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Klicky

Where can I get help?

Danger

Getting the klicky setup correctly takes time and patience to ensure you do not damage your printer or the klicky, also when doing operations like homing and bed meshes and the like you should never leave your printer unattended in case docking or attaching fails for some reason.

Come on over to the pellcorp discord server, here is the invite, the #simple-af-klicky channel has been setup for anyone wanting support for klicky.

invite

Firmware requirements

This guide assumes you have a K1, K1C or K1 Max and you are running stock creality firmware 1.3.3.5 or higher, or alternately you are using my prerooted firmware. Any other pre-rooted firmware is explicitly not supported and the installer.sh will validate this and refuse to proceed if you try to use it on different firmware.

Slicer Settings

There is an assumption that you are using a slicer like OrcaSlicer and Machine G-code like:

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Machine start G-code

M104 S0 ; Stops OrcaSlicer from sending temp waits separately
M140 S0
START_PRINT EXTRUDER_TEMP=[nozzle_temperature_initial_layer] BED_TEMP=[bed_temperature_initial_layer_single]

Machine end G-code

END_PRINT

Custom Bed Mesh Profile

If you want to select a specific predefined bed mesh profile (which disables adaptive mesh generation), you can pass in an additional START_PRINT parameter:

You can either hard code it to a particular model, like BED_MESH_PROFILE=myprofile or you can specify a profile based on orca slicer variables, such as BED_MESH_PROFILE="[curr_bed_type] - [filament_type]", but you have to make sure you have all the possible profiles defined for each of the bed type and filament type combinations.

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Probe Installation

All probe mount options assume you have purchased a PCB Klicky:

Mount Options

Default

The models can be downloaded from https://www.printables.com/model/1170906-klicky-pcb-probe-for-creality-k1, but the instructions for wiring and the macros are not relevant and the wiring shown is a bit misleading, so just the models from printables nothing else. Don't forget the 1mm spacer on the toolhead otherwise the klicky does not properly line up when attached.

This mount should work for K1/K1C/K1SE and K1M, but only K1 and K1M variants have actually been tested.

Bearosaurus

The Bearosaurus is a different mount option which is mounted on the rear of the printer toolhead and is more suitable for custom toolheads, users are encouraged to use the Default option for stock. It has so far only been tested on a K1M and the models are yet to be available on a public models website. Also the coordinates will differ depending on how you mount it so some testing to find your ideal location will be required

Wiring

You will need to make a cable from the nozzle touch port to the 3 pin port on the klicky.

The TOUCH port on the Nozzle MCU board mates with a male 5-pin Molex Picoblade connector. Some sellers may call the connector "Micro JST SH 1.25" but that is incorrect.

You could repin a CR-Touch cable (used for connecting bltouch / microprobe) with the 3 pin connector provided with the PCB Klicky, or make your own cable.

The Creality cable for their CR Touch probe is a good option although you will need to remove 2 of the wires for a neat connection

You want to use the 3 top wires on the nozzle mcu TOUCH port. Connect to TOUCH port on the nozzle MCU, it is accessible from the side left (LIDAR) side of the printhead and only the external cover of the printhead has to be removed.

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The wiring looks like this:

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Installation

The installation can only be performed on a printer which has been rooted and ssh granted

You need root access, if you are not already root, then follow the excellent Helper Script Enable Root Access instructions.

Factory Reset

You must do a factory reset before running the installer.sh. Follow these steps to do a factory reset, which retains root access and skips the startup calibration checks:

wget --no-check-certificate  https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pellcorp/creality/main/k1/services/S58factoryreset
chmod +x S58factoryreset
./S58factoryreset reset

Warn

It is really important you do not close the ssh session until you get this message:

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Clone the Repo

git config --global http.sslVerify false
git clone https://github.com/pellcorp/creality.git /usr/data/pellcorp
sync
RPC Timeouts, try SSH Git Clone
mkdir -p /root/.ssh
wget --no-check-certificate "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pellcorp/creality/main/k1/ssh/git-ssh.sh" -O /root/git-ssh.sh
chmod 777 /root/git-ssh.sh
wget --no-check-certificate "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/pellcorp/creality/main/k1/ssh/pellcorp-identity" -O /root/.ssh/pellcorp-identity
export GIT_SSH_IDENTITY=pellcorp
export GIT_SSH=/root/git-ssh.sh
git clone git@github.com:pellcorp/creality.git /usr/data/pellcorp
cd /usr/data/pellcorp && git remote set-url origin https://github.com/pellcorp/creality.git && cd

Config Overrides

If you have pellcorp-overrides in github but not stored locally, you need to recreate the /usr/data/pellcorp-overrides directory before running the installer.sh!

Run the installer

To run the script, you must specify the probe you want to use.

/usr/data/pellcorp/k1/installer.sh --install klicky --mount Mount

Warning

For Mount you must specify the mount option for the mount you have used, if you do not do this the printer will be incorrectly configured for your mount and dock location, and bed meshes, x and y limits and related config will be wrong. Please refer to Mount Options for supported mounts.

