BLTouch : Auto Bed Leveling Sensor/to be a Premium 3D Printer (with 1M Extension Cable Set)

This product works as advertised, with a few caveats. The connection from the extension cable to the mainboard is generally loose and can cause unexpected behavior if not secured. I wedged some thin cardstock in beside it to hold it tight and that finally did the trick. I won't lower the product rating for that since its a known issue in the community and doesn't reflect the actual performance of this genuine and functional BL Touch unit. Some people have attached the correct style of connector for their specific board in their install tutorials. I would not rate the install as "easy" since I do not have pin tools and opted to strip and solder the wires to connect the extension cable to the factory one. Once that was done, I fed the wires through the braided cable management compression tubes down to the mainboard and plugged it it. Having the 4.2.2 mainboard, I didn't require any additional interface equipment (transfer board). Older boards will, and you may want to look for a complete interface kit if you have an older board. This kit doesn't have a mounting bracket for the BL Touch, so I printed my own. Flashing the new firmware from creality.com/download was easy for this model of mainboard (4.2.2 or the newer 4.2.7), I simply erased an SD card, placed the new .BIN file on the SD, inserted it into the printer, and booted it up. After that finished, I wiped the card, loaded some print files, and returned the card to the printer before configuring the new setup since settings will be saved on the SD card. Overall, I am extremely pleased with the performance of the BL Touch and, having fixed my loose connection to the mainboard, the unit itself works perfectly every time. I have since upgraded to the 4.2.7 mainboard, and the unit also works perfectly with that. I have also added OctoPrint on a Raspberry Pi and the bed visualization plugin that displays the mesh data from the BL Touch in a graphical format makes it even easier to fine-tune a perfect base-level print platform so that the automatic bed leveling system has less work to do.

I bought my Ender 3 two months ago and have gone through a lot of receipt paper to level my bed. Those days are finally behind me now :) This thing is amazing. When I finally got it working, it worked flawlessly and my printing experiences have been so much better since. That said, the comments about this being an "easy installation" are either full of hubris or ignorance. The HW installation is not challenging for even an intermediate 3D Printer-Hobbyist, like myself. The devil is in the SW/Firmware setup on the Ender 3. As of the Summer of 2019, I strongly recommend The Teaching Tech on YouTube. Also double check your wiring. There are five wires on this device: a black and white pair for the Z-Stop sensor, and a Red-Brown-Yellow set for the filament sensor. Twice now I have helped folks debug their BLTouch and the solution was either a loose Z-Stop wire pair, or the R/B/Y was not plugged in correctly. Because this product does not come with a schematic: Red = 5V, Brown = GND, Yellow = Signal

Look, the BLtouch gets a bad wrap because people buy the knockoffs then complain that they're finicky or unreliable. Yes it's not as accurate as an inductive or capacitive sensor, but it really doesn't need to be. There have been tests done that show while the physical switch nature of the BLtouch produces slightly less accurate meshes, the variance is essentially at such miniscule scales that printers aren't even accurate enough to take advantage of the difference. Here's the thing though, DO NOT cheap out and buy one of the clones. Spend the extra to get the genuine BLtouch. The clones DO have accuracy issues, they ARE unreliable. Just like many 3d printer parts you should splurge and get the real deal because the knock offs are unreliable. Yes, it has moving parts, but if you use it correctly, it should almost never wear out. Set this up to probe the bed before every print and enjoy your perfect first layers, every time. Just make sure you test it with your finger before you know what you're doing to avoid a bed crash.

This is an awesome addition to a 3D printer because it basically removes all of the hassle of trying to get the bed level. Be warned however that it is a major pain to get it to work with some printers, and there's very little to no documentation provided by the manufacturer. Be prepared to spend hours working on trying to get this to work and wondering ... why isnt this working! Once it works, it's awesome though. Here's a few notes from my experience. I am using Marlin with a Geeetech printer. - This will require replacing the firmware on your printer. Get out that Arduino editor and download the latest Marlin firmware. - The sensor's output connects in place of the Z endstop switch. In Marlin, I discovered after fighting for hours that you have to disable the pullup resistor in the Marlin firmware on that endstop for the sensor to be recognized. - Strongly recommend you look up YouTube videos for how to make the necessary edits for the Marlin firmware and how to calibrate the sensor. - Recommend programming your slicer's pre-print commands to heat the bed while doing auto level, because this will save some time.

Funciona muy bien mucho mejor que otros sensores, ya que no importa el material de la base siempre es exacto, cuando le agarras practica es muy sencillo calibrar la impresora así como la cama caliente, es un poco tedioso estar soldando piezas y agregando conectores, así como el cambio de firmware, diría que no es sencillo, pero vale la pena poder tenerlo y calibrar la cama caliente, ahora tengo impresiones casi perfectas.

Almost a year ago I installed 'BLTOUCH BL Touch Auto Bed Levelling Sensor' and here I am sharing my bit of experience. For Installation you needn't be a pro but at least should have clear concept of basic circuits, wiring and should know to manipulate codes with Arduino IDE. Rest assured any good guidance from google or YouTube will sail you smoothly before you can start your first levelling with an hour or two. I needn't preach on this but its known that doing adequate online research from credible sources always helps. Once installation is done and you get friendlier you will almost forget that bed levelling was your task that couldn't be done away with. BLtouch will do its job every time perfectly. I still do the sheet of paper method once in a long while, but that doesn't feel tedious, only adds satisfaction of doing yourself that fine tuning that deviation which inevitably occurs in any mechanical or electro-mechanical setups. Its a good product and all the good things you have come across the net is true. As I use octoprint I can tell you that BLtouch plugin will make things even easier. As a tip for new user just do a bit of research and alter the sequence of default routine of home and z-axis homing before the hot-bed heats up. That will prolong the life span of the probing tip.

Pain in the butt to get it up and running but once I did, the first layer on my Biqu B1 was perfect everytime.

Al inicio no lo podía hacer funcionar, pero el pin de la tarjeta skr mini v2.0 no tenia 5 volts, busque otro pin con voltaje y el sensor funciono de maravilla, utilice unos cables para arduino para separar las señales.

I've spent too much time making it work. Nothing comes out of the box except the BLTOUCH. No instructions. No URL to help you out. Nothing.