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gr5

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Posts posted by gr5

  1. You have top/bottom thickness set to 15mm!  The default is 1.2mm.  Changing that to default of 1.5mm saves you almost 2 days printing time from 2 days 14 hours to just 20 hours.  Why did you make it so thick?  Did you want it to feel heavy?  You can instead insert some sand in the print when it is 1/3 done.  You can pause the print or use the "pause at layer" plugin.

     

    I didn't see anything that looked like it was printing too fast.  .4mm lines, .2 layers and 50mm/sec.  That's not particularly fast.  You could cut the print time in half by using a 0.8mm nozzle which is what I would do.  I'd keep the same speed and layer height but the lines should switch to .8mm thick and it will print twice the volume.  Also this will put less strain (2x) on the feeder because a .8mm nozzle can pass 4X as much volume of filament per second and you would only be printing 2x (volume wise) faster.

     

    Also you don't have excessive retractions.

     

    Those circled areas I'm guessing are underextrusion?  If so then I'd get rid of non-retracting moves (also called combing moves).  So I would probably turn off combing moves.  If you leave it on, there is no retraction and on your large part, with long travel moves, some plastic will ooze/leak out and cause the next printed portion (possibly those circled areas) to be under extruded.

     

    So I really don't know why you are grinding your filament.  You could test the feeder - use the MOVE command on your S5 touch screen and then fight the feeder by reaching around and pulling down on the filament while the feeder is pulling up.  Pull quite hard.  I broke a feeder and noticed today and it took about 2 ounces of pressure to fight the feeder.  Usually an S5 feeder can pull 10-15 pounds (6-9kg).  You could try lifting a 10 pounds weight to compare the force.  It's a lot of force.

  2. The feeder tension is set to the weakest pressure as shown in your photo above.  Do you move it back to the center position after you re-assemble the feeder?  Your symptom could exactly be explained by forgetting that step.  Again - you do want it at the weakest setting while putting the back of the feeder back on.  But then you want that "stick" to be half way down the slot.  Not at the top as it is in this photo.

  3. I don't recommend z hop on ultimaker printers - that's the first thing that I noticed.  zhop works well on delta printers (a very few non delta printers can benefit but not ultimaker) (google images of delta printers if you don't know what they are - they are niche).  But that probably has nothing to do with grinding.

     

    I number things because people often skip over things otherwise and we don't get back to something for weeks and that sometimes is the most important thing.

     

    1) Could you include photos please?  One person's "grinding" is another person's "collisions".  Photos help decrease misunderstandings.

     

    2) These are single material prints?  PLA only?

     

    3) Lowering retraction speed shouldn't make any difference other than reducing the overall quality of the print.

     

    4) Check the front fan.  What you describe is surprisingly a common symptom of the front fan (not the 2 side fans) on the print head not spinning which is pretty common as it can get jammed or just simply fail.  The front fan should be spinning anytime either nozzle is over 60C.

     

    A) It's common to get grinding when the same filament goes in and out of the feeder > 20 times.  This is super common on certain unusual models.  And super rare on most models. If you don't know what to look for, two models might look identical but one will have issues. There are settings that fix this.

     

    B)It's also common to get grinding if you are pushing too much volume of filament through too small a nozzle at too cold of a temperature.  This could be as simple as your layers are too thick for your print speed.

     

    If you post your project file I can see if you have issues with A or B.

     

     

  4. There are several people who have switched drivers on this forum and most of them built their own custom UM2 firmware.  however most (half?  70%?) UM2+ printers don't have a driver chip for the second extruder because by the time the "plus" came out, UM realized they would never be able to do a dual filament upgrade.

     

    So first check to see if you have the driver.  It's one of the largest chips on the board and it's very square but the easiest way to find it is that each white servo connector is lined up (roughly) with it's extruder chip.  And since it's one of the biggest chips it's pretty obvious when you see 5 white connectors and 5 (or 4 plus a missing spot) black square chips.

     

    You probably have to remove the screws and flip the board over to check.  Pretty obvious how to do this - no special tricks other than maybe take a picture of any cables before you remove them although you won't have to remove much if any to flip the board over.

     

    If you do have all 5 drivers, google around this forum to find a good explanation of what to do.  In your search maybe include these search terms "site:ultimaker.com" to get answers from this forum only.  "pins.h" (the file you will need to edit).  "build firmware" and "extruder".  Those topics should also have a link to how to build the firmware which is reasonably well documented.

