A10M - getting started

[caesar_1111]

Hi guys,

I just got myself a new printer, the A10M and tried to get my stuff together.
As always it took ages to everything aligned, all the forums, the new marlin firmware and select the right tuning parts.
So I decided to do this little landing page with all my lessons learned to help you get up to speed much faster, so here we go:

Before you by the A10M (Reviews)
I was able to find a few clips on youtube:
The most helpful ones came from Teaching Tech, with a generic review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbZhNvMM4Os
and some tips about how to improve the A10M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8o--HmfZ57I
This shows most of the features I used to do my by decision.
Getting started (assembling the A10M)
Here I tried to go with the multiple unboxing clips at youtube, just to find out that geeetech just put a much more detailed manual on their homepage: https://www.geeetech.com/download.html?download_id=30
This now shows all the details you may need to assemble everything. You will also find all the software and manuals to connect the printer to your computer, flash a new firmware, create your own gradient mix models based on single color models etc.
Finding the right firmware
As always I started to look for a newer version of the Marlin firmware than the one installed (1.1.8) just to find out that there is no newer version available from geeetech at the moment. I tried some customer adaptions to 1.1.9 (by aarli (geetech forum) or afig (thingiverse or geeetech forum) but non of them worked fine for me, so I just took the original Marlin.ino files from github https://github.com/Geeetech3D/Prusa_I3_3Dprinter and adjusted the settings accordingly (on the download section of the geeetech homepage you only find the *.hex files with no chance to change them).
Just use the multiple tutorials in the web to setup your Arduino.
Basically the only change which was really necessary was the adoption the extruder feed steps since I got some severe under extrusion.
Just search the it in the configuration.h file for:
define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT { 80.3, 80.8, 400, 340 }
And change the extruder value to 430:

define DEFAULT_AXIS_STEPS_PER_UNIT { 80.3, 80.8, 400, 430 }
In the forum there are talking about a range from 430 – 450 so this might need some tuning on your end.
Before flashing, just make sure, that you have the right USB controller driver installed on your machine. Here just have a look at the relevant documentation on the geeetech download section (my board came with the CH340 chip, so I had to use the CH342SER.EXE).

Adding additional parts to your printer
Coming from an Anet A8 I was expecting that I have to add multiple parts to the A10M to get it to work properly. I was wrong! The printer is ready to print with all the hardware, even without the BLTouch (geeetech calls the sensor 3Dtouch) bed levelling sensor (see separate bullet). The glass bed will stay flat (compared to the aluminium bed at my A8) even if you heat it up and the levelling option in the menu move to corners will allow you to level the bed within 2 minutes. So you can consider all the upgrades as optional but still here are the ones I am using:
A fan cover for the electronic box (very usefull):
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3217532
some belt tensioners, since I replaced the belts with some better quality ones (the original belts were assembled properly so this is really an optional if you experience some wobbling):
Y Axis: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3461835
X Axis: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3466592
Bed Leveling Knobs: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3236719
A display back cover: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3227116
And finally I had to design my own thing which is a cover for the open spot between the electronic box and the display (please let me know if you find any flaws in the model so I can correct it): https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3490028
BLTouch (3DTouch):
On my A8 I do have a bed levelling sensor, so I decided to put one on my A10M as well. So good that geeetech is offering a knock off of the original BLTouch which is way cheaper, too. Wrong again. I got it with my printer, installation is very simple (see youtube), changed the firmware to the 1.1.8 with BLtouch support and that’s where the mess started. I was just not able to get the 3DTouch to detect the height consistently. I thought I got it, started some prints and suddenly the nozzle had a severe gap to the bed, or even worse, crashed into the base. Currently I am operating the A10M without a sensor and it works fine. I will post an update when I have received and installed the original BLTouch.
So my opinion: the sensor is optional and you must change the firmware in order to have it working. If you anyway are doing this because of the under extrusion, it might be a good opportunity to add the sensor, and hopefully your version is working better than mine.
Slicing (CURA)
Also you can find a lot of good tutorials in how to slice dual print in CURA. The settings I am running: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3210528
I hope this helps you getting started a little faster.
Please let me know if you need any further things covered.

Regards
Caesar