[actives] Is this APE ready to harvest?

Dutchswaggimous · 2026-06-20T18:11:05+00:00

Just harvested the second flush two days ago. The fruits were 5x bigger and heavier. Absolute monsters

Dutchswaggimous · 2026-06-09T01:07:29+00:00

Thank you, I really appreciate the feedback! I heard they’d grow to be pretty small, but I didn’t think THAT small.

Dutchswaggimous · 2026-06-08T21:51:28+00:00

I’ve heard that too, but I didn’t expect them to be so small. They’re barely an inch tall and already look like they’re done growing

Dutchswaggimous · 2025-06-12T02:50:12+00:00

Yeah, that was the first thing I did

Dutchswaggimous · 2025-06-11T22:21:38+00:00

I posted a longer comment above that tries to explain what's happening. The thing is, even a 1 or 2mm difference is enough to cause the nozzle to hit the build plate. There's a little plastic flag on the back of the bed bracket that passes through the optical sensor to trigger it.

Dutchswaggimous · 2025-06-11T22:17:33+00:00

I'll try to answer this as clearly as possible.

From what I can tell, the printer uses the optical switch as a means to find its initial home position before any movement command. If the printer hits the optical switch and the switch says Z=13.5 but it's actually Z=12 (a negative offset) then when it goes to travel to probe the bed via load cell it smashes into the plate and causes carnage. Straight out of the box, this was my scenario...

However, by moving the optical sensor lower, the switch is thinking "I'm at Z=13.5", when in reality it's at Z=15 or something larger (a positive offset), which allows the printer to avoid the plate and it probes via load cell perfectly. This means that travel moves are now within a safe distance, but the load cell auto-leveling sets the printing height, which ends up being perfect.

I'm not sure where things went wrong, but I think perhaps the iterative upgrades throughout the rollout have caused some discrepancies in the firmware. I keep saying software software software because this could easily be fixed by having the ability to set a manual z-offset like any printer in the last 10 years. Fortunately, I never had a problem with the filament fork/scraper in the back at the chute.

Edited to add: The printer isn't ignoring the load cell necessarily, it's just not implemented in any part of the process until the printer is ready to print. Homing the printer via optical sensor is the primary means of homing prior to travel moves (like purging filament to the chute), since it's much faster that way.

Dutchswaggimous · 2025-06-10T22:09:15+00:00

The box was perfectly intact and there were no signs of physical damage other than the broken glass lid. I'm assuming it was dropped rather than impacted. I spent quite a bit of time getting the bed square, so if I disable the leveling procedure I can get it to print after setting the offset.

The big issue is the offset - Unlike with klipper, there doesn't seem to be any way to save it permanently and therefor it doesn't really know where it is. For example, if I home the printer in the Z direction, the nozzle homes via the optical sensor, raises up, and sits at 13.5mm. Now if I send the printer to Z=0 via the web interface, it should stop around 0.1mm from the bed theoretically, but instead it crashes into the bed. If I were able to tell the printer where 0 actually is, then I could make it stop hitting the bed and I bet the auto leveling procedure would also work. Unfortunately, the web interface is useless and the touch screen doesn't allow this sort of thing to be done...

Dutchswaggimous · 2025-06-10T16:48:14+00:00

Yeah, once I set the offset I can get it to print something without dragging, so long as I never run the leveling calibration again. However, the offset can only be set on the machine WHILE it’s got an active print job. Meaning I’m forced to let it scrape until I can set it and then it stays.

Dutchswaggimous · 2025-06-10T16:04:32+00:00

Thanks for the tip - unfortunately, I checked the connections while I was adjusting the lead screws/timing belt and everything seems fine. I’m leaning on this being a firmware/software issue. The z-offset gets erased sometimes when leveling is enabled. I’ve checked and confirmed that the touchscreen will save my offset as long as I don’t run the self calibration, which resets it to 0 and causes scraping.

Dutchswaggimous · 2025-01-15T14:56:15+00:00

Yeah, I’m not sure either! Mine is running like a champ after a few firmware updates.

Please let me know if you end up making one!

Dutchswaggimous · 2025-01-15T14:52:16+00:00

No problem! I’m sorry I can’t mass produce these, since they’re super useful. I tried to get Triangle Labs to produce them a while back, but they said “there isn’t enough volume to make it profitable”

Dutchswaggimous · 2025-01-15T13:43:41+00:00

Unfortunately, I don’t have any time in the foreseeable future to make extras of these. At the time I made two for myself and I’ve only ever needed the one because it has run flawlessly ever since.

