<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>Is it possible this is a firmware issue or is just the BLTouch is likely faulty?</p>

[{'answer_id': 16023, 'author': 'Abel', 'author_id': 23523, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/23523', 'pm_score': 1, 'selected': False, 'text': "<p>Cutting materials with a 'hot knife' isn't anything new.  There should be a fairly established toolset for working foam.  For 3D prints, I prefer to add coatings rather than modify surfaces with a hand held tool after.  I do run a drill bit through printed holes though.</p>\n"}, {'answer_id': 16024, 'author': 'Trish', 'author_id': 8884, 'author_profile': 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/8884', 'pm_score': 2, 'selected': False, 'text': "<p>I have used a standard soldering iron to modify and fix 3D prints in the past. You have to keep some things in mind when doing so:</p>\n<ul>\n<li>Don't overheat your material. PLA can take a soldering iron of about 230\xa0°C before charring.</li>\n<li>Don't use a tip with solder, or you will get grey deposits in the plastic.</li>\n<li>Round tips or flat tips both work fine, but you want to not dump <em>too</em> much heat into the model or you start to deform the print as it needs to cool again.</li>\n<li>Using snippets from the end of the spool for soldering is a good way to recycle the &quot;waste&quot;.</li>\n</ul>\n"}]
['https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/questions/16046', 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com', 'https://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/users/27742/']