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coofercat

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  1. I've been printing the prusa visor designs too - the MK3-2 version uses 60% less plastic, and prints in much less time. It doesn't stack though, so for stacks you're back to using the slightly bigger design (which has been updated with little posts between visors which just snap off, rather than the older chimneys). One problem I have on my UMO is stringing - just strings across the curve of the face shield. I can't see any head movements that account for it (watching the "preview" in cura, I can't see the head ever make a short-cut across the band, and I don't think there's any retraction going on either), but it seems a common problem (not just on Ultimaker printers either - reports from these guys are the same: http://www.makers4thenhs.com/). It's not really a problem I've ever really worried about before - any idea what can done about it? What are the obvious causes/solutions?
  2. Finally mounted the QR by four hard drive silencers I had kicking about - the extruder now makes almost no noise (certainly not compared to the rest of the printer). The QR I bought was labelled as "Ultimaker 2", so doesn't have a way to fit to the UMO's sort of drop-in slot design. I drilled 2 holes and used two of the slot holes to mount the extruder. One gotcha I had was that in the initial install, the extruder seemed to put electrical noise onto the temperature sensor. I tried everything - separating wires, twisting wires, messing with the fan, fiddling with bits and pieces, you name it. Nothing worked, so I thought I'd just rule out the extruder by unplugging it (it has a connector on the motor, so easy to do). With the extruder disconnected, suddenly the temperature readings were super-stable for the first time in hours. I plugged it back in, and it's still fine. Not sure what the problem was, but it's all sorted now. The QR definitely has a lot of "pushing power", but it can (and does) slip if things don't go according to plan. It's pretty obvious when it does slip, which wasn't always the case with the original extruder. The filament entry on the QR is more defined, so I figure I could add a filament movement sensor to keep track of skips.
  3. Not sure about "best", but I decided to go in hard and bought a Bondtech QR (which is no where near the cheapest either!). It's currently mounted by two cable ties, but so far seems to be working very nicely. Calibration was unexpected - I thought I'd just be able to use the datasheet quoted esteps, but seems that was too low (possibly because I have silentstep stepper drivers?).
  4. I'm leaning towards just buying something in - what I really want is a physical button to extrude, which when you let go stops extruding (and the same for retract, move x/y/z etc). I don't really need a display - I mostly use Octoprint for that. But you're right, some of the cheap controllers are about £10, although without a case, so I'd have to print one for it.
  5. I'm wondering if I could make my own Ulticontroller or similar? There are a couple of connections to the electronics, and then of course the firmware would need to know about my creation, but maybe I could make it Ulticontroller or Reprap Discount Controller (or other) compatible...? I'm looking at maybe making a cut-down sort of ulticontroller - the aim being to just have head movement and extruder controls (I don't need the SD card stuff). I could just go for a super-cheap controller and use that (although I'm not sure about how great any of them really are for this stuff)? I'm guessing these controllers connect with SPI or I2C - anyone know if the protocol is described anywhere?
  6. Looks a lot like this: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/bertho-boman (which has been on my printer for many years, and is very good!)
  7. Not so sure about the map, but there are a bunch of folks in the UK making visors for the NHS: https://github.com/seanmtracey/PPE-Visor-Fabrication-Instructions (if you're in the UK and have spare printer-time, can you help them out? They also need laser cut acetate and elastic, if you happen to have either of those to hand too)
  8. I have an original, UMO (not the plus) - and the gnurled wheel is worn and so not very gnurled and not gripping the filament any longer. Getting a replacement is now expensive and slow (best I've found is something like 15 euro, international). I'm wondering if I should instead upgrade the whole extruder to some other model? I see lots of people have done things along these lines, but I'm unclear which is the "best", or what the implications are. Just to cover this off, I'm sure any replacement won't use the same mounting, and I'm fine with having to make some sort of custom mounting. I'm also fine with some custom firmware/calibration (I've long-since had to have a self-compiled firmware, so this isn't a problem). Definition of "best" is of course subjective. I guess I'd like an extruder that has lots of grip, doesn't take much maintenance and is easy to disengage if you have to do a filament pull or swap or whatever. I'd love an out-of-filament detector, but this is completely optional. I think I'd prefer "skipping steps" rather than filament grinding, but again, I'll take whatever's on offer. The main thing is that I want some longevity so that I get another 10+ years before I have to change it ;-) Any ideas what extruder to go for?
  9. You make a good point - "security of supply" is probably as important as anything else. Parts and information about the early UMOs are getting harder and harder to google.
  10. That looks like the sort of thing I'd prefer - still not cheap, but none of them seem to be. Thanks!
  11. I've got one of the early Ultimaker Originals (not plus). I have my suspicions that the temperature sensor may have room for improvement (most obviously, even set at 270C, it doesn't seem to melt ABS terribly well, and a probe held onto the block reads 250C). My question is... what should I look to replace it with? I could buy another exactly the same from the resellers, but they're expensive: https://3dgbire.com/collections/spare-parts/products/thermocouple-sensor?variant=1079466129 (and maybe no better than what I already have?). However, I'm happy to fiddle with firmware and whatnot, so can I do any better?
