Peopoly Vat Levelling Test Grid

thingiverse

This text is used to precisely calibrate your Peopoly Moai printer. First, attempt to level using the recommended Peopoly leveling techniques - such as tightening the nuts a 1/4 turn after they hit the tilt platform, etc. This gets you to a coarse alignment. Use the grid on this posting to test the print. Make sure the entire grid prints. If it doesn't, you didn't do a decent job with the original, coarse leveling. Try again. Next, the goal is to try to make the grid fail. This is done entirely through software configuration. Lower the "Z-Reset Position" incrementally by two steps. I started with 1878, then reduced to 1876 and re-printed the grid. I kept reducing the Z-Reset Position until a part of the grid failed. This will look like some of the cylinders are missing on your build-plate. Usually they are missing in one corner. See the photo for what that looks like. Clean your vat. You now have loose pieces in the resin. Consider setting up a filtering system for your resin to quickly dump it through the filter/strainer into a container, wipe the vat with a squeegee, and pour back the clean resin. Don't bother trying to fish out the stray pieces by shifting around the resin - you will always miss something and scramble up the process. Clean it each time! Then I loosened the nut in the corresponding corner by 1/4 turn. Then I re-printed it again. If the entire grid didn't print, I loosened it another 1/4 turn and re-printed the grid. Keep on going. The corners are probably not all on the same level, so you need to cause it to fail again. Lower the Z-Reset Position again another two steps. Re-print. Clean the vat, lower 2 steps. Re-print. Clean the vat. Keep doing it until it fails again. Adjust that corner, and re-print. Eventually, the entire grid starts to fail equally. That's the condition you are looking for. Next, increase the Z-Reset Position. I don't have a strong opinion as to the amount to increase it. Maybe 4 steps? This will determine how hard the build plate presses against the vat. You do want it to press sufficiently to ensure that the first few layers adhere. But not so hard that these layers start to shift as the build plate rises. Look closely at the bottom of the cylinders. If you see a rim around each that is shifted to one side, it may be too close, so increase the Z-Reset Position another step. This approach solved the tilting / z-axis shift problem for me. Now I can print detailed parts!