Beacon Probe - A New Eddy Current Surface Scanner By Beacon 3D
Introducing the new Beacon eddy current surface scanner by Beacon 3D, a new kind of surface sensor that will change how you level your printer's bed. This scanner is designed to significantly speed up the process of leveling your printer’s bed, and not just by a little bit. Let’s take a look and what a surface scanner is and what makes the Beacon 3D scanner so special.
What is an Eddy Current Surface Scanner?
Simply put, an eddy current surface scanner is an inductive sensor that is designed for non-contact measurement of displacement, distance, position, oscillation, and vibrations. If you are familiar with the SuperPINDA by Prusa 3D, then you might already know how they work.
The inductive sensor senses a change in the electromagnetic field emitted from its tip when this field comes close to a metallic object such as an aluminum print surface. When the amplitude of the field changes, this change is sensed by the internal circuitry which triggers the output sense wire.
An inductive sensor is right at home in a 3D printer since they are built to withstand demanding, industrial environments. They are immune to dirt, pressure, and temperature while still producing high-precision measurements.
What makes this surface scanner so special?
Unlike the inductive probe options currently available, this scanner doesn’t just probe point-after-point in the traditional method. It scans the bed surface very quickly (under 20 seconds) and produces a bed mesh with 0.5µm (0.0005mm) resolution. This is an incredible feat, especially for anyone with a large print volume where the traditional method of probing could take 10+ minutes when producing a 25x25 point grid. The scanner is able to move up to 500mm/s without having to move the Z axis.
Speed isn’t the only amazing feature of this scanner. The resolution that it produces is quite impressive. It is able to achieve 0.5um resolution at 1k samples per second with <350nm typical standard deviation.
3D printers with an enclosure where high chamber temps are desired will benefit from this scanner’s ability to withstand up to 110C ambient temp. Beacon is designed for minimal thermal drift and is equipped with active temperature compensation.
Beacon can also be used as a Z-endstop, having all of the functionality that is required by your 3D printer.
Here’s a list of all the features that you can expect from Beacon:
20-second scan time for a typical-sized printer
Native displacement measurement with sub-micron (0.0005mm) precision
1kHz high bandwidth sampling with no Z motion
Weighs 3.5g for minimal impact on machine dynamics
Withstand ambient temps of 110C
Precision components for thermal stability and low aging
Downsides
The only downsides currently are the ones that any new technology faces in its early stages. Being an early adopter will have its roadblocks such as a lack of resources and mounts for your 3D printer. According to the Beacon 3D documentation, their scanner only works with Klipper using a SBC (Raspberry Pi), so if your printer falls outside of this category then you will be on your own. Of course, there are plenty of Facebook Groups and Discord Chat Rooms full of 3D printing adventurers who love to solve these problems so this shouldn’t be too much of a worry.
Where To Buy?
Currently, the only place to buy the Beacon scanner is directly from Beacon 3D. They start shipping Jan 30 so get your orders in now.
Check out the Beacon scanner in action below:
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