Daid

I will be addressing this in a future update. I have a good plan to make this a lot easier.

Those moves are outside of the machine, so the print you are trying to make is larger then the machine, which is causing your problems. You can reduce the skirt distance, or disable the skirt.

PLA is no weaker then ABS, the main difference is that ABS is a bit flexible while PLA breaks before it bends. The main reason why people use ABS instead of PLA is because of the lower melting point of PLA. At 70C PLA starts to get soft. PLA also achieves a higher precision, it's easier to extrude at thin layers and it shrinks less.

Is the extruder gear still turning or not?

Nylon has a higher extrusion temperature then the Peek melting point, so you might burn up your hotend, so be careful.

My machine is also more silent at the extruder, because I have the "4 extruder plate" by Jelle. His design is not online, but this photo shows it: http://www.thingiverse.com/image:148652 The blue plate on the back has a 6mm distance from the back of the machine, and I think it reduces the noise from the extruder, because my machine (even without jamming something between the extruder motor and the back of the machine) makes a lot less noise then stock machines.

I've seen the same thing happen to another model, not sure why it happens. I don't have any logical explination for it...

Before doing all kinds of crazy unneeded things with your steppers, make sure you are not getting a MINTEMP or MAXTEMP error. This error is not properly reported to the UltiController. So it might be a bit harder to see. Overheated steppers would not cause a full stop, but layer shifts. You could also have problems with your SD card, maybe it's corrupted. Also make sure you are not using an SDHC card, as this could also show these kinds of problems.

Yes, this is because loose belts cause a backlash effect, which causes the outlines to be moved depending on the previous movement direction.

Are you sure your short belts are also tight? People tend to forget those. You could also have a slipping pulley, so make sure those are tight. And finally, you could have slipping filament, causing under-extrusion. But this should be very visible on your prints as the 2 outer walls also won't touch.

That's flash, the ATMega2560 has loads of flash, but only 8k RAM.

The G1 Zxxx is added at the end to make sure the nozzle if above all other prints, but it's odd that it is using zero as value... I'm seeing: ;TYPE:CUSTOMG1 Z11.000000 F180.000000;End GCodeM104 S0 ;extruder heater offM140 S0 ;heated bed heater off (if you have it)G91 ;relative positioningG1 E-1 F300 ;retract the filament a bit before lifting the nozzle, to release some of the pressureG1 Z+0.5 E-5 X-20 Y-20 F9000 ;move Z up a bit and retract filament even moreG28 X0 Y0 ;move X/Y to min endstops, so the head is out of the wayM84 ;steppers offG90 ;absolute positioningM81 ;Turn off power supply

Yes! Updates on the firmware are good. It can use a lot of improvements on the UltiController front. Long filename support was one major thing. But there are lots of more improvements to be made. Main thing to consider is that the Arduino Mega2560 we use is almost out of RAM, so you should avoid using extra ram. For github, I recommend reading the github bootcamp: https://help.github.com/categories/54/articles "Fork a project" explains how you can setup your own development branch. "Be social" -> "Pull Requests" explains how to easy submit changes to the origin of your fork for review.

Odd, I'm not seeing this. The extra code inserted is: ;TYPE:CUSTOM;Move to next object on the platform. clear_z is the minimal z height we need to make sure we do not hit any objects.G92 E0G91 ;relative positioningG1 E-1 F300 ;retract the filament a bit before lifting the nozzle, to release some of the pressureG1 Z+0.5 E-5 F9000 ;move Z up a bit and retract filament even moreG90 ;absolute positioningG1 Z11 F180G92 E0G1 X102.5 Y122.185 F9000G1 F200 E5G92 E0 With the G1 Z11 having a Zxxx depending on the already printed object heights. Maybe something goes wrong in that height calculation, which STL files did you try to project plan?

The melting point of PLA depends on the base PLA used (should be the same for all Ultimaker PLA), and the color additive. But I think it can also differ a bit per batch. However, all PLA should melt and print with ease at 230C. And most PLA starts to go soft around 180C but that doesn't make it liquid enough to print it in almost all cases. As for common pitfalls: 1) Extruder drive. Make sure the big gear nut is very tightly screwed to the captive nut. With the V3 bolt this is much easier, as you can screw these together outside of the machine. If the gear nut slips you have major problems. (seen this a few times already, on my first machine and a few machines of other people) 2) Bed levelness. This comes less critical with Cura's default 0.3mm initial layer, but getting it right is important. Getting this wrong can cause anything from parts detaching from the printer to scratching your tape. And oozing on the first few layers. 3) Belts. Get the tension right. The latest long belts I saw yesterday where at the correct tension by default, but most belts are too long and need belt tensioners. 4) Short belts. People usually forget to check the short belts for tension. I finally had one with so little tension on it that it could jump over the pulley.

Newly ordered machines will ship with the V2 hotend from the moment the V2 hotend is available in the shop. (Harma from UM confirmed that for me today) I've heard the initial stock number, and I don't think you have to worry. They learned from the UltiController stock problems.

Cura will be the offical support software soon. And the defaults in Cura is what I have been using for prints well over 10 hours. Cura has less then 99 variables (SF has about 260 settings, not 99 ;-) ) it has about 40 settings, most hidden in the advanced advanced expert settings. Which 80% of the users will never need to touch. Most of the problems that people are having are mechanical problems. Just because your machine moves doesn't mean it's properly assembled and calibrated. For example, it took me 2 weeks of frustration to find out that I did not assemble the extruder drive mechism correctly causing a lot of slipping. I countered it with lots tweaks I tried in the settings up to the point where I could get a reasonable print with just wrong assembly.

All colors of PLA should melt around 200-230C, there could be something with your wiring, check that first, if you have a tiny short between the thermocouple wires, then you have a 2nd thermocouple point which can cause the temperature problems. The max temperature is a firmware safety feature, not of Cura. You can build a custom firmware with a custom safety level at http://daid.eu/~daid/marlin_build/ but that is at your own risk, as the hotend will destroy itself at 300C

Most likely tomorrow. I hope.

Cool, you made a device that grinds up the filament for recycling? Then you need this one: Which I think is awesome and very scary at the same time. That's a lot of compression on your filament Ian. Checked for a plug already?

That's very true! They are feeding this printer at Fablab Amersfoort short pieces of 10cm filament, so they get lots of different colors. This is what caused it finally to jam up when the bowden tube moved up so far that the filament could get next to each-other. If you are using just 1 color, then I think the tube can move up almost all the way before you have real problems.

Did you have one with the same white clips? Because I installed my beta kit on the Ultimaker from Fablab Amersfoort last week. And when I visited this week the Bowden tube had moved up. I think this tube has a slightly lower OD, causing the slipping problems. I installed a special nut to keep the tube in place, I hope it holds. But with the same white clips, this won't be the end of the popping problems. (It did not have a plug, so I could very easy fix the problem, that was a HUGE bonus)

Sounds like a plug Ian.

Most important parts would be the Teflon connector piece and the new wooden plates. The new brass and nozzle also help, but the Teflon part is the real thing that prevents plugs. I don't have exact drawings of the Teflon part, only what I measured from the beta V2 I got. And I think the sub-mm dimensions could be quite critical. I don't have any measurement for the new wooden parts, as I didn't measure them and already installed it on a machine.

1) Add noise reduction feet or soft padding 2) Jam something (some cardboard for example) between the extruder motor and the back of the machine. The extruder assembly can rattle like crazy. 3) Replace the X/Y motor assemblies from wood to normal spacers (same type of round spacers found to hold up the electronics) 4) Deal with the god damn electronics fan