Calibration issues Ender 3-S1 Pro

Hi great forum and usually been a help.
My S1 Pro is just refusing to calibrate. I have it hooked up to a Sonic Pad. I have had maybe one half dissent print from this printer, it’s my second S1 Pro so I have experienced calibrating these before and let’s say it can be challenging, but this is next level and doing my head in.
It started with Pic_1 a first layer that would make Mr Prusa weep and then it went to poop. From hunting through this forum I realised it was over extruding, which I had checked day 1, it’s the first calibration I do.


I let that one go for another couple of layers but stopped it after around 5 layers as this is what was coming out and the nozzle was dragging on the print, Pic_2

Less than optimal I’d suggest.
So after realising that it was probably over extruding I did the extruder calibration again, ejected 100mm absolutely bang on, so I designed a simply little print of two layers at 0.2mm and checked the results with a micrometer, Pic-3 is the result.

Shows the ripples and measured in at 0.50mm.
I thought I’d also check the Z height on each lift and after setting the micrometer up to measure the print head I found the Z was not anywhere near right. So I hit YouTube and sorted out how to adjust the rotation steps (or what ever it’s called on the Sonic Pad), pretty easy actually and I like the system. I had to adjust all axis except X, my one descent print was a calibration cube. So printed my little test pad again and under extruding but dead on height, bang on 0.40mm for two layers. I should have mentioned all the previous tests were done with PLA by the way. So feeling a little cocky out came the PETG, slight under extrusion on the first layer but bang on for height.
Then the ASA was loaded and due to the slight under extruding I thought I’d adjust the rotation steps a little. Pic-4 shows the results.

Now I think the blobbing is probably Hot end temp’ related (I’d like comment on that too). Athe time I thought it might have over extrusion so I dialed the rotation steps back and Pic-5 was the result. Same hotend temp as in Pic-4. And this is where my head started to spin! Under extruded badly bottom right corner and spot on, on the left side! Sooo back to the PLA, a little adjust on the rotation steps (.1) and this resulted, Pic-6.

A slight over extruding and tested with the micrometer shows that the first layer ranges from 0.19mm to 0.22mm with the top layer varying from 0.40mm to 0.45mm. I thought it didn’t look all that bad so I tried to print the item shown in Pic-1 and see how it went. Disaster pretty well sums it up. I had to stop the print at around 2.5mm as the nozzle was grinding on the surface. Pic-7 shows the result.

As you can see, not a print that you would brag about!
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated because this is a real shame. My first S1 Pro printed great, once dialled in. I’m kinda thinking of basically resetting the whole thing and re-installing the klipper firmware and see if that does any thing.
Sorry for the long winded post but this is really frustrating me.

The ripples could indicate that your Z offset is a little too close to the bed try backing it off in 0.05mm increments (or 0.01 if it will go down that far which it should on the Sonic Pad, mine does)

Bonfireman, Thanks for your comment. That was my initial thought Z to low. I don’t normally dial in Z offset in the slicer, but I’ll try that. I’ll try anything at the moment.

Is it safe to assume that when you did the calibrations you adjusted the Z offset using the sceen pad on the machine? The last time I had zero problems I use the pad to to adjust the Z using PLA + and have not had to readjust the Z offset, in CURA printing with PLA, TPU, and PLA+ .

No, I did the Z_Offset via the SonicPad. I’m starting to wonder if part of the problem is because I went straight to the SonicPad and never set the printer up with the original control screen that comes standard. I’m going to do another post now that shows some settings on the Klipper config’ may not have been ideal.
Thanks for your reply.

Yes Z offset adjust whilst it starts printing, I’ve never adjusted through the slicer.

Sooo, after you’ve spent a weekend and a half fiddling with software, firmware and every other type of ware. It’s probably worth checking that the printer is square. I was sure I’d checked all the axis because not one of the cam nuts were tight when I received this printer. Anyway, long story short, the X axis was out of whack and I’d say because I’d adjusted and re-adjusted the height of the bed so many times, I had virtually no pre-load on the bed screws springs. Damn thing was shacking pretty badly. Finally started to get some decent prints, still not perfect but pretty close.
I suppose I have learnt a lot about Klipper, the SonicPad and all the rest, but geez I felt like a right idiot when I noticed the real problem.
Thanks again to those that commented. It’s what make a forum work!!

Te you comments about the nozzle grinding the surface - is it scraping the part that was printed? If so, please make sure you enable z-offset (perhaps 0.2 mm distance) and that should take care of any scraping.