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1243 Review
26 Karma

Review on Professional Auto Leveling Specially Designed by Michael Moonin

Revainrating 5 out of 5

Buy recommendation… A more complete ABL kit is better!

I have several ABL systems from BLTouch, 3d Touch and TH3d installed on my printers. However, I have some experience and I have to say that the CR-Touch is one of my favorites and in my opinion the best choice overall. It is well packed and protected. If you've ever received a dented package with a damaged item, you know how important this is. Especially with something fragile like the ABL system. Fitted with a durable metal probe like the older BL-Touch but has been replaced with a plastic probe in newer versions. You no longer have to worry about the pin bending due to malfunction or pressure loss. Once it's bent it's impossible to fix in most cases and it'll cost you almost half the price of a new BL-Touch just for the overpriced price! From what I've read the CR-Touch uses an optical sensor to deploy the probe, the best overall design in my opinion. That alone makes it better than BLTouch. No more interference from nearby magnetic objects or electromagnetic fields causing inconsistent readings, such as: B. (electromagnetic interference from bed heating), in contrast to the hall effect sensor used in BL-Touch. The pen deployment mechanism appears to be much more reliable, even with the positive sounds it makes when deployed. A few more pluses that I think make this ABL kit an issue. Includes everything you need for most installations and is one of the more complete kits for the following reasons. Three mounts that fit most new Creality printers as well as some clones. The cable is long enough to be routed cleanly in the sheathing from the hotend to the mainboard in most cases. With other kits, I found the cable to be too short and usually have to be lengthened if it doesn't exceed 1.7 meters. Proper 5-pin JST connector on motherboard end for most modern 32-bit motherboards. Pretty much every modern 32-bit Crealty board and most others with a 5-pin JST connector for ABL. I also ran some m48 commands and averaged the results between the BL and CR sensors. The CR-Touch outperformed the BL-Touch in accuracy by a small margin of about 1%. So in terms of accuracy, it's just as good, if not better. CL-Touch is 100% compatible with BL-Touch. The pinout is the same and responds to the same G-code. I like the design and smoky black translucent body of the CL-Touch more as it feels more modern and harmonizes with it. Problem with some non-standard fan shrouds, but doubtful if properly designed. The cable connection is at the top and offset to the side, unlike the BL-Touches, to the side in the middle of the probe body. This may require you to change which mount you choose, but it makes it a lot easier to connect. The BL-Touch is awkward to plug or unplug once installed, so I think it's flush. If you're new to 3D printing, the instructions aren't very detailed, but easily solved with one of the many ABL installation videos. Creality offers ABL-enabled firmware for all compatible printers. In my opinion, the pros far outweigh the small cons. Instead of posting the usual images of the setup, I've decided to post some direct comparison photos of the CL-Touch and the latest BL-Touch along with their dimensions and weight differences. Overall I'm glad I went with the CL-Touch rather than buying another BL-Touch as I think it's a superior kit.

Pros
  • The perfect Creality companion
Cons
  • So far so good