Three Neptune 4 Pros were tested, all had this issue. The issue may not affect all printers as they get manufactured at different times and sent to different warehouses. Each printer was assembled properly and correction was not attempted through software (as one should not be expected to need to fix such a simple mechanical issue with software). Contrary to what some comments say, I'm not the only one to discover this issue. There's a lot of fanboys in the comments who would sooner buy a broken printer than admit it's faulty..
This is not the issue... This is a You don't know how to dial in Klipper and adjust Concentric nuts issue. Like really my guy. Also Those mechanical Issues you speak of exist in every printer from Bambu labs to the lowest of ender 3 printers. This is a YOU issue. You see the reason you can fix this with software isn't because you shouldn't be expected to, but because SHOCK SHOCK YOU HAVE TO!!! This is a fundamental user issue, Bambu lab printers do this for you so you don't see it. AnkerMake printers do this for you so you don't see it. Elegoo's Neptune 4 Printers depend on You to use the software to do this for yourself. Good news is Klipper, Orca Slicer have wonderful tools to dial this in for you. Hey, Lucky for you someone made a website that even a Blame Artist like you can fallow! teachingtechyt.github.io/calibration.html If you can't figure out that site maybe go by an A1 mini and save the internet from your silly BS complaints. Also Just so you know to get the kind of precision mechanical alignment you what... I can tell you from experience of working in a metal shop you should expect to pay about 40x as much for just the metal frame alone. This isn't a joke... It is expensive to have precision mechanical alignment when building any kind of multi part mental frame that has recessive attachments(AKA is screws together and relies each screw to be precise). To that end most 3d printers will be off fractions of MM also you should never be using 3d prints for engineering replacements as it isn't suitable for most engineering applications other than models which they are display pieces to show proof of concept. As for you are not the only one to notice... we are talk about engineering nerds or idiots pointing something out. The engineering nerds are like Well with in tolerance and is fine. The Idiots are the same people who don't understand our world isn't flat. Do you fall in that category? Please don't make others think you are dumb by using the transitive property. Also there is a difference between usable tolerance, and something to be mechanically precision built... most things are made to fit a certain tolerance. Which I can tell you all of those 3d printers are well with in 99% (Since you got three printers that are off according to you, and less than a MM which is with in tolerance, it is you problem). Lastly I have Major OCD and even I don't have this level of things aren't right... You might want to talk to a doctor about that and I am not joking here. This is a sign of autism or massive levels of OCD, get the help you need my guy.
@@MichaelOfRohan That's not even close to how that works. People tend not to return even known defective/lemon products, returns aren't easy. Especially true for things of this size where you may have thrown away the box before realizing it was defective (which this is a difficult defect to detect) like I did.
@@MichaelOfRohan Ah yes, because I'm the one with a factory outputting flawed machines. I did not drive anyone away from engineering either way. Make sense.
The problem is not with the printer, just recalibrate the resonance compensation, elegoo have put default values for input shaper and it is causing this … I’ve tried it by the way … in the neptune 4 pro and the Voron 2.4 r2 and this was the thing to fix
While possible that software values are causing the issue, every printer I've had has had the issue slightly differently. So if they all have the same default values, they'd of all been messed up the same way.
@@ProgThoughts Not, necessarily, every printer is slightly different, even if they are the same model. So that would explain why they all had a slightly different issue. The default values ELEGOO provides are an average across many printers that they have tested so those values are not going to be perfect for any one printer. Tuning these values may still fix the issue. It could still be misaligned axis, so I'm not saying you're wrong, but I think there are some other things you could try to fix the issue if you wanted to tinker with it some more.
Have you tried the Califlower Vector3d skew correction files and spreadsheet calculator? My Biqu B1 has a waaayy more rigid frame than my Elegoo so giant printer style braces may be in its future.... I've even seen kits starting to come out for this. I agree mechanics are at least half the problem causing returns .....not just soft/firmware issues.
So do the Skew correction¶ Software based skew correction can help resolve dimensional inaccuracies resulting from a printer assembly that is not perfectly square. Note that if your printer is significantly skewed it is strongly recommended to first use mechanical means to get your printer as square as possible prior to applying software based correction.
Received mine the other day and it prints 0.11 off I think I have a new revision of printer though as mine doesn’t have the micro sd card slot maybe they fixed the issue? I’ve been loving the printer!! Apart from an issue where my z axis wasn’t aligned but I got that fixed fast and it was my fault to begin with
I love my Neptune 3 Pro which has nearly the same setup on the X and Y, but maybe this just did not affect that generation. I wouldn't know, because my needs don't require those tighter tolerances. But this is good info for those that do. Good video!
Manu manu thanks for showing this issue. It should be related to the misalignment or the 2 vertical columns; using precision comparator (Mitutoyo made, reliable below 0,01 mm) should allow to displace the 2 lateral screws (on 4 made by design and final user assembly) possible; maybe by precision scratching. I think to print a greek cross (+ shape) to demonstate the difference of fine X & Y settings. Beat regards from France
This isn't a rails issue this is an idiot issue. he has less than reasonable amount of variance in 3d printer and shock shock blames screw hole that are less than MM "off" according to him... which are well with in tolerances.
Mine is arriving in less than an hour. I've never owned a 3D printer, and I'm trying to figure out what sort of maintenance I should do after receiving an email from Elegoo telling me to grease the rails. None of the videos I watched about setting it up, said to grease anything. Now I hear about this miss alignment problem. I'll check for alignment when I figure out how to use it lol.
The only maintenance on this printer different than a normal printer is to grease the rails yes. The grease comes in the box so you don't have to buy anything. Simply put some on the wheels and then roll the bed/hotend around until the grease is all over the rails. Don't forget both sides of the bed and the top/bottom of the X gantry. One of the machines came with no grease on the lead screws, so you might wanna put some on there as well.
So is there any budget priced 3D printers that are new featuring Klipper worth buying? Ones that have no defects and are open source? Seems that all the companies produce broken printers?
Thanks for the informative review. You may have saved me some money here. I'm looking for an upgrade to my Ender 3 v2 with Klipper support/faster print speeds. Does anyone know if both the pro and the non pro have this issue?
I have the Neptune 4 pro with the exact same issue, I thought this inaccuracy was normal on all FDM printers since it’s my first one. Please post again if you find a DIY solution!
I did tolerance and clearance tests. I got tolerances to 0.2 or 0.15mm (can't remember). However, I noticed the issue with clearance tests, trying to put a cylinder through a hole. The cylinder would fit, but the fit became tighter/looser as I turned the cylinder, which is how I realized it was not a perfect circle. Dissembled the frame and put it back together, same issue on 3 of these Neptune 4 Pros.
crap I just built mine... do you think my Elegoo Neptune Max 3 has it or when I might buy the Elegoo neptune 4 Max or would they all be a different built under the same Neptune name?
If you've already built it, just print a cylinder and check! I've only seen reports of this on the Neptune 4 Pro, but its not unlikely it may be on the other 4 versions. I've been disappointed by the reviews I've seen of this machine, as this is such a simple test yet no one has bothered to check and don't expect they will for the other versions either.
In my school we have 4 of these and i wanted to get one myself now as they worked (as stated in the video) well for cosmetic/fun prints, and i never went into too much detail woth any offsets. We printed a planetary gearbox, and that worked just fine so idk if i should get this as im printing things for my rc cars but not really anything txat just has to fit. Also ive heard the a1 mini is a good printer, do you have any experience with that? Also gonna try the zylinder now ill see how that goes. Maybe the missalignment is just an early production mistake fixed now?
I've seen people with and without the problem. I've had 3 of them, at least 2 of which were from different factories and they all had this issue. A gearbox is not likely to suffer from an issue (due to there being several gears rather than one large gear making contact with the ring gear) other than being less efficient than usual. All Bambu Printers seem to be perfectly fine, tho I only have experience with the P1P which is great for me!
Yesterday i square hole mashine with protactors and rulers, upper gantry mount was little skewed but i alligned it all... AND... still got the same problem, so this "smells" on some kliper isue or something else, maybe steppers motors...
Printer we releveled many many times and have had the issue with 3 different units. Completely possible different warehouses or future builds did not have this issue.
@@ProgThoughts Possibly, I just purchased it a couple of weeks ago and tried to replicate the issue you're having but it seems to be ok within tolerance
@@thimiraamaratunga7794 most of things are corrected via software nowadays if possible. The cost of a fix is hundreds times cheaper in software. It is a sad reality.
i have the non pro neptune 4 and i print for real world accuracy, i have done the firmware upgrade that was offered on the Discord and its fine ! printing parts for Airsoft parts, at first i was getting odd shaping but that was my own fault for changing the wrong setting in the CFG file for the extruder and the steps per rotation unless you use a machinist square you cannot say that the axis are misaligned, as its more down to stepper control
I did not with 100% certainty make sure that the axes were misaligned, they just most likely are. It wouldn't make much sense for the stepper motors to make it bigger on the bottom right and top left, then smaller on the top right and bottom left.
As I see from videos, it comes with Z portal separated and you have to screw it on, no? So, you have some play there and can fix alignment releasing screws and adjusting portal position a bit. 0.2 mm looks quite a real number for play in that area.
I've tried reinstalling several times, but it doesn't work - even when trying to force it. The CNC'd holes shouldn't allow such a high error margin anyway if done right.
@@ProgThoughts Ok, that's interesting... I have Neptune 4 Plus on preorder for my dad, will suggest him to check diagonals well. Though will not be big issue for him to adjust holes a bit or shift horizontal parts of frame.
villainouspropshop.com/product/ghostface-mask-3d-model-stl-file/ I believe I got it from here. Should include the cover for the mouth in there as well. A pain to print though!
@ i've got about £700 to buy a printer. I don't want a bambu (privacy!). This will be my 1st printer. i'm considering either Elegoo Neptune 4 pro or Flash forger adventurer 5M pro... which do u think i should get or is there another you'd suggest?
The Bambu can be used in LAN mode, so privacy would be a lot better (after your initial setup of the device). The Neptune 4 Pro has been giving me issues lately aside from the misaligned axes. I've looked at the 5M but haven't tried it, so can't tell you which to pick!
Which printer would you recommend? Did you manage to solve your problem? I was seriously thinking of buying a Neptune 4 (not the pro) or a Sovol SV07, or even an Ender 3 V3, as they are all more or less in the same price range and don't vary much in this respect.
The Sovol SV07 has good reviews, but I personally hated how thrown together it seemed. After fiddling with an Ender 3V2 for so long, I wanted an easier printer, which this Neptune 4 Pro definitely was until I found this error. My eyes are on the P1P from Bambu, but it's a different league in terms of price. The Neptune 4 Pro is something I'd of recommended a hundred times over if not for this issue. I don't have a solid recommendation for ya, sorry.
@@mendicantbias5211 I'd love to buy a BambuLab, but unfortunately where I live it's absurdly expensive, making it unfeasible, but fortunately I have some options like the Sovol Sv06, Sv06 Plus, Sv07 and the Neptunes, like the one in the video and the Neptune 4 Normal, I've never had a 3D printer, but I'd like to have functional projects and a printer that can deliver good quality parts, both for "aesthetic" parts and for completely functional parts (which is one of my main purposes for buying a 3D printer).
