in klipper. My untested suggestion: getting a ferrromagnetic metall sheet in the size of the bed between PEI Sheet and printer, so the probe delivers better values. Maybe some here has something like this laying around and get try it out and report. It will take my a bit to get one. Good luck, cheers!

Thank you, i look forward to trying this out.

I was into cura until I moved to klipper. Now I’m on Prusa Slicer which I am starting to get familiar with. Good bye cura.

Thankyou for all your effort. I believe you've helped point me towards a solution for getting decent prints on my N4 Max. A few observations though: 1) 0.004 inches is 0.1016 mm, which translates to 1/2 a layer height. 2) Would an enclosure help? 3) The default tolerance is 0.05, which incidentally lets it accept almost all samples, regardless of deviation 4) With 3 samples taken, wouldn't 'average' be better than 'mean'? 5) With bed levelling done on every print wouldn't it make sense to look into the Beacon probe? Regardless, thanks! I didn't fully realise the amount of heat expansion on such a large bed

If you cant return the Printer, I would build an enclosure and add 10 degrees to your bed temperature. I build for me a craft paper box. My last autoleveling was 3 month ago when i added the box. But I would check the heatbed circuit too.

Would you mind showing how to successfully incorporate these setting changes you outline? OrcaSlicer, Klipper, Fluid and altering printer configuration file(s) are all a new landscape for me still so, while I think you've got some brilliant ideas I'm not sure how to execute them myself. I was able to follow along and make the changes like the number of probe samples and sample tolerance, but I'm not sure what to do with all the other lines of G Code or where to put them. Also, the line for "BED_MESH_CALIBRATE profile=6 mesh_min=10,21 mesh_max=397,404 probe_count=6 algorithm=bicubic" originally had a default starting number of 6 for me and not 11 which was confusing.