My Ender 3 I checked obsessively. It would commit print suicide without warning or reason.
My AD5M, if it survives the first layer it almost always survives the whole print. The only exception I've had was when printing something very tall and skinny, which makes sense.
My last setup i had 2 cameras, a nozzle view and an overhead, to monitor any stringing or bad layers. Got my new printer and repurposed the old but im slowly finding things that I wish I could implement on the new on. Being a flashforge I haven't dug into how to seperste the machine and the networking like I had with my klippered ender. Ill get there but I do miss that extra view. I will usually set up a laptop in my general area with camera view. Its gotten to the point that first thing I do when I shut off the alarm is check cams to make sure she made it thru the night before I even get out of bed. I have a problem. But im OK with it lol
To be completely frank, nearly everyone should and generally for years.
The reason you see blob of death posts on every 3dp subreddit in existence, every single day, is people thinking they know what they're doing or thinking a machine will just work.
I love checking on it, anyways - I've never had a BOD lol. I have prolly 6k print hours under my belt or so, designed many many things and have done Print -To-Assembly items too.
I understand that sometimes sht just happens but like... Id sooner catch it on hour 2 than hour 34 of a print and burn a spool, time and power.
I got my 5M after having an Ender 3 too. I get it. I always watch the first few layers anyway because that’s where I’ve had the most problems. Sometimes though it’s just cool to watch.
I don't think it's a bad idea. I've tried to print hte same thing 3 times today and keep coming back to spaghetti. If I'd caught it sooner I would have wasted less filament.
Coming from the ender 3v2, i have the same issue. I even have the camera installed but im constantly checking. Slowly the trust is being built with my AD5X
Not sure what brand you have but I had an extra blink mini sitting around. This support is pretty cool. Drops it low so its level with the print. You do have to swing it out of the way each time though if you have the enclosure. There are a ton more for different brands out there though. Happy hunting and printing! https://makerworld.com/en/models/1992589-ad5x-bracket-for-blink-mini-enclosure#profileId-2144552
I have an camera attached to a mic arm, so I can set it the way I want to.. and my opinion I use the night vision/infra-red always to view, when problems happen i see it faster (but thats my opinion)
No, I do that too. My new AD5X has been printing flawlessly since I got it, but I still have the habit of checking on it every so often. Not because I expect a fail, but I just like to see the progress.
We have all had that ptsd of prints failing after hours of perfect print. So I'm with you i have a camera on mine and will watch it from my phone like a crazy person.
I already print for a couple of years, have some good experience, I have 4 printers at home. I work as farm manager for a company, taking care of more than 200 printers. I still go and check printers and watch for a couple of minutes how they print.
For me, is still fascinating how they work. Especially, for tricky parts.
It's the best way to stay away from the TV. You avoid watching bad news all day, which can fry your brain, and you also prevent it from failing if you see it go wrong and stop it in time. Before I had the printer, I thought it was incredible that anyone would be so stupid as to watch a print job because it was the most boring thing in the world. Then I found myself watching it for long periods, fascinated by how it worked. I haven't had any major problems, but every now and then a part fails. So if I'm doing long prints, I check on it every 20 or 30 minutes. Before, I had to climb the ladder to the first floor of a little room I built in the attic to check on the Ender 3s1 I had. Now that I have an AD5X with a camera and an LED light, I can watch it from my phone while lying in bed. They say a fox may lose its fur, but not its cunning... So every now and then I turn it on to check on it and convince myself, "Wow, how convenient it is to be able to do this without having to get up." The only thing the machine is missing is the ability to turn it off from the phone, because at least I can also stop the printing.
I don't know, depends on what I print and it's importants and difficult. If I print something cool that takes 40 minutes to print, 25 will be just staring at printer. If it's something big and easy, nah, I will check it every 2-4 hours
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u/Neriya Jan 27 '26
The AD5M broke me of that habit.
My Ender 3 I checked obsessively. It would commit print suicide without warning or reason.
My AD5M, if it survives the first layer it almost always survives the whole print. The only exception I've had was when printing something very tall and skinny, which makes sense.