@@user-th8xf2no1z I have to say my Ender 3V2 printed very well when it worked. But more often than not the printer itself became the project rather than allow me to focus on other things. I jumped straight to the Bambu Lab P1P, which is pricier, but I'll have a review for it coming up :)
I have the Neptune 4 and it is not working very good. My filament is not sticking to the build plate very good please can someone tell me how to fix it please
I must say that their customer service has been stellar. Even though they're low on representatives as stated, they still managed to make things right. I may update this comment with further testing results. Here's everything I've realized about the Neptune 4 Pro. Printed parts tend to be weaker on this printer than I'd expect. This may 100% be on me, but not an issue I've had before this printer. *X/Y Axes:* I've tested a 3rd and final Neptune 4 Pro. Same issue, but with a 0.15-0.2mm variance in diameter for a 15mm cylinder. The other two printers were tuned beforehand, this 3rd one I made the cylinder the first print after bed leveling. I also made sure for the millionth time that the gantry you attach in assembly could not be put on wrong and that I wasn't tightening up any screws that didn't want to go in easily. *Cura vs Prusaslicer:* Beautiful and fast prints, but I've had trouble with it. Particularly, the prints from Cura and Prusaslicer are *not* equivalent on this machine and I would recommend Prusaslicer for the Neptune 4 Pro. The only issue I had with Prusaslicer was I couldn't adjust flow, but you can do that from Klipper. The issue with Cura is that the walls of prints sometimes don't seem to stick together, as if printed too far apart (not all prints are obvious, test with a cube with no top surfaces). With Prusaslicer, this issue does not exist and I couldn't find any physical issues to cause this other than the slicer. *Differences Between Units:* One unit had a display that was a little odd. It was much dimmer than it should have been and had an extra setting in the advanced setting section called, "Dynamic Speed" or something like that. Quite odd. One machine came with no lubrication on the lead screws, causing a screeching sound during prints that I fixed by adding lube. That's all.
@@user-lg3sd4xg7j There may be software fixes, but in the end, it's going to be a hardware problem and a software solution will never be as good as simply having the frame perfectly square.
Well I bought this printer with this video in mind. Made a little test model which had a cube of 17.5mm printed diagonally. On my E3V2 the it was dead on being 17.43x 17.43mm. On the new Neptune 4 Pro it was 17.38x 17.49mm. On a 15mm cylinder I measured the lowest point to be 14.70mm and the highest to be 14.85 on the 4 Pro. What is surprising is that these measurements were taken ~5mm away from each other along the curve (not on the seam). Again, on the E3V2 it was 14.79 being the lowest and 14.83 being the highest (seam excluded again). Looking at my N4Pro cylinder it does appear octagonal as another commenter mentioned. I made a larger test square which had 4 cutouts in it 149.71mm diagonally distanced from each other. The two diagonals measured 149.11x 149.55mm. This whole ordeal is disappointing but expected. I'll see what support has to offer.
Thanks for testing it out! Yes, my experience was similar, the lowest and highest points of the cylinders were very close to each other! Support will have no solution for this from my experience. Makes one appreciate their Ender 3 a lot more..
@@ProgThoughts It really does make my appreciate my E3V2 more. I havent done any maintenance on it since I got it 3 years ago, only re-leveled it once a year or so, aside from the cooling issue they had (solved by propping open the mainboard housing) it has been absolutely flawless and utterly reliable. Nothing but a shame I cant fully transition over to the Neptune 4 Pro. If Elegoo cant do anything for me i'll just do it myself.
@@ProgThoughts Well they ended up accepting a return, recently got fully refunded. Got in touch with support as you know, they suggested changes, nothing worked. They eventually sent me a second printer which funnily enough arrived broken (bad touch screen). Luckily I hadnt returned the first one so I was able to swap it out. Same issue with this second printer however more pronounced. They had me run some tests, suggested things, nothing worked. I then just asked to return both and they agreed. The whole process took a month given their communication rate was 1 email per business day but it is what it is.
yo this is soo unrelated but , can you suggest a game that its netcode is actually good and may offer a fair experience unlike valorant and warface BS , the new cs2 is valorant 2.0 in netcode terms ,
Lmao! Well I have to say my limited experience with Destiny 2 PvP seemed good netcode wise, but stopped playing since it was gear and weapons dependent. Rogue Company also seemed fine in my limited experience. When I say limited experience, I mean I haven't played them long enough to be able to tell enough about the inner workings of the netcode. So ig the short answer is no, I don't have any good suggestions lmao.
I'm torn between this Neptune 4 pro and ender 3s1 pro to get as my first printer They're almost the same price where i am, this has much, much better print speeds and klipper, but also apparently many defects The ender has better layer height which i dont know how effective it'll be, and it's tested. but it's way slower by default unless i make some upgrades which being a noob i don't know how it'll go I'd be printing functional parts using pla and I'm interested in abs, the accuracy is of course important too Which one should i get?
i have my neptune 4 Max and i LOVE IT altho since i got an early model there were A LOT and still are some software issues but nothing that can't be fixed so give it a month or two and they will be shipped fixed@@alin3563
Here is a helpful video: czcams.com/video/k4Cc_3G4mpc/video.htmlm58s In short most reviewers say the Neptune 4 is the best beginner 3d printer. Including ltt: you can watch the short circuit video of the Neptune 4 pro.
see, my only issue so far for this thing is all of my pla prints except 4 haven't stuck to the bed. all other prints and there are many, have come off before the first layer has finished printing. Every way i've seen to fix this issue hasn't worked.
We now have 4 of these printers and we print a lot of parts that need to be fitted with each other. We've never had this issue. The only issue we've had is one had a Klipper problem and wasn't talking to the other software properly so it wasn't retaining the Z-offset and we couldn't figure out how to get into it to fix it, so we replaced it and all units have been fine since.
@@ProgThoughts my roommate works at a hobby store where they sell these and he also repairs them. We've only had issues with fitted parts when the infill is too low.
@@kylianthehylian Everything was adjusted and functioning. The issue is the variance in diagonal dimensions. It may not affect all units in all warehouses.
i had this problem on an ender 3 pro - the aluminium extrusion that the Y axis runs on was skewed. it had to be loosened from the frame and rotated a degree or two to fix.
In neptune 4 pro, the parts that carry the z-axis come very tight. This may cause the x-axis not to work correctly. stepper motor power may cause it to work difficult even if it exceeds this tightness. my advice to you. lower the z axis down and loosen the screws of the coupling, shaft, stepper motor and z axis and tighten them again. do the same thing again by taking the z axis at the top. Finally, the tension belt at the top also comes very tight. These are things that can give a trapezoidal appearance on the z axis and are reflected on the x axis. You said that the problem is disproportionately caused by the x/y axis. However, since these tightnesses are different, it may have made a difference when the motor stresses and speed are taken into calculation when the part is printed. sorry for my bad english. ı hope, u can understand
@@ProgThoughts In addition, in some models, the hubs of the sg15 rollers on the printer head have production defects and when writing, the head moves forward and down, right and left as the head pulls the belt, the solution is to change the sg15s.?
Yeah i think the right Side of the z Axis IS too light and the belt. IT lags behind the left Side wich ist heavyer because of the Motor. After the First Bed leveling IT had ramed the Bed on the way top the left Front Corner.
Yea, there's a good Amazon sale for it! For under $300 its really great. If you don't need that precision it may be a good choice for you. You can try out a cylinder test print and see for yourself what error margin your has (if at all).
I'd say wait for creality's new line up, Ender 3 v3 KE/V3 They are super fast printers and have auto Z offset. The V3 KE is successor of V3 SE which has been out for couple months now. I suggest you to check the SE out because KE is worth the money for first printer if you'd like a printer that just prints and is fast with wifi
Only experience is this one, the Ender 3 V2, and the Bambu Lab P1P. Ender 3 V2 was very good, had some issues with quality as layers seemed staggered, but did good.
@@ProgThoughts I went to reddit and they tell me the quality control isnt good on these cheaper printers. And that your experience can happen with any brand. The ender you mention is a good brand, highly rated on amazon, but so is the neptune 3 & 4. I'm looking very close at the ender. (both actually) I dont want to buy trouble. But it looks like its a roll of the dice on what I'll end up with. Regardless of brand. Unless I spend a lot more money, and I cant do that. Thank you again for your video, shows what can happen.
@@VicMorrowind You will always have an issue with a cheap 3D printer. The Ender 3 V2 was not an exception, I simply could always fix any issues I had (some issues I caused myself). These issues come from the fact that it's a cheap printer: parts wear out, some parts aren't good enough from stock, etc.. Once it affects my prints, I'd fix it or buy a better part. There is no such fix for the Neptune 4 Pro, it's too big an issue - a factory defect. The only solution is a software fix which will never be as good as having properly aligned axes (due to the fact that without proper tools, you'll never know just how off the axes are to adjust for them and other things). I don't trust most reviews because they are rarely from people who actually know what they're talking about. I look at the worst reviews and see if I can identify recurring issues.
Hi there. Is there any update or solution? I'm in contact with elegoo support and working also by myself to find a solution for it. Please share your findings if you have one.
Starting to see this more and more on the 4's. I am trying to decide between the Neptune 3 pro and 4 pro,. The last couple videos were if you want parts that fit together get the 3, if you want fast stand alone parts get the 4. Have you tested a Neptune 3?
Can you send me the exact same file you used? I want to try this myself. I have had mine for about 6 or so months and have had very good results but I still want to test this to see if I have the same issue.
I simply created a 20x20 cylinder in blender, lots of vertices to make it smooth and a little tall so it's easier to measure. To see if the error margin was linear or static, I made the cylinder bigger (45x45). If the error margin grows, then you've got a problem!
As far as I have seen, the problem was in the initial batches. Later variants does not have the SD card port and some problems have been fixed. But still power loss resume printing not working.
Hey man get in touch with me if you can - I’ve been going out of my mind trying to figure out why I can’t lay down a solid first layer with nice lines throughout and I think my printer is at fault here. I’ve been doing everything I can - re-aligning the bed (even when klipper said I was within 0.240 variance), doing the auto alignment again and again, doing the z offset, trying different filaments… even playing with the flow rate. Nothing works. I printed squares with 0.2mm thickness just as a first layer test and ALL of them came out thick on the bottom left and thin on the top right. When I printed multiple squares this way, they ALL had the same issue which leads me to believe the bed is actually fine (if it wasn’t, the position of the square on the bed would matter and look different depending on where knitting the bed it was) When I saw your video a light bulb went off in my head and I’d love to talk about it with you.
Increase the distance in software between the nozzle and bed. Stringy lines is too far, squished lines are too close (though being too close is better than too far). There's also elephants foot compensation in software. If one particular corner is thicker than another, that may just be because of your z-seam.
@@ProgThoughts So I do have the whole elephant foot compensation on. And I did figure out the optimal x height, as far as just being low enough not to get stringy torn up lines, but not so low that I’m tearing the whole thing apart during printing. The problem is the right side (especially top right) of the initial solid infill doesn’t look solid, but towards the middle and bottom left it seems to be fine. What is Z seam? And what else could this be? Could it not be what you were describing in the video as misaligned axis?
@@canadianoperatorNot sure what you're issue in particular would be caused by (i dont think misaligned axes would do this). You can go to 3Dprinting subreddit or similar and ask there (post pics for them). Also, z-seam is where the printer stops/starts its line of print for that layer.
@@ProgThoughts Actuaply had a buddy over and we fixed it. The nozzle was too far down and the bed was bowed cause the screws underneath were quite tight. After loosening them about halfway, then doing manual bed leveling and then automatic leveling it helped a lot. Even better, we adjusted z offset before and during printing which also helped. The last part was a loose z belt. All in all printer is printing cubes with a tolerance of under a tenth of a mil which is great. Thanks for the info btw :)
Well I was thinking to buy this as my first printer but I feel at some point I will want to print some mechanical parts and this may be a problem.... Im thinking about Anycubic Vyper but I need to check how it goes with problems like that :)
if you dont mind speed go with their previous series i have their neptune 3 pro, and this "review" did not convince me of any problems.. Guy measured a cube on diagonals with calipers thats like measuring the inside of a circle with regular calipers.
I have the same issue with my x and y axis on my Saturn resin printer. Just assumed that less than 1mm on a 30mm cube is acceptable as I always build in tolerances for functional parts that must fit together. I also have a Prusa i3 Mk3S - one of the most reliable printers on the market - and on a 70 mm hub there’s a .2mm deviation. Not too bad but it cost nearly 3 times as much.
If the deviation is consistent on the axes, you may need to calibrate them. Sometimes the stepper motors aren't rotating enough to go to precise distance they think they are.
possibly just loosen a couple screws and align it? may have to rotate the Y axis rails slightly. not sure if that's possible mine hasn't come in the mail yet.
The Y-axis is attached from factory. It may be possible to adjust it, but you'd have to take the machine apart. The gantry can't be put on wrong as far as I can tell, as long as the screws fit in nicely.
@@DireWolfForge Not sure you could. The screws of the gantry won't fit in if it's off at all. Either the screw holes were machined off of the bed itself is off.
