tomnagel

I don't associate PC with 'a bit of flex'. I think PC is the stiffest material in the UM range. You can visit the Ultimaker website to find quite some information on our range of materials.

So what exactly do you want to know about stepper motor wiring?

That is certainly not cool. If you have 2 spools which are not recognized by the printer those spools are defective. Have you asked for new spools? Or have you asked to send you new tags? I can imagine the latter seems optimal, but is not how things work behind the screens. Ultimaker is committed to excellent service, and arranges that via a distributed or indirect sales model. I'm sure the reseller that has sold you the UM materials will be able to help you in a satisfactory manner.

The surface of the PLA which rests on the PVA should be almost as good as the top surface. So yes, there is something wrong. From your pictures I cannot see what. Is the PVA printed in the right place? Compare it halfway with what you see in layerview. Layer by layer PLA and PVA should be against each other where the slope is

I'm not sure about this, but I think even when support is turned off, it should be set at nozzle 1. So, turn it on, see that it is set to nozzle 1 and turn it off again.

you have to set all nozzle choices to nozzle 1. By heart: support nozzle, and nozzle that is used for build plate adhesion. If there are no options set to nozzle 2, it will not use nozzle 2, and it will not prime it as well.

agree, it is the active leveling, continuously raising and lowering the bed during print. The fact that you only hear it when the printhead is moving in Y direction means the bed is level in X direction, and not in Y.

are you using the latest version of Cura? There is continuous improvement on the printing profiles, which are shipped with Cura. Especially PVA printing has improved a lot.

Correct. And there is quite some algorithms involved. Some is already accessible to UM3 users, because it is python code on the Olimex board. The other part is built into Marlin, and is compiled. A snip of the schematics:

Have you looked at other Ultimaker materials? There is a wide range of materials, which covers a lot of applications. If you stick to Ultimaker materials, and Ultimaker software (Cura), you will get the most out of your printer. In most cases no tuning is necessary, leading to a hassle free experience. And yes, Ultimaker materials are more expensive than many other materials. Not necessarily because they are better, but because there's 6 FTE working on these materials and their printing profiles. Of course I am preaching for the choir (I work for Ultimaker).

Squeezing out filament in the blob is called priming. This sounds like a bug to me. You write that you want to print with only one nozzle. I think you can circumvent the problem if you only use the left nozzle, and making sure that all functions like brim and support (even if support is turned off) are set to print with nozzle 1. Nozzle 2 is then not primed

@labern I have no idea what was built into Marlin before we worked on the UM3, that is before my time. But I've been around during most of the development of this function. And if it was already built into Marlin, we wouldn't have spent so much time Anyway, Active leveling is spread across both embedded boards, so part of the function is implemented on the Olimex board.

Don't order the capacitive sensor board! It is nothing more than a copper plane that forms one of the planes that form the capacitor that we measure in the active leveling probes. The other plane is the aluminium heater plate. The board that you need is the bigger board that is integrated in the UM3 print head. It also connects the print cores, the fans etc. On that board, the capacitive sensorchip is located. I'm not sure which partnumber that is. If you want I can look it up for you. In your opening post you write "measuring the capacitance between the build plate and the nozzle tip". So that is incorrect, the nozzle tip is not part of the measured capacitance. We've spent well over a manyear to get this right. I'm sure it can be done on an UM2 if you add some electronics, but don't underestimate the software that is involved. And in the UM3, a lot of the processing is done on the Linux computer, which the UM2 does not have...

The combination of a very small nozzle like 0.2 and a low layer height like 0.4 will give problems with the E-resolution (the stepper that drives the filament). By heart: when you use 0.25mm nozzle with 0.06layer, a single E step is good for ~1mm XY motion. That is too much. Have you seen examples of 0.4mm nozzle at 0.06mm with PLA? You might be positively surprised.

I think we haven't ever seen that. So I don't know.

Hi Nils, Clogging should not happen. If you experience clogging, maybe we can help you find the root cause. And secondly, maybe we can help you clean the 2 cores. Our experience is that even the worst clogs can be unclogged without taking the unit apart. Let's start with trying to find the cause of your clogs. What material do you experience your clogs with? Which slicer do you use? And what settings? Are there any events that you think could have caused your clogs?

At the end of a print, the filament is retracted to stop the flow. After that, the hot end temperature is lowered, after which another (large) retract is done. This is done to prevent exactly the effect you describe (a piece of filament at the end that is loosely connected to the rest). How do you change the filament? Do you use the procedure in the user interface? Do you use Ultimaker filament?

Ultimaker PVA works well in combination with Ultimaker Nylon. So I think you should at least try the combination. Watch out for ambient, both materials are sensitive to humidity. Ultimaker PVA and Nylon perform well up to 50% RH, other nylon brands deteriorate already at 20%(!)

the logs that are dumped to usb are in flash memory, so they survive a reboot. The temperature data, however, does not survive a reboot, that is in RAM.

@le_avion Your logfiles are corrupted according to our software engineer. The error is shown when the printer is waiting for 10 minutes to get the hot-end to setpoint. Really long. It is odd that it does not reach its setpoint. If you find it interesting, you can check out what's happening in the temperature control loops by checking out /temperature.html, with the from your printer. If you see this error again, could you try again to dump the logfiles to usb and post them here?

I have put this idea of "resuming" on our backlog list. I see possibilities, but it will have be be studied. Also, the backlog is full of good ideas, so can't promise anything.

I'm very sorry to hear this, I feel your pain. This is not normal. Is the white rubber silicon flap at the bottom of your printhead maybe missing? See this forum topic: https://ultimaker.com/en/community/37150-um3-pausing-between-layers-homing-to-back-right-and-staying-there-until-user-interaction?page=1&amp%3Bsort= I think you have the same problem as this user, only by now a time-out is built into the firmware to prevent the printer waiting too long and burning the plastic in the hot-end. If that rubber piece is missing, get a new one with your reseller. If it is not, I'd like to see your logfiles (dump to usb, in the system-maintenance-diagnosis menu). If you're still willing...

Do you vary layerheight by selecting a quality profile, or do you manually change the field "layer height"? Same question about speeds? Most quality profiles supplied with Cura perform pretty well. From those profiles, you can start optimising for your part. But starting with a profile, and then altering the layer height manually sort of renders the profile useless.

I just did. It is bad. It costs time and money, and delivers no value. None whatsoever.

You cannot set "current STEPS" without compiling your own firmware. But the good news is: you don't need to. What this person has done is very strange IMHO. The XY values should be 80. He is adjusting an offset with a gain. I bet that when he prints a calibration unit half the size, he would arrive at different values. The XY resolution is determined by the stepper motors and the belts/pulleys. They are exactly 12.5microns/step (thus 80 steps/mm). The 0.3-0.4mm offset that you measure comes from inaccuracies in the printing process. One example is the "elephant foot". Another example is that holes are always printed a little smaller than designed in CAD. Due to various causes (search the forum). Do you use Ultimaker filament? If not, you might need to tweak the print settings to get optimal results.