codemaven

I hate to drift off-topic here, but I just wanted to mention that another alternative that I've not seen discussed before is Bricscad. It's expensive, but not nearly as expensive as Solid Works. I've used it for 2d lasercutting and quite like it for that. Havn't tried it for 3d yet, but it looks promising on the surface. I'm just evaluating the trial version right now, but am seriously considering buying the Pro version or trying to contact the company to negotiate a hobbyist license. Cheers, Troy.

The problem with the DS1820 is that it's range is only good up to 125 degrees C. That's not high enough for a hot-end and barely high enough fro a heated bed... And I wouldn't trust the plastic package for either scenario... I think even for a heated bed, if you want to do ABS or some more exotic materials you're going to really push the limits of the chip and if it fails or mis-reports you could have a fire-hazard. I would want much more head-room on the hot side myself. Cheers, Troy.

The body of the thermocouple did not seem like stainless steel.. It felt like Aluminium to me, but I cannot be sure. I was thinking of putting a light coating of silicon heatsink grease on it next time. I will look into your copaslip suggestion as well, that might be better than standard silcon heatsink compound. Cheers, Troy.

I'm not sure about Cura, but in NetFabb you can make the bed lower on jumps... However, it's more trouble than it's worth. The head does scrape across the top of your last printed layer, but I've never had it damage anything. It makes a noticeable path in the surface when it does, but this is usually on internal layers that you won't see in the end result. You might have some unavoidable jumps on the top surface with some models, but again I've never had any issues with this and have not found it to cause any serious cosmetic problems on the top. Cheers, Troy.

Indeed.. You can't buy two for dual extrusion without those components. Does anyone know how long the turn-around to answer an email usually is for UM support? I emailed them yesterday and have not ad anything at all back yet.

Hi All, Just wanted to report that I attempted to update my machine to the V2 hot-end today, but ran into a problem when removing the old one. I had a bit of difficulty unscrewing the peek, as the threads really seemed to have latched on to the brass tube... but I eventually got that apart. I left the heater and thermocouple to last because I wanted to make sure I got the peek off while the machine was warm. So I removed the set screw and the heater cartridge slit right out easily, but thermocouple did not cooperate as much... It had basically welded itself into the aluminium block. I tried to push it out from the far end with a allen-key, and tugged and pulled with pliers... after about 30 minutes of fiddling with it the wires just came off. On close inspection the thermocouple is permanently inside the aluminum block, there's no way it would ever come out The metal sleeve that it's in has pretty much been welded to the aluminium block itself... I've emailed UM support for a replacement, I hope to get that soon... It took a whole week from ordering of this new hot-end before it was even shipped, so with that kind of turn around who knows how long I will be out of commssion.. if it was a standard published part I could order one from Farnell and have it by tomorrow, but this seems to be a specialty item. :x Cheers, Troy.

I was going to ask about that too... I received mine today and tried to install it.. but I've borked my machine in the process of removing the old one... :(

Ordered. Interesting... In the picture the bowden clip looks exactly the same, only it's all blue instead of white with a blue horseshoe. Is it really different from the current one? Cheers, Troy.

I hope you guys have lots of them ready to go... I get the impression that there is going to be a run on these as soon as they're listed. I hope they don't sell out within minutes of being posted I have not had any issues with plugs for months... until just last week... Now I am not able to get through even a small print without a plug forming... So I'm one of the ones lining up to buy the V2 hot end as soon as it's out. Cheers, Troy

Just trying the new firmware now... One welcome change is that after saving the GCode to a file it has a popup message indicating when it is finished... It used to hang while writing and then come back with no indication... also it seems to write faster...

Yes I tried that. Unfortunately it doesn't accept negative values...

I had some values in retraction that seem to work fine as far as speed (I don't know what they were off the top of my head) however, my issue with retraction was that it appeared to always go the wrong direction. Before a move it would PUSH on causing a huge blob and back-pressure that caused a plug half the time... then it would move with WORSE stringing, and then pull off after the move which results in not enough extrusion immediately after the move. I'm very happy with NetFabb right now with no retraction at all... but it sure would be nice if it had working retraction.