I may have FOUND THE PROBLEM and if this is it, it's easily correctable: After my first few prints which I was happy with, I noticed one of the towers of the gantry was 3-4 mm further back than the other. Upon inspection, the screws weren't in the proper holes but in the slots of the metal extrusion. While putting it together it didn't seem wrong because the screws tapped their own holes, and it was actually possible to screw it down tight and make fine-looking prints. (As you say, it only matters or "shows up" with some prints.) The four big screws just happen to fit perfectly into the extrusion slots to tap their own threads, and it's very rigid that way so it's an easy assembly error to make.
This was my conclusion as well, that the tapped holes were not aligned properly caused a tilted axis. I told Elegoo about it, but I doubt it ever made it to anyone important.
this review earned a like, i will have to research if this is a correctable issue, i nearly purchased one they seem to be a good quality and price. but i will be printing mechanical parts i wish more reviewers were this thorough
I also wish other reviewers took the time to make these observations. Even the LTT review which was long barely covered what I wanted to know. After I released this video, another youtuber (I forgot who, but does 3D printing reviews) uploaded claiming to have the same issue of it not printing a perfect circle.
So I recieved this printer today, and while it took me a minute to get it assembled (about an hour) other than bed leveling and Z point, very little calibration was needed, the boat printed great, the cube was only off by .02mm on 1 side and so far so good. (it read at 14.98mm)
The issue is that the X and Y axes are misaligned. Therefore, you'll want to make a cylinder and check to see if its the same diameter on all sides :) You can check on a cube as well, but check the diagonals of it, they should be the same. Small variations (0.1mm) may be due to z-seam, so the cylinder is a bigger check.
@@ProgThoughts there should be excentrical units under the rollers. I bet they will also be under the rollers of the metal ones from The pro. I will search for the video I‘ve seen and post the link here.
@@ProgThoughtssorry i was wrong. That would just move the bed. The axis would be still off. I will check that on mine next month and If I got that issue I will search for a fix.
Mine doesn't have this issue, i printed a 40mm cylinder on it and printed a 42mm ring on my Biqu B1 with 0.07 clearance and i can freely turn the cylinder in the ring.I suggest you re-level your frame ;
@ProgThoughts my suggestions might be wrong as I'm no expert in 3D printers, but I feel if you completely disassemble the frame and reassemble it, you might possibly fix the issue. I got a similar issue when I got my Biqu and disassembling it helped, also when I got this N4pro I noticed a lot of loose screws which can contribute to the frame not being square.
I watched this video before I bought it as I really didn't know anything about fdm printers, but bought it anyway. Several months later I'm still happy with it and still recommend it. It's my first fdm printer and second 3D printer. I've printed small thread bolts and nuts with no issues getting them to work together. To anyone who is considering this printer, go for it. I'm glad I did. The petty nit picking in this video used to bash it can be said for just about any and every printer out there, even resin ones.
I just watched a video comparing the neptune4pro, sv06 and e3v3se. The guy said that as a first printer you should get the e3, but that if you are experienced the Neptune4Pro is a way superior option. Tho i'm glad i found your video, just also want to ask, in the end for a budget of less tha $300 what should i realistically look for if i want to build precise machines? I'm a mechatronics student and I would really like to build machines using 3d printing. I'm a highly technical person so i just want something reliable and precise.
The Ender 3 V2 was very precise for me after tuning! Calibrate e-steps (extruder, x, and y axes) and flow and you can have precise printing :) You can see I always go back to comparing to the Ender 3 V2 as it made a very precise circle. I'm currently using the Bambu P1P and will have a review for it at *some point*, but the circles from it still aren't as precise as the Ender 3 V2 ones.
The extruder is rocking on the rail. This tiny lash screws up your circles. If the bed was out of square with the x rail, the problem would be exponential. There should be a spring to load wheel pressure to keep them tight.
3 separate Neptune 4 Pros had extruder rocking? Those things were on very solid, I assure you. The problem wouldn't be exponential, it would be linear. Double the size of the cylinder and you've doubled the size of the error margin - which is what happens.
@ProgThoughts Yes, linear. My bad. How bad is it at maximum circle size? You could drill the holes slightly larger to correct it and then fill the slop with super glue to prevent movement. For the price, I'd fix this problem.
well I have also Just got the printed and after testing it out like you said, I am noticing offsets of about 0.8mm-1.4mm, and honestly for my uses, I don't need it to be anymore accurate than that. I think for the price and what it offers, are still good for a lot of people
@@ProgThoughts Fair, though I like the look and feel of this one( the design is just cooler looking) in the future though I would want an upgrade from this one, like significantly and I don't think the Ender 3 will cut it,(But who knows) as I'm looking to get a printer that can load/switch up to 4 filliments automatically, and it was a gift so I didn't pay anything :P. ( the one I had before this was a DIY one and it had low print quality so this one is a step up for me! But thanks for the video it was useful!
There's nothing I can recommend at this price point which would give you that speed and quality I can recommend. This printer is fast, but the parts that it made were much weaker than expected, the dimensions were off, and other issues. At this price point, get a printer that prints slower and has good reviews from credible people! I didn't have much problem with my Ender 3 V2 until a couple years passed and the print quality dropped.
@@ProgThoughts Say that I don't care about the speed but precision. What would be a good rig for medium/large CAD practical models? Thx for everything!!
Even an Ender 3 wouldn't have this deviation. However, I fear that you're misjudging the importance of of that 1-2% inaccuracy - especially since the inaccuracies are very specific to the diagonals. Moving parts and fitting parts will constantly be a mystery as to why they work so poorly. It only doesn't matter when making props or figures where you're only goal is making something that looks nice.
@@ProgThoughtswhat do you expect for a $300 printer. I spend that much on gas for my truck per week. A 1-2% deviation is minor for the majority of users. It’s a mere 0.008 inch difference on your cyclical part. That’s less than the thickness of three sheets of printer paper. I’ve designed and printed many interlocking/threaded parts without an issue. Granted, non of which required a tolerance of +/-0.01 thousands of an inch. The Neptune series of printers have come a long way in a couple years. They are an excellent budget option for a person who would like to try their hand at 3D printing.
@@Darryl_P_ Like I said in the video, the error is not on the x or y axes where you could easily tune and plan for them, its on the diagonals. It has great specs for $300, but a $200 Ender 3 will have aligned axes. I'm not sure why you feel the need to defend factory errors.
I am interested about this printer but this problem confuses me. My first printer was (and I still have it after all mods) Ender 3 original version. Becaus I was really noobie with 3d printing, I got all possible mistakes and errors. But one thing that was dimensional problem and it was not my fault. Printer was too flexible. Simple truth but it need several mods to become strong enoug not to move funny way. After that dimension got quite nice, XYZ test cube (20mm) is 0.1 mm underside for every dimension and diagonal measurings are same. Would be intersting if someone do more testing how repeatable this error is and is it same with different size parts too.
When u think of it, you should eather align a bed or frame, best is to draw/print a line verticaly form top to the bottom an then measure in witch side is pulling, my father in law iz crazy abaut all mechanical stuff and he said he know hot to align it, my neptune 4 come at thursday so if there is clearence test fail we gonna do operation :) on neptune so if we solve it i let you know.
@@reinaldoalencar8432 upper mount was skewed and z motors are also out of hight, one side was little higher, alligned it and same problem again. Dont get it
Lmao, I only meant that they released a new product so they should be expecting a higher influx of people emailing in - hence why the vacation is poorly timed. This is not to say they shouldn't have taken it, just that the situation doesn't work out in the customer's favor.
@ProgThoughts wouldn't know. Only ever had a delta style printer and a resin printer. The delta had issues with leveling, I think due to a warped build plate or firmware issues and is no longer supported so cant be updated. So it's currently put away in a closet lol
@@zero00044 Heh, didn't mean to be mean :) It was just funny. The issue is that the axes are physically misaligned from factory. From what I've seen, different machines are misaligned differently as well! So even if they had a software patch, it wouldn't work for everyone. But a software solution for a hardware problem is usually like putting a band-aid on a flesh wound.
I have exactly the same problem regarding not being able to print a perfect cylinder with my neptune 4 pro. I actually have worked days on the matter to figure out why my test print, which is a cylinder has difference of 0.2mm in the diameter. To make story short, I kinda think I know the cause of the problem: After inspecting at the dimentions and the shape of the cylinder, I noticed that the shape is deformed in a way that it is like a octagon, and my theory is that the steppers PWM signals are not calibrated well. Since the the motion is circlular, the x and y axis's values are sine and cosine waves. I belive that when it aproaches the peak areas of the wave, the PWM signal that the TMC2209 stepper controller provides the stepper are not right and it moves the stepper in a wrong way(speed). I need to figure out a way to calibrate the pwm signal graph kinda thing...i'm guesing idk how it is... How do I do that? In case you want to know what I did to eliminate the variables, these are the testings I've done: - *most importantly* I test printed the cylinder with very slow speed(10mm/s and 50mm/s except for the regular 150mm/s speed I use for outer wall), and yet it was equally not accurate. Printing in slow speed eliminates the acceleration, stepper torque and many more momentum/speed related problems. - I have calibrated the bed mesh, E step, xy axis step and xy skew and even pressure advance and pressure advance smooth time. - The printing parameters are perfect. The first layer, top layer, flow rates for walls top/bottom etc, all the additional features like combing, retraction, jerk&acceleration, overlaps of skin&infill and so on are alll perfect. It cannot be that the G code is not creating a perfect cylinder too, TRUST ME. - In klipper config file, I have changed the run_current for the tmc2209 stepper controller for each stepper differently too, I set it to 1. - belt tension is also good, it is definetly not too tight, I can pull it like 1cm no problem so not overloading the steppers. - The extruder's flow rate is also not the problem for sure since I changed around the seam location and yen the diameters that are too long and too short are still in the same position.
Even with this deviation, a very small container could have a lid that closes. Can often be the z-seam placement, which you want to be random instead of aligned on the threads.
@@ProgThoughts it closes yes but for sliding lid type of box there is a gap meaning they are not perfectly parallel when it slides. Might be another issue though but with my anycubic mega s they printed perfectly and there was no gap.
Go to the experimental section of cura and change the middle to exclusive (maybe extents) but yah it’ll follow your model’s parameters to the T. Although the misalignment is bad, really bad and without previous experience building printers you’ll end up pulling ya own hair off to get fitting parts.
I ran into this on the neptune 3+ unfortunately as well. I know its more expensive but the Kobra feels a lot better to me. I have yet to be able to afford the bamboo P1P
It's very unfortunate and I blame "reviewers" who didn't take a second to review the print accuracy of the printer. This includes the LTT review and many others. The reviews were half-baked at best. The issue should have been obvious to them after a few test prints.
3:093:09 i have a Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro and its been a nightmare. My first printer....but damn.... already had to order new complete head and still failing about every print.
I've only had one print fail in a way that wasn't my fault, but it was before calibrating the extruder steps. I should probably retry it with the calibration done. Otherwise, I hate the PEI sheet, PLA just hates sticking to it!
I understand there is a 99.999.9.9 percent chance I'm dumbassing it all up . I never ment to imply it wasn't my fault in some way my virgin printer mind has yet to comprehend. ;)
@@ProgThoughts In my experience, PEI must be extremely clean. Any fingerprint on it and it do not work. Isopropanol and swiping soft paper and it works like dream. I use it on my Ender 3 (original plate not work because warped hotbed)
Thanks to you i gave up on neptune .i have ender 3 thats in bad shape and im looking for new printer , dont know whuch one shold i get . I print functional prints so dimensional accuracy is important for me the most expensive i can buy is creality k1 550euros
@@ProgThoughts i could afford bambulab a1 but maintnance worries me (technically for all that use linear rails ) but bambulab specially cause they use their parts that cost more and at some point as new versions come out they may stop producing parts for it and some arent availabile meanwhile im loookingfor long term 3d printer (ender 3 didnt wear out it had few accidents one of them koncked out bed out of place but i fixed it to some degree still i can only print pla as i print on glass and bed is bent (probbably) and two blobs of death it sitll has plastic over some parts due to last one still it prints it managed to pass 0.25 tollerance test ) new fetures like auto bed leveling and remote controll could be useful
I run more than 6 Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro from the first patch Aug 2023 and all have the same Problem. Was a pita to fix things. Now i know why... Solution for cylinders/circles: slice with cura, dont use orca slicer. Orca cant slice to perfect circles. The left Z frame is misaligned. The 2 drill holes in the bottom frame is not in place, you can see 1 hole in the aluminium profile from the side. Also the rails and gantry are bad, get the non pro. Will try skew controll now...