  12. I designed the feet around some RC model shock absorbers (which are adjustable to take account of the extra weight at the back of the printer). I'm going to upload to youmagine, but it seems to only accept if there's a photo, and my last attempt didn't seem to want to upload photos properly. I've just attached a few files here. The shocks I used seem to have gone, but were these: https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07GPSL8HM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I've finally got the feet onto Youmagine: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/spring-loaded-sound-absorbing-ultimaker-feet
  13. Pictures - great idea: https://www.flickr.com/photos/14363379@N04/albums/72157711272133246/with/48874135048/ (apologies for my rather hurried and slap-dash camera work!)
  14. It's been a while, but I think I'm now at a point where I can press "print" and (more or less), the printer will just do it. The work is never done, and I'm sure some more tweaks would be nice, but anything further is polish, rather than 'core' requirement. I think my complete list of changes to the as-delivered original-UMO are: - "Owen clamp" on the bowden - Pop Stop on the bowden - Extruder multi-clip on the bowden - "Bertho" extruder clip - New fan shroud - Adjustable z-stop - Heated bed kit + borosilicate glass - Spring loaded feet (sound reducing, but now required to accommodate electronics changes) - TMC2130 silentstep Stepper motor drivers - A modified firmware to enable the bed and adjust the z-step calibration which changes with new stepper drivers - Butchered the wooden electronics covers a bit to put a slimline (quiet) fan directly over the stepper drivers - A whopping great big 24V power supply (plus "jumbo power connector") - Added a power socket for the power supply - A raspberry pi + Octopi software for running prints and controlling the printer (in a little plastic box) - A USB camera (attached to the Pi) - currently held in place by tape - could do with a printed mount - 2 x small buck converters to reduce the 24V to 5V and 12V (5V for the Pi, 12V to supply the fans and maybe LEDs) - 1 big buck converter to produce 19V (requires a dedicated fan attached via a printed mount) - A right-angle jumbo power connector for the 19V to go into the original power socket - 2 Relays. One to switch the heated bed on and off, the other to turn the feed to the 12V and 19V on and off - A small 'vero board' with the relays and some drivers (which also has room to connect up some 12V RGB LEDs, which may replace the supplied blue ones), plus some connections to various places to make it all work - A little box to put the vero board and small buck converters into - A USB cable with a right-angle connector to connect the Pi to the UMO electronics (via the socket on the outside of the printer) I have a replacement head and bowden sitting nearby, but not as yet used. I also had to replace one of the four gantry bars, as one was a bit bent ("a banana"). I've also tightened every nut and bolt on the thing a couple of times too ;-) I'd also like to somehow disconnect the printer's USB from the Pi when it's "off" - even with the USB power switched off, the power still seems to be getting to the thermocouple. Lastly, the retract still makes a fair bit of noise - I've seen a printable solution using some rubber hard drive mounts, so I might give that a go some time too. I don't think I've actually spent a crazy amount of money getting here, but it's definitely used up a lot of time over the years. It's been fun though, and I've learned a lot along the way. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions and help to get me this far - much appreciated!
  15. Just to say, my TMC2130s arrived, so I hurriedly tried to get them to work. They're not quite a 'drop in replacement' for the UMO's own drivers, although they're quite easy to get going if you want a bit of a project. The bulk of the work of getting the electronics sorted is nicely documented here: The TMCs have a larger heatsink and are a little bit thicker than the originals, so they don't fit under the wooden electronics cover. To resolve this and complete the project, I did the following: - Remove the top piece of the wooden electronics cover, whatever fan you have and the cardboard fold-up thingy - Drill some holes and fit a 70mm fan onto the bigger (bottom) sheet of the electronics cover. I used the rubber washers that came with my fan to get it another millimetre or two away from the electronics. - Dremelled off the tops of the higher heatsinks so that they fit under the fan This then means that the electronics + fan sandwich is too tall to fit under the ultimaker. You'll need some feet to lift your UMO up by about 15-20mm. I used some wooden blocks to get going, but am printing up some feet to do a more permanent job. On a more positive note, the bigger fan blows so much air, so directly that everything runs really cool, which means no missed steps and no 12V issues. I also found firmware a bit of a problem. The robotfuzz site seems to be down, so I used https://bultimaker.bulles.eu/. It's easy to make a firmware that reverses the X/Y/E/Z motion. You can't fiddle with the steps-per-mm for the Z-stage on there though, so your Z will move about half of distance its supposed to. I had a crack at compiling up Marlin from source, but didn't get anything working properly. Until I can work that out, I've put the original stepper driver back in for the Z axis. That's a shame because it sounds like it's moving by compressed air (a sort of 'pfff' sound) when it's driven by a TMC. After all that, I've got to say the TMCs are almost magical. They cut the noise your printer makes by so much it's almost difficult to know your printer is actually running. It's really amazing how effective they are. Thanks for the tip - it was well worth doing this.
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