I’ve been notified of “Nozzle camera lens is dirty, affecting AI monitoring” four times over the past three days. I carefully clean the lens and it goes back to work … but then I’ll get the error again several jobs and several hours later.
I’m printing Bambu PETG-HF exclusively, and have been keeping my H2D pretty busy with Gridfinity containers.
The lens appears perfectly clean when I get the error. Perhaps the sensitivity for this relatively new detection is set too high.
I wonder if others getting this error frequently also?
I have noticed PETG and ASA outgas a lot more than PLA. I have to clean the door and top on my P1S more frequently when using those materials. I also clean the carbon rods more frequently.
Thanks for your comment/observation. I actually run an exhaust fan inline with the 4" tubing from the H2D exhaust port to outdoors, so I’d think that should be getting rid of excess junk in the air.
Anyway, it’s no big deal to clean the nozzle camera – and it’s nice that the H2D brings it front and center to make this easy.
The downside is that it can get the error an hour into a 6-hour overnight job and then sit there waiting all night for human intervention – while keeping the heatbed heated of course. (And I realize that it HAS TO keep it heated so that the PETG will continue to stick while waiting for problem resolution.)
I have noticed the the glass door on my H2S seems to be a bit dirtier than I would have expected after 226 print hours. But there might just be something about the PETG-HF (most of those print hours, the rest being a translucent PETG) that, as others have speculated, just puts out a bit more grime/dust than the usual PLA.
In my experience however, while the camera does look like it might be getting a bit foggier, the machine hasn’t complained about this.
My PETG-HF choice was Gray for what it’s worth. Curious what brands, blends, and colors others have been using.
I’ve been non-stop printing Gridfinity bins in Bambu PETG-HF Cream color, with a little eSun chocolate brown PETG for lettering and accents. (And for my hardware bins, further accents in Bambu PETG green, red, orange, yellow, grey to denote their metric sizes.)
I’ve burned through 6 spools (refills) of the Cream now, but just a half spool of the chocolate and negligible amounts of the other colors.
I leave the front door open on my H2D when printing PETG 'coz it gets too hot in the chamber with it closed.
And as I wrote earlier, I have a vent fan sucking air through the H2D rear vent. I can’t imagine that the nozzle camera is getting dirty from offgassing.
And FWIW, I experienced the “Nozzle camera lens is dirty” again an hour ago, pausing the print for my attention. I think that’s now 5 times in 4 days of printing.
This error usually happens to me when there is a tiny strand of stringing waving around beside the camera. Clean the area behind the nozzles especially up where the heaters cables pass.
I think you’ve nailed the problem for me. Thank you.
I’ve noticed some very VERY fine, whispy threads of the Cream PETG tend to accumulate over time on the end of the silicone sock on that (left) nozzle. It’s like cotton candy but much finer; almost invisible threads.
If this can trick the firmware into thinking that the nozzle camera is dirty, then that’s probably what’s happening. As I mentioned earlier, the camera lens appears perfectly clean when I get these notifications. And of course as part of cleaning off the lens, I’ve also been removing those fine threads of PETG from the sock.
I’ve just replaced the sock with a new one (although the old original one looked fine). And I’d read somewhere that putting a tiny bit of oil on the sock can help prevent filament from sticking, so I did that too. Time will tell if this resolves the issue for me.
Glad to help. Since we are talking about socks, I found the aftermarket aliexpress socks are more durable than OEM bambu. The bambu socks only lasted a few hundred hours for me, the aliexpress ones are at more then 2000 hours and still going.
im only printing pla and on the h2d i never had it but on my h2c i get it almost every print… the lens looks clean - i cant see dust or scratches or whatver… i really got the feeling it has to do with mate pla - after printing 300 hours with pla mate i noticed plastic dust layer on everyhtign - its not normal dust it kind of smears when u try to wipe it off… i only can imagine this is on the camera… will clean later and will see if it comes again…
Same for some I recently purchased off of amazon. They don’t crack between the nozzle hole and the slot underneath like the Bambulab ones do, because there’s no slot:
Is it a night and day kind of improvement, or more of a “meh” 10-30% improvement? I ask because at one point I had tried the Slice Engineering non-stick coating that they advise get painted onto the nozzle, and, at least for me, it was a meh that I discontinued. There was improvement, but in my opinion it was just too marginal to justify the effort.
@gregreid I’m having the same thing happen to me as you did in your original post. In addition to the “cotton candy” wisps that @maxim3D mentions, which I agree do seem to be a factor, I wonder whether the left-over ooze coming out of the nozzle at the very end of a PETG print, as so often happens, and which gets solidified in place for the start of the next print might also be a factor. I’m still forming an opinion on that, but I’m starting to lean in that direction. If that’s the case, then maybe triggering an extra nozzle clean at the end of a PETG print might help avoid these false triggers at the start of the next print.
Just a small, but I’d say noticeable, improvement. I don’t “re-oil” regularly; just if/when I think about it. And I’ve not done any true experiments to be able to say “it reduces sticking by 24%”. But if I had to guess, I’d put it at 38.2% reduction.