You don’t know what you are talking about. If you want to prove x and y aren’t aligned, print two lines on the bed and check if the angle is 90 degrees. If that isn’t the case, than you either fix it or use klippers built in skew correction. The axes will never be aligned perfectly, but that’s fine if they are within tolerance.
I love how I should just, "fix it". If it's not 90 degrees, then just fix it! Also, why would the axes *never* be aligned perfectly? Factories simply can't do perfect 90 degree alignments? Are we in the stone ages?
@@ProgThoughts c'mon dude. I'm with you on most things you've stated here but PERFECT is a theoretical concept, and in the real world it always boils down to tolerance, as was stated, and of which you are very well aware too. Replies like this only harm your credibility.
@@tohtorizorro Context here matters, as they're implying the misalignment on the Neptune is somehow within tolerance of trying to achieve 90 degrees. A "perfect" alignment would be one that does not measurably effect the 3D prints, yet they spoke as if that is beyond the abilities of a competent factory. My use of the word perfect reflected what I believe they meant when they said perfect - which was far from theoretical perfect. I may say a 90.01 degree alignment is perfect since we're talking about 3D printing, but that perhaps may not even be close to perfect for very precise CNC machining.
@@ProgThoughts Reading the original comment and your reply once more I realized I ended up addressing something else than what initially caught my eye which turned out to be simply nitpicking in hindsight. Thanks for the composed reply, I admire the cool head you manage to keep with comments that would make me go full berserk.
I just printed a 25 mm test cylinder on my Neptune 4 Pro, using TPU which I already had loaded. X: 24.39 mm (-2.44%) Y: 24.58 mm (-1.68%) 24.63 mm top left to bottom right (-1.48%) 24.57 mm bottom left to top right (-1.72%) Z: 25.00 mm (0.00%) -1.48% to -2.44% sounds like a significant error, but the X and Y are both undersized and can be calibrated (should be calibrated), but both are undersized with an error difference of 0.72%. The two diagonal measurements are within 0.06 mm of each other, which is 0.24% over 25 mm, which is well within my accuracy ability when measuring with calipers by hand. I rotated the cylinder in the jaws of the calipers and found the minimum diameter was 24.54 mm and the maximum diameter was 24.64 mm, or 0.10 mm in 25 mm, which is 0.4%, or +/- 0.2% from nominal. Calibrating the X and Y axes should eliminate this error. In practice, I use the Neptune 4 Pro to print small oval PLA slip cases for a product approximately the size and shape of the 25 mm test cylinder and they slip together with a smooth interference fit. For a nut and screw that need to rotate around each other, better X and Y calibration would be needed, but as long as I don't rotate the inner and outer slip cases 90 degrees relative to each other when printing, the X and Y errors scale with the parts and relative precision is maintained. I do not believe the X and Y axes of my Neptune 4 Pro are significantly non-orthogonal. I think most of the error I'm seeing is simple X and Y scaling errors which can be fixed fairly easily.
Not all Neptune 4 Pros necessarily suffer from this issue. However, I struggle to take your measurements too seriously since it was on a TPU cylinder. A more rigid option like PLA is necessary for these measurements.
@@ProgThoughts - I used 98 durometer TPU with enough infill and perimeter layers to make this small cylinder a solid. People hear "TPU" and think of soft rubber. It's not. I'll repeat the measurements with PLA but the results won't change much. The changes will be within the tolerance of my ability to measure. I was a bit disappointed that the X and Y calibrations weren't any better. I really should stop and perform an entire series of calibrations, in the proper order. I use PrusaSlicer, but Klipper and OrcaSlicer (which I also have installed) make printer calibration fairly easy. A step by step Neptune 4 calibration would be a good video. From the comments under this video, many people are buying a Neptune 4 as their first 3D printer. I've been 3D printing since the days when it was necessary to build a 3D printer because there were no hobby or consumer grade 3D printers. It's amazing how much the technology has advanced in just the past two years, since my previous 3D printer and the Neptune 4 Pro.
@@Liberty4Ever I've also found that the X and Y axes were poorly calibrated on top of the axes being misaligned. Again, some of them may be perfectly aligned, but I've gotten 3 in a row that weren't. Let me know the results if you repeat with PLA :)
@@ProgThoughts - I repeated the 25 mm cylinder in PLA and it was a bit better, I suspect because the extruder is calibrated for PLA and is under extruding TPU. Here are the PLA results. X: 24.70 mm (-1.20%) minimum diameter Y: 24.98 mm (-0.08%) maximum diameter 24.86 mm top left to bottom right (-1.48%) 24.75 mm bottom left to top right (-1.72%) Z: 25.14 mm (+0.56%) Always calibrate E steps for proper extrusion before printing a calibration cube to calibrate X, Y and Z steps/mm. The Z calibration needs to be made after ensuring that there are an integer number of steps to make the Z height. If the slicer is told to make the first layer 0.30 mm thick and the rest of the layers 0.20 mm thick, there is no way to print a 25 mm tall cylinder. The best it can do is 14.90 or 15.10 mm tall cylinder. I need to calibrate the extruder for PLA, ABS and particularly for TPU. Unfortunately, I don't think there is an easy way to manage that in Klipper so I'd be forced to have different Klipper configurations for each material and manually rename them to Klipper.cfg when I change material. I think it'd be much easier to have a standard Klipper config for PLA, ABS, PETG and similar hard materials that extrude the same, and have a slicer profile that increases extrusion for TPU to compensate for its underextrusion.
@@Liberty4Ever Your TopLeft/BottomRight and BottomLeft/TopRight difference is nearly 0.1mm as opposed to 0.06 before. That's not as bad as the one's I've gotten from this printer, and is small enough that it could be a reasonable measuring error, but my old Ender 3V2 did not even come close to such a difference in diagonals. I'd say it may be inconclusive to say whether yours has any kind of misalignment, but it's possible.
@@TPCDAZ you realize how dumb that sounds right? I contacted them explained to then the steps i have taken and included photos and video. But yes, let’s blame the person asking for help for elegoo giving me a reddit link for help rather than product support.
@@red1spike517 they gave you a Reddit link on how to calibrate it. Which is called support. Which you either couldn’t work out or didn’t follow properly. I own 6 of these so kinda know what I’m talking about. Ask anyone in the 3D printer realm and they will tell you this is 99.9% user error. Which yours is. Drop the ego and learn how to take instructions.
Three Neptune 4 Pros were tested, all had this issue. The issue may not affect all printers as they get manufactured at different times and sent to different warehouses. Each printer was assembled properly and correction was not attempted through software (as one should not be expected to need to fix such a simple mechanical issue with software).
Contrary to what some comments say, I'm not the only one to discover this issue.
There's a lot of fanboys in the comments who would sooner buy a broken printer than admit it's faulty..
This is not the issue... This is a You don't know how to dial in Klipper and adjust Concentric nuts issue. Like really my guy. Also Those mechanical Issues you speak of exist in every printer from Bambu labs to the lowest of ender 3 printers. This is a YOU issue. You see the reason you can fix this with software isn't because you shouldn't be expected to, but because SHOCK SHOCK YOU HAVE TO!!! This is a fundamental user issue, Bambu lab printers do this for you so you don't see it. AnkerMake printers do this for you so you don't see it. Elegoo's Neptune 4 Printers depend on You to use the software to do this for yourself. Good news is Klipper, Orca Slicer have wonderful tools to dial this in for you.
Hey, Lucky for you someone made a website that even a Blame Artist like you can fallow! teachingtechyt.github.io/calibration.html If you can't figure out that site maybe go by an A1 mini and save the internet from your silly BS complaints. Also Just so you know to get the kind of precision mechanical alignment you what... I can tell you from experience of working in a metal shop you should expect to pay about 40x as much for just the metal frame alone. This isn't a joke... It is expensive to have precision mechanical alignment when building any kind of multi part mental frame that has recessive attachments(AKA is screws together and relies each screw to be precise). To that end most 3d printers will be off fractions of MM also you should never be using 3d prints for engineering replacements as it isn't suitable for most engineering applications other than models which they are display pieces to show proof of concept.
As for you are not the only one to notice... we are talk about engineering nerds or idiots pointing something out. The engineering nerds are like Well with in tolerance and is fine. The Idiots are the same people who don't understand our world isn't flat. Do you fall in that category? Please don't make others think you are dumb by using the transitive property.
Also there is a difference between usable tolerance, and something to be mechanically precision built... most things are made to fit a certain tolerance. Which I can tell you all of those 3d printers are well with in 99% (Since you got three printers that are off according to you, and less than a MM which is with in tolerance, it is you problem). Lastly I have Major OCD and even I don't have this level of things aren't right... You might want to talk to a doctor about that and I am not joking here. This is a sign of autism or massive levels of OCD, get the help you need my guy.
@ProgThoughts Neptune 4 RMA is under 10%. 3 bad printers in a row? thats a 1/1000 chance friend.
@@MichaelOfRohan That's not even close to how that works. People tend not to return even known defective/lemon products, returns aren't easy. Especially true for things of this size where you may have thrown away the box before realizing it was defective (which this is a difficult defect to detect) like I did.
The problem was he did not assemble it properly, he missed the proper screw holes on the uprights. This video needs to be removed.
Your mom needs to be removed
@@ProgThoughts This comment just told me to pay no attention to your video. Grow up!!!
@@chrisprice5181 Grow down
@ProgThoughts just because you're an awwwwwful engineer doesnt meen youre going to get away with steering others away from engineering.
@@MichaelOfRohan Ah yes, because I'm the one with a factory outputting flawed machines.
I did not drive anyone away from engineering either way. Make sense.
The problem is not with the printer, just recalibrate the resonance compensation, elegoo have put default values for input shaper and it is causing this … I’ve tried it by the way … in the neptune 4 pro and the Voron 2.4 r2 and this was the thing to fix
While possible that software values are causing the issue, every printer I've had has had the issue slightly differently. So if they all have the same default values, they'd of all been messed up the same way.
Lack of understanding of mechanical systems and resonace, and associated compensation.
@@ProgThoughts Not, necessarily, every printer is slightly different, even if they are the same model. So that would explain why they all had a slightly different issue. The default values ELEGOO provides are an average across many printers that they have tested so those values are not going to be perfect for any one printer. Tuning these values may still fix the issue. It could still be misaligned axis, so I'm not saying you're wrong, but I think there are some other things you could try to fix the issue if you wanted to tinker with it some more.
Have you tried the Califlower Vector3d skew correction files and spreadsheet calculator? My Biqu B1 has a waaayy more rigid frame than my Elegoo so giant printer style braces may be in its future.... I've even seen kits starting to come out for this.
I agree mechanics are at least half the problem causing returns .....not just soft/firmware issues.
I just ordered a Neptune 4 and with my horrible luck on everything, I'm most likely going to run into this problem. lol. I hope I don't.
So do the Skew correction¶
Software based skew correction can help resolve dimensional inaccuracies resulting from a printer assembly that is not perfectly square. Note that if your printer is significantly skewed it is strongly recommended to first use mechanical means to get your printer as square as possible prior to applying software based correction.
Yeah, this dude is whining about nothing. Slap some software bandaids on it and its brand new!
Received mine the other day and it prints 0.11 off I think I have a new revision of printer though as mine doesn’t have the micro sd card slot maybe they fixed the issue? I’ve been loving the printer!! Apart from an issue where my z axis wasn’t aligned but I got that fixed fast and it was my fault to begin with
Is there a way to fix the x y issue?
Klipper has a built in skew correction feature. Have you tried tuning that yet?
