Calibrate Your Ender 3 Pro Hot End and Bed Heater: PID Auto Tune (Marlin 2.0)
Background: Heating Elements on Your Ender 3 Pro 3D Printer
There are two parts of your 3D printer that heat up: your heated bed and the heating element in your hot end, which heats the filament before it prints
Both of these should have been tuned before you got your printer, however I have seen people reporting this was not the case. If these values have not been tuned and calibrated, you'll see it on the print info screen when you're printing, with values jumping up and down for the temperature.
If you have changed your hot end, changed your thermistor, installed a new firmware or installed a new motherboard (which would have new firmware) there is a good chance your values are not tuned.
What Kind of Temperature Fluctuations Should You See?
If you are in a a reasonably temperature controlled environment, seeing a couple degrees fluctuations (from 199 - 201C, if you set your hot end to 200C) is normal. What is NOT normal, is the hot end dropping to 190...then up to 220....then down to 180...you get the idea. I had this myself as well once I updated the firmware.
If you see symptoms like that, you may have a hardware issue - or it may be as simple as running auto tune. The steps are straightforward if you are using the Shiny Upgrades version of Marlin and have it turned on. Unfortunately I have seen that stock firmware with printers, and older version of firmware, either don't have this option or have it disabled.
Steps To Automatically Tune and Calibrate PID Tuning
Here are the screens and steps to take to run it
I'll explain the steps here, and then show screenshots below. Again, if you don't see these options, you need to update your firmware.
- (Turn on your printer)
- Press/Click on the wheel to enter the menu system
- Turn wheel to the right to scroll and press the wheel select Configuration
- From that menu, scroll down and select Advanced
- Scroll down to Temperature
- Scroll down to PID Autotune Bed for bed, or PID Autotune E1 for Hot End
- Suppose I select the bed. Turn the wheel right or left to set the value. Note that for PEI beds, for PLA, the recommended bed temp is 70 - so I PID tune to 70. Other temperatures would work, but I figure it's best to tune using the value I intend to use the most. If you're not sure, 60 is probably the best default to use.
- After that your printer will run through an automatic tuning routine. When it's done, you can go back to that same screen in step 6, and see the updated P, I and D values.
- Repeat the same process for E1, the Hot End. Again, use the scroll wheel to set the temperature you most often use. If you are not sure, 200 is a good value to use.
- Once finished, save your settings. From the beginning (step 2) go to Configuration, and then Store Settings. You will hear a beep, and your PID tuned values are stored. They will load automatically each time you start up your printer.
Steps again with Screenshots
1. Click on the wheel and this screen will come up
2. Scroll down and click Configuration
3. Scroll down, and select Advanced Settings
4. Scroll down and select Temperature
5. Scroll Down and Select either PID Autotune E1 (for your hot end) or PID Autotune Bed
6. Use the wheel and turn left or right to set the value. I use 70 for my PEI bed. Click the wheel, and the tuning will run automatically for a few minutes.
7. Repeat the above steps, except elect PID Autotune E1, and set temperature to 200 to PID tune the Hotend
8. Store your settings. From the beginning, select Configuration and then Store Settings
What if I don't see these options?
If you don't see this, you need to update your firmware.
I had this problem and I did not find anyone who was focusing on providing Ender 3 Pro, 4.2.2 board firmware - so I had to build Marlin for the Ender 3 Pro (thankfully, using config files from the Marlin project and modifying them). You can get it and install it here -> Ender 3 Pro, 4.2.2 board firmware . Pay special attention to whether you have a CR Touch or not.
Back Up to Tuning and Calibrating Ender 3 Pro
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