chopmeister

Yeah, some pics would be nice. I'd like to try that too.

Your latest test cube looks good to me. To add to the discussion on Marlin or 5D, I'll also say go with Marlin right away. There is no need for you to setup and mess with firmware which you won't be using in the end anyway. My experience was that I haven't had a single decent print with 5d EVER. But when I switched to Marlin and netfabb most of my problems just disappeared. Also, I use hatching instead of contours almost all the time. I found it is much easier to dial in to get great results, and it produces stronger up and down skins, at least in my experience. Also I think the sagging issue wont be a problem with hatching, I used 2.5 mm infill spacing with three upskins successfully with a great finish and no sagging. Try it and see if it works better for you too.

Get your hands on some 3M #3434 blue tape. It has a smoother finish than #2090 tape you got with the UM. It is ideal for small to middle sizes prints, and I use it pretty much all the time. I can get more than 50 prints on it now without changing tape. (depends on how good you Z axis is positioned and the temp, I print at 195 C). It does not stick as hard as #2090 and the printed parts have a smoother downskin. The only downside is if you are printing a large part that is prone to curling, the #3434 won't have enough grip and it will curl up a the ends a bit. But if you aren't looking for absolute precision even that is not a problem, I've done very large prints on it with relatively small bases and have yet too see a print come off. For me the best part about it is that you can remove all the parts by hand, no tools necessary, which prolongs the life of the tape because you're not scratching away at it all the time.

Just revert your system clock a few days back, worked for me

I really understand your frustration, it took me a month of tinkering and a whole spool of PLA to get my first perfect print. At least a hundred times I thought there was something wrong with my UM, but it turned out that I just didn't calibrate/assemble/prepare/whatever all the stuff right. Quality comes with experience. Make sure your wooden extruder bolt is not tightened to the extruder body. It should be relatively loose in order not to introduce friction. Also, check how many washers you have on each side of the hobbed bold, so the hobbed part sits straight in the middle. Also when you start printing turn the Z axis coupler by hand to raise/lower the bed. That way you'll see if your platform is too high/low. Try everything else before disassembling the print head. In 99% of cases that's not where the problem lies. Also, if your extruder adjustment screw is too tight it will deform the filament which will then have a hard time to go through the bowden tube. Until you manage to print or make some belt tighteners be aware your prints won't have perfectly aligned walls due to the slack in the belts. I would suggest to get rid of repG and use Kliment's printrun instead. A much smoother experience. RepG has given me nothing but problems since day 1. Also, try to upgrade to Marlin. Most of my problems vanished when I did that. Personally, I never succeeded in getting a single good print with the 5D firmware. Netfabb does not connect as it should for the time being, don't use it to print.

Ultimaker is pretty good with overhangs, and most of the problems can be solved with a bit of creative modelling, and printing your part from multiple pieces, if really necessary. Most of the stuff I print has big overhangs, and I've never used support so far.

I noticed something else that seems weird. I am getting a lot of layer shifts on this object, with the latest Marlin, be it with the previous or Christmas Netfabb. So I tried to slow down the jumps in the Netfabb profile, but the only jumps that slowed down were the "infill -> jump -> infill" ones, ie. when the head jumps to continue doing the infill due to the holes in the center. Whenever it jumped in any other combination it would be at max speed. Anybody else got this behavior?

Hey guys, just to report, I'm slicing a part with the Xmas Netfabb version. As you can see from the pic, there's still jumps in places where they have no reason to be if the new feature were implemented as it should be. There's less jumps through open space for sure, but they are still there.

Hi Dingo. Yes, you saw that right. I am now using an old cell phone usb charger to charge the ultimaker instead of a computer and I'm printing directly from the SD card with great success. There is a joystick up there, but it's really small, you gotta make a plastic cap for it or something. All in all, I had no real problems installing, it's pretty much plug and play. The interface could be a bit better but I'm sure it will get better in time. All in all, I think it's well worth the money.

Solved! The problem is the FW cannot be downloaded from github, it must be downloaded using the GIT command instead! Thanks, alx!

It isn't working for me too. When I download the alx/marlin and upload it to the machine on the screen I only see a row of full blocks and nothing else happens. when I try to connect to it via pronterface, instead of "Marlin Vxxxx" or anything meaningful I get only garbled letters. The wiring and everything was done by snootlab and supposedly tested, so I'm guessing its a software issue. The marlin lio branch I cant even upload because of the same thing as with tomyam in the post above, however I noticed Deuligne.h is missing so I downloaded it and put it in the folder. Then I get double definitions for the lcd and again it wont verify or upload. Some help would be great alx. EDIT: I forgot to mention the screen doesn't light up! It only shows one row of full blocks if I turn up the contrast to the max.

Dunno if you heard already, but: http://www.3dsystems.com/content/news/r ... -Vidar.pdf Now, this could have a huge impact on faster development of 3d printing technology. What I don't like about this though is the market monopoly in the making. I don't expect prices of professional machines to drop when it seems that soon there will be only one company making 3d printers... On the other hand, what do we all care, we can do 20 microns, they can't. :lol:

Hi! I'm glad you tried to print my vase As for the strings in the thick wall object, that, in my experience, is due to fill layers. Whenever I disabled infill on complex models, the jumps would go away completely. I think netfabb has some problems with calculating fill layers because sometimes I too saw jumps where there was no real reason to have them.