I love my Neptune 3 Pro which has nearly the same setup on the X and Y, but maybe this just did not affect that generation. I wouldn't know, because my needs don't require those tighter tolerances. But this is good info for those that do. Good video!
The Neptune 3 Pro is fine because the Neptune 4 Pro was rushed to market.
i have a Neptune 4 (not pro) and I have no alignment problems. I think it's a problem related to linear rails
I have Neptune 4 and am having variance of 0.2mm after an hour of tinkering
Manu manu thanks for showing this issue.
It should be related to the misalignment or the 2 vertical columns; using precision comparator (Mitutoyo made, reliable below 0,01 mm) should allow to displace the 2 lateral screws (on 4 made by design and final user assembly) possible; maybe by precision scratching.
I think to print a greek cross (+ shape) to demonstate the difference of fine X & Y settings.
Beat regards from France
This isn't a rails issue this is an idiot issue. he has less than reasonable amount of variance in 3d printer and shock shock blames screw hole that are less than MM "off" according to him... which are well with in tolerances.
Mine is arriving in less than an hour. I've never owned a 3D printer, and I'm trying to figure out what sort of maintenance I should do after receiving an email from Elegoo telling me to grease the rails.
None of the videos I watched about setting it up, said to grease anything. Now I hear about this miss alignment problem. I'll check for alignment when I figure out how to use it lol.
The only maintenance on this printer different than a normal printer is to grease the rails yes. The grease comes in the box so you don't have to buy anything. Simply put some on the wheels and then roll the bed/hotend around until the grease is all over the rails. Don't forget both sides of the bed and the top/bottom of the X gantry.
One of the machines came with no grease on the lead screws, so you might wanna put some on there as well.
So is there any budget priced 3D printers that are new featuring Klipper worth buying? Ones that have no defects and are open source? Seems that all the companies produce broken printers?
There's the Sovol (haven't used it). I'm sure the next wave of 3D printers will be competitive as well.
Thanks for the informative review. You may have saved me some money here. I'm looking for an upgrade to my Ender 3 v2 with Klipper support/faster print speeds.
Does anyone know if both the pro and the non pro have this issue?
Have you tested a Neptune 4 plus or max? I assume they’d have the same alignment error, but they have quite a few differences.
I have not. The issue may or may not appear, simply depends on the nature of the error :(
I have the Neptune 4 pro with the exact same issue, I thought this inaccuracy was normal on all FDM printers since it’s my first one. Please post again if you find a DIY solution!
Im debating between this and the Ender 3 v3 KE as my first printer. Any advice either way?
Ender need way more tinkering
Try clearnce and tollerance test, there should be problem more visible, btw did u try to reasemble whole frame again?
I did tolerance and clearance tests. I got tolerances to 0.2 or 0.15mm (can't remember). However, I noticed the issue with clearance tests, trying to put a cylinder through a hole.
The cylinder would fit, but the fit became tighter/looser as I turned the cylinder, which is how I realized it was not a perfect circle.
Dissembled the frame and put it back together, same issue on 3 of these Neptune 4 Pros.
crap I just built mine... do you think my Elegoo Neptune Max 3 has it or when I might buy the Elegoo neptune 4 Max or would they all be a different built under the same Neptune name?
If you've already built it, just print a cylinder and check!
I've only seen reports of this on the Neptune 4 Pro, but its not unlikely it may be on the other 4 versions.
I've been disappointed by the reviews I've seen of this machine, as this is such a simple test yet no one has bothered to check and don't expect they will for the other versions either.
Hi there, what printer would you recommend for functional accurate prints that is not incredibly expensive? Thanks!
I got the Bambu P1P, but they have an even cheaper alternative:)
i have the problem on mine when i print a 32/32 square its becomes a 30/32 square ( wrong on the Y axe) and idk how to make it work
If it's only wrong on the Y axis, you can compensate for by calibrating your steps :)
@@ProgThoughts thank you I’ll try that later then :)
Is there a way to realign the X and Y axis?
There may be, but you'd have to disassemble it to find the cause.
In my school we have 4 of these and i wanted to get one myself now as they worked (as stated in the video) well for cosmetic/fun prints, and i never went into too much detail woth any offsets. We printed a planetary gearbox, and that worked just fine so idk if i should get this as im printing things for my rc cars but not really anything txat just has to fit. Also ive heard the a1 mini is a good printer, do you have any experience with that?
Also gonna try the zylinder now ill see how that goes.
Maybe the missalignment is just an early production mistake fixed now?
I've seen people with and without the problem. I've had 3 of them, at least 2 of which were from different factories and they all had this issue.
A gearbox is not likely to suffer from an issue (due to there being several gears rather than one large gear making contact with the ring gear) other than being less efficient than usual.
All Bambu Printers seem to be perfectly fine, tho I only have experience with the P1P which is great for me!
@@ProgThoughts ok thanks for the advice and Quick Response. Ill gather some more Info about both Printers, do a test zylinder and then ill decide.
Yesterday i square hole mashine with protactors and rulers, upper gantry mount was little skewed but i alligned it all... AND... still got the same problem, so this "smells" on some kliper isue or something else, maybe steppers motors...
Have you tried realigning with level? My prints come out with no variance issues so far.
Printer we releveled many many times and have had the issue with 3 different units. Completely possible different warehouses or future builds did not have this issue.
@@ProgThoughts Possibly, I just purchased it a couple of weeks ago and tried to replicate the issue you're having but it seems to be ok within tolerance
You can try using the 'skew correction' feature in either Marlin or Klipper
That may be worth looking into, but software correction for these matters is usually hacky. Best to have the hardware be proper.
@@ProgThoughts I agree. Software compensation should be the last resort.
@@thimiraamaratunga7794 most of things are corrected via software nowadays if possible. The cost of a fix is hundreds times cheaper in software. It is a sad reality.
i have the non pro neptune 4 and i print for real world accuracy, i have done the firmware upgrade that was offered on the Discord and its fine ! printing parts for Airsoft parts,
at first i was getting odd shaping but that was my own fault for changing the wrong setting in the CFG file for the extruder and the steps per rotation
unless you use a machinist square you cannot say that the axis are misaligned, as its more down to stepper control
I did not with 100% certainty make sure that the axes were misaligned, they just most likely are. It wouldn't make much sense for the stepper motors to make it bigger on the bottom right and top left, then smaller on the top right and bottom left.
What update are you talking about? I've been looking for a firmware update
thank you
they do the pre release on their discord if you havnt found it@@Dsloan1117
Yep good point @@ProgThoughts
would you say the new Sovol sv07 plus is better?
As I see from videos, it comes with Z portal separated and you have to screw it on, no? So, you have some play there and can fix alignment releasing screws and adjusting portal position a bit. 0.2 mm looks quite a real number for play in that area.
I've tried reinstalling several times, but it doesn't work - even when trying to force it. The CNC'd holes shouldn't allow such a high error margin anyway if done right.
@@ProgThoughts Ok, that's interesting... I have Neptune 4 Plus on preorder for my dad, will suggest him to check diagonals well. Though will not be big issue for him to adjust holes a bit or shift horizontal parts of frame.
Appreciate the review...but got to ask, where is the Ghostface stl from?? Thanks
villainouspropshop.com/product/ghostface-mask-3d-model-stl-file/
I believe I got it from here. Should include the cover for the mouth in there as well. A pain to print though!
Olá boa noite ! pode me passar suas configuraões de fatiador ?
@ i've got about £700 to buy a printer. I don't want a bambu (privacy!). This will be my 1st printer. i'm considering either Elegoo Neptune 4 pro or Flash forger adventurer 5M pro... which do u think i should get or is there another you'd suggest?
The Bambu can be used in LAN mode, so privacy would be a lot better (after your initial setup of the device).
The Neptune 4 Pro has been giving me issues lately aside from the misaligned axes. I've looked at the 5M but haven't tried it, so can't tell you which to pick!
What are the real privacy issues with BL? Just sign up to an account with non-personalized data and ensure your network is secure.
Which printer would you recommend? Did you manage to solve your problem? I was seriously thinking of buying a Neptune 4 (not the pro) or a Sovol SV07, or even an Ender 3 V3, as they are all more or less in the same price range and don't vary much in this respect.
The Sovol SV07 has good reviews, but I personally hated how thrown together it seemed. After fiddling with an Ender 3V2 for so long, I wanted an easier printer, which this Neptune 4 Pro definitely was until I found this error.
My eyes are on the P1P from Bambu, but it's a different league in terms of price. The Neptune 4 Pro is something I'd of recommended a hundred times over if not for this issue.
I don't have a solid recommendation for ya, sorry.
@@ProgThoughts Thanks in any case, it's always good to have an opinion from more experienced users.
@@ProgThoughtsBambu is overpriced trash. Skill issue
@@mendicantbias5211 I'd love to buy a BambuLab, but unfortunately where I live it's absurdly expensive, making it unfeasible, but fortunately I have some options like the Sovol Sv06, Sv06 Plus, Sv07 and the Neptunes, like the one in the video and the Neptune 4 Normal, I've never had a 3D printer, but I'd like to have functional projects and a printer that can deliver good quality parts, both for "aesthetic" parts and for completely functional parts (which is one of my main purposes for buying a 3D printer).
@@mendicantbias5211you're the one with a skill issue if you think bambu is trash
Hey Prog, i was wondering if the same issue is present on the neptune 4 plus, could you perhaps do a video about that since im in the market for one.
No idea! Don't have one :(
Any other recommendations at this price point?
@@user-th8xf2no1z I have to say my Ender 3V2 printed very well when it worked. But more often than not the printer itself became the project rather than allow me to focus on other things.
I jumped straight to the Bambu Lab P1P, which is pricier, but I'll have a review for it coming up :)
I have the Neptune 4 and it is not working very good. My filament is not sticking to the build plate very good please can someone tell me how to fix it please
Clean your PEI sheet with soap and water
i got the Neptune 3 Plus last week and had no problems so far, maybe i was lucky or didn't notice it jet
I must say that their customer service has been stellar. Even though they're low on representatives as stated, they still managed to make things right. I may update this comment with further testing results.
Here's everything I've realized about the Neptune 4 Pro.
Printed parts tend to be weaker on this printer than I'd expect. This may 100% be on me, but not an issue I've had before this printer.
*X/Y Axes:*
I've tested a 3rd and final Neptune 4 Pro. Same issue, but with a 0.15-0.2mm variance in diameter for a 15mm cylinder. The other two printers were tuned beforehand, this 3rd one I made the cylinder the first print after bed leveling. I also made sure for the millionth time that the gantry you attach in assembly could not be put on wrong and that I wasn't tightening up any screws that didn't want to go in easily.
*Cura vs Prusaslicer:*
Beautiful and fast prints, but I've had trouble with it. Particularly, the prints from Cura and Prusaslicer are *not* equivalent on this machine and I would recommend Prusaslicer for the Neptune 4 Pro. The only issue I had with Prusaslicer was I couldn't adjust flow, but you can do that from Klipper. The issue with Cura is that the walls of prints sometimes don't seem to stick together, as if printed too far apart (not all prints are obvious, test with a cube with no top surfaces). With Prusaslicer, this issue does not exist and I couldn't find any physical issues to cause this other than the slicer.
*Differences Between Units:*
One unit had a display that was a little odd. It was much dimmer than it should have been and had an extra setting in the advanced setting section called, "Dynamic Speed" or something like that. Quite odd. One machine came with no lubrication on the lead screws, causing a screeching sound during prints that I fixed by adding lube.
That's all.
Have you tested with the magic numbers?
Or is it really a physical problem? (Sorry for the question, I'm new to 3d printing)
@@user-lg3sd4xg7j There may be software fixes, but in the end, it's going to be a hardware problem and a software solution will never be as good as simply having the frame perfectly square.
@@ProgThoughts I was also expecting a lot from this printer, and so far my expectations were very high, but this news has really put me off buying it.
Adjusting flow in PrusaSlicer is done in the Filament settings. Extrusion multiplier or filament diameter.
@@TheTeknikFrik I don't normally use PrusaSlicer and I found some conflicting opinions online on that. So I left it alone 😂
Than what should we buy with the same parameters?
