michalcilek

Hello, I wanted to ask for some help in setting up the Ultimaker Original with Macintosh Other then the CURA software, do I need to install anything else? Still it does not work up. I tried updating the firmware, using the latest Cura software. But nothing. Tried with several models, reloading, resetting. Nothing. The print head does not heat up and its fan does not spin. Once the printer started printing, but as the print head was cool, nothing came out. What else should I try? Must say the Ultimaker was left idle for a couple of month

Hello, so yes, my problem is that i do not have "reliable" extruder-printehead-nozzle operation. I definitely see, what was mentioned - prepare for print, heat up and start right away. If anything goes wrong its bad to start later, you are right! Unfortunately in my case - this is the time when things go wrong - the first layer is not beeing layed well - the nozzle does not put enough material and if so, it does not stick well to the blue tape layered on the Z stage. Sometimes it helps, if I help to push the filament by hand, but definitely do not want to do it each time... Will be trying hard to clean the driver bolt in the Extruder and try to find other possible causes. Already got the Print head/nozzle diassebled and assembled two times... Thanks Michal

Thanks a lot for your suggestions. Update so far: - cleaned the nozzle, works somehow - I found that print work with PLA at 229 C temperature and with 218% FeedRate (this is on the realtime controls with the Replicator G version 26 beta) So far, managed to print one Glass and kind of half of the Ultimaker flat robot. Both not much precise nor exactly nice, but still... I am starting to get better. Will post images later today. Please - I have a problem with netfabb (I have the 150 EUR version for Ultimaker): - it connects, but after 20-30 seconds it disconnects without starting to print Any hints or wriong settings? Thanks Michal

Thank you very much, ddurant. Unfortunately, that hexagon nut and 2 tries of a vase model was everything I got. I am back at the basic issue not beeing able to print anything. I do not have experience, but I think, there is something really wrong with my printhead - nozzle + aluminum block + PEEK. When I saw videos of Ultimaker on Youtube, they are printing quite fast. Mine is not able to provide the material at such speeds. Even half speed or other. I tried different temperatures, but did not found any major improvement. It seems there is some other problem as well I think. As you said, my PLA is pink and when I look at the drive bolt, it is stained in pink. What I noticed as well, is that the PLA has marks from the drive bolt, what may cause some difficult travel alongside the PTFA tube to the PEEK and Nozzle. To see the advance of the material, when the head was hot, I pulled the PLA to see its end in the tube and than used Control panel to advance it fwd or backwatd and yes, it was advancing, but that seems not to influence, once it is inn the outflow from the nozzle. So I changed the Z top end stop in a way that my nozzle is kind of touching the z-stage. But when it starts printing, there is nothing comming out from the nozzle now, and the printing head just moves around without leaving out material. M.

FIRST "PRINT" - the hexagon nut sample! So lowering temperature and making Ultimaker print first layer on the Z platform made a difference. Thanks a lot for your suggestions. No I will try to improve. Comments:¨ - the print seems irregular to me, some areas are denser, some scarse - the whole object is slightly leaning to one side Thanks Michal

Hello guys, let me thank you all for your suggestions. I am glad for any answers and suggestions as I want to get my machine up and running fancy models asap :-) UPDATE: I managed to do the following fixes: - I found that the part of the problems was a too loose extruder part, I replaced all the hex nuts with the nylock ones and tighten the whole thing, which now advanced the material pretty well - I dissasembled the print head - the nozzle and the PEEK part from the aluminum block, tried to cleand the nozzle with everything I got (screwdrivers, etc.) and managed to put out mos to the black ABS I tried to print with, so after re-assembling back, I pushed through the PLA again and managed to "expell" the rests of ABS out (hurray!) - the newly re-assebled print head is now much better, and there is no leakage anymore, therefore this part should be running OK - but I have to see for the correct temperatures, definitely! - yes, I have still the problem of printing the first layer badly (because of badly set upper "Z" switch, so I am trying to fine tune that, so that the first layer is set on the z-surface and not in air =================================== Do you have any suggestions for correct setting for Netfabb? I have the 150 EUR version, but so far failed to get it connected to my Ultimaker. Thanks in advance. I go try in correcting the Z-start-height and also the temperature. So will update how it helped. Thank you all very much! If your prints looked similar at the begining, what was your turning point? What helped most to start getting good prints? Thanks Best Regards Michal

Hello, please what setting are you using to conenct to Ultimaker? I tried, but did not succeeded, testing every speed and the same port (COM13 I had success with ReplicatorG). Thanks Michal

Hello, I completed the construction of my Ultimaker just 2 days ago (on the 27th Dec 2011). Started to make tests with PLA, which did not produce good results - rahter a network of tiny lines of extruded PLA. Tried at 250 C setting and even 255 C setting, but the same result. So I tried the ABS material, but that was even worse - it produced just a tiny 5mm thin line, without printing anything. So I decided to switch back to PLA, but in the meantime the nozzle stayed kind of obstructed with ABS. So I unmounted the nozzle, hand cleaned with a screwdriver and needle, which helped to get most of the ABS out, but still some remain probably nearby the botton of the nozzle, but I hope once heated and with new material, it could be melted and expeled. I am getting increasingly kind of desperate not beeing able to get one single object printed out, what makes me wonder where the problem could be. The extruder seems to work well in advancing the material, the motors and head movement works fine as well, but still, the printing is nothing more than "modern art made from lines and dots" than anything usable. I was trying to print just some of the examples from ReplicatorG, even tried to download the latest 1.5.3 firmware, but that does not seem to solve anything. Thank you for your suggestions in advance. Best Regards Michal Cilek michalcilek@gmail.com