gr5

Which? firmware? steps? jumper?

eSun in particular sometimes is too large for the bowden and can get stuck. You might want to buy a larger bowden. 3dsolex sells slightly larger bowden and if you are in usa I sell them at thegr5store.com. When the print fails - remove the bowden from the feeder end and feel how much force it is to slide the filament through the bowden. These filaments can have thick sections and thin sections every meter or so.

95% of all 3mm filament is actually 2.85 or 2.9mm filament so only 5% chance that this is the problem. But this is trivial to measure if you have some cheap digital calipers. Your problem sounds like a UM2 or a UM2+. I have different advice on debugging your issue depending which printer it is but first try move material and move the filament up and down several times (you can see it in the bowden at the head moving up and down) as it likely catches on the end of the bowden. Push the bowden as it enters the head in all 4 directions (east/west/north/south) as you move the filament down and hopefully it will get past the "catch".

Adding brim at the base (it's a cura option) will help it from coming off the bed completely but the wobble will decrease quality the higher you go. I recommend support that reaches half way up. In other words, add two towers maybe 2 or 3 cm away from the base in 2 different directions 90 degrees apart (say one towards the back of the printer and the other tower to the left side of the printer). Have those 2 towers meet the flagpole half way up - around 75mm up maybe or 100mm up. Once those towers meet up stability will be improved and you'll get at least another 100mm. Later you can cut off where the towers touch the flagpole. Make the tower touch only on one square mm so there is little to cut off.

There is a jumper near the Z stepper that controls if you are doing 16 versus 8 microsteps per step. It could be that you removed or added that jumper or it could be your used UMO was so old that you had it in the opposite configuration as the "newer" UMO printers. Changing the jumper won't hurt much - it works either way but you have to adjust steps/mm such that your z axis moves the correct distance.

Photo please.

I strongly recommend you don't change fans as the problem is with the wiring and not the fan. You could just break more wires in there.

Bottom layer fans off is the default in cura. But you need it for pla overhangs (for abs you want the tiniest bit of fan for overhangs - so I like around 20% fan - assuming 20% is enough to get your fan to spin - for some printers maybe not).

I'm guessing you have bad layer adhesion. Are the side fans on? You want them on the absolute minimum fan speed for ABS. Somewhere around 20%? You want them to spin and if you go too low they won't spin so figure out the absolute minimum for your fans and then increase by a few %. The problem (my guess in this case - picture wasn't super helpful and looks fine) is that ABS needs to be much hotter when the second layer comes down or the new layer doesn't melt the layer below and they don't bond well.

It's most likely #A above. But there are other possibilities. Such as #B above.

My local middle school got about 4 Ultimakers. They are controlled by the IT department - I trained them and they are pretty good at making prints now. The history teacher's students for example printed a trebuchet from thingiverse. I think this model worked well because the printers are quite difficult to use. Plus teachers and administrators are scared by things like "hot nozzle" and hand crushing movements. I think learning to use CAD is more important than learning some printer technology that will change in 1 year anyway. The biggest problem with 3d printers is they are so slow. So you if you have 25 students design something and you want to print 25 things overnight they can't be much bigger than an inch across each. Laser cutters on the other hand - you can print 25 different designs in one go and in about 2 minutes. You can do it in the last 10 minutes of class.

Yes, check the resistance of the heater. It should be about 16.5 ohms. Anything between 13 ohms and 20 ohms should at least heat up. If the ohms is okay then I go back to my original claim that you didn't insert them properly - you have to push on something (usually orange) for the hole to open up, then you slide the wires in farther than you might think and then release the spring thing. Tugging on the wires should result in them staying in even with 1kg force. However if the heater is indeed defective I would contact customer support and tell them that you ohmed out the new heater and it is infinite ohms (broken) and you want a new 35W heater.

It's almost surely the heater. Did the nozzle temperature increase a little before getting the error? Does it read 20C when you start? These are crucial pieces of info. If it does not read around 20C (room temperature) before you start heating then it's most likely the temp sensor. But much more likely it's the heater. The temp sensor will just sit there at 20C even though you asked the bed to heat up to say 40C or hotter. You may have inserted the heater wiring into the wrong holes or not thoroughly. Give them a gentle pull and see if the wires come out. You might also want to try stripping a little insulation of the end of the wires of the heater.

