Foodini needs to know how high the surface you are printing on sits, so the first layer lands on the plate rather than in mid-air or pressed into it. On Foodini 2.0 it can measure that for you.
The setting is on the print screen, under Printing surface, and it offers four choices.
The four options
- Foodini Plate — the plate supplied with Foodini. Nothing to set.
- Silicon Mat — the silicon mat, also a known height.
- Custom… — you type the height in millimetres.
- Automatic… — Foodini measures the surface itself.
For the Foodini plate and the silicon mat, just pick them and print. The rest of this page is about your own plates, trays and dishes.
Letting Foodini measure it
Put your plate on the tray, push the tray all the way in, and choose Automatic…. Foodini measures the surface with its height laser and fills the value in for you.
You will notice the menu does not stay on Automatic… — it moves to Custom…, now holding the measured number. That is deliberate: once measured, the value is simply a custom height like any other, and you are free to nudge it before printing.
Foodini must be idle to measure — not printing, heating or homing.
A negative number is not a mistake. Plates are often slightly lower than the point Foodini measures from, so a reading such as −4.99 mm is a perfectly good result. Use it as it is.
If Foodini says the reading may be off
Along with the measurement, Foodini tells you how much to trust it:
- No remark — a good reading, print away.
- “This reading may be off” — usable, but running Settings → Adjust Camera → Quick Adjust will improve it.
- “This reading is unreliable” — do not print on it. Run Quick Adjust and measure again.
Dark, glossy and patterned surfaces are the usual cause: the laser line is harder to see on them. A plain, matte plate measures best.
If it cannot measure at all
Foodini names the reason rather than just failing, because the fix differs:
- No plate was found on the tray — put the plate in place and push the tray all the way in.
- The measuring laser couldn’t be seen — again check the plate and the tray. A very dark or mirrored surface can also cause this; try a plain plate to confirm.
- Height calibration hasn’t been done — this Foodini cannot measure yet. Run the height calibration first, then measure again. Adjusting the plate or tray will not help.
- The measurement failed — a technical fault. Check the connection and try again.
In every case you can still enter the height by hand, as below.
Entering the height by hand, and checking it
Choose Custom… and type the height in millimetres. Beside the field is a move button, and it is worth using: Foodini turns the lights on and brings the nozzle to the centre of the plate at exactly the height you typed, so you can see the gap with your own eyes.
Look at the nozzle from the side. It should almost touch the surface — close enough that a sheet of paper would just slide under. If it is buried in the plate or visibly floating, adjust the number and press move again.
This is the same check as the automatic measurement, done by eye, and it is the quickest way to be confident before committing to a long print.
Foodini must be idle for the nozzle to move. If it refuses, make sure no print is running and the printer is not heating or homing.
Which should you use?
Automatic… for anything new — it is faster than measuring by hand and it does not depend on your judgement of a gap.
Enter the value by hand when you already know it for a plate you use often, or when the surface is one the laser struggles with. If you print on the same dish every day, note the number down: typing it in takes a second and the result is identical.