I don't have any recommendations for a machine at a similar price. However, I'm looking into getting the P1P
@@ProgThoughts What about the Ender 3 V3 KE? (Klipper edition, the SE is quite different aside from the firmware)
@@LjL-Videos No idea 0-0
what do you think is the best 500€ budget max size 3d printer?
No idea! I'd buy a Bambu Lab printer if you're going for the best. They do have a budget option which is the A1 mini I believe.
@@ProgThoughts and now the full-fat A1!
Well I bought this printer with this video in mind.
Made a little test model which had a cube of 17.5mm printed diagonally. On my E3V2 the it was dead on being 17.43x 17.43mm. On the new Neptune 4 Pro it was 17.38x 17.49mm. On a 15mm cylinder I measured the lowest point to be 14.70mm and the highest to be 14.85 on the 4 Pro. What is surprising is that these measurements were taken ~5mm away from each other along the curve (not on the seam). Again, on the E3V2 it was 14.79 being the lowest and 14.83 being the highest (seam excluded again). Looking at my N4Pro cylinder it does appear octagonal as another commenter mentioned.
I made a larger test square which had 4 cutouts in it 149.71mm diagonally distanced from each other. The two diagonals measured 149.11x 149.55mm.
This whole ordeal is disappointing but expected. I'll see what support has to offer.
Thanks for testing it out! Yes, my experience was similar, the lowest and highest points of the cylinders were very close to each other! Support will have no solution for this from my experience. Makes one appreciate their Ender 3 a lot more..
@@ProgThoughts It really does make my appreciate my E3V2 more. I havent done any maintenance on it since I got it 3 years ago, only re-leveled it once a year or so, aside from the cooling issue they had (solved by propping open the mainboard housing) it has been absolutely flawless and utterly reliable. Nothing but a shame I cant fully transition over to the Neptune 4 Pro. If Elegoo cant do anything for me i'll just do it myself.
@@t1e6x12 If you're able to get a solution for it, let me know :) !
@@ProgThoughts Well they ended up accepting a return, recently got fully refunded.
Got in touch with support as you know, they suggested changes, nothing worked. They eventually sent me a second printer which funnily enough arrived broken (bad touch screen). Luckily I hadnt returned the first one so I was able to swap it out.
Same issue with this second printer however more pronounced. They had me run some tests, suggested things, nothing worked. I then just asked to return both and they agreed. The whole process took a month given their communication rate was 1 email per business day but it is what it is.
@@t1e6x12 Yes, I had a very similar experience unfortunately.
yo this is soo unrelated but , can you suggest a game that its netcode is actually good and may offer a fair experience unlike valorant and warface BS , the new cs2 is valorant 2.0 in netcode terms ,
Lmao! Well I have to say my limited experience with Destiny 2 PvP seemed good netcode wise, but stopped playing since it was gear and weapons dependent.
Rogue Company also seemed fine in my limited experience.
When I say limited experience, I mean I haven't played them long enough to be able to tell enough about the inner workings of the netcode.
So ig the short answer is no, I don't have any good suggestions lmao.
@@ProgThoughtsxd all good np
Did they fixed it now 7 months later?
havent bought a new one and don't have one anymore!
I just returned a . Elegoo Neptune 3 Pro for similar problems I am looking for a 3d printer that I can use to print not to fix
I'm torn between this Neptune 4 pro and ender 3s1 pro to get as my first printer
They're almost the same price where i am, this has much, much better print speeds and klipper, but also apparently many defects
The ender has better layer height which i dont know how effective it'll be, and it's tested. but it's way slower by default unless i make some upgrades which being a noob i don't know how it'll go
I'd be printing functional parts using pla and I'm interested in abs, the accuracy is of course important too
Which one should i get?
Any suggestions between these two at the same price?
i have my neptune 4 Max and i LOVE IT altho since i got an early model there were A LOT and still are some software issues but nothing that can't be fixed so give it a month or two and they will be shipped fixed@@alin3563
Here is a helpful video:
czcams.com/video/k4Cc_3G4mpc/video.htmlm58s
In short most reviewers say the Neptune 4 is the best beginner 3d printer. Including ltt: you can watch the short circuit video of the Neptune 4 pro.
@@mcst6969 Just letting you know that, LTT's video for Neptune 4 pro is a sponsored one.
see, my only issue so far for this thing is all of my pla prints except 4 haven't stuck to the bed. all other prints and there are many, have come off before the first layer has finished printing. Every way i've seen to fix this issue hasn't worked.
We now have 4 of these printers and we print a lot of parts that need to be fitted with each other. We've never had this issue. The only issue we've had is one had a Klipper problem and wasn't talking to the other software properly so it wasn't retaining the Z-offset and we couldn't figure out how to get into it to fix it, so we replaced it and all units have been fine since.
Has not been my experience 😩
@@ProgThoughts my roommate works at a hobby store where they sell these and he also repairs them. We've only had issues with fitted parts when the infill is too low.
@@kylianthehylian Everything was adjusted and functioning. The issue is the variance in diagonal dimensions. It may not affect all units in all warehouses.
i had this problem on an ender 3 pro - the aluminium extrusion that the Y axis runs on was skewed. it had to be loosened from the frame and rotated a degree or two to fix.
In neptune 4 pro, the parts that carry the z-axis come very tight. This may cause the x-axis not to work correctly. stepper motor power may cause it to work difficult even if it exceeds this tightness. my advice to you. lower the z axis down and loosen the screws of the coupling, shaft, stepper motor and z axis and tighten them again. do the same thing again by taking the z axis at the top. Finally, the tension belt at the top also comes very tight. These are things that can give a trapezoidal appearance on the z axis and are reflected on the x axis.
You said that the problem is disproportionately caused by the x/y axis. However, since these tightnesses are different, it may have made a difference when the motor stresses and speed are taken into calculation when the part is printed.
sorry for my bad english. ı hope, u can understand
I understand, but don't think this is the source of the issue.
@@ProgThoughts In addition, in some models, the hubs of the sg15 rollers on the printer head have production defects and when writing, the head moves forward and down, right and left as the head pulls the belt, the solution is to change the sg15s.?
Yeah i think the right Side of the z Axis IS too light and the belt.
IT lags behind the left Side wich ist heavyer because of the Motor.
After the First Bed leveling IT had ramed the Bed on the way top the left Front Corner.
@@ProgThoughts When you print different cylinders, is the difference always on the same side and at the same rate?
@@erdemc.7435 Yes. The error margin is on the same diagonals and has a ratio of 0.2mm ratio per 15mm diameter.
huh.. I actually got one of these yesterday on sale and itll be here tomorrow. Should I send it back?
Yea, there's a good Amazon sale for it! For under $300 its really great. If you don't need that precision it may be a good choice for you. You can try out a cylinder test print and see for yourself what error margin your has (if at all).
@@ProgThoughts after using my cash back Microsoft points. It only cost me $80
I'd say wait for creality's new line up, Ender 3 v3 KE/V3
They are super fast printers and have auto Z offset. The V3 KE is successor of V3 SE which has been out for couple months now. I suggest you to check the SE out because KE is worth the money for first printer if you'd like a printer that just prints and is fast with wifi
Wouldn't it make more sense to see if it is indeed misaligned before sending it back maybe it works just fine?
@@grasshopper1694 well it would save him headache to pack the thing all over
What FDM printer do you recommend then? Around $300?
Only experience is this one, the Ender 3 V2, and the Bambu Lab P1P. Ender 3 V2 was very good, had some issues with quality as layers seemed staggered, but did good.
@@ProgThoughts I went to reddit and they tell me the quality control isnt good on these cheaper printers. And that your experience can happen with any brand.
The ender you mention is a good brand, highly rated on amazon, but so is the neptune 3 & 4. I'm looking very close at the ender. (both actually) I dont want to buy trouble. But it looks like its a roll of the dice on what I'll end up with. Regardless of brand. Unless I spend a lot more money, and I cant do that. Thank you again for your video, shows what can happen.
@@VicMorrowind You will always have an issue with a cheap 3D printer. The Ender 3 V2 was not an exception, I simply could always fix any issues I had (some issues I caused myself).
These issues come from the fact that it's a cheap printer: parts wear out, some parts aren't good enough from stock, etc.. Once it affects my prints, I'd fix it or buy a better part.
There is no such fix for the Neptune 4 Pro, it's too big an issue - a factory defect. The only solution is a software fix which will never be as good as having properly aligned axes (due to the fact that without proper tools, you'll never know just how off the axes are to adjust for them and other things).
I don't trust most reviews because they are rarely from people who actually know what they're talking about. I look at the worst reviews and see if I can identify recurring issues.
@@ProgThoughts Was the bambu better?
@@VicMorrowind Better than the Neptune 4 Pro yes :)
Hi there. Is there any update or solution? I'm in contact with elegoo support and working also by myself to find a solution for it. Please share your findings if you have one.
My solution was getting another printer!
Which one ?
@@ProgThoughts
@@ProgThoughts What do you thing about Anycubic Kobra 2 Max?
I don't know wich one I must buy.
@@Diegutpf Never tried it
Starting to see this more and more on the 4's. I am trying to decide between the Neptune 3 pro and 4 pro,. The last couple videos were if you want parts that fit together get the 3, if you want fast stand alone parts get the 4.
Have you tested a Neptune 3?
Have not, but the appeal of the 4 Pro is no where on the 3 series. It's not fast.
I would avoid Neputune. Bought 3 and all had more problems than my Ender 3
@@johnlocke3481 bought the 3 pro. Its ran perfect through many prints in pla. petg and a few tpu.
Can you send me the exact same file you used? I want to try this myself. I have had mine for about 6 or so months and have had very good results but I still want to test this to see if I have the same issue.
I simply created a 20x20 cylinder in blender, lots of vertices to make it smooth and a little tall so it's easier to measure.
To see if the error margin was linear or static, I made the cylinder bigger (45x45). If the error margin grows, then you've got a problem!
As far as I have seen, the problem was in the initial batches. Later variants does not have the SD card port and some problems have been fixed. But still power loss resume printing not working.
Is there a fix to this Problem?
Yes, throwing it away. Lmao, there might be a fix in the skew correction feature on Klipper.
Hey man get in touch with me if you can - I’ve been going out of my mind trying to figure out why I can’t lay down a solid first layer with nice lines throughout and I think my printer is at fault here.
I’ve been doing everything I can - re-aligning the bed (even when klipper said I was within 0.240 variance), doing the auto alignment again and again, doing the z offset, trying different filaments… even playing with the flow rate.
Nothing works.
I printed squares with 0.2mm thickness just as a first layer test and ALL of them came out thick on the bottom left and thin on the top right. When I printed multiple squares this way, they ALL had the same issue which leads me to believe the bed is actually fine (if it wasn’t, the position of the square on the bed would matter and look different depending on where knitting the bed it was)
When I saw your video a light bulb went off in my head and I’d love to talk about it with you.
Increase the distance in software between the nozzle and bed. Stringy lines is too far, squished lines are too close (though being too close is better than too far). There's also elephants foot compensation in software. If one particular corner is thicker than another, that may just be because of your z-seam.
@@ProgThoughts So I do have the whole elephant foot compensation on. And I did figure out the optimal x height, as far as just being low enough not to get stringy torn up lines, but not so low that I’m tearing the whole thing apart during printing.
The problem is the right side (especially top right) of the initial solid infill doesn’t look solid, but towards the middle and bottom left it seems to be fine.
What is Z seam? And what else could this be? Could it not be what you were describing in the video as misaligned axis?
@@canadianoperatorNot sure what you're issue in particular would be caused by (i dont think misaligned axes would do this). You can go to 3Dprinting subreddit or similar and ask there (post pics for them).
Also, z-seam is where the printer stops/starts its line of print for that layer.
@@ProgThoughts Actuaply had a buddy over and we fixed it. The nozzle was too far down and the bed was bowed cause the screws underneath were quite tight. After loosening them about halfway, then doing manual bed leveling and then automatic leveling it helped a lot. Even better, we adjusted z offset before and during printing which also helped. The last part was a loose z belt. All in all printer is printing cubes with a tolerance of under a tenth of a mil which is great. Thanks for the info btw :)
Well I was thinking to buy this as my first printer but I feel at some point I will want to print some mechanical parts and this may be a problem.... Im thinking about Anycubic Vyper but I need to check how it goes with problems like that :)
if you dont mind speed go with their previous series i have their neptune 3 pro, and this "review" did not convince me of any problems.. Guy measured a cube on diagonals with calipers thats like measuring the inside of a circle with regular calipers.