Switching filaments is always a learning curve. The major issue with ngen and abs is the higher glass temp which results in layer bonding issues, stronger warpage issues and curling up at the corners. If you can print ABS then ngen is quite a bit easier than ABS as the ngen glass temp is about half way between PLA (easy) and ABS (hard). Putting a box on the top of the printer and a sheet of plastic on the front helps some with these higher-glass-temp materials.

You have to lower the fan down to the minimum to get layer bonding with any material other than PLA because of the softening temp aka glass temp. Try the minimum that the fan moves - around 20% fan maybe. Layer bonding will improve greatly. I actually have a machine that tests materials. It tests strength and elasticity. I tested abs, ngen, pla and more. The values I measured agreed with the manufacturers specifications which is that ngen is about twice as flexible than pla both printed and raw failament (ngen 1.8gpa, pla 3.5gpa) and equally strong (both break at 50-55mpa). Twice as flexible is very hard to feel with raw filament in your fingers but it is still a pretty big difference. If you hang a weight on it you will see it bend more (ngen).

Well I see you have the UM2+ so you already have 4 different nozzle sizes and the Olsson block. Just heat block to 150C and take a wrench and remove the existing nozzle. Once up to temperature it takes maybe 5 seconds. You can burn that nozzle in a flame until everything is ash. Or spend the $8 for a new nozzle plus $3 shipping. While the nozzle is off and after it cools to < 40C try pushing some filament up through from below. If the teflon part is bad you will feel significant friction. If it is bad I recommend ordering one asap and temprarily drilling the bad one out from below gently by hand (not electric powered! Don't want to drill out the brass block). I don't recommend "official UM" parts. I recommend the ones from my store. I recommend getting a new TFT and a spare 0.4mm nozzle. I also recommend you try out the 0.6mm nozzle you already have - it prints so much faster than the 0.4mm nozzle (twice as fast) and the resolution is excellent.

You say it was brittle, but did it break along layer lines? If so that's easy to fix. I found the material to be more flexible than pla or abs and just as strong.

@penglu - this additional information about how it worked for a while is very very helpful. That eliminates all but issues above except #3 #4 #7 #15. If you have more than half a spool that eliminates #4. If you have never printed carbon fiber then that eliminates #15 That leaves #7 and #3. #3 can be checked by swapping with another same-size nozzle. But really #7 is the most likely of all of these. You probably need a new teflon part. I sell the latest high tech expensive teflon (much better than what Ultimaker used to sell). Ultimaker now also sells the better teflon. In USA you can get the teflon part from my store here: http://thegr5store.com/store/index.php/tft-255c.html Or you can get official UM parts from fbrc8.com Going through one part every 100 hours seems a little fast unless maybe you were printing some ABS parts? But not too unbelievable.

