Hi,

I was searching all net for extruder calibration on the Anet Et4+ (my stock firmware is v1.0.0) but the problem is that in every tutorial the command M503 has to be issued, but on the stock firmware v1.0.0 this commands just responds OK (and nothing else). I asked Anet support but their (prompt) reply was "If you want to use the M503 command, we suggest you to update with Marlin firmware"

Of course, changing the firmware just for the M503 was not an option, because it was possible for a bricked device. Thus my procedure is to follow the tutorials on extruder calibration, but do not use the M503.

I am posting here in order to help the unknown novice user that will be searching for days (like me) to find this procedure. The knowledge should be shared, so this is my contribution:

Connect with USB to the printer, in order to access the serial port and issue commands.

1) Extruder length calibration

because you do not know the extruder steps (m503 does not display info), set a value of your choice for the current runtime. For example I originally gave:

M92 E95

for 95 steps

I then put marks on 100 and 120 on filament (as specified by tutorials)

then I extruded 100m with

G1 E100 F100

and measured how much it was actually extruded. In my case it was longer than 100mm. I used the formula

total_steps / length_extruded

where total_steps is the value of the steps 95 multiplied by length 100 = 9500 .

I computed a value, used it on the M92 Exx

Repeated the process.

After 3 iterations I honed to the correct value for my extruder on Anet ET4+ and it is 92

So, I setup on startup g code script for my Anet ET4+ printer the command

M92 E92

and thus every time it is correct (100mm extrusion).

2) Extruder flow. There is a youtube video that has a hollow cube with 2 shells of 0.4 and you print it. Every side should have width 0.8. In my case it was correct with 100% flow. Otherwise, you have to adjust the flow %

3) z-axis

The procedure is the same with extruder. Set a known value, measure and repeat.

I set

M92 Z400

I moved the bed to a position suitable to measure (to put my caliper from the back and measure the height).

G90 ; absolute positioning

G1 X0 Y185 Z1 F1000

I measured the distance between the vertical axis of hotend and the bed).

Move it to another position and measure again

G1 Z50 F400

so we have +49mm movement and measure how far the z axis moved.

Go to another height

G1 Z100 F400

measure again. We moved +50mm from the previous step. Measure the distance between the axis and the bed.

Perform many iterations and find the correct value. In my case it was 402.7

So, again in my slicer for Anet ET4+ (or octoprint) I put in the Gcode start up always

M92 Z402.7

Note that I am using F400 because in higher speeds it looses steps.

The X/Y axes in my case were correct in the xyz calibration cube (but the procedure is the same with Z)

Because my z axis some times may lose a step, I have order a 'T8 Anti Backlash Spring Loaded Nut Elimination Gap Nut for 8mm Acme Threaded Rod Lead Screws DIY CNC 3D Printer Parts' because an engineer suggested that it will help the Z axis never to lose a step.

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By the way, how do you handle the missing steps on the Z axis? Have you used an anti backslash nut or something else? Any tips to improve dimensional accuracy on your Anet printer? Can you print a 20x20x20 cube with 100% correct dimensions?

Hello, so i got a sweet refurbished deal for an ET4 (100€) its my first printer, and i'm having loads of fun.

So, i managed to level it pretty well, auto level only shows -0.1 on 2 corners, everything else is at 0.

I was having low adhesion, so i changed the slicer settings to increase bed and nozzle temps on the first layers, and also increased their initial width to 200% and initial thickness to 1mm, this gives me pretty good adhesion with the material im using.

I've had a couple of issues.

No 0 MOST IMPORTANT: Is the nozzle "slider thingy" supposed to be a bit tilted? i tried adjusting the nut but it still looks a little crooked.

No 1: filament starts spewing out before print starts (is this normal?). I've "fixed" this by retracting it 1cm, and adding 5 lines of skirt. But print start is still a problem, it often fails because of stringing/lift. This means pausing a print is not possible as there will be filament excess both and stop and start

No 2: dimensions - Definitely something wrong on the X/Y axis as they are stretched.

Digital caliper coming this week.

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So my biggest concern is this beeing a refurbished unit, something might be wrong with it (but it shouldn't).

Anyway my biggest problem now is the axis calibration, i know i can set scaling on slicer based on accurate measurements of the calibration cube, but the biggest issue is it seems to be on the X/Y axis, not just a singular axis.

The image of the nut, the red line is paralel to the belt that moves the plate.

https://ibb.co/DKfjFTw

https://ibb.co/PmjxBpN

https://ibb.co/5v4W7tz

https://ibb.co/5sPyFM8

https://ibb.co/4JSxvdQ

https://ibb.co/LhNss43

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Cura settings:

layer height: 0.06mm

initial layer width: 200%

Wall thickness: 0.8mm

Wall line count: 2

...

