For best results, it is important to PID tune your Revo HotEnd. PID tuning your Heater will ensure you maintain a more consistent temperature at your HotEnd which will result in better print quality.

It can also have the added benefit of improving heat up times.

A PID tune can be carried out in a number of ways and will vary depending on your choice of Firmware. This guide follows the process of PID tuning a 3D Printer running Marlin 2.0.

At E3D we recommend that you PID tune for the temperature that you will most commonly be printing at.

If you plan to print mostly PLA, PID tuning at 200°C should give you good results. However, if you plan to print at a wide range of temperatures, say between 200 and 280 degrees, you might want to PID tune at 240°C to limit potential inaccuracy.

Some 3D Printers will allow you to PID tune directly from their LCD screen menu. Check to see if yours has this function first as it might save you some time. Make sure to 'Save to EEPROM' (M500) once you have completed your PID tune to ensure the results are saved.

Downloading Pronterface

Another way to complete a PID tune is externally via USB connection.

Click HERE if you already have Pronterface installed to skip this step.

Pronterface is free software that allows manual entry of Gcode via a terminal style interface.

You can download and install it here:

https://www.pronterface.com/

Click on Get it.

Click on Git repository.

Scroll down past the file list and find the precompiled versions. Click on the Link.

Download the Zip file that corresponds to your computer.

Extract the Zip file and open the application. You may want to consider moving Pronterface to somewhere other than downloads for easier access later on.

Connecting to the Printer

You should now have Pronterface open.

Connect your printer to your computer using the cable supplied with your Printer/Mainboard. One end to a free USB port on your computer and the other to the corresponding port on your printers mainboard.

Be gentle with the port on the mainboard as these can be fragile.

Click on Port in the top left hand corner to refresh and you should notice a port appear. Once a port has appeared, click Connect.

With the a connection to the printer now established, we can begin the PID tune.

Use the bar in the bottom right of the interface to send commands to the printer.

PID TUNING

Type out a PID autotune command and press enter to send it. Don't forget to alter the temperature value if you plan on regularly printing at higher temps than 200°C.

M303 C5 E0 S200

M303 - Pid autotune command

C5 - The number of cycles (five)

E0 - What you want to tune (Default Extruder)

S200 - The temperature you want to tune at (200°C)

Let the printer run through the cycles, this will take a few minutes to complete. After it has run through all 5 cycles Kp, Ki, and Kd values will be displayed in the dialogue box.

Make a note of these values and send the following command using the values you just received:

M301 P[your Kp value] I[your Ki value] D[your Kd value]

M301 P33.14 I56.34 D29.65 - Do not simply copy this. Your values will be different.

Now send M500 to save these values to the printers EEPROM.

If you do not send an M500, the changes will not be saved.

You may now disconnect the printer from your computer. PID Tuning is now complete.

If you are using a printer that does not have EEPROM enabled you will need to add the M301 command at the beginning of the start GCODE in your slicer - an example of editing your start GCODE can be found here