I use Virtualbox. Netfabb is the only Windows program I use now. I hadn't had a Windows install at all for years until I decided to try NetFabb. As great as Cura and the other free options are, NetFabb just produces amazing results with out much effort... I just wish it came in a Linux flavour... Cheers, Troy.

Thank's Daid. I was just waiting for some information as to what they had done for V2.. As Sander said above: "More details will be revealed later on this week, just a little bit more patience"

It's Friday... please tell me details are going to be release soon.... I'm on the edge of my seat.

Just to comment on Daids post, Yes, printing is now stable in NetFabb and has been for the past couple of revisions. It used to die towards the end of prints, but I've done many prints in it since they fixed the problem without issue. Still, being a Linux person I tend to avoid Windows as much as possible... These days I open NetFabb in a Windows Virtual Machine, slice my model, and then print with either PrintRun under Linux or now more recently with the Ulticontroller. Cheers, Troy

Hi Thomas, When you try to connect is there an error message, or does it just hang? My guess is that the buadrate is incorrect. I believe Netfabb and Cura default to different baudrates. You will need to set your firmware to a specific baudrate and then select that same rate in the settings for both NetFabb and Cura. Cheers, Troy.

Great to hear about the new hot-end in the works! I look forward to more on that. Regarding power supply spikes - I have had just about every issue that others have had with the hot-end / bowden tube, etc... but have never had issues with the Arduino hang or rebooting at all. I've not heard of that issue until now... Could it just be your particular power supply or Arduino? I have managed up to 21 hours successfully once, and a number of 16 hour prints with no problem... These days the only issue I ever have is the filament (I use Faberdashery too) getting tangled on the way to the extruder because it's loose and not on a spool of any sort. Nik, out of curiosity, where in the UK are you? I'm in London - I've had my Ultimaker for about a year now. Cheers, Troy.

I had similar problems with the lower quality settings in NetFabb, the first layer just doesn't stick well because the head starts too high off the tape.. With ultra it does 0.08mm layer so you shouldn't have that problem because it pushes the first layer nicely into the tape. The alternative is to turn your Z leadscrew a fraction of a turn by hand on the first layer to make sure that it's nice and close to the plastic. I had similar problems with ReplicatorG and Cura as well, but after adjusting my z end-stop it's perfect every time for me in any application. I've heard that Daid manages to get good results with a thick first layer but I find that I have to have the first layer pressed right into the tape for it to stick. Cheers, Troy.

Apologies, To set the machine profile you need to click on the ellipsis ( ... ) beside Configuration (under build settings). There is a detailed user manual here: http://wiki.netfabb.com/Engine_for_RepRap However, I don't think it's been updated to cover the volumetric version. Ignore the Calibration section of that document. Cheers, Troy.

Hi Michael, You don't need to use the 'slices' section at all. The layer thickness is determined by the profile you select. There are two different ones to select, "Machine settings" and "Build Style". The Machine Settings profile determines your print speed, layer thickness, etc. The Build Style sets the strategy for doing jumps, in-fill, skins, etc. For the time being just stick with the built-in profiles as they work well. I've never bothered with anything less than "ultra quality" myself as it works perfect for me and I actually have not had luck with lower quality ones. You can edit / create new profiles later, but chances are you will never need any other ones than what are there already. So here's the simple process. Please note I do not have NetFabb in front of me at the moment, so I'm not 100% sure about the labels on the buttons... 1. Load your model from the file menu 2. If there are any issues with it then NetFabb will prompt you to automatically fix it... Do that. 3. Select either No raft, or Outline. Outline will put a box around the print and is good for getting your plastic flowing smoothly at the start. Any other raft is generally not necessary. 3. Under 'Current Part' click on 'Center' to put your object in the middle of the platform (or move it to where you'd like to print). 4. Select your print quality (that's the build style) and under 'extruder' select the machine settings profile. Make sure you're profile match up for the standard profiles (i.e. if you use the Ultra profile in one then use the Ultra profile for the other... They're designed to go together). Usually you don't want support... stick with simple no support stuff for now. 5. Set the fill spacing slider to something like 2.5-4mm to start with. If you cannot move the slider (it's greyed out) then make sure your part is selected on the bed by clicking on it. 6. Hit 'Calculate toolpath'.... That will do the slicing. 7. When slicing is done you can either just hit print to print it, or save your gcode (to SD card for example, for the Ultricontroller). Netfabb is expensive.... but it does produce _very_ good results. It's also pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it, and the ability to slice up large objects within the GUI is very handy. My only major gripe with it is that it doesn't support Linux. That and the retraction still doesn't work right. Also, the directions in that post for the 4.9.2 release notes are fine, that's what I used without problem. The built-in profiles work great in either normal or volumetric mode. NF spent a lot of time tweaking them. However, with Volumetric it's much easier to get your own profiles to work without extensive trial-and-error. Cheers, Troy.

It's not just the rating of the switch (though I agree it is underrated). The physical mounting of it on the board is problematic as well. At least I read that the problems were due to the mounting - to me it just seems like it's a cheap switch. The problem described here is extremely wide-spread though. I had it for a very long time until I learned the trick to fix it. Put the switch into a 'middle' half way position and push down HARD on both sides at the same time. The switch should 'click' back into place like a dislocated shoulder. I've had it 'dislocate' a few times and stick in the on position now and this trick get's it working again. Cheers, Troy.

Am I right in thinking that the limiting component here is simply the regulator? I understand that even with the stock PSU with the Ulticontroller attached it is pushed to it's limit since it doesn't have a heatsink on it. The new fan shroud that comes with the Ulticontroller has an additional cutout to help cool it. I also added a small heatsink (similar to the ones on the stepper drivers) just because I happened to have one around. If I go with a heated print bed I think I would want a single supply solution, and 24v PSUs look like the likely answer, but it seems that the extra 5v might just put the 7812 over budget on hear dissipation. However, I don't see any reason that I can't drop in a 12 switching regulator (one of these: http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/switching ... s/6727142/ ). That should provide the same amount of power to the UM electronics without producing excessive heat as the voltage increases like the linear. Cheers, Troy.

Hi Benoit, I use Netfabb, but I've never bothered with Standard Quality. I've never been able to get half-way decent prints on anything other than Ultra - but with Ultra the prints are utterly amazing. I've increased the speed on my Ultra profile so I can get beautiful prints in the same time as the regular standard profile that still look amazing. I've even managed to tune those up to 200% using real-time tuning in Replicator-G and still achieve a nice result. Cheers, Troy.

Hi Daid, What settings are required for older electronics? What are the known symptoms of running marlin on the unsupported hardware? I know I have the Mega2550 Arduino and I believe I have the 1.5.4 electronics, but I have had issues with the newest firmware myself. I've not posted about it before because I just haven't had time to collect appropriate details and experiment... Basically, I'm running a very old 'experimental' build of Marlin built by Bernhard Kubicek around October or November of last year. It works great, but I've tried a few times to update to a current version of Marlin and every time I end up going back to the old build. I currently print at an extrusion temperature of 175 with this firmware, but on the newer Marlin I cannot get any extrusion at all below about 220 degrees. And I don't get consistent flow and layers that stick together under 240 degrees. Even at 240 as soon as I try to take the object off the platform it just de-laminates and basically crumbles. I also get bowden tube plugs when trying to print with the new Marlin firmware at these high temps, but have no problem with them on the old experimental build... Is it possible that my temp is reading way off on the new one? Is there a setting somewhere for the thermocouple raw value to temperature mapping? Thanks, Troy.