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I just got the Ender 5 Plus with BLTouch set up today. I was having some massive issues and determined that my leveling was off because the BLTouch was flashing red and not connecting. When I turn on the printer there is about a 50% chance that it will probe correctly by deploying the pin and correctly retracting it. However, I'm having about a 75 to 90% fail rate on auto leveling where it is doing measurements. I've checked the wiring and it looks correct, but not sure what else to check.

The fixes I've seen say updating the firmware, but all show firmware at 1.70.0 BL. Mine is at 1.70.2 BL. So I'm not sure if there are more firmware updates to apply.

I do not know how to check which BLTouch I have. And I've been able to make it get to printing 2 times, but something is off because it is stringy at 1 point of the build on the first layer. No adhesion basically. So that is the problem I'm trying to fix, but can't get to it because the BLTouch fails so often on the first part. The only way I've found to fix the BLTouch consistently is turn off machine, pull the pin down, push it up, then turn on the machine again.

Is it possible this is a firmware issue or is just the BLTouch is likely faulty?

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  • $\begingroup$ Is this a genuine BLTouch? I've had many issues with the clones, all of them failed, either instantly or after a while. $\endgroup$
    – 0scar ♦
    Apr 7, 2021 at 21:17
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    $\begingroup$ @0scar it is for sure an actual one. It came with the Ender 5 Plus. I'm new, but pretty confident. I ended up finding out that the probe that came with it was faulty. I replaced the probe with the spare they included with the packaging and was so much better. $\endgroup$
    – Cayce K
    Apr 8, 2021 at 22:17
  • $\begingroup$ Thanks, does this mean the issue is resolved? If so, post an answer. $\endgroup$
    – 0scar ♦
    Apr 8, 2021 at 22:31

2 Answers 2

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Try calibrating your Z offset

Based on this answer it sounds like the flashing red means there isn't enough clearance between your bed and your probe for it to operate.

You might try raising your Z axis up a bit to let the probe achieve the minimum clearance necessary for deploying the probe. My guess is that your Z-offset isn't quite right and it isn't raising up enough to allow that minimum clearance.

I recommend calibrating your Z offset and see if that resolves the issue.

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  • $\begingroup$ The only thing I'm concerned about that answer is that the bed isn't any where near the probe when it starts flashing. So I'm not confident the probe not having room is accurate. $\endgroup$
    – Cayce K
    Apr 7, 2021 at 18:14
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Replace the probe

The probe that came with the original BLTouch definitely had issues. There seems to be some slight difference in the original probe and was replaced with a spare probe that comes with the Ender 5+. There was an immediate change in success rate of turning on the device and other measurements.

This blog post goes into more details. I was helped by an amazing reddit user that gave me some pointers about this issue. It definitely is not obvious. Red flashing on boot and intermittent failures during checks are indicators you may want to change the probe.

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