6 fixes for the Geeetech A10M

The Geeetech A10M 3D printer has required some finessing to get right. In this video, I present 6 solutions to common problems including: spool holder fix, mainboard fan cover, extruder tensioning, adjusting z leadscrew, working twin filament runout detection and BLtouch/3Dtouch support.

I’ve done all of the hard work for you, by tweaking the Marlin firmware and providing it free of charge for standard and BLtouch versions below.

Purchase the Geeetech A10M from these links:
Buy genuine BLtouch (no extension cable required):

My preconfigured version of Marlin 1.1.8 based on the Geeetech version. Use at your own risk (having said that it is working for me and I see no reason for concern).
At most you will have to install U8Glib from the Arduino library manager. Select Mega 2560 as board and upload. Downloads are free:

Take a look around and if you like what you see, please subscribe.

[MATS_MAKERSPACE]

Sorry my spool mount failed on your machine. As you say I designed it in a hurry as nothing else existed at the time and I'm glad you've found something that works better for you.

[luluprincess]

i can seem to get the tension right, it either seems to much and wont feed or to little and wont feed. when i turn the cog manually it feeds the filament but wont do it when printing... any ideas?

[ArcanePath]

Not sure if I'm lucky and have an updated model, but many of the things you mention aren't issues with my A10M (bought last week).
1. Spool holders have 3 holes in an L shape for the screws, so you can mount at 180 or 90 degree angles, whichever is your preference. No problem.
2. Fan cover is not only an issue but there is a tiny gap between the metal cover where the nozzle in the home position oozes straight into. 1 strip of tape fixes this. They do need to make a proper fan cover though.
3. The extruders have screws in the side to adjust the tention. Problem solved, no need to take apart, just Allen key them to grip harder.
4. Filament run out sensor: In the LCD menu you can simply turn it on or off. Problem solved.

[johnbrotherton]

So helpful on the feeder tension, thanks so much! On another note, wherein I think I can help, I installed a BLTouch to my printer and the reality of it was that it didn't help at all, and in fact may have made my prints worse. Just my opinion its not worth using a bed leveller when the printer has a 4 corner manual setup that works quite well. Thanks again!

[武器人間-sc]

I couldn't load flexible filament in A30T(ex.Pxmalion Flexible TPU) .
the adjustment 3:00 didn't work.

[roncarroll]

Great Video. I am having a problem with using the mixing function. When trying to do a graduated test cylinder, with red extruder 1 and white, extruder 2 once extruder 1 changes from 100% to 99% up to about 60-40 mix the cylinder has only red on the left side and white on the right side. Filaments are the same brand and type. I have changed temps, higher and lower, but results do not really improve. between 60-40 and 40-60 mix is about the only time colors trully mix properly and give uniform color around the entire test cylinder. Basically the cylinder is 1/2 red on the left and 1/2 white on the right for the lower 40% and reversed on the top 40%. Ay ideas? thanks

[ScottLahteine]

Yeah… the changes I contributed to the Geeetech fork of Marlin 1.1.8 are still a little rough, but I plan to port the Geeetech mixing/gradient features over to Marlin 2.0 this weekend. I’ll also see what‘s left to do w/r/t the dual filament sensors, which I had believed to be working. I’ve had a lot more free time lately, so I’m taking the opportunity to catch up on a lot of the cleanup, improvements, and optimization that I’ve been wanting to do with Marlin, especially in the user interface. And thanks to my awesome Patreon patrons I’ll have a full-time assistant soon, which means more testing, documentation, content, and general progress. — Thinkyhead

[mrfoameruk]

Thanks, thanks, thanks, thanks. Have a A10M on order and will be following this guide to get it to working spec.

[engomaryousry]

Great video as always Michael, thanks for sharing

[ancpe]

I have not been able to make this printer work. Is it normal for the extruder to keep flowing material after it is stopped? My first layer won't stick to the bed. I'm so frustrated. Any tips?

[pete]

Great video. Answered my questions about the Thermal Protection. Seriously considering this printer as my new ABS printer but the extruder motors getting hot will be an issue as the printer has to be inside an enclosure raising the overall ambient temps. Maybe adding a couple of heat-sinks will help.

[RCPlaneNut]

Can you use 2208 stepper drivers on the A10M 3.1 board and if so how are the jumpers under the place the steppers go set for them can’t find much on the board

[JClemente]

At the 3:13 you have the reason why sometimes the prints fail... Between the engine and the filament sensor you have to put a tube... when the filament is being pulled, the resistence that the swich makes forces the part to be at a bad angle which causes stress on the filament, and stops it from being pulled. If you do not put the small tubing, you'll have problems...

[Alan-mgrp]

Great Video I have learned a lot from yourself by watching the videos .. My first printer was a cr10-s and I cannot fault it but I have always wanted a 2 colour printer and the Geeetech A10 or A20 is a good start as Creality CR-X pro the one I fancied is very expensive so Geeetech is the way to go ….thanks.. keep doing the videos they are a great help...

[michaelguzman]

downloaded the firmware without the touch and i cannot get it to load. I keep getting an error. Don't want to post it here it is too long. is there somewhere i can email it and you can look at it.

[jameswiz]

Please do a video on the Geeetech A10T... I can't get it to use only 1 extruder at a time. It always uses all three extruders...

[primate]

I see that it's a multi extruder printer so I answered my own question. Thank you for the video.

[jyc]

does that extruder position change really make a difference?

[JAYTEEAU]

Thanks Michael. Mine has landed in Melbourne but I won't get it until next week. Sounds like it may be a newer model. Will print the parts anyway in preparation. Cheers, JAYTEE

[farruquito_bcn]

Hola he cometido un fallo que he puesto el a4988 al revés en la impresora geeetech A10 y se a quemado mi pregunta es le abra afectado a la placa base de la impresora, estoy esperando que lleguen los nuevos pero estoy comiéndome mucho la cabeza sabría decirme algo