Setting Z Offset Not Working Right...

[cliffyk]

I don't know why the later manuals added use of the "Z=0" function as some required element of aligning the platen--it is not, in fact in two years I have never used it except experimentally to see what it did.

I just downloaded the Mars 2 Pro manual and find their description of the alignment process to be incredibly complex--that nonsense about raising (or lowering) the platen 0.1 mm manually and setting "Z=0" to decrease pull-out resistance of the gauge paper is ridiculous--the paper is only 0.01 mm thick, .1 mm is 10 times the thickness of the paper!.

Just loosen the screws and don't press down as firmly next time is all it takes; that raising/lowering and "Z=0" garbage is absurd...

Here is the entire alignment procedure from my original Mars manual:



Note there is no gibberish about pull-out resistance of the paper, or manually raising/lowering the platen. I guess too many users pressed down like a 600 lb. gorilla before tightening the screws (they were originally socket set "grub" screws that people were always stripping when they tightened them like it was a wheel on their car). Elegoo changed them to socket cap screws in the later models. They do indicate that the front screw should be tightened first in the referenced "Picture 3"

One "gotcha" here: if you have messed with the "Z=0" function in the past you need to reset it to coincide with the real "home/zero"position.

So,  DO use it after you have properly aligned the platen as I described--this will ensure that he physical "zero" home position and the logical "Z=0" firmware recorded position are the same so that a gCode goto(0) command (generally the first command in a print file) does not send the platen to some crazy position.