msurunner

It sounds like the new slicer that Daid and a host of others are working on will address this. ATM, Cura is limited to the capabilities of SkeinForge. I would say take a look at your part and determine which slicer you think is going to do a better job with it right now (Cura or KS) and hope the new one properly addresses the thin wall problem.

I know it has gained significant traction in the RepRap world beyond UM, but I have yet to personally try it. It should function with any Marlin based firmware though.

It comes from straining to see layer thickness below 100 microns

If you have something available to test, I'm more than willing to alpah/beta it... Plus, inexperienced 15 year olds are a great test for the intuitiveness of a software...

http://www.amazon.com/Eklind-10509-Hex-L-1-5mm-9-Piece/dp/B000189PS4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358454488&sr=8-1&keywords=1.5+mm+hex+key Looks like mine's a 1.5 mm so the smallest in that set ought to work...

You probably do then. If you have a spring on the outside and a roller on the inside you do. The old setup used a pressure plate.

I believe he's referring to the entire bolt assembly sliding out. In which case, I would print off one of these.... http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:31563 (I see you already liked it) If it's not tight enough to hold the bolt in place, try scaling it down to 95%. If that still doesn't work, I would say there's an alignment issue with the stepper not making a flush contact with the larger gear, thus trying to walk the gear out of the assembly. But, no, I do not know of a herringbone set that is "drop in ready." Your steps per e should be easy to re calibrate, and should be done for any gear change regardless of "drop in" status by simply re-running the first time wizard of Cura and adjusting slightly as needed.

I would not recommend it for parts where you have to do a lot of retraction. I was able to get some decent results with it, even on a Yoda bust, but I turned the heat way up so that it practically oozed out and played with the speed. <- Not a best practice, nor conducive for retraction, but it worked...

Good to hear! Glad you are running as desired now!

Is there a reason for the material secrecy?

This would be particularly helpful with some of the "sharp point" items like the hollow pyramid retraction calibration to speed the print up towards the end!

THIS is the main advantage that Cura has over any other slicer. The creator of the software was a machine specific user, and one with the capability to try many things to get a good start point for getting users close. That was my main draw towards it initially. Now, I completely understand the shortcomings and limitations of Cura, don't get me wrong. BUT Cura also is a great tool for teaching new users about WHAT the software is doing. IF we want a completely new slicer, we need to make sure that there are enough profiles collected to create an average profile to get a user close. This would be the main disadvantage of KISSlicer. You need to have another user with a good working profile (thanks grouch!) to get you close. If we want to backdoor it to Cura, potentially all the better. Save the work of GUI generation. I use both slicers and both have their pluses and minuses. For my students, I can explain what is going on a bit more easily with Cura (the interface helps a lot). I can also tweak a couple of different parameters that I haven't figured out how to in KS (perhaps out of laziness). BOTH are capable slicers for 95% of the projects thrown their way, and generally that 5% is covered by the other slicer. It would just be nice if we got to a point where we were tackling 98+% of our projects at 99+% satisfaction. My biggest thing would be quality. That means surface quality and wall placement (a problem that I feel is all too often declared a loose belt backlash issue). I understand pulley slippage and belt tension are still going to provide users with some issues, but a slicer should be absolutely spot on with those two. Second would be speed. 3-5 times the speed of SF-Cura would probably be acceptable for me on smaller or less complex prints, but I know Cura has trouble with some of the Yoda busts and whatnot. I am very excited to see what your speeds look like (still can't believe you were upset with 800K layers in 3 min, alaris...). I generally will not use Cura if I just want to do a quick print on something because of the slice time, and hate tying up the computer for fifteen minutes anytime another teacher wants a Yoda... (Wow, this is running on... almost there) As for first layer issues, I am a firm believer in bed level/proper height. I think way too many people (myself included) got frustrated with that first layer time and cranked it up. Then things weren't sticking, so you lower the bed, then you get an over extrusion, so you adjust filament size/steps per e, then your top surface quality suffers so you are lost in this hopeless calibration loop. IMHO, bed height and level is critical. The byproduct of that is first layer speed will need to be generally less than half of print speed (again, IMHO). BUT, that may just be me. I want my part not to warp, not have a flared lip, AND release from the bed with relative ease. The only way to do that is for the bed height to be adjusted properly and only take the speed up to where it can handle it. I'm more than willing to wait another three minutes for the part to be "perfect" and not have to deal with cleanup issues with high speed first layers. Finally, when we do create profiles and what not, I think it's very important that we remember to create a starting point for users. Saying "oh, well, with this slicer and a properly tuned UM you should be able to print at 200 mm/s or have a layer thickness of .3 mm or .05 mm or an extrusion thickness up to a mm..." is pointless. Those are specialized cases. No one claims that everyone should be able to run a sub 10 second 100 m because some Olympic athlete can. Why should we expect all of these printers that have been tuned by hundreds of users with millions of potential settings to all perform to the pinnacle performance? Let's be realistic in our expectations here...