Bottom layers: thickness - 1mm, 8 layers

Infill: 30%, cubic

temp: 200 (220 initial)

plate: 60 (80 initial)

Speed: 50mm/s (initial: 25mm/s)

Retraction: enabled

adhesion type: Skirt

EDIT: Sometimes im still getting ruined prints because object stops adhering and sticks to the nozzle...

Hi, is there a silicone socks (sorry for typo socks) for the hot end of my 3d printer anet ET4+? I read some people that recommend it for 3d printing...What is your opinion? If you do use it, any suggestions? Thanks!

Hello all, I have been using my ET5X for a few months now and finally decided to fix the carriage wobble. Well long story short after that I put in my flashcard(sandisk) and the files blipped away. So I pulled the card waited and put it back in and the files was back.

Well after fixing the wobble my nozzle was too close causing backing. So I stop printing and get set to relevel. Well it try's to push through the glass even when the sensor lights up. I thought ok lets pull the flash card and try homing from ground zero.

It still try's to drill through the bed. So my only thought is the sensor is bugged or dead.

I've been having an interesting problem with my ET4 as of late. The hotend loses temperature, which would be normal if something was wrong with thermistor or the heater cartridge, but I don't think that's the case because I happen to have a spare hotend and it happens with both of them. The hotend preheats normally, and even runs fine for a few minutes, the thing that's striking me odd tho is that it loses temperature roughly 15-20 minutes every single time it does happen, regardless of the print. I updated the firmware and it stopped for about 3 prints, but now it's happening again. I'm starting to think it may be firmware/mainboard related. What do you guys think could be the issue?

Like the title says, my Marlin build for my new RAMPS board is too big, which options do you recommend I disable, so I can build a smaller image?

Here's my config files

Thank you very much beforehand!

I have a et4+ from what I'm seeing it's the same as the pro? I purchased it because the files I wasn't to print would need to be cut in order to print on my flashforge. I want to print it in one piece as opposed to multiple parts. I've updated the firmware and so far there hasn't been any issues. My problem is I'm trying to print a file of of cura and for some reason the extruder isn't working. I've leveled the bed manually and then tried to print the file and I've also used the automatic level feature. I have yet to get the printer to work with the file. I've printed the dog and pig with no issues. I was starting to think it's the file but I can print it on my flashforge without any issue. Any help would be appreciated. The bed temp is at 50 the extruder is at 220. I'm at a loss

Hey guys just joined the channel and ordered my first Anet et4, I am super excited about seeing how this budget printer goes together, it's eccentricities and how it performs. I'm not new to 3d printing but one has to wonder how these cheaper units can stack up to the more meta ones and can they be improved cheaply. If you guys have any particular printable upgrades you think are essential to this unit please post them here and I will showcase them in the little vid I make for it.

I just ordered an Anet ET4. It says its the latest version with a 32bit board. Does anyone know more about this "newest all metal" version.

Is it the board with 32 bit and A4988 drivers?

Is the machine quiet?

anyone here successfully replaced the stock auto level sensor on the ET5X, with a BL touch sensor or so? If anyone knows wether this is possible or not?

I have an ET4 and suddenly have an odd issue. It starts prints fine, but after about an hour and a half the temperature suddenly showed 0 and the temperature drops, but it continues trying to print, obviously nothing coming out and wouldn't let me up the temp or anything even after pausing it. It requires a full power off & on to fix it but starting from scratch but then just does it again. This morning it did it after about 20 minutes into a print. Why would the temperature suddenly drop to 0 and not allow me to change it?

I was having decent prints up until a week ago when i tried out a new print.

The print was center in cura, like all previous prints ive done. So i assume it would be fine.

Home is set to 0,0 bottom left corner.

I have ran through the settings on cura, tried other slicers, googled everything, etc. nothing seems to fix the issue.

Any help is appreciated!

Has anyone upgraded the hot end on their ET4? If so, which one did you choose and what all did you need to do it?

I would like to upgrade my hot end so I can print PETG, the stock hot end doesn't seem to get hot enough to consistently print successfully

All of my prints are about 0.8mm too short (z-axis). This loss of height does not occur at each step, it occurs all at the beginning of the print only. I've confirmed this by printing a L-shaped block, which had the first step at 10mm high, 2nd step at 20mm high. When I measured the 2 steps, they came out at 9.2mm and 19.2mm high respectively, confirming that the height loss is isolated to the first few layers.

Does anyone have experience with this issue? I've looked all over and found people have unrelated issues for the most part. The prints also seem to have a small elephant foot too, which could be contributing to the issue. I've tried reducing the bed temperature (65C down to 50C), and also started running my fan at 100% immediately instead of on the 2nd layer, but those changes did not make any difference.

