greengecko

Hi, My ultimaker was running fine. But the last two prints i had trouble because the filament that comes out of the hot end is now too thin ( this happens after the first layer). I have the fear that this is the first sign of a so called plug. If i increase the temperature (from about 200 to 215) and also the flow rate (from around 210 to 213) then i get my normal nice prints back. The problem occurred with two different filaments (red and green UM PLA) . When i try to extrude by hand this works fine and i do not need any force to do that. So is this a first sign of a plug at the hotend or just some variation in filament thickness? I do not have calipers to meassure that. Is there any way to test for a plug? Or do I have to open the hotend? Thanks in advance, Greengecko

Hi, a while ago someone asked at the google group if anyone had tried to use the toshiba flashair sd card (a sd card that is able to read/write data via wifi) with the ulticontroller so gcode could be transfered to the sd card via wifi. One reason that was mentioned why this might not work was that the ulticontroller was meant not to work with SDHC cards and the flashair is an SDHC card. I just bought an SDHC card (4GB) and could read fine. So my question is, has anyone used/tried a Flashair sd card with the Ultimaker?

Hi @alaris2 Thanks for the hint with the first layer I will try that. I am still a fan of cura because of the project planner (in contrast Kisslicer prints more objects layer by layer) and Cura is a bit better in retraction. I agree that kisslicer makes a bit nicer surface (not sure why but it more flat at top layers). So a combination of Cura and Kisslicer would be awesome. Actually in my previous life I liked netfabb as well, but they are now really quiet and slow in their development it seems. So far I did not hear back from Ultimaker if they are planning on a heated bed upgrade. I complained here as well, (yes I know too much winching) they could be a bit more active and explain what their general way will be to develop the Ultimaker. So enough of these complaints as admittedly it is complaining on a fairly high level (not sure in German this makes sense) Thanks for your hint. I work on that and decided to install and print the fine y axis controller to make sure my bed is leveled. I agree next to the heated bed, this is also very important. Happy printing and thanks for taking the time.

Hi everyone, I am really happy with my ultimaker. It prints great, no stringing, no bowden tube popping (knock wood) and at the moment running really awesome with the KISSLICER (not sure but the first layer is much better than in Cura, if anyone could give me a hint how to improve that in CURA (which parameters to change) that would be great. The reason for this thread is that there is only one thing (at this stage), which is warping (even my PLA prints warp a bit if I use high infill). And I really hate it when an awesome print has to be repeated because I broke it when trying to get it off the printing table (and have to redo the blue tape again). So I hope a heated bed would be the solution for all of my problems (I know there will be others, but that is part of the fun ). I read most/all of the threads on heated bed I think and admittedly I am not a hero in soldering etc., therefore I asked today at Ultimaker if they are planning to have an official heated bed upgrade soon (but I fear that will take a while, if there will be any). So if I get a negative answer I am prepared to build it for myself, and my preference goes to the easiest solution possible (I know it will be more expensive probably). If I understood it correctly I would need to purchase the following - an MK1 (or MK2) heated bed from a reprap source - a power block (300 W - 400W at 19 V, minimum) - two LEDs (if I want to have some indication if the heated bed is switched on) - a thermistor (depending on the type I need to select the correct one in the firmware brewer of Daid) Then I need to put a resistor onto the PCB, and also connect the thermistor to it and can directly connect the heated bed to the Ultimaker ramps (I have electronic version 1.5.3, so a bit older). I also have the ulticontroller upgrade and would like to have the heated bed controlled from there. Can anyone please confirm if I have not overlooked anything and if possible a bit more detailed description how to wire this (to make sure I am not "destroying" my ultimaker ) - that would be highly appreciated. Thanks in advance, greengecko

Hy daid Thans a lot for your explanations. Really appreciated. I understand that it is a very difficult balance between overexitement and discouragement, though once it is for sure in some cases they could be a bit more open. And i really believe that they could put some effort and try to unify the discussion groups and steer it a bit. As well their blog was updated more thana month ago so people have no idea what is going on. So let's wait and see Cheers

I fully agree it is a complete nuisance to have two forums. My preference goes to this one as well, as i am not a fan of google and how they treat private data. Second on my wishlist would be much more openness from the ultimaker team as well. If they are developing something new then please tell us.(my guess would be a second extruder). For example i am thinking about a heated bed and if this is something they are developing then this would be good to know. Third, They do not show much of a sign that they read this forum. Some more responses from their side would be good. Enough of this winching, as in summary i am really happy with my ultimaker And i have to start another print...