    • Like 2
  5. Above is a 2 minute tutorial on mesh modifiers.  You can change hundreds of settings with these - you often have to specify which settings you want to change and then also change them in the modifier. The modifier mesh does not have to be box like and can be any shape described by an STL.

     

     

    If it were me, I'd have the infill meshes also created and placed using your CAD and output as separate STL files (you can probably have one STL file with the part, and one STL with all the modifier meshes - never tried that).

     

    That way you can be very consistent.  It's pretty easy to overlap the STLs - make the modifiers first and then I think maybe you have to group them to get them to overlap with the same coordinate system.  If you can't figure this out you can always make the meshes manually just the way they were done in the tutorial.

     

  6. Which "exact problem" do you have?  The one where cura says your configuration is corrupt?

     

    github has all the source code for Cura including profiles.  Using the files on github you can create your own cura but it's a complicated process recommended only for programmers. When you install cura it includes all the profiles from github.  So there is no advantage of going to github to find different profiles.  Github also is a place to submit issues and bugs about Cura and there is lots of discussion on there as well.

  7. It's a known problem that if you use glassfill (GF) or carbonfill (CF) filaments it can grind down your feeder teeth.

     

    Here's how you test your feeder:

    insert filament only half way down the feeder.  Have the feeder engage - I don't know how to do that on the connect but on some UM printers there is a MOVE command.  Turn that enough for the motor to engage.

     

    Now pull down hard on the filament.  On a working, good UM2+ feeder it takes about 10-15 (about 6 kg) pounds of force to get the filament to slip through the feeder.

     

    I recommend lifting a 10 pounds/5kg weight before and after you get the filament to slip.  Or you can squeeze a weight against the filament to see if the feeder can hold the weight.

     

    Other common problems on a UM2 that happen after 3 years:

     

    replace the teflon part.  Especially if you have been printing at temps above 210C.  It may look fine but it gets soft where it touches the heater block.  This part should be replaced about once every 500 hours of printing.

     

    Check the front fan (not the side fans).  Make sure it spins as soon as the nozzle is > 60C.  The symptom for a broken fan is that it prints fine for 5-20 minutes and then starts to fail.

     

    I have a list of >20 other possiblities but start with these 3.

  8. Why not just use the mb version of Cura?  It's okay to have multiple versions installed at the same time.

     

    If you are a software programmer you can learn how to use the tools used to create cura.  How to build Cura is not trivial even for programmers.  There are articles on this forum about how to do it and experts who can help you but they aren't going to teach you the 300 steps. But if you get stuck on a particular step e.g. a linker error, they can offer suggestions.

     

    Instead, why not just use the mb version?  The last time I compared the mb version and the UM version, the mb version was much better at nicer looking prints.

     

    • Like 1
  9. I believe someone on the Cura team once told me that when it finishes an "island" (aka a loop) it then looks for the nearest loop.  So I imagine it goes through the list of all loops and when it finds a point closer it updates the index to that and the distance.  So if it finds several of equal distance you get the first on in the list.

     

    Unfortunately the list is unordered because the triangles in the STL are unordered.

     

    So a hack-fix might be to modify the distance between each island by say .00001mm through .00500mm in the order in which you want to print them.  If you are creating these with openscad, this is pretty trivial.  Almost any other CAD, it's not so easy.

     

    By the way, this is the famous "traveling salesman problem" which tries to find the shortest path to visit many locations and is exceptionally complicated and there are probably thousands of papers and algorithms on the subject.  When you get above 20 or so locations, there are more possible paths than atoms in the universe.  So you have to do an algorithm that's usually "reasonable".  The current algorithm is not very sophisticated at all obviously (just go to the nearest next island).

  10. I've only done bearings on UMO and possibly UM2, sorry.  But for those it was 4 screws holding the bearings.  Try google?

     

    The thing is, if you remove the z screw, then you can test the bearings by just sliding the bed up and down.  It should be obvious.

     

    Also look if the Z screw is crooked - shaped like a curve.

     

    The z screw is triple helix so just measure with a ruler 3 threads.  Or measure 9 threads and divide by 3.

     

  11. Anything over 8 is a problem.  calibrating the lift switch is a complete waste of time as long as noise is at 30-60.

    Whether the cores are even installed or not should have nothing to do with the noise.

     

    You need to fix the noise level first.