I don't see any brittle spots or underextrusion. Well I guess I see two tiny spots near the top edge of the part in this orientation but not as much as I thought. Not enough to make it brittle. Are you sure this is PLA and not ABS? ABS can be quite brittle if you print it the way PLA should be printed. Well if you only have underextrusino on a single layer then it could be a filament tangle. Consider putting the filament on the floor. I'm very hesitant to give you more information because from this photo I do not see anything related to serious underextrusion but here it is anyway - here are the causes that I know of for underextrusion, how to diagnose, and fix: As far as underextrusion causes - there's just so damn many. none of the issues seem to cause more than 20% of problems so you need to know the top 5 issues to cover 75% of the possibilities and 1/4 people still won't have the right issue. Some of the top issues: 1) Print slower and hotter! Here are top recommended speeds for .2mm layers (twice as fast for .1mm layers) and .4mm nozzle: 20mm/sec at 200C 30mm/sec at 210C 40mm/sec at 225C 50mm/sec at 240C The printer can do double these speeds but with huge difficulty and usually with a loss in part quality due to underextrusion. Different colors print best at quite different temperatures and due to imperfect temp sensors, some printers print 10C cool so use these values as an initial starting guideline and if you are still underextruding try raising the temp. But don't go over 240C with PLA. 2) Shell width confusion. Shell width must be a multiple of nozzle size. For example if nozzle size is .4mm and shell width is 1mm cura will make the printer do 2 passes with .5mm line width which is possible but requires you to slow down much more to make a .5mm line out of a .4mm nozzle. If you really want this then set nozzle size to .5mm so it's clear what you are asking Cura to do for you. 3) Isolator - this is most common if you've printed extra hot (>240C) for a few hours or regular temps (220C) for 500 hours. It gets soft and compresses the filament under pressure. It's the white part touching the heater block. It's very hard to test when not under full pressure (spring and bowden) so sometimes it's best to just replace it. Also if you notice parts of it are very soft (the blacker end where it touches higher heat) then it's too old and needs replacing. 4) Curved filament at end of spool - if you are past half way on spool, try a fresh spool as a test. 5) curved angle feeding into feeder - put the filament on the floor -makes a MASSIVE difference. 6) Head too tight? Bizarrely MANY people loosen the 4 screws on the head by just a bit maybe 1/2 mm and suddenly they can print just fine! Has to do with pressure on the white teflon isolator. 6b) Bowden pushing too hard - for the same reason you don't want the bowden pushing too hard on the isolator. 6c) Spring pushing too hard. Although you want a gap you want as small as possible a gap between teflon isolator and steel isolator nut such that the spring is compressed as little as possible. 7) clogged nozzle - the number one problem of course - even if it seems clear. There can be build up on the inside of the nozzle that only burning with a flame can turn to ash and remove. Sometimes a grain of sand gets in there but that's more obvious (it just won't print). Atomic method (cold pull) helps but occasionally you need to remove the entire heater block/nozzle assembly and use flame. Or soak it in acetone overnight (after removing 90% of the material with cold pull). 8) Temp Sensor bad - even the good ones vary by +/- 5C and bad ones can be any amount off - they usually read high and a working sensor can (rarely) fail high slowly over time. Meaning the sensor thinks you are at 220C but actually you are at 170C. At 170C the plastic is so viscous it can barely get out of the nozzle. You can verify your temp sensor using this simple video at youtube - on you tube search for this: mrZbX-SfftU 9) feeder spring issues - too tight, too loose 10) Other feeder issues, one of the nuts holding machine together often interferes with the feeder motor tilting it enough so that it still works but not very well. Other things that tilt the feeder motor, sleeve misaligned so it doesn't get a good grip. Gunk clogging the mechanism in there. 11) Filament diameter too big - 3mm is too much. 3mm filament is usually 2.85mm nominal or sometimes 2.9mm +/- .05. But some manufacturers (especially in china) make true 3.0mm filament with a tolerance of .1mm which is useless in an Ultimaker. It will print for a few meters and then clog so tight in the bowden you will have to remove the bowden from both ends to get the filament out. Throw that filament in the trash! It will save you weeks of pain 11b) Something wedged in with the filament. I was setting up 5 printers at once and ran filament change on all of them. One was slowly moving the filament through the tube and was almost to the head when I pushed the button and it sped up and ground the filament badly. I didn't think it was a problem and went ahead and printed something but there was a ground up spot followed by a flap of filament that got jammed in the bowden tube. Having the "plus" upgrade or using the IRobertI feeder helps you feel this with your hand by sliding the filament through the bowden a bit to see if it is stuck. 12) Hot weather. If air is above 30C or even possibly 25C, the air temperature combined with the extruder temperature can soften the filament inside the feeder such that it is getting squeezed flat as it passes through the feeder - this is obvious as you can see the problem in the bowden. The fix is to add a desk fan blowing on the back of the printer. Not an issue on the UM2 "plus" series. 13) Crimped bowden. At least one person had an issue where the bowden was crimped a bit too much at the feeder and although the printer worked fine when new it eventually got worse and had underextrusion on random layers. it's easy to pull the bowden out of the feeder end and examine it. 14) Small nozzle. Rumor has it some of the .4mm nozzles are closer to .35mm. Not sure if this is actually true. I'm a bit skeptical but try a .6mm nozzle maybe. 15) CF filament. The knurled sleeve in the extruder can get ground down smooth - particularly from carbon fill. 4 spools of CF will destroy not just nozzles but the knurled sleeve also. Look at it visually where the filament touches the "pyramids". Make sure the pyramids are sharp.

