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coofercat

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Everything posted by coofercat

  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.
  16. Wow folks - thanks so much! I'm loving those pictures. It makes me wonder if I should paint my printer!? I had no idea changing a stepper driver could reduce the noise of the stepper, although now I think of it, it makes sense. I'll look into getting some of those in. An Ulticontroller does look like a good idea - I seem to remember it being a bit too expensive way-back-whenever, which is what lead me down the path of using a Raspberry Pi instead (my plan there was to run CUPS and make my Ultimaker look like a regular printer on the network - way back, I wrote a gcode sender as part of this: https://github.com/coofercat/bytetrain). If I can source an ulticontroller, I think I'll get one in and save me a job or two though (or failing that look into Octoprint or something). As for more physical things, I like the idea of a new z-stage and at the very least a 3-point level (versus the 4 point I have). I have a threaded switch arrangement, so that side of things works quite well, but I do find the bed does seem to change angle a bit here and there (which causes the brims to either be too thin or blobby as the backlog of filament comes out). By the looks of things I have a similar heated bed as @tommyph1208, in my case a bit of borosilicate glass on top - although I can never get my butterfly clips on as fully as in those pictures without getting in the way of printing. The Geo Hagen extruder looks interesting - I find my Bertho extruder mod needs something to hold the white 'stick' in place otherwise it moves upwards and the 'squeeze' on the filament is lost. I'm using an elastic band at the moment, but I feel like I should be able to print my way out of this problem. Lastly the electronics... I'm not sure if I want to replace them or not. As there isn't a obvious upgrade path, maybe I'll leave that one to another time. New stepper drivers and power supplies would be quite a change on its own, so I should probably do that before I look at anything more serious, but it's an area I think I need to 'invest' in sometime. Just to summarise everything in this thread (and a few other bits) so far (just in case anyone else is in the same situation as me), here's an approximately prioritised list of 'big items': Heated bed Hot end upgrade/replacement to UMO+ standard Bertho or Geo Hagen extruder modification/replacement Ulticontroller or similar to 'untether' the computer from the printer Upgrade stepper motor drivers to TMC2130 stepstick Possibly switch out the electronics for something else And for smaller (mostly printable) items: Make the z-limit switch screw-adjustable 3-point bed levelling Electronics fan replacement (as the supplied fan doesn't work for very long) Hot end fan shroud replacement (the fold-up thing isn't very good) I'd also add an "Owen Clamp" onto the bowden tube, but I suspect the newer hot end negates the need for it.
  17. Hmm... definitely worth thinking about. I'm in the UK, and found this: https://3dgbire.com/collections/spare-parts/products/hot-end-pack I can't remember ever having a teflon part - I've got a PEEK part, but from memory, the Bowden pushes straight into it (there also seems to be an additional brass part I don't have). I believe in mine it goes Bowden -> PEEK -> (alu block) -> nozzle. By the looks of things, there's been a bit of a design adjustment that could help me out - I'll bash the credit card ? The saga of printing continues - I tried to print a 7.5 hour print over night, and it failed because the Y motor had moved a little bit, making the small belt slack enough that it could skip on the teeth. A load of grease on the bars and a bit of adjustment has got it back working again. It's been printing a few things today, so I've just kicked off a repeat of last night's job. Elsewhere I'm trying to print a box that can hold a couple of Buck Converters. I figure I can use the 24V supply for the bed (which is a whopper) and drop it down to 19 for the main electronics, drop it to 12 for the 12V stuff (so no need of the regulator) and possibly drop it to 5V to run a raspberry pi as well. I'm already getting fed up of having to leave my laptop tethered to the printer for hours on end, so would prefer the Pi sent the gcode for me. That's probably an area that needs a whole load of looking into in itself, regardless of the state of my printer though. Thanks for the hotend tip - I'll get a new one in and see where it gets me. Last time I tried I couldn't get the heater or thermocouple out of the alu block, but I' sure there's a way!
  18. I've just had some extrusion problem. By the looks of it, the filament got thickened up in the hot end and then blocked the extruder. Not terrible to fix, but obviously means a failed print and a bit of tugging filament out of the hot end. However... I guess what I really wanted to know is if there were any developments in the last few years that could help me - and by the sounds of it, there haven't really been. I wondered if maybe the electronics had grown in power and complexity, or if the feeder had had a few redesigns (I see a few on Youmagine, some including different stepper motors, which reminds me I should probably calibrate my feeder at some point). I've been roped into doing a 'demo' of my printer at the kids school - wish me luck!
  19. The Marlin Builder seems to be the way to go - I more or less used the defaults, apart from guessing the temperature sensor of my heated bed. I built the firmware and uploaded it, and now the 'jog' functions all work, the heated bed is reading a sane value and the hotend (and bed) heat up when asked to do so. I haven't actually tried a print with it yet - that'll have to wait until the weekend. That worked out a lot easier than I thought it would - although I wonder why Cura's UMO firmware didn't at least make the basic printer work...? (I'd excuse it not working with the heated bed, as that's a bit custom/3rd party). Either way - thank you very much for your help - much appreciated.
