Mark Yu's E3D, VORON 3D Printer Add-On Automates the Tricky Process of Pressure Advance Calibration
An all-in-one sensor design, this printer tool can figure out the best PA setting for your printer and filament in under two minutes.
Maker and 3D printing enthusiast Mark Yu has designed a device for automated pressure advance (PA) calibration on E3D and VORON fused filament fabrication (FFF) printers.
"As we know, different filaments, printing speeds, temperatures, etc. have different PA [Pressure Advance] values that affect print quality significantly," Yu explains of the need for his creation. "Until now, very few printers on the market have automated PA calibration; many still require manual calibration, which is time-consuming and not everyone can do."
Traditionally, PA calibration — a key step in tuning a 3D printer to avoid "oozing" when the extruder is moving but not printing and "blobbing" when the extruder is actively printing and turns a corner — is a manual process. A test pattern is printed over the course of multiple minutes, then inspected by eye to find the sweet spot. Yu's approach, though, is a much faster affair: it's a sensor that connects to the printer and automatically dials in exactly the right PA settings for a given filament.
"Without printing calibration lines, it just simulate[s] extrusion pressure behavior during acceleration and deceleration while only the extruder is working," Yu explains of how the gadget operates. "This work process is similar to the Bambu Lab A1 printer, instead, I use [a] strain gauge, not eddy sensor."
The add-on sensor has a second mode, too: "[In] nozzle probe mode," Yu explains, "[I] use the strain gauge to sense the nozzle pressure while probing. It works as a normal switch end-stop sensor, so we can just power it and connect the Z-pin on the mainboard."
Design files for the sensor board, a data-monitoring tool, firmware source code, and an extension for the Klipper 3D printer firmware are all available on GitHub under an unspecified license.