Recently, I’ve been forced to perform major service procedures on X1C, therefore I’ve decided to perform complete machine recalibration. There is one detail, which I’ve found no info about. How to calibrate hotbed and hotend temperatures?
According to my indoor air quality monitor, room temperature is 17.8 deg. C, hotend sensor shows 21 deg. C, while hotbed only 16 deg. C. I know, difference of 2-3 deg. C is not going to have major impact on print quality, but still, it’d be nice having my X1C displaying correct temperatures, since it’s supposed to be high end machine.
I’ve noticed this behavior with my other brand printers. The thermistors used aren’t that precise or calibrated. It isn’t worth worrying about in my opinion,
Nope. Get your own temps, and adjust your print settings accordingly.
Print bed is supposed to be 50C and after 10 minutes, it is only 44, adjust your settings 6*. Nozzle temp supposed to be 225 and is 238, adjust your settings until you replace the heating element or nozzle.
The others have addressed this, but I’ll add that you should run OrcaSlicer. It has a bunch of Calibrations that are two or three click predesigned routines to do things like Temp Towers and Flow Rate tests.
You then save those in the Profile for each Filament, after that it’s just choose a filament and go with perfectly dialed in settings.
All machines vary a bit no matter how stringent the QA team is, it’s just physics. As you undoubtedly know since you’re asking
But with these machines you make any changes for temps, flow, etc in the Filament Profile. Do it once for each filament when you 1st use that one and you’re good for the future.
Yes, it’s a PITA, but not so much as what you’re doing on the hardware, eh?
Just an odd note about this - different brands of filament are different blends and there’s some wild variation, but be aware that different colors of filament can also vary wildly, not something that’s intuitive.
I’ve seen people go nuts playing with settings to fix bad prints, disassembling the printhead, you name it, to find that the Orange PLA runs radically different settings from the Black of the same brand they’ve used for years!
After calibration temps for more types of filaments brands and materials, I have the feeling that all my filaments print best at 20-30C more than manufacturers specs or at the top of their recommended range. It”s like my x1c”s hotend shows 230C but in reality itt”s 210-215C. Same for PETG, ABS, TPU, etc…
Higher temperatures need to be set because the X1C hardened steel nozzles are not as heat conductive as the more common brass nozzles upon which filament manufacturers base their recommendations.
The temperature sensor actually shows the temperature of the heat block, not the nozzle, nor the filament.
The speed of heat transfer from the heat block to the filament is a function of the heat conductivity of the nozzle and the temperature difference between the heat block and the filament. Lowering the conductivity of the nozzle means the temperature difference has to be greater to get an equivalent heat flow.
The lower temperature at the filament can’t be changed, it is the temperature needed for proper melting.
So a higher temperature needs to be set at the heat block for the heat to flow through a hardened nozzle as fast as it does through a brass nozzle, fast enough to melt the filament properly.
The actual number does not matter, set it at whatever your filament calibration tests show works the best for you and your printer.