     

    Do you have sources of EM noise nearby?  Sources may include:

    computers

    motors

    fans

    air conditioners

    speakers

    things with computers in them like toasters, microwaves, cell phones, laptops, unfortunately everything these days has a computer in it.

    wifi access points

    wires that lead to any of those things - even a 30 foot wire that leads to a noise source - the wire can act as an antenna if it passes near the printer

     

    Move all those things 3 meters from your printer and see if that affects the noise.  If not, move the things where they were as they weren't the problem.

     

    30-60 is crazy high.  I didn't know it could go that high!

  12. Go into settings and type "tower" in the settings search box.

     

    But tower can be very very useful for a dual extrusion print.

     

    So instead, go to PREPARE mode and click on the second extruder and then the second tab and then disable that second extruder.  That will probably make the tower go away also and not affect future dual material prints.

  13. Here are the firmware recoveries I have.  The ones with "R1" should all be for the older S5.  Note the dates.  Pick the oldest and newest (newest supplied from Ultimaker) This is a listing from my website gr5.org so just go to

     

    https://gr5.org/insert_image_name_here.img

     

    And it should automatically start downloading. Or create the link on a web page and right click and select to download.

     

    If there is a newer firmware let me know and I should get off my butt and add it to the below list.  Why UM hides the old firmwares, I don't know.  They are useful.

     

    -rw-r--r-- 1 grfivorg grfivorg 279969792 Jul 19  2023 UM3_recovery-3.7.7.20170627.img
    -rw-r--r-- 1 grfivorg grfivorg 332398592 Sep 11  2020 UM3_recovery-4.3.3.20180529.img
    -rw-r--r-- 1 grfivorg grfivorg 181449728 Nov 14  2020 gr-S5-R1.img
    -rw-r--r-- 1 grfivorg grfivorg 309789184 May 26  2021 um-restore-6.4.0-R1-gr.img
    -rw-r--r-- 1 grfivorg grfivorg 326318080 May  4  2023 um-restore-7.1.3-S5R1.img
    

     

  14. So from your description I think you probably have bad blocks in your "hard drive".  By hard drive I mean the SSD chip that serves as the drives for the linux computer.

     

    The chip automatically detects bad blocks and routes them to new locations but the data in the bad block is lost so you have to re-install the software.

     

    Sometimes the bad block is part of the formatting so sometimes you have to reformat one of the 3 partitions.

     

    Sometimes the bad block is part of the partition table so you have to repartition everything.

     

    Sometimes there are many bad blocks so you have to do the above steps a few times.  Always there are excessive amounts of good blocks because we use maybe 1/4 of the SSD.

     

    Most of the firmware installers are "too smart" and won't reformat or repartition unless the size has changed.

     

    So I find the easiest way to deal with all this is to install 2 different versions that had different partition sizes.  That way the firmware recovery sees the partition size is different and it has to do a complete reinstall.

     

    I have links to a few of these firmware recoveries here: https://gr5.org/unbricking/

     

    Okay I just checked the above link and for some reason I don't see very many S5 (any?) recoveries although I know I have some for sure as I've used them for my S5.  I guess I'd try to get one from firmware 4.X and one from 5.X because somewhere in there they changed the partition size.

     

    Or you can get an olimex cable and see what's going on step by step.  Described in the unbricking page.  Unfortunately the unbricking page is a mess.  I have edited it maybe 30 times and it gets more confusing each time.  Sorry.  If you have an olimex cable you can repartition it to random partition sizes and then run the latest firmware recovery, it will be forced to repartition.

     

    Basically - keep trying firmware recoveries.  Try different ones to force them to repartion and hence also reformat each partition.

     

    With the olimex cable you can also run connman (which sets up and controls the wifi and ethernet).

     

  15. First read through this: https://support.ultimaker.com/s/article/1667410781005

     

    Okay madmax - I saw your video in your other thread. that looks like you have noise.  Electromagnetic noise.  What reading are you getting of the sensor? Follow the instructions in the above link.  The higher the number, the more noise you have.  You need to get that well below 8 before things can work. Lately, the common cause is the fan but there are many possible causes. After you get a number, try unplugging the fan at the rear of the head.  You don't have to take anything apart.