@ Daid Not sure if i understood correctly. When you say it is fixed with the new firmware, did you mean Marlin or the ulticontroller firmware? If you meant the ulticontroller firmware how can i upgrade it? Thanks for the link to the M0/m1 tweak as unfortunately i do not have a dual extrusion ultimaker... My next project will most likely be a heated bed, but stillnot sure whih version.

Not sure, but that helped me. Set the port speed to 250000 in RepG (if you are using Linux this does not work, so you would need to downgrade your fimware) and then RepG did work (but cura no longer if you are not setting it to the slower value.).

I just installed the ulticontroller (had to patch it because of older electronics). It's running great. Is there a Manual. It's really easy to use, but for example it crashed once when I inserted the sd card and also i am not sure if it is possible to resume a print once stopped. I think i remember daid mentioned in one of his multiple color print that he changed the filament and then resumed it somehow. Cheers anf have fun once your ulticontroller arrives.

Hi has anyone ordered from them before? http://diamondage.co.nz/

Bad luck I just got my ulticontroller last week (but had no time to assemble it). Two quick question is there any ultimaker next to mine in Canberra? And where do you guys order PLA from within Australia? Thanks in advance

I updated when Cura RC4 came out my firmware, therefore I assume it is not fixed in the new firmware. If it is Marlin then it is strange that Netfabb can print at all... To Robert: sorry to hear that...

I can now print with printrun with new netfabb code, which indeed includes ":" in comment lines. To be able to do that just replace every ":" by another character e.g. "-" or nothing (search/replace in your favourite text editor). Not really convenient but doable, as I still prefer very much printrun over the netfabb printing GUI (too many tabs and not configurable by your own buttons). greengecko

Hi, I had the same issue as Robert. Crashing of printrun after the outline and also checksum error. I will try to print from Netfabb directly, though I prefer printrun so far, because it is more interactive, but let,s see. So if it the ": " in the gcode (should have been fixed according to erik) then please fix it also in netfabb. greengecko

HI, this is not to get browny points but rather to thank daid for his great work as he really made my printing with the ultimaker much more enjoyable. I started about a month ago printing with my ultimaker and pretty soon decided to buy netfabb (fast and easy to use=. At the beginning I got nice results and also used Cura once to update the firmware (somehow more straight forward then replicator), but I liked the interface of netfabb much more. After some prints I started to see that things that involve jumps are really ugly in netfabb and got into the retraction business. I played with the calibration (not sure if I understood the instructions at all) and could not improve my prints (just strings...) Then I wanted to print the tin tin rocket http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:16993 , which basically consists of only jumps. So I thought I should try Cura again updated to RC4 and the latest firmware (Marlin RC2 I think). And immediately had a great success printing the first part. So I started to have a look at the project planner to be able to print more than on piece. And again it worked just great. So this is not to show off but to encourage other newbies that it is possible to have no strings and great prints even as a beginner. If anyone is interested these were my settings in Cura RC4, standard settings (normal Print quality, layer height 0.2 etc.). I only changed the retraction disctance to the recommended 2 mm. I also added the shim http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:22851 to my extruder and also made sure that it cannot move once attached to the ultimaker (mine wobbled as just hanging it into the holes did not really fixed it into one position). I printed in Red-black PLA from Ultimaker at 50 mm/s, 200 C using printrun. You can check my print of the rocket on Thingiverse under thing:22851 As the retraction people use the pyramid to test their setting I attach a picture of the pyramid to this post. Admittedly there are some strings but they are really finer than hairs and were rubbed off with a cloth very very easily. Thanks again to Daid for Cura as it really boosted my printing experience and now let allow me to print many more things, which I was reluctant before because of too many strings. Cheers, greengecko

@daid, sorry I was too slow for your reply (this forum is really awesome). So I put a PLA print on it and so far it is far away from sticking on it, so that's great news. Thanks to both of you. Cheers, greengecko

Ok at this stage I have not really a good way to meassure the temperature, but I will do. How would I lower the drive current though. Is there a firmware/software way to do this?

Hi, I have got a question. My Ultimaker runs great no real problems at this stage. One thing I noticed (and I did not find a discussion about it when I searched the forum) is that after about 30 minutes of printing (normal quality, 100%) so quite fast, I checked the temperatures of the motors (x,y and extruder motor). The x,y motors are fine and coolish, but the extruder motor gets quite hot - if I touch it with my fingers I cannot have the fingers down for more than 2 seconds then it starts to hurts. Is that a hint that I am extruding too fast/too much and if so what is a way to slow extrusion (runnig netfabb and printrun)? or is that normal? Thanks in adance, greengecko Just to make sure my extruder stepper motor lasts for a while longer....