  20. Great advice - thanks very much. In terms of use, I've got a couple of ABS prints in mind (some stuff that'll go outside, so PLA won't cut it), but nothing too complicated. After that, PLA is probably the weapon of choice for most jobs I'll end up doing. One day I'd like to try and get a Team UnLimbited arm out of it (http://www.teamunlimbited.org/) - something for my kids and their school to learn about. My fan shroud is actually printed, although it looks a bit melted, so I think it's time for a new one! I actually do have a Bertho feeder mod, and a couple of things to stop the feeder tube popping out of the hot end. I guess my main aim is that whenever anyone asks, I can say "sure, let's print something right now" - which hasn't really been my experience, generally I've had to say "er... okay, let's see if I can get it going". I've had some good success with it, but a lot of failures for various reasons too. Since you're not saying to do anything major, I guess I really just need to spend some time getting it all working as well as possible and fix up any minor niggles. Thanks folks - appreciate the advice ?
  21. I've got one of the very early Ultimaker Originals. It's had a few tweaks and tucks here and there, but let's assume it's pretty much as sold. The one exception is that I do have a heated bed (3rd party Alu sheet + glass top). I haven't used it in a couple of years, but am looking to get back to 3D printing. My experience was that I could get some good stuff out of it, but that I needed to fiddle with it quite a bit to keep it running smoothly and to 'optimise' prints. Let's assume limitless budget... what upgrades, tweaks or customisations should I look into? I'm really looking to make it as low-maintenance as possible, to get maximum printing quality and reliability from it. After that, it's all about showing off! (truthfully, the budget isn't limitless and probably won't spring to another printer, but let's see... ? ) To start the conversation off, I know there's been a lot of work done on the hot ends. Should I get a new one? There's also a move away from having to plug my computer into the printer by USB. Should I look to something there? The feeder was always a conversation point too, is that worth replacing?
  22. Thanks for that - I get zero volts across the two heater terminals - but then, as the light doesn't come on, it means that the board isn't even trying to heat (it took me a few minutes for 'the penny to drop' last night when I was looking at it). I do have 12V available, so when it tries to heat, it'll (hopefully) get some volts though. The most obvious problem is when you get a crazy temperature reading the board doesn't heat because it may overheat the head. However, in this case the temperature reading isn't super accurate, but it is reasonable, and does change with temperature, so it doesn't seem to be that. As for firmware - I just pressed the 'upgrade firmware' button in Cura (which is the latest version I could get (v3.5.1). Not sure I can get a .h from any of that? In some desperation, I'm going to try and resurrect my old computer, which (hopefully) has the old version of Cura on it, which hopefully has the old firmware on it - not sure how successful any of that will be, but it might work.
  23. I've got one of the very early Ultimaker Originals (back when they were just called "Ultimaker"). It's got version 1.5.4 electronics, and has had a few bits and bobs added over the years, most notably a heated bed. It's been packed in a box for about 3 years, before which it definitely worked. Somewhat foolishly, I immediately upgraded the firmware, although maybe I should have tried it before I did that. Long story short: it's not attempting to heat the hot end. There's an LED which lights when the heater is on, and this never lights up. The temperature sensor seems to be working (it reads about 30C, even though the room is at about 21C, but it always seemed to do that) - if I squeeze the aluminium block in my fingers, I can get the temperature to go up a couple of degrees. However, no matter what I try, I don't seem to be able to convince it to actually turn the heater on. I've got a good looking 19V power supply, my 12V line looks good too, the fans are all working, the green LEDs on the board are on, the blue LED strips are on, the little blue LED in the head is on, Cura 'sees' the printer (although I can't 'jog' the head, I can press the home buttons and it moves). I've tried firmware for the UMO, UMO+ with and without the heated bed option. Not ideal, but not a concern right now is that the heated bed (which is a 3rd party 24V alu board + glass bed) reads 1100C - doesn't matter if it's connected or not. It doesn't seem to matter if I check the "Heated Bed" box in the settings or not, it always shows it, and it's always wrong. Once the hot end is sorted, this will probably be my next job to fix... This problem *feels* like firmware/compatibility/my ancient kit, but I can't see any options anywhere to fiddle with those details. Any help much appreciated!
  24. Oh wow - I love that muli-coloured bowl - what a great idea! I also like the heated tube idea - that sounds a bit like the filament clamp project, home-made style. It's such a simple solution, I think I'll have a go at making it myself. In the meantime, I'll try some of the multi-coloured idea. Thanks all :-)
  25. I've been using up some length of filament to make a few things, and so now have a few lengths of different coloured filaments of about 1-2 metres (or a bit longer). Obviously, once the length gets down to about 75cm the extruder can't push it up the bowden, so these lengths don't seem especially useful. I can't think of anything productive to do with the short lengths. There's a filament welder project (http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/6688-filament-welding-clamp/) in the works, but no word on when it might go into production. What do other people do with random short lengths of filament? What cool uses to people have for such things?
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