Please post a photo. It's probably underextrusion but I want to see a photo to be sure. If it's underextrusion it should get better if you slow it down to half speed - while printing just go to TUNE menu and slow it down to 30% and up to 240C also. If it looks better then you had underextrusion which has many causes and lots of easy solutions.

makerfaire nyc 2016 - Ultimaker booth (and brass band)

Almost surely it's clogged. The pieces of wood can get stuck in the nozzle tip. I recommend you print with .6mm nozzle or larger for this reason. Do you have an olsson block such that you can change nozzles? If not I sell them here: http://thegr5store.com If you do have the Olsson block you can just unscrew the existing nozzle (while hot - at 150C or warmer) and check it and maybe burn it out in a gas flame until everything in the nozzle is burnt to ash.

I heard a rumor that UM switched power supply vendors maybe and that the new supplies are not as reliable. Not sure if this is true.

Videos are private. Most likely it is your teflon isolator - the white part in the head gets soft after a while even though it looks fine. I suggest you get a new one (it's called a tft) at my store: thegr5store.com or at fbrc8 (called a tfm). Anyway here is a more inclusive list of what can cause "feeder clicking": CAUSES FOR UNDEREXTRUSION AND HOW TO TEST FOR THEM AND REMEDY THEM As far as underextrusion causes - there's just so damn many. none of the issues seem to cause more than 20% of problems so you need to know the top 5 issues to cover 75% of the possibilities and 1/4 people still won't have the right issue. Some of the top issues: 1) Print slower and hotter! Here are top recommended speeds for .2mm layers (twice as fast for .1mm layers) and .4mm nozzle: 20mm/sec at 200C 30mm/sec at 210C 40mm/sec at 225C 50mm/sec at 240C The printer can do double these speeds but with huge difficulty and usually with a loss in part quality due to underextrusion. Different colors print best at quite different temperatures and due to imperfect temp sensors, some printers print 10C cool so use these values as an initial starting guideline and if you are still underextruding try raising the temp. But don't go over 240C with PLA. 2) Shell width confusion. Shell width must be a multiple of nozzle size. For example if nozzle size is .4mm and shell width is 1mm cura will make the printer do 2 passes with .5mm line width which is possible but requires you to slow down much more to make a .5mm line out of a .4mm nozzle. If you really want this then set nozzle size to .5mm so it's clear what you are asking Cura to do for you. 3) Isolator - this is most common if you've printed extra hot (>240C) for a few hours or regular temps (220C) for 500 hours. It gets soft and compresses the filament under pressure. It's the white part touching the heater block. It's very hard to test when not under full pressure (spring and bowden) so sometimes it's best to just replace it. Also if you notice parts of it are very soft (the blacker end where it touches higher heat) then it's too old and needs replacing. 4) Curved filament at end of spool - if you are past half way on spool, try a fresh spool as a test. 5) curved angle feeding into feeder - put the filament on the floor -makes a MASSIVE difference. 6) Head too tight? Bizarrely MANY people loosen the 4 screws on the head by just a bit maybe 1/2 mm and suddenly they can print just fine! Has to do with pressure on the white teflon isolator. 6b) Bowden pushing too hard - for the same reason you don't want the bowden pushing too hard on the isolator. 6c) Spring pushing too hard. Although you want a gap you want as small as possible a gap between teflon isolator and steel isolator nut such that the spring is compressed as little as possible. 7) clogged nozzle - the number one problem of course - even if it seems clear. There can be build up on the inside of the nozzle that only burning with a flame can turn to ash and remove. Sometimes a grain of sand gets in there but that's more obvious (it just won't print). Atomic method (cold pull) helps but occasionally you need to remove the entire