     

    If things are right on the edge (noise is say around 6-9) then the issue may be intermittent in which case, to get through the next day you can just try several times and eventually get through the active leveling. Another quick workaround is to disable the active leveling with this tool: https://community.ultimaker.com/topic/39188-ultituner-a-tool-to-tweak-your-printer/

     

     

    I don't recommend the ultituner - it may be more trouble than it's worth. After disabling I think you have to do the manual level two more times possibly?  There is something a little weird.  But manual leveling is not supported and it won't do the multipoint leveling needed for larger parts to stick to the glass bed.  You could end up with a MUCH more serious problem like a head flood if the part doesn't stick well so you really need to monitor the printer quite a bit to make sure the part sticks very well. A head flood happens when a hockey-puck shaped part comes loose and the head drags the part around and filament keeps coming out for hours and the filament has no place to go except back into the head and gets all inside the print head and can take many hours to remove after it solidifies and as part of the removal you can damage things.  It's a horrible experience.  But if you check the printer every 20 minutes you will catch the print coming loose before any damage is done.

     

    Anyway, let us know what noise reading you get.

  16. 1 minute ago, beadster said:

    Ultimaker support replied today to say I must take it into be fixed by their UK authorized service company 😞 

    Is it still under warranty?  It's certainly okay to take the print head apart either way.  I'm disappointed they told you that.  Are you handy with electronics? Are you good with a voltmeter? If not, that might be the best advice. If you tell them you aren't afraid to take the head apart and ohm out wires, they may give you more specific advice.

     

    It could just be a wire that needs to be soldered back on.  That is what happened to my S5. Everytime that door opens and closes it bends the wires a little.  They can get pinched as well I suspect.

  17. beadster - I see you are right - it is lifting the right printcore quite a bit!  That's just as bad but the opposite problem. I'd push up on the right printcore to make sure it takes around a kg of force to lift the nozzle in the frame but I'm 80% sure that the printcore is not the problem.  I'd test it anyway.

     

    Instead it is some kind of electronics issue detecting the capacitance properly.  I'd contact UM tech support and see what they suggest but I think they'll have you start replacing things in the print head. I'm wondering if you could possibly have an open circuit between the circuit board and the plate in the base of the print head. There are 2 wires that run to the detection plate.  The plate is a pcb.  You can see it when you open the door.  I'd use a voltmeter to check continuity.  Or gently tug on the wires.  I'd probably take the whole print head apart.  There are detailed instructions with photos and such (or maybe it's a video, I forget).

     

    If your printer is less than a year old it may be free parts for you (e.g. print head pcb).

  18. Okay madmax - that looks like you have noise.  Electromagnetic noise.  What reading are you getting of the sensor? Follow the instructions in Dustin's link.  The higher the number, the more noise you have.  You need to get that well below 8 before things can work. Lately, the common cause is the fan but there are many possible causes. After you get a number, try unplugging the fan at the rear of the head.  You don't have to take anything apart.

     

  19. This buzzing sound doesn't sound 100% right?  I guess it's quite quiet on the S5 but on the UM3 it's noisier - I forget but that seems quite possible.  I'm used to the S5 noise as I turned off active leveling on my UM3 but it's still on for my S5 so I guess I've forgotten what it sounds like.  Still it would be nice if you posted a 10 second video showing leveling to youtube or something.

     

    I seem to remember the S5 has MUCH quieter servos.

  20. The way it works:

     

    The build plate (the aluminum one under the glass) forms a capacitor with the plate in the print head.  The capacitance increases as the plates get closer together.  I'm pretty sure there is an oscillator where the frequency changes as the plates get closer together.

     

    Anyway when the nozzle touches the glass bed the plates should stop moving closer together.  Should.  When that happens the nozzle is assumed to have touched the glass.  If instead the nozzle moves up as you described, it will NOT stop as the plates are still moving together!  This should not happen.  The bed is cantilevered and pushing down on it should move it down.

     

    It's critical that the amount of force needed to push down on the bed and move it downwards 0.1mm is less than the force needed to push the nozzle up into the print head.  There is a spring inside the printcore that pushes hard on the nozzle.  Harder than the cantilever force for the first 0.1mm or so.

     

    So it's possible the spring in the right printcore is too weak.  You can measure it.  It should take about 1kg of force to move the nozzle the first mm.

     

    More likely something is wrong with the sensor.  More likely the bed *does* move down slightly before the printcore starts moving up.

  21. On 4/18/2024 at 9:19 AM, gr5 said:

    To do this, in Cura, do "file" "save project file" and post the resulting file here please.  We will be able to see your STL file (your model), where you placed it, if you scaled it, what printer (machine) profile you have, material profile, and all of the 500 or so settings you are using.

     

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