If you are using a non-supported mount you should specify a mount option as close to your mount as possible and properly adjust your configuration after installation before trying to perform a bed mesh or Screws Tilt Calculate!

RPC failed; curl 18 transfer closed

You might get this error:

error: RPC failed; curl 18 transfer closed with outstanding read data remaining
fatal: the remote end hung up unexpectedly
fatal: early EOF
fatal: index-pack failed

Just rerun the installer.sh script (with the same probe argument), it will start from the stage that failed (most of the time this will be the Installing Klipper stage!)

You can also prefix the installer command with AF_GIT_CLONE=ssh to force git to clone via ssh, this will take a lot longer, but it will never time out, so its good in a pinch if you are getting repeated klipper repo clone failures.

Post Installation

MCU Firmware updates are pending

At the end of the installer process if you get this message:

WARNING: MCU Firmware updates are pending you need to power cycle your printer!

It means that new MCU firmware updates need to be applied and this can only be done by power cycling the printer. After your printer is power cycled you can verify firmware was updated with the CHECK_FIRMWARE macro from Fluidd or Mainsail, if you see this message:

INFO: Your MCU Firmware is up to date!

Your printer MCU firmware was updated successfully. If you still see the MCU Firmware updates are pending you need to power cycle your printer! message after a power cycle, check the /tmp/mcu_update.log, you may be asked to provide this file on Discord if you need additional assistance, sometimes an additional power cycle can solve the problem, there is a very short window of time (15 seconds) in which the MCU firmware can be updated, so there is a chance it will work after an additional power cycle.

Verify USB Key

Tip

You should verify your USB thumb drive (aka USB key) often just to make sure you have something if you need to unbrick your printer, simply type CHECK_USB_KEY or hit the button in Fluidd / Mainsail

It is important to make sure you have a way to emergency factory reset the printer, if the worst happens. There is a macro in Simple AF called CHECK_USB_KEY that will wait for you to plug a USB thumb drive (aka USB key) in and tell you if it was able to be successfully mounted.

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  • If you get the message: INFO - USB Key was recognised and mounted correctly (/tmp/udisk/sda1), your USB thumb drive (aka USB key) is perfect to use for a factory reset.
  • If you get no message at all before the script ends (after 60 seconds), your USB thumb drive (aka USB key) is defective. You can check the messages file in the logs section of your UI to get more details about why the usb key could not be mounted!

Docking

Getting docking working if you are not using the Default mount or you have positioned the dock somewhere other than the rear left stepper motor is left as an exercise for each user. Out of the box automatic docking is disabled for a new installation of Simple AF, you should verify the dock coordinates in the klicky_macro.cfg are correct, and you can then flip the variable_auto_docking to True, save and restart and klicky will auto attach and dock for homing, bed meshing and start print.

Verifying Probe

It's really important to verify that the klicky actually will work as an endstop for homing, so initiate homing and then use your finger to activate the microswitch on the bottom of the klicky and make sure homing stops, if it does not stop you need to immediately use the e-stop button in your UI or Grumpyscreen or hit that power button

Calibration

  1. Home All (G28)
  2. Make sure nozzle is centred on bed
  3. Run PROBE_CALIBRATE
  4. Manually remove klicky probe and put it into the dock
  5. Follow the Paper Test Method
    Upon completion SAVE_CONFIG

First Print

For this first print you can go and do the tuning first (PID Tuning, etc) or you can go ahead and optimise your probe z offset using baby stepping.

In fluidd the save button after you finish or cancel your print can be a bit hard to find, look for

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Timer too close and microsteps

For microprobe, etc you cannot use more than microsteps: 64.

Tuning

At least PID tuning (bed and extruder) and input shaping is required for acceptable printing. If you try and print after running the installer.sh and a power cycle but before any calibration you will most likely have horrendous quality, the worst you have ever seen on the k1. After PID tuning and input shaping you should see the same kind of quality as you get with stock k1 + input shaper fix.

Quick Start

You can use the QUICK_START Macro to do Bed and Nozzle PID Tuning and Input Shaping.

Pid Tuning

Source: Calibrate Pid Settings

For example you might run these:

PID_CALIBRATE_BED BED_TEMP=65
PID_CALIBRATE_HOTEND HOTEND_TEMP=230

Note

The PID_CALIBRATE_BED and PID_CALIBRATE_HOTEND macros are located in the useful_macros.cfg file and they have defaults values for BED_TEMP and HOTEND_TEMP so you can just run them by clicking on them if you want that same temperature.

Input Shaping

There is no default configuration for input shaping so it is essentially disabled out of the box.

You can use the SHAPER_CALIBRATE macro to run input shaping, just be sure to SAVE CONFIG at the end, to choose the automatically selected shaper config, be aware though that the shaper chosen might be sub-optimal due to a slight difference in vibrations between two options. So you should probably review the output and potentially choose an alternative if it gives you higher recommended max acceleration for minimal increase in vibration.

Input Shaper Auto Calibration

Other Calibrations

Info

The default value for pressure advance is set to 0.04

Refer to Orcaslicer Calibration for more calibrations

Refer to the Ellis Print Tuning Guide for more great tuning ideas.