tomnagel

The I2C error and ER18 mean that there is a problem with the comms betweens main board and print head. Your other problem (where the printer stops mid-print) we think is caused by loss of serial communication between the Linux board and the Ultimainboard (which drives the steppers). In 3.6 an improvement has been made to the I2C problem (software is more robust against commuincation errors). What is not yet clear is why in rare cases (as David wrote earlier, we have 1 printer in our office displaying the same behaviour) the communication the serial connection breaks. We will also improve this in software, but that'll be firmware 3.7. Since both are communication errors, could it be that your printer is in an electrically noisy area? @daid do you have anything to add?

So let me get this straight: you downgraded the printer to firmware 3.5 and now you have experienced the same problem as you described in the start of this thread? Which is: somewhere during a long print, the printer stops printing. The menu is still operable but nothing happens when you select a menu item. Right?

yes, the testing version is 3.6.3, and the only change that is made with respect to the current stable version (3.6.2) is this fix.

I think so. If you give me a link to the file, I'll give it a shot myself.

There are many different jerk and acceleration settings which are hidden. Try to display them all, and maybe you can get the behavior you expect. But of course I advise to stick to all default settings, cause usually these are really good

My personal experience is that the default profiles are hard to beat. It's impossible to optimize for all models out there, but for most models these profiles give excellent results. The problem is that many variables belong together, it takes experience to turn all these knobs. For 99% of my prints, I don't even bother anymore.

To make matters even worse, Cura 2.5 beta 1 contains a bug where it puts a wrong required build size in the header, regardless of the actual size of the object. This is supposedly solved in 2.5 beta 2. It's completely unrelated to the bug this topic started with.

Yuk. Which version of Cura did you use? Is it PLA? Which brand? Did you make changes to the default profiles? Recently I had a model which had a lot of retractions in a small area. The z-hop option is turned on by default in the PLA profiles, causing deterioration of print quality. Turning z-hop off greatly improved pq for that model. (Normally I advocate that the default profiles are really good, but there are exceptions)

The "usb drive not recognised" problem was fixed, please see https://ultimaker.com/en/community/39815-um3e-sometime-requires-power-cycling-to-see-flash-drive?page=1#reply-177245

Which problems have you seen other than shown in the pictures above? If your hardware is fine, you use Ultimaker materials, you use Cura with the default profiles and, especially in case of PVA, the ambient climate is within spec, printing should be reliable.

I'm sorry to see this! This is disappointing to say the least. The silicone pad is installed correctly I think, though it is a bit hard to see. Prime towers have been disabled by default in Cura 2.4. This makes printing PLA/PVA not only more reliable, but also it saves you time and material. I would strongly recommend upgrading to Cura 2.4, and use the default profiles, and UM materials. For non-UM materials, you may need to tweak some slicersettings. I see no mention of the used material, I will assume it is PLA. Can be removed with hot air. Please know that the heat breaks in the hot end do not allow any large forces on the hot-end, so you need to be gentle. You may want to contact your reseller for help.

Sounds to me it is not switching properly. Does the problem reproduce? If so: please check whether or not nozzle 2 is switched to the lower position right before it starts printing. Is your printer updated to the latest firmware? In rare cases with older firmware, switching does not work correctly after auto level is performed.

UM3 printing profiles in Cura is being worked on, to be launched later this year.

Before tuning the settings on your own, try the default printing profiles in Cura. A lot of effort has gone into these, and for most models these are hard to beat. And use the newest Cura of course.

I think gr5 is right, that it is a z-stage problem. But don't only look at the z-screw, check the z-bearings. Lift the bed to the nozzle, and then push it down. or put a full filament spool on the bed. Do you feel/see/hear a point where it doesn't go smooth? With a filament spool it shouldn't get stuck. If you want to check your z-bearings in detail, unscrew the z-nut from the bed. The bed is then free to move up and down, and you should feel almost no friction over the complete range.

That is not nornal. Contact your reseller for help.

After the bed goes up at high speed, the measurement starts when the bed starts moving very slow (0.4mm/s). At that moment, there must be ~1mm gap between nozzle and bed. If the bed is too high, the measurement will start with the bed against the nozzle. That won't work. When you see that, turn the screws below your bed to lower it slightly.

David has written a post about active leveling: https://ultimaker.com/en/community/23463-inside-the-ultimaker-3-day-6-active-leveling

In the spools is an NFC tag, and in the spool holder is an NFC reader

I agree with KristelB: go for the default profiles. If your hardware is okay, and you use Ultimaker materials, results are very reliable for most models (I must be careful, one can always find a models for which it does not perform optimally). So first try to get good results with the default profiles, and only then start playing around with the settings yourself

Which slicer are you using? I think this does not come from Cura, at least not with the default PLA/PVA profiles. The PVA below your PLA is strange. It looks to me as if the object is not touching the buildplate properly, so that the slicer decides to fill the gap with a layer of PVA. Maybe you can move the object 0.2mm down "into" the bed? Or press "lay flat" in the rotate menu on the left?

Please check if your glass plate is flat, e.g. with a ruler. There have been reports of unflat glass, and your reseller will help you if yours is unflat. (0.2 - 0.3 mm flatness over the whole plate is good enough, most will be compensated by active leveling, and the remaining tolerances are absorbed by the first layer). Are you using the default 0.27mm first layer thickness? Since the active leveling uses 3 measurement points, the shape of the glass does matter. Rotating the plate 180 degrees (keep same side up!) could help as well.

Have you tried OnShape already? Free to use if you allow your models to be public. I am amazed what they managed to let you do in a standard browser. No installation whatsoever, and your models available on any computer connected to the internet.

Maybe you can show some pictures of what you mean. Have you tried the default profiles in Cura? They work very good for most models, there should be no need to tweak advanced settings like horizontal and vertical distances.

and Sketchup has model checking plugins. Search this forum.