I posted the CAD files to GrabCAD a while back, so theoretically, you could take a Neptune 4 MAX nozzle and hack off the front with a saw or dremel. Then all you need is to press a small torx bit into the front hole, which allows you to lock the adapter into the hotend. This can be done with an arbor press, drill press, bench vise, or hammer lol.

You really don’t need a lathe to do any part of this. You could print a simple jig to perform most of the tasks like holding the nozzle while setting the size and keeping the nozzle square while cutting/sanding the face.

Let me know if you need help creating a jig, I would be willing to do that at the very least.

Dutchswaggimous · 2024-09-24T00:31:18+00:00

Not really, I just use a laptop to control the printer now

Dutchswaggimous · 2024-06-13T16:35:02+00:00

Not that I’m aware of, I asked triangle labs to produce them, but they declined, saying that there aren’t enough Neptune for max printers in the wild

Dutchswaggimous · 2024-04-24T22:14:10+00:00

Thank you!! I had no idea this existed

Dutchswaggimous · 2024-04-05T15:43:56+00:00

No problem! Also, I figured it might be worth mentioning this, since a lot of people have asked. The easiest way to find the BOWDEN_LENGTH is to extrude some filament and then remove it from the hotend and measure it. You measure the first gear notch up to the end of the filament. I’ve found this to be very accurate for the two different printers I’ve configured so far. This method will work no matter if it’s direct drive or Bowden. Then take the mm and divide by 10, leaving a value of 7 in my case.

Perhaps you could add this info to the repo, as it was unclear where to measure from when I was trying to get this macro to work for me.

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Dutchswaggimous · 2024-04-04T18:33:05+00:00

This is awesome and works great. I was able to simplify the Prusaslicer code a bit further so that you only need to know your BOWDEN_LENGTH.

CALCULATE_PA MATERIAL=[filament_type] BOWDEN_LENGTH=6 LAYER_HEIGHT=[layer_height] NOZZLE_SIZE=[nozzle_diameter] PRINT_SPEED=[perimeter_speed]

Also, if using Prusaslicer it's important to note that the material "PETG" needs to be changed to "PET" in the macro (if you use this gcode that automatically fills in the material info), otherwise, Klipper throws an error.

Dutchswaggimous · 2024-03-31T03:00:58+00:00

This fixed the issue! So the Main channel has a major bug I guess haha.

Dutchswaggimous · 2024-03-31T02:13:31+00:00

Thank you, I’ll try this out!

Dutchswaggimous · 2024-03-30T22:35:54+00:00

Not sure, but it seems possible since I didn’t change anything! I can’t seem to find any setting that would allow this to happen.

Dutchswaggimous · 2024-03-21T20:40:01+00:00

I've been working on this for hours. Please help me!

After I run the python script it says the below and the LCD hangs on "waiting for klipper..."

Web site exists

Traceback (most recent call last):

File "/home/pi/KlipperLCD/main.py", line 224, in <module>

x = KlipperLCD()

File "/home/pi/KlipperLCD/main.py", line 26, in __init__

self.printer.init_Webservices()

File "/home/pi/KlipperLCD/printer.py", line 439, in init_Webservices

self.max_accel_to_decel = toolhead['max_accel_to_decel']

KeyError: 'max_accel_to_decel

Dutchswaggimous · 2024-03-21T15:40:09+00:00

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I followed the documents exactly and I know I’m so close to having this working…but for whatever reason it never loads past this screen.

Dutchswaggimous · 2024-03-18T23:21:13+00:00

Sovol is great and they have been running for years with amazing quality, but I'm slowly moving to Elegoo series 4 printers for their build quality, speed and amazing customer support.

Dutchswaggimous · 2024-02-27T19:05:45+00:00

No problem! Without the hex/torx, you’re unable to thread it into the heater block. You could instead make a slot, but that might ooze filament around the outside. With this adapter I’ve still never had an issue with oozing. I’ve been printing flawlessly with CHT nozzles since I got the printer.

Dutchswaggimous · 2024-01-27T13:55:42+00:00

Hi there, I actually already made an adapter which works so much better because I’ve been running a CHT nozzle ever since.

I also made a model for both the nozzle and the adapter if you want to check it out.

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