Mars 5 Ultra

[Chris333]

Does anyone here have one of these?

I have a Mars 4 and bought a 5 Ultra and have had about 90% failure rate with it. Everything ends up stuck to the FEP, nothing on the build plate.

It is supposed to be self leveling, but guess what It wouldn't level at all. I needed to adjust it to level it. Then it has a sensor to detect if a print fails. My prints start off snapping from the FEP so it starts out working. Somewhere it fails and the machine doesn't notice.

Also it has a tilting vat. On the machine there is a fast or slow setting. But nothing anywhere to tell you want that means or what it does. Another person told me it controls how fast the vat tilts. I set mine to slow.

I waited about 6 months before I bought this and read nothing but good reviews. Now it is basically a paperweight. And I tried the new Chitubox V2.2, every time I go to save a file it goes to 99% and freezes up. Good thing I still have an older version installed.

[Chris333]

Using older Chitubox V1.9.5 I had to up the bottom layer count to 50 at 32 seconds. This is halfway up the supports. I finally got a print. I don't know if the regular settings I used were getting ripped off by the tilting vat or not.

Here is an unlisted    Elegoo video showing how to level the build plate. (Saturn is the same as Mars, just bigger)

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The build plate is spring loaded. I read there was a software update that would increase the spring force. This is pressing right onto the screen and didn't seem like a good idea.

Instead I took the vat out, cleaned the plate, and manually lowered it down with 4 pieces of paper like in the video. The back left corner would touch first. When I kept lowering it I got a "object" warning on the screen that wouldn't let me lower it any more. At this point the front right was not touching the screen at all. So there in no way at all for it to "self level". I adjusted the 4 screws in the video to get all 4 corners to touch.

See this is what progress is.    Make a screen self leveling, but then make it so you need to manually level it. Make that process more difficult than a regular printers leveling process. 

[Chris333]

Also I should add that I put washers under the 4 screws I adjusted because others told me I'd get more adjustment that way. And once you loosen the screws to adjust them they can vibrate out of adjustment. I put Sharpie marks on mine to keep checking. If they move I will add Loctite.

Got the washer idea from here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/ElegooMars/comments/1egev1b/mars_5_ultra_build_plate_unlevel_update_and/

[Chris333]

Someone posted this to FB 14min ago:

Finally after weeks of emails to Elegoo about my mars 4 ultra prints not sticking to the build plate, I have a successful print

[robert3985]

Most of my printing is done with really tiny parts completely filling the build plate up.  Lately, with adding alcohol colors to clear ABS-Like resin, I only got about half of the plate to print the first time and finally figured out the addition of the color (being an archival ink) was causing my exposure times to need to be dialed up drastically. This was because the ink, being "archival" was acting as a UV blocker!  Interesting.

Back to my run of UP cold air duct horn brackets with 575 parts filling up my build plate clear out to the edges, I had about 1/3 of them fail (I had assumed that I could crank the extra-long exposure times I was using for my colored transparent parts back to what I had been using for my ABS-Like Grey resin previously, but these parts were really thin and needed an extra .75 seconds for 100% success.

On my last run of 2000 parts covering about 2/3rds of the build plate, I left the exposure at 3 seconds and my first run (which I just cured) was perfect.

As for printers being "self-leveling"...they're not, none of them.  Some printers come pre-leveled from the factory, but even then, it's good practice to check and make sure before discovering through a print failure that the plate is NOT level.

On my 2.5 year old Anycubic Photon 10" 8K Premium printer, I've leveled it once, and it stays that way because of its robust, industrial construction.  Although I've been tempted to check the level of my build plate, I haven't had any failures yet that would indicate the problem is an out-of-level build plate, all of my failures have been due to exposure miscalculations...too short.

I counseled a good friend to start doing his own 3D printing and recommended the Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra because of the good reviews.  He has had nothing but success with it, and is now printing the Durango brick Roundhouse, and is highly impressed with his new printer, his only regret being not prophetic enough to know Elegoo was coming out with virtually the same model, but with a heated vat...which you can pre-order today.

Sounds like your problems might have been at least partially due to too short exposure time.  Glad that you're getting it figured out!

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[Chris333]

I also have a Mars 4 Ultra that is the same screen as the Mars 5 Ultra. My exposure times on the 5 came from what worked with the 4. It is only the amount of base layers that needed to increase. The rest of the model uses the same old exposures.

[samusi01]

Interesting to hear about the leveling problem. A local modeler who has a Saturn 3 had similar issues until I told him to use a sheet of printer paper to level. I've been eyeing up the Saturn 4 Ultra and their propaganda photos make the leveling process look broadly similar.

[Chris333]

Think it just depends what you get in the mail. Some have no problems and love their printer. Mine obviously could not level itself out of the box.

Just the idea of a spring leveling plate means anything printed direct to the plate could be skewed. Doesn't matter if the model is up on supports though.

[Chris333]

Just to bring this back up. All of my problems with the Mars5Ultra but with the Saturn4Ultra16K

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I was the one who sent him the links about adding the washers. It appears that Elegoo now tells you to do exactly what I had to do. (adjusting the 4 screws) They even put thread lock on those screws from the factory.

[Chris333]

In the comments it is also said that Elegoo updated their printer firmware to add manual leveling to their printer with the sprung plates.