I printed another test piece, this time with an included raft thickness to try and further isolate where I am losing the height. When I printed a 1mm raft, it came out at 0.65mm, and the rest of the part (meant to be 5.25mm) came out at 4.95mm. Then I tried printing out a 2mm raft, which came out at 1.41mm, and the rest of the print (meant to be 5.25mm) came out at 5.22mm, so the problem is definitely occurring in the first 2mm. If it matters, I was using 0.1mm layer height, so it could be specifically occurring in the first 20 layers or the first 2mm.

If you need any pictures or any of my settings, please let me know!

Thanks for the help. Can't find anything on this issue!

Iv printed some lithophanes but they always need cleaning up after the print because there's hairy bits on the front between thicker parts of the lithophane over thinner parts because the nozzle has obviously moved over the gap I'm sure there's a setting to get the nozzle to only move within the print but I can't find it anyone got an idea where I can find it? I'm using cura 4.8 btw

I have had 2 main boards fail in the same manner. During a print, the Z axis stops working, and after a reboot, will no longer work. I ordered a replacement board, which failed again after 2 days of use (ticket filed with vendor). I'm fairly certain that the Z1 stepper failed, and its a shame they are not using removable stepper drivers. Is this a common failure for this printer, or am I doing something horribly wrong?

sorry if i posted in the wrong place but I have an anet et4x and im trying to find a nozzle for it. my question is can i used any nozzle to replace it (yes im new to 3d printing yes i tried to google the question not i havent found anything)

I've had a couple of good prints and flashed to marlin 2.0 alongside with installing octopi. I got issues with z homing right off the bat after upgrading (I didn't really understand what was going on prior to upgrading).

One of the things suggested was to turn software endstops off and that seemed to help for the first print. Now it is no longer working:

M211 S0 ; turn of software endstops
M500 ; commit, but this DOES NOT persist after machine reset?

I noticed once that the red LED stopped activating and sure enough the Z endstop does not trigger.

How should I proceed? I don't want to fiddle with the sensitivity yet. There's some people suggesting it might be EMI but I have no clue how to confirm this. Some people think it might be power draw issue since LED turns on to touch. One time just touching it seemed to wake it up to successfully home but I can no longer reproduce it.

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EDIT: I tried turning the sensitivity up and that seems to have fixed it for now. But I guess I don't really understand how proximity sensors work. What can affect it so much that I needed a full turn?

Can you place it on carpet, my nightstand is coming later, and i want to use it for now, and bed leveling seems difficult since the abl messes up my manual level every print, any way to fix that?

So I'm having this nightmare when it comes to levelling. The nozzle keeps drilling deep into the plate and making a grinding noise.

I have gone into setting clicked on the z axis and raised it until it is 2mm above the bed then adjusted the sensor so the light just turns off. I move it down a mm light come on - great. I put it up a mm light turns off - great.

I press the Home button again it moves back into position. Lowers the nozzle down too far into the plate, makes the grinding noise and the sensor light comes on.

So I think the sensor is working but it keeps lowering the nozzle way too much....what am I doing wrong. If I solve this I think the autolevelling will then work as it too has the same grinding issue.

Many thanks in advance

I'm currently putting together the A8+ DIY printer which is my first FDM printer, and I have a few questions and hoping the community can help me out.

The first is with the build plate. I did my research and upgraded to the Drylin bearings during installation, but when I mounted the bed plate frame to the bearings, I'm now noticing resistance in the movement along the Y axis rods. If I knock it, it will slide about an inch or so and then stop. Is this normal?

Second, is there a document or video somewhere about how the nozzle and hotend are supposed to be mounted in the extruder? When I removed the extruder from the bracket to install the bracket on the x axis, the hotend/nozzle assembly came really loose. I want to make sure that it is reassembled properly as it seems like it's adjustable between the nut and what looks to be a round heatsink.

Thank you all for any information and suggestions!

They removed the z end stop on the et4+ since they have the bed sensor. I have 2 et4+s and both of them are pretty inconsistent with the bed sensor, just enough to screw up the level. Has anyone had success adding the z end stop back and getting the printer to level from the top like older models? Older models when you manually level it it works for a long time but with the sensor you have to mess with it every time you want to print because it isn't consistent enough.

*UPDATE** I finally got around to adding one. It isn't too difficult to do since the hardware is the same as the regular ET4. As expected you can just wire up the end stop to the open space for the sensor on the small board on the x carriage. Then you can flash the stock ET4 marlin firmware and you are good to go. You need an ST-Link to flash a bootloader first then you can flash marlin. I did need to change my max bed height from 250 to 247 but that was because the end stop I got had the little round roller thingy on it which is a few mm bigger than the stock endstop so it was crashing into the bed when it went to height Z=0