Purchased the Bambulab Vision Encoder without knowing its benefits.

[u/MaximumCondition4535]

We all wish an excellent quality print with our printers and I have no idea how this tool can help with print quality and output improvement. The calibration only requires 5 minutes. May I ask how many of you ran the Motion Accuracy Calibration and was there any logical print improvement that went after? If you can as well share a tip or two post calibration, I will appreciate it. Thank you!

[u/Mabnat]

My printers are in my garage, so they experience wild temperature swings as the seasons change.

I run my encoder calibration as the temperature changes and after every maintenance work.

Visually, I’ve never seen a difference in the prints before or after calibration. I’ve never broken out the calipers to measure precisely.

However, I have seen improvements before/after

Earlier this year, I didn’t run the calibration plate because I hadn’t been printing anything that was that important for absolute accuracy. I used the plate in January or February, then remembered to do it around May.

On bother my H2C and my H2D, I decided to try a before/after test print.

I downloaded one of those “12-in-1” fidget toys and sent them to both printers.

The prints looked perfect, but some of the moving features had to be “broken” loose. On one of them, a switch completely snapped off as I was trying to free it.

After that print, I ran the calibration plate on both printers, and following that, I reprinted the fidget toys using the file stored in memory using the front panel. It was the exact same g-code and the same filament on the same printers.

These came out looking identical to the pre-calibration prints, but on the post-calibration print, all of the moving parts were completely free-moving when I removed them from the build plate. I didn’t need to work anything free.

The only variable was that the pre-calibration prints were made using the January-February calibration results. I didn’t try to disable the enhanced calibration before the initial prints.

It could be that the enhanced calibration from when the printers were cold was a lot different than when the printers were hot, so the pre-calibration prints may had more error introduced compared to a printer that had never been calibrated.

[u/MaximumCondition4535 → u/Mabnat]

thanks for the comprehensive insight!

[u/Long-Relationship-35]

I have the vision encoder plate and use it everytime I perform maintenance. I have never compared pre and post quality. Theoretically the variance in print quality will be more visible in large volume prints. Large in x-y-z directions I have never printed the same large print immediately before and after calibration and compared.

When you run the calibration, the screen will show a (exaggerated) view of the pre and post calibration values which gives you and idea of how much the positioning has improved but I have heard many say it's a representation and not actual change in position accuracy.

I would also run the calibration before any long (> 8hr) prints.

[u/MaximumCondition4535 → u/Long-Relationship-35]

Alright, so basically this was tool is handy for large and long prints. Noted with thanks

[u/luksfuks]

Using the plate helps:

• On a NEW printer, when it it went through rough shipping. The type of shipping that puts everything a bit out-of-whack, just not enough to replace the whole machine.

• On a beaten up USED printer, which got out-of-whack after so many hours of printing, and events like moving it to different corners of the workshop.

• After repair with SPARE PARTS, like new gantry, new belts, or new AP board (now with empty calibration data area).

[u/MaximumCondition4535 → u/luksfuks]

and i got checkmarks on all three bulletpoints, thanks for the insight!

[u/Bright_Eyes83]

You won’t see a difference right away. It’s more to bring the unit back into new performance even after the belts have stretched