@@heeelion134yeah, ngl, the angle of the cube itself not being precisely controlled could account for the deviation here on it's own.
Exactly.@@bodaciouschad
I have the same issue with my x and y axis on my Saturn resin printer. Just assumed that less than 1mm on a 30mm cube is acceptable as I always build in tolerances for functional parts that must fit together.
I also have a Prusa i3 Mk3S - one of the most reliable printers on the market - and on a 70 mm hub there’s a .2mm deviation. Not too bad but it cost nearly 3 times as much.
If the deviation is consistent on the axes, you may need to calibrate them. Sometimes the stepper motors aren't rotating enough to go to precise distance they think they are.
Can’t you realign the axis?
You can do anything. You are unstoppable! MUHAHHAAHAA.
But who knows if it'll be easy, I haven't tried.
possibly just loosen a couple screws and align it? may have to rotate the Y axis rails slightly. not sure if that's possible mine hasn't come in the mail yet.
The Y-axis is attached from factory. It may be possible to adjust it, but you'd have to take the machine apart. The gantry can't be put on wrong as far as I can tell, as long as the screws fit in nicely.
@@ProgThoughtsyou can shim and correct the gantry being out of square.
@@DireWolfForge Not sure you could. The screws of the gantry won't fit in if it's off at all. Either the screw holes were machined off of the bed itself is off.
That probably expalins, why i cannot get phone covers to actually fit...
I may have FOUND THE PROBLEM and if this is it, it's easily correctable:
After my first few prints which I was happy with, I noticed one of the towers of the gantry was 3-4 mm further back than the other. Upon inspection, the screws weren't in the proper holes but in the slots of the metal extrusion. While putting it together it didn't seem wrong because the screws tapped their own holes, and it was actually possible to screw it down tight and make fine-looking prints. (As you say, it only matters or "shows up" with some prints.)
The four big screws just happen to fit perfectly into the extrusion slots to tap their own threads, and it's very rigid that way so it's an easy assembly error to make.
This was my conclusion as well, that the tapped holes were not aligned properly caused a tilted axis.
I told Elegoo about it, but I doubt it ever made it to anyone important.
this review earned a like, i will have to research if this is a correctable issue, i nearly purchased one they seem to be a good quality and price. but i will be printing mechanical parts i wish more reviewers were this thorough
I also wish other reviewers took the time to make these observations. Even the LTT review which was long barely covered what I wanted to know.
After I released this video, another youtuber (I forgot who, but does 3D printing reviews) uploaded claiming to have the same issue of it not printing a perfect circle.
@@ProgThoughts The paid reviewers or those that get free printer will never do a proper review, because they have been paid.
So I recieved this printer today, and while it took me a minute to get it assembled (about an hour) other than bed leveling and Z point, very little calibration was needed, the boat printed great, the cube was only off by .02mm on 1 side and so far so good. (it read at 14.98mm)
The issue is that the X and Y axes are misaligned. Therefore, you'll want to make a cylinder and check to see if its the same diameter on all sides :)
You can check on a cube as well, but check the diagonals of it, they should be the same. Small variations (0.1mm) may be due to z-seam, so the cylinder is a bigger check.
i have the same problem wuth my creality k1 ....
Have one too. My works just fine :)
I just watched a video where a guy was tensioning the rollers of the bed. By doing this it should be possible to align the bed/Y-Axis to the X-Axis.
This is the 4 Pro, I don't think these linear rails can be tensioned. Not sure how that would align them anyway.
@@ProgThoughts there should be excentrical units under the rollers. I bet they will also be under the rollers of the metal ones from
The pro. I will search for the video I‘ve seen and post the link here.
@@ProgThoughts czcams.com/video/LO5FNFwP-rE/video.htmlsi=eQnSywoIa0UG393w
Start on 13:00. in the next minute he is adjusting the rollers.
@@ProgThoughtssorry i was wrong. That would just move the bed. The axis would be still off. I will check that on mine next month and If I got that issue I will search for a fix.
Mine doesn't have this issue, i printed a 40mm cylinder on it and printed a 42mm ring on my Biqu B1 with 0.07 clearance and i can freely turn the cylinder in the ring.I suggest you re-level your frame ;
How does one relevel their frame 😂
@ProgThoughts my suggestions might be wrong as I'm no expert in 3D printers, but I feel if you completely disassemble the frame and reassemble it, you might possibly fix the issue. I got a similar issue when I got my Biqu and disassembling it helped, also when I got this N4pro I noticed a lot of loose screws which can contribute to the frame not being square.
I watched this video before I bought it as I really didn't know anything about fdm printers, but bought it anyway. Several months later I'm still happy with it and still recommend it. It's my first fdm printer and second 3D printer. I've printed small thread bolts and nuts with no issues getting them to work together. To anyone who is considering this printer, go for it. I'm glad I did. The petty nit picking in this video used to bash it can be said for just about any and every printer out there, even resin ones.
I just watched a video comparing the neptune4pro, sv06 and e3v3se.
The guy said that as a first printer you should get the e3, but that if you are experienced the Neptune4Pro is a way superior option.
Tho i'm glad i found your video, just also want to ask, in the end for a budget of less tha $300 what should i realistically look for if i want to build precise machines?
I'm a mechatronics student and I would really like to build machines using 3d printing.
I'm a highly technical person so i just want something reliable and precise.
The Ender 3 V2 was very precise for me after tuning! Calibrate e-steps (extruder, x, and y axes) and flow and you can have precise printing :)
You can see I always go back to comparing to the Ender 3 V2 as it made a very precise circle.
I'm currently using the Bambu P1P and will have a review for it at *some point*, but the circles from it still aren't as precise as the Ender 3 V2 ones.
The same on kobra 2 pro. But on kobra It is impossible to even calibrate the steps of a stepper motor...
You need pronterface for that.
When you're assembling, make sure the x axis is at the bottom of the gantry before tightening.
The extruder is rocking on the rail. This tiny lash screws up your circles. If the bed was out of square with the x rail, the problem would be exponential. There should be a spring to load wheel pressure to keep them tight.
3 separate Neptune 4 Pros had extruder rocking? Those things were on very solid, I assure you.
The problem wouldn't be exponential, it would be linear. Double the size of the cylinder and you've doubled the size of the error margin - which is what happens.
@ProgThoughts
Yes, linear. My bad. How bad is it at maximum circle size?
You could drill the holes slightly larger to correct it and then fill the slop with super glue to prevent movement.
For the price, I'd fix this problem.
well I have also Just got the printed and after testing it out like you said, I am noticing offsets of about 0.8mm-1.4mm, and honestly for my uses, I don't need it to be anymore accurate than that. I think for the price and what it offers, are still good for a lot of people
It can be, but for $100 less you can get precision that's an order of magnitude above.
@@ProgThoughts Fair, though I like the look and feel of this one( the design is just cooler looking) in the future though I would want an upgrade from this one, like significantly and I don't think the Ender 3 will cut it,(But who knows) as I'm looking to get a printer that can load/switch up to 4 filliments automatically, and it was a gift so I didn't pay anything :P. ( the one I had before this was a DIY one and it had low print quality so this one is a step up for me! But thanks for the video it was useful!
What are you proposing in the same price point?
There's nothing I can recommend at this price point which would give you that speed and quality I can recommend.
This printer is fast, but the parts that it made were much weaker than expected, the dimensions were off, and other issues.
At this price point, get a printer that prints slower and has good reviews from credible people! I didn't have much problem with my Ender 3 V2 until a couple years passed and the print quality dropped.
@@ProgThoughts Say that I don't care about the speed but precision. What would be a good rig for medium/large CAD practical models?
Thx for everything!!
@@camaycama7479 Couldn't say, but the Ender 3 V2 was precise after tuning. The P1P that I have now is precise out of the box.
@@ProgThoughts p1p was on my sight, thx for sharing!
All of my printers are Neptune's have had no issue with parts not fitting.
99.9999% of people won’t notice or care about such a minor deviation. Anybody that wants better precision will buy a proper industrial machine
Even an Ender 3 wouldn't have this deviation. However, I fear that you're misjudging the importance of of that 1-2% inaccuracy - especially since the inaccuracies are very specific to the diagonals. Moving parts and fitting parts will constantly be a mystery as to why they work so poorly.
It only doesn't matter when making props or figures where you're only goal is making something that looks nice.
@@ProgThoughtswhat do you expect for a $300 printer. I spend that much on gas for my truck per week.
A 1-2% deviation is minor for the majority of users. It’s a mere 0.008 inch difference on your cyclical part. That’s less than the thickness of three sheets of printer paper.
I’ve designed and printed many interlocking/threaded parts without an issue. Granted, non of which required a tolerance of +/-0.01 thousands of an inch.
The Neptune series of printers have come a long way in a couple years. They are an excellent budget option for a person who would like to try their hand at 3D printing.
@@Darryl_P_ Like I said in the video, the error is not on the x or y axes where you could easily tune and plan for them, its on the diagonals. It has great specs for $300, but a $200 Ender 3 will have aligned axes. I'm not sure why you feel the need to defend factory errors.
it sounds like he's taking it personal @@ProgThoughts
@@ProgThoughts He's likely vaccinated and educated troll.
I am interested about this printer but this problem confuses me. My first printer was (and I still have it after all mods) Ender 3 original version. Becaus I was really noobie with 3d printing, I got all possible mistakes and errors. But one thing that was dimensional problem and it was not my fault. Printer was too flexible. Simple truth but it need several mods to become strong enoug not to move funny way. After that dimension got quite nice, XYZ test cube (20mm) is 0.1 mm underside for every dimension and diagonal measurings are same. Would be intersting if someone do more testing how repeatable this error is and is it same with different size parts too.
No it's not the same size with different sized parts. The error margin is linear, it grows with the part.
When u think of it, you should eather align a bed or frame, best is to draw/print a line verticaly form top to the bottom an then measure in witch side is pulling, my father in law iz crazy abaut all mechanical stuff and he said he know hot to align it, my neptune 4 come at thursday so if there is clearence test fail we gonna do operation :) on neptune so if we solve it i let you know.
So, did it need to be aligned?
@@reinaldoalencar8432 upper mount was skewed and z motors are also out of hight, one side was little higher, alligned it and same problem again. Dont get it
bollocks... Mine is coming home tomorrow, so I guess I´ll have to try and see if its bonkers too@@macan7042
A “poorly timed” holiday off? When were they supposed to take their day off? A week before or after the holiday?
Lmao, I only meant that they released a new product so they should be expecting a higher influx of people emailing in - hence why the vacation is poorly timed. This is not to say they shouldn't have taken it, just that the situation doesn't work out in the customer's favor.
I have the nep 4 pro and no dimensional problems... But even if you have, klipper has a feature to compensate for that
That is because you assembled it properly.
Seems like it could be fixed with a firmware update. It is a fairly new machine after all.
That's gonna be one insane and powerful firmware update that's gonna realign the axes LMAO
@ProgThoughts wouldn't know. Only ever had a delta style printer and a resin printer. The delta had issues with leveling, I think due to a warped build plate or firmware issues and is no longer supported so cant be updated. So it's currently put away in a closet lol
@@zero00044 Heh, didn't mean to be mean :) It was just funny. The issue is that the axes are physically misaligned from factory. From what I've seen, different machines are misaligned differently as well!
So even if they had a software patch, it wouldn't work for everyone. But a software solution for a hardware problem is usually like putting a band-aid on a flesh wound.
I have exactly the same problem regarding not being able to print a perfect cylinder with my neptune 4 pro. I actually have worked days on the matter to figure out why my test print, which is a cylinder has difference of 0.2mm in the diameter.
To make story short, I kinda think I know the cause of the problem:
After inspecting at the dimentions and the shape of the cylinder, I noticed that the shape is deformed in a way that it is like a octagon, and my theory is that the steppers PWM signals are not calibrated well. Since the the motion is circlular, the x and y axis's values are sine and cosine waves. I belive that when it aproaches the peak areas of the wave, the PWM signal that the TMC2209 stepper controller provides the stepper are not right and it moves the stepper in a wrong way(speed). I need to figure out a way to calibrate the pwm signal graph kinda thing...i'm guesing idk how it is...
How do I do that?
In case you want to know what I did to eliminate the variables, these are the testings I've done:
- *most importantly* I test printed the cylinder with very slow speed(10mm/s and 50mm/s except for the regular 150mm/s speed I use for outer wall), and yet it was equally not accurate. Printing in slow speed eliminates the acceleration, stepper torque and many more momentum/speed related problems.
- I have calibrated the bed mesh, E step, xy axis step and xy skew and even pressure advance and pressure advance smooth time.
- The printing parameters are perfect. The first layer, top layer, flow rates for walls top/bottom etc, all the additional features like combing, retraction, jerk&acceleration, overlaps of skin&infill and so on are alll perfect. It cannot be that the G code is not creating a perfect cylinder too, TRUST ME.
- In klipper config file, I have changed the run_current for the tmc2209 stepper controller for each stepper differently too, I set it to 1.
- belt tension is also good, it is definetly not too tight, I can pull it like 1cm no problem so not overloading the steppers.
- The extruder's flow rate is also not the problem for sure since I changed around the seam location and yen the diameters that are too long and too short are still in the same position.
so how did you fix this issue? i dont quite understand
Whats the FIX
Is the 3 pro better?
Haven't used it so I wouldn't know
Now I understand why my neptune 3 pro never printed a box that fits perfectly with the lid.
Even with this deviation, a very small container could have a lid that closes. Can often be the z-seam placement, which you want to be random instead of aligned on the threads.
@@ProgThoughts it closes yes but for sliding lid type of box there is a gap meaning they are not perfectly parallel when it slides. Might be another issue though but with my anycubic mega s they printed perfectly and there was no gap.
Grazie per aver salvato i miei soldi 💰
The problem is, the printer don‘t like you. 😊
Didn't know I had to seduce my printer 0-0
Go to the experimental section of cura and change the middle to exclusive (maybe extents) but yah it’ll follow your model’s parameters to the T. Although the misalignment is bad, really bad and without previous experience building printers you’ll end up pulling ya own hair off to get fitting parts.
I always set it to exclusive beforehand :) This is also an issue that appears no matter the slicer
@@ProgThoughts gonna have to get my hands on coworker’s new Neptune and go ham with a square see if anything stands out build quality wise.
I ran into this on the neptune 3+ unfortunately as well.
I know its more expensive but the Kobra feels a lot better to me. I have yet to be able to afford the bamboo P1P
It's very unfortunate and I blame "reviewers" who didn't take a second to review the print accuracy of the printer.
This includes the LTT review and many others. The reviews were half-baked at best. The issue should have been obvious to them after a few test prints.
3:09 3:09 i have a Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro and its been a nightmare. My first printer....but damn.... already had to order new complete head and still failing about every print.
I've only had one print fail in a way that wasn't my fault, but it was before calibrating the extruder steps. I should probably retry it with the calibration done. Otherwise, I hate the PEI sheet, PLA just hates sticking to it!
I understand there is a 99.999.9.9 percent chance I'm dumbassing it all up . I never ment to imply it wasn't my fault in some way my virgin printer mind has yet to comprehend. ;)
@@ProgThoughts In my experience, PEI must be extremely clean. Any fingerprint on it and it do not work. Isopropanol and swiping soft paper and it works like dream. I use it on my Ender 3 (original plate not work because warped hotbed)
Thanks to you i gave up on neptune .i have ender 3 thats in bad shape and im looking for new printer , dont know whuch one shold i get . I print functional prints so dimensional accuracy is important for me the most expensive i can buy is creality k1 550euros
My Ender 3 was starting to give poor prints hence why I wanted to upgrade as well. Ended up with the Bambu P1P from a Black Friday sale
@@ProgThoughts i could afford bambulab a1 but maintnance worries me (technically for all that use linear rails ) but bambulab specially cause they use their parts that cost more and at some point as new versions come out they may stop producing parts for it and some arent availabile meanwhile im loookingfor long term 3d printer (ender 3 didnt wear out it had few accidents one of them koncked out bed out of place but i fixed it to some degree still i can only print pla as i print on glass and bed is bent (probbably) and two blobs of death it sitll has plastic over some parts due to last one still it prints it managed to pass 0.25 tollerance test ) new fetures like auto bed leveling and remote controll could be useful
i have the neptune 3 max. best printer i've used for large prints to date.
The same problem on neptune 4 pro
Just because you got your delivery driver slam your packages, does not make this a bad printer.
The tapped holes are not properly aligned, has nothing to do with shipping.
@@ProgThoughts You're a funny guy... :D
if you say something wrong on elegoo, always someone jump out and say " I love my elegoo product " . some of them are real person, some not.
Yeah i had send my back too.
I run more than 6 Elegoo Neptune 4 Pro from the first patch Aug 2023 and all have the same Problem. Was a pita to fix things. Now i know why...
Solution for cylinders/circles: slice with cura, dont use orca slicer. Orca cant slice to perfect circles.
The left Z frame is misaligned. The 2 drill holes in the bottom frame is not in place, you can see 1 hole in the aluminium profile from the side.
Also the rails and gantry are bad, get the non pro.
Will try skew controll now...
You don’t know what you are talking about. If you want to prove x and y aren’t aligned, print two lines on the bed and check if the angle is 90 degrees. If that isn’t the case, than you either fix it or use klippers built in skew correction. The axes will never be aligned perfectly, but that’s fine if they are within tolerance.
I love how I should just, "fix it". If it's not 90 degrees, then just fix it!
Also, why would the axes *never* be aligned perfectly? Factories simply can't do perfect 90 degree alignments? Are we in the stone ages?
@@ProgThoughts c'mon dude. I'm with you on most things you've stated here but PERFECT is a theoretical concept, and in the real world it always boils down to tolerance, as was stated, and of which you are very well aware too. Replies like this only harm your credibility.
@@tohtorizorro Context here matters, as they're implying the misalignment on the Neptune is somehow within tolerance of trying to achieve 90 degrees.
A "perfect" alignment would be one that does not measurably effect the 3D prints, yet they spoke as if that is beyond the abilities of a competent factory.
My use of the word perfect reflected what I believe they meant when they said perfect - which was far from theoretical perfect.
I may say a 90.01 degree alignment is perfect since we're talking about 3D printing, but that perhaps may not even be close to perfect for very precise CNC machining.
@@ProgThoughts Reading the original comment and your reply once more I realized I ended up addressing something else than what initially caught my eye which turned out to be simply nitpicking in hindsight. Thanks for the composed reply, I admire the cool head you manage to keep with comments that would make me go full berserk.
I just printed a 25 mm test cylinder on my Neptune 4 Pro, using TPU which I already had loaded.
X: 24.39 mm (-2.44%)
Y: 24.58 mm (-1.68%)
24.63 mm top left to bottom right (-1.48%)
24.57 mm bottom left to top right (-1.72%)
Z: 25.00 mm (0.00%)
-1.48% to -2.44% sounds like a significant error, but the X and Y are both undersized and can be calibrated (should be calibrated), but both are undersized with an error difference of 0.72%. The two diagonal measurements are within 0.06 mm of each other, which is 0.24% over 25 mm, which is well within my accuracy ability when measuring with calipers by hand.
I rotated the cylinder in the jaws of the calipers and found the minimum diameter was 24.54 mm and the maximum diameter was 24.64 mm, or 0.10 mm in 25 mm, which is 0.4%, or +/- 0.2% from nominal. Calibrating the X and Y axes should eliminate this error.
In practice, I use the Neptune 4 Pro to print small oval PLA slip cases for a product approximately the size and shape of the 25 mm test cylinder and they slip together with a smooth interference fit. For a nut and screw that need to rotate around each other, better X and Y calibration would be needed, but as long as I don't rotate the inner and outer slip cases 90 degrees relative to each other when printing, the X and Y errors scale with the parts and relative precision is maintained.
I do not believe the X and Y axes of my Neptune 4 Pro are significantly non-orthogonal. I think most of the error I'm seeing is simple X and Y scaling errors which can be fixed fairly easily.
Not all Neptune 4 Pros necessarily suffer from this issue. However, I struggle to take your measurements too seriously since it was on a TPU cylinder. A more rigid option like PLA is necessary for these measurements.
@@ProgThoughts - I used 98 durometer TPU with enough infill and perimeter layers to make this small cylinder a solid. People hear "TPU" and think of soft rubber. It's not. I'll repeat the measurements with PLA but the results won't change much. The changes will be within the tolerance of my ability to measure.
I was a bit disappointed that the X and Y calibrations weren't any better. I really should stop and perform an entire series of calibrations, in the proper order. I use PrusaSlicer, but Klipper and OrcaSlicer (which I also have installed) make printer calibration fairly easy. A step by step Neptune 4 calibration would be a good video. From the comments under this video, many people are buying a Neptune 4 as their first 3D printer. I've been 3D printing since the days when it was necessary to build a 3D printer because there were no hobby or consumer grade 3D printers. It's amazing how much the technology has advanced in just the past two years, since my previous 3D printer and the Neptune 4 Pro.
@@Liberty4Ever I've also found that the X and Y axes were poorly calibrated on top of the axes being misaligned. Again, some of them may be perfectly aligned, but I've gotten 3 in a row that weren't.
Let me know the results if you repeat with PLA :)
@@ProgThoughts - I repeated the 25 mm cylinder in PLA and it was a bit better, I suspect because the extruder is calibrated for PLA and is under extruding TPU. Here are the PLA results.
X: 24.70 mm (-1.20%) minimum diameter
Y: 24.98 mm (-0.08%) maximum diameter
24.86 mm top left to bottom right (-1.48%)
24.75 mm bottom left to top right (-1.72%)
Z: 25.14 mm (+0.56%)
Always calibrate E steps for proper extrusion before printing a calibration cube to calibrate X, Y and Z steps/mm.
The Z calibration needs to be made after ensuring that there are an integer number of steps to make the Z height. If the slicer is told to make the first layer 0.30 mm thick and the rest of the layers 0.20 mm thick, there is no way to print a 25 mm tall cylinder. The best it can do is 14.90 or 15.10 mm tall cylinder.
I need to calibrate the extruder for PLA, ABS and particularly for TPU. Unfortunately, I don't think there is an easy way to manage that in Klipper so I'd be forced to have different Klipper configurations for each material and manually rename them to Klipper.cfg when I change material. I think it'd be much easier to have a standard Klipper config for PLA, ABS, PETG and similar hard materials that extrude the same, and have a slicer profile that increases extrusion for TPU to compensate for its underextrusion.
@@Liberty4Ever Your TopLeft/BottomRight and BottomLeft/TopRight difference is nearly 0.1mm as opposed to 0.06 before. That's not as bad as the one's I've gotten from this printer, and is small enough that it could be a reasonable measuring error, but my old Ender 3V2 did not even come close to such a difference in diagonals.
I'd say it may be inconclusive to say whether yours has any kind of misalignment, but it's possible.
Thanks. I almost bought one, I wouldnt be happy with it.
Glad :)
Mine is so bad. I am actually sending it back today. Going with a different brand elegoo was not helpful at all
Elegoo have amazing support. You were probably not that helpful to them
@@TPCDAZ you realize how dumb that sounds right? I contacted them explained to then the steps i have taken and included photos and video. But yes, let’s blame the person asking for help for elegoo giving me a reddit link for help rather than product support.
@@red1spike517 they gave you a Reddit link on how to calibrate it. Which is called support. Which you either couldn’t work out or didn’t follow properly. I own 6 of these so kinda know what I’m talking about. Ask anyone in the 3D printer realm and they will tell you this is 99.9% user error. Which yours is. Drop the ego and learn how to take instructions.
I'm looking for a 3D printer for robotics, and I don't really think that 0.4 mm is a big deal.
You'd be surprised..