I’m new to the art and craft of 3D printing and have no experience participating in forums and other public discussions. So I will probably post the following question also on Bambu Lab’s Discord server and the Reddit r/BambuLab, hoping to get helpful feedback in some of these channels.
So, as a newbie, I thought I’d better be careful not to make a certain obvious mistake. And, of course, 2 days later I made it: in my enthusiasm to print, I failed to remove the object the printer just finished to print. As a result, the print head collided with the object on the build plate and hotend’s cover came off. I don’t know if this happened while the printer was amidst the calibration phase. In any case, the Bambu Handy app alerted me with an error message, suggesting how to fix the problem. But as soon as I saw what had happened in person, I disregarded the suggestions. I simply lowered the bed, freed the stuck print-head cover, and reset it properly. Of course, I removed the printed object off the plate and restarted the job. This time the printer finished printing without a hitch.
This raises several questions:
(1) Wasn’t the Lidar supposed to detect the large obstacle on the build plate and terminate the printing process during the initialization phase and issue the alert before the problem actually occurred?
(2) If so, why it didn’t?
(3) If not, then what is the Lidar good for if it cannot or does not detect large obstacles in the why of the print head?
(4) If this collision happened before the Lidar is activated to do its job, shouldn’t be activated earlier?
I hope to never make this mistake again, but wondering if there is reason to be concerned that the Lidar might miss other problems.
(BTW, I’m still trying to figure out how to refer to the object I’m printing. It occurred to me that talking about the outcome of a paper print job, “printout” or “hardcopy” describe the output of text printers. Perhaps “3D print-up” applies to the output of 3D printers. Any thought?)
The LIDAR isn’t really useful to check for an empty build plate as it only measures tiny distances and volumes during bed levelling and filament calibration. In order to scan the entire plate, it needs to be quite close, defeating your purpose.
The chamber camera could probably do it with a fairly simple AI. Unfortunately, it does not see the plate when it is lowered.
The most pragmatic way atm is really to ensure a safe workflow. I am always present and at the printer when starting a print. If that is not an option (despite manufacturers recommendation), make it a habbit to always take a quick peek through the camera.
Thanks for the detailed info. You confirmed my uneducated understanding of the system. I wish that the available hardware would be used the limits of its capabilities. For example, not knowing the specs of this Lidar system, I wonder if the laser can sweep the surface of the plate (in addition to its micro-level local scanning) and some sensor (the camera?) would detect any interference.
Your suggestion to observe the initial phase of the printing process is the practice I now try to adhere by. But the Bambu studio is on a computer in a different room form the printer. Usually I can get to it while it is still warning up.
I Have a simple Amazon blink mini camera in a position to see the bed and I just have a look via that before the print starts. I am already using the computer to start the print anyway so the extra step can still be accomplished from the comfort of my armchair…
Don’t feel bad about forgetting to remove the print before beginning the next one - I’d wager that most of us on this forum have done that. Forgetting to replace the build plate is another!
Thanks for the cheer-up. I’m of the opinion that making mistakes is an important part of learning. So momentary disappointments are soon overcome by the satisfaction I learned something important. Cheers.