How much has UM replenished of your stock? j Working there now must have some benefits!

64 m? .08 layers? As in 800,000 layers? If that's true, I have to say 3 minutes is FANTASTIC. "needless to say, I didn't print it." Does that mean you have g-code generation/backended it to Cura with Daid?

You have to go really slow the first couple of layers. Until those bridges are built between the dots, your contact patch with the bed is so minimal that you will rip them off if there is the slightest overextrusion/string and a quick movement. I would also probably not even have the fan on until several layers up.

Try using the Prepare Print, Transfer to SD Card and disconnecting the printer from the computer all together. It's not really designed to be used as the controlling component while printing through USB, but rather, when printing from the SD card. If you are going to be just printing from the USB, then I would recommend disconnecting the UltiController.

Anybody heard of when someone might be putting a batch of this together for sale?

To be clear, I'm turning the adjustment screws either up or down depending on the extrusion, thus lowering or raising the bed.

I don't think you are running at a high enough temp for the print speeds you are attempting. I would say try a print at 225 and see what happens. This ought to make it "easier" for the extruder to push the filament through the hotend.

Honestly, my z height calibration is just a feel thing. I have my first layer printing at 18-20 mm/s. I turn the bed down to where it is just sticking at that speed. I also kind of know approximately how thick the lines should be. If it's too thin/not sticking well, I will turn the bed up in that area. If it's too fat, I'll turn it down slightly. Once I have it correct, it usually holds for ten or more prints.

My solution to the flared bottom has been to print slower and with the bed slightly lower. You need to slow it down to give the deposition ample time to adhere to the surface before the printhead moves on. Basically, when running at the higher speed on the bottom layer, you have to press the deposition into the tape/printbed. Because the Z is not properly adjusted, it presses the excess material outward further than the slicer anticipates. This is also why you get the ridges on the surface fill that you can see very apparently in the middle square. If your bed is properly adjusted for the height the slicer anticipated (and your steps per e), you should rarely see those.

The pause at height command inserts code at the appropriate location in the gcode file to move the printhead away from the part and wait for user input. That gives you the ability to put some taped support in there for his chin/lip. It's what I would try as a next step. It has been proven that you can print with the UM upside down. Not a lot of difference in quality.

A slightly lower temp means that the machine is keeping the material closer to its solid state. So when you have a larger overhang and a fan blowing on it, it can turn to solid midair more easily. If it were me, I'd try flipping him all the way down on his back. Kinda like you did in the photos, only rotated 90* so his nose is straight up and see how that prints. The other option you could incorporate would be the "pause at height" plugin and print him vertical again. Preview your g-code to see where it starts making the big overhangs and use one or two of those. Rather than swapping filament out, you would be placing your own, easily removable, support (a platform of tape) in there for the first layer of it. Then it's kinda like the printer is starting over again. I would maybe try that at the bottom of his chin and the bottom of his upper lip. But I also wouldn't mess with it if laying him down can give you the surface quality you are after.

You are probably out of luck on it then :( The only thing you could really do is try to swap in a section of 4 mm ID tubing for most of the bowden tube, with a smaller section of the original bowden at the hotend. Several people have done it, but you have to have cajones to cut apart an otherwise working bowden tube and splice in an unknown.

You might be able to get away with the larger diameter by turning up the temperature a little bit so there is slightly less resistance in the hotend. Generally speaking, you want to try to stay away from anything over 3mm, but there is a little bit of leniency in the bowden. You would want to make sure you are giving the filament some additional time to loosen up and lose it's spool memory rather than just straight of the back of the machine. I'd say give it a go though. What's the worse that can happen? You get a plug and have to disassemble the hotend.