Anybody tried a Beacon probe (2024)

Has anybody tried the new probe from beacon3d.com ?

I would like to work it with afterburner...

There is Steathburner mod that allows Beacon on Github someplace. If I find it I will link it.

I keep a few different Stealthburnner hotends such as E3dV6, Pheatus Dragon and Rapido UHF, so I can easily swap out the hotends.

I just in the finishing process of my build.
I want a reliable machine. ( build my own cnc's since ca 2000). I'm in 3D printing since ca 2017.
Based on a Kickstarter all metal delta. Lots of modifications, but never happy. Finally the swap to klipper made them remarkable better.
As soon as my voron is fine I will finallize the remaining two deltas to state of the art status, and then give them away.

I wan't to have my voron beeing as reliable as possible, will not push speed to the limits. And I like it, not yet very good tuned, already. PRINTS RELIABLE.

As I have alread tested all kind of probing before, inductive stays for me the easiest.
Light and capacitive based is too sensible, air is to complex.
And I'm not a fan of mechanical probing, all kind of piezo based needs a certain speed = equals to mechanical stress.
On the first look tap seemed good, but I disslike the moving of the head and also you have to have a compromize between noozle force and head stability.

With nowadays metal based flexible plates, I think inductive is good enough.
I might ou myself here, but I also think that the often discussed measuring of accuracy in thousants of a mm ( thats if presision of probe is set to standard 0.0075 )
is a little bit self cheating. I doubt that most people can see a difference of first layer between 0.2 and 0.3.

And yes, I want to print functional parts with an acceptable accuracy, and not any art's stuff.

tldr, ;-)
Mike

I like your thought process on this. I have never used the inductive probe and went straight to Euclid then Klicky, and unklicky. I did not like the mounting system of these and now have tap, and while it gives good results, it can "twist" a little while probing, even if it is consistent, I am not a fan. It's also pretty heavy.

My only concern with Beacon, is how much interference will come into play and the lack of supporting mods out so far. But if the right tool head mod comes out I will report back if I test it.

I just ordered the Beacon probe. Maybe want to use it together with Tap so I can get Z probe with tap and mesh with beacon: best of both worlds

Does anybody have a working config for beacon?

Yezariael said:

I just ordered the Beacon probe. Maybe want to use it together with Tap so I can get Z probe with tap and mesh with beacon: best of both worlds

Does anybody have a working config for beacon?

Click to expand...

I just got my Beacon in the mail. Can't you do Z probe with the Beacon? I feel like you can reduce a lot of mass by removing TAP, even though I do like it.

NoGuru said:

I just got my Beacon in the mail. Can't you do Z probe with the Beacon? I feel like you can reduce a lot of mass by removing TAP, even though I do like it.

Click to expand...

Sure you can do the Z and QGL with Beacon. But if you use sheets with different PEI thickness or something like Buildtak Nylon+ you will have to dial in these plates. This yould be avoided by using Tap for Z probing.
Just some thoughts I don't have a final plan for now. Maybe I will use Beacon for everything because usually I only use the structured plate.

Keep us posted please!

I have two PEI sheets but only really use one. But even if I was switching somewhat a lot I would do a PROBE_CALIBRATE after switching. It only takes about two minutes.

My thought was reduce the toolhead weight by, whatever TAP weighs, like 200 grams and this can reduce ringing.

I have a VZ-HextrudORT on the way to pair with the new toolhead which I have not yet decided on the design. Might take me a month or two before I even use Beacon.

NoGuru said:

I have two PEI sheets but only really use one. But even if I was switching somewhat a lot I would do a PROBE_CALIBRATE after switching. It only takes about two minutes.

My thought was reduce the toolhead weight by, whatever TAP weighs, like 200 grams and this can reduce ringing.

I have a VZ-HextrudORT on the way to pair with the new toolhead which I have not yet decided on the design. Might take me a month or two before I even use Beacon.

Click to expand...

I want to avoid the calibration because if I use a special sheet it's only for short time. Second I want to avoid to crash into the build plate if I forget it

I like the SB because of it's look (bling bling ) and usually I want to stay as close as possible to the original design. I can go fairly fast right now and I am not looking for a real lightweight build. May change my mind later, who knows?

m00dawg said:

I'm myself looking for something that is more like a Super PINDA. I've had very good success with these on all my Prusa's. The OMRON probe felt like a step backwards by comparison but I'm not a fan of anything touching the print surface. For a lot of what I print, I need that surface to be pristine.

Click to expand...

Right now I am using Tap which works great! It touches the bed but does not leave any marks on the structured plate. With PEI it can differ... Klicky/Unklicky would be ok for your application as well, but I assume Beacon to be much faster.

Indeed Klicky was my next mod since I already have the parts. I just haven't needed to yet. Well, "need" is relative. I expect klicky would make QGL and MBL faster for sure. For PLA, as long as I haven't done any maintenance or moved the printer around, it's pretty consistent after a few rounds of QGL'ing but it does take quite some time. If I make a change or when I do PETG or ABS it can be a chore.

I've heard Tap can leave marks on some brand of smooth PEI sheets. I forget which ones (I use Fabreeko/HoneyBadger ones). That's definitely something I'd like to avoid. Apart from the weight thought Tap looks pretty epic when it comes to the precision. The launch livestream was incredibly impressive that's for sure!

I have TAP right now and QGL takes about 12 seconds per round. I only have it move up 3 mm and speed for movement is set pretty fast.

I also use a HoneyBadger PEI sheet with it and have not had it make any marks but nozzle won't probe until the temp is at or below 150 degress.

First tests with Beacon3D sensor, 15x15 mesh with 400 mm/s. Looks good so far

Whoa that's wild! I also dig the color scheme!

Does it no longer use the physical Z endstop? Also you're using CANBus it looks like right? I was curious how the extra wiring works out since it's a long USB cable? I don't have a CAN toolhead (yet) but plan on converting at some point (having to replace wires on the 350 isn't the most fun to have).

m00dawg said:

Whoa that's wild! I also dig the color scheme!

Does it no longer use the physical Z endstop? Also you're using CANBus it looks like right? I was curious how the extra wiring works out since it's a long USB cable? I don't have a CAN toolhead (yet) but plan on converting at some point (having to replace wires on the 350 isn't the most fun to have).

Click to expand...

Thanks It uses the probe as virtual endstop. I use Canbus and sensorless homing, so no physical endstops for me. I will to the wiring along the Umbilical wires. That's a real downside of the Beacon that it uses USB cable and can not plugged in on the PCB on the SB.