@daid Thanks for the kind explanation. I will try to compile my own Marlin version once my Ulticontroller arrives (I think I need anyway as SD cards are not natively supported). So far I was quite happy with the marlin firmware (nevertheless I will check next time for the differences once a new release candidate comes up) and there are so many other things I have to learn first.... Cheers, greengecko

Hi everyone, Thanks to all of you who read the problem description I think I have solved the puzzle. It had nothing to do with the firmware update (I suspected that because the problem occurred shortly after). My main problem was that this problem at the start was not really reproducible and Cura/print run did print just fine. So what happened and I stupedly did not realised that, was that somehow the endstop was hit sometimes during the start gcode (netfabb is having its runin very close to the edge of the build platform. If this happened the nooze seem to loose the knowledge on its position and therefore it started at the wrong position. Still not sure why this causes a complete stop by I hope this was the problem. I readjusted the endstop and now it prints great as before. Thanks again for your kind support and patience, greengecko

Hi, me again, Just a question, as the error mentioned above. Could it be possible that the baud rate (which seems to be set to 250000 in the new firmware) is causing this problem? If so how can I set the baudrate (do I have to compile my own firmware?) Thanks again, greengecko

Hi there, I am a bit desperate. I started to print with my new ultimaker about two weeks ago and everything was fine. Then I wanted to have less stringing and updated the Firmware last week via Cura (which works fine) to see if that helps. . I actually use Netfabb (the 150 € Ultimaker version) most of the time (as it is simple and comfortable to use). I managed to print decent print at about 190-200 degrees with PLA. Since the firmware upgrade Netfabb prints (printed via Printrun) do not start regularly anymore and at the wrong position (not in the centre, but rather at the edge of the build platform). So when the print starts it goes to the x,y zero corner, crosses it diagonal and then does about 4-5 lines at this edge towards the y100 point. Previously after this it did extrude backwards and run really fast towards x0, y200 and then started exactly at the position that I moved the object in Netfabb. Now this is no longer the case. After the 4-54 lines at the edge towards y100, it stays for about 5 seconds just over the platform oozes there and then starts immediately around there (which leads to an object within the edge of the build plattform. I looked at the starting Gcode in Netfabb, here it is and also reseted it to its previous values (loosing all my settings, though there were not many). Can anyone tell me how to change this behaviour to the previous state. THis is the Gcode that netfabb produces before the print: M104 S193.00 M92 E14 G21 G91 G1 X0.00 Y0.00 Z5.00 F500 G90 M109 S193.00 G28 G92 X0.00 Y0.00 Z0.00 E0.00 G1 E0.00 G1 X0.00 Y0.00 Z5.00 F600.00 M106 S255 G1 X205.00 Y200.00 Z5.00 F5000.00 G1 X205.00 Y200.00 Z0.35 F5000.00 G1 X205.00 Y100.00 Z0.35 F2500.00 E200.00 G1 X204.00 Y100.00 Z0.35 F2500.00 E202.00 G1 X204.00 Y200.00 Z0.35 F2500 E402.00 G1 X203.00 Y200.00 Z0.35 F2500 E404.00 G1 X203.00 Y100.00 Z0.35 F2500 E604.00 G1 X202.00 Y100.00 Z0.35 F2500 E606.00 G1 X202.00 Y200.00 Z0.35 F2500 E806.00 G1 X201.00 Y200.00 Z0.35 F2500 E808.00 G1 X201.00 Y100.00 Z0.35 F2500 E1008 G1 X202.00 Y100.00 Z0.35 F50000 E708.00 G1 X0.00 Y200.00 Z0.00 F15000 G92 E-300.00 until here is the part that can be edited the rest seems to be thrown in without use control, so I assume the "error" occurs in the next bits... G1 X0.0000 Y200.0000 Z0.0000 F3240.0000 M107 G1 X0.0000 Y200.0000 Z0.1800 F1200.0000 G1 X0.0000 Y200.0000 Z0.2000 F1200.0000 M104 S193.0000 M104 S185.0000 M104 S193.0000 M106 S255 I assume this is start of the object....h (begin layer 1 at 0.060) G1 X69.4300 Y137.6500 Z0.2000 F10500.0000 E0.0000 G1 X71.0576 Y136.1885 Z0.2000 F10500.0000 E0.0000 G1 X71.0576 Y136.1885 Z0.0800 F1200.0000 E0.0000 Thanks a lot in advance and any help would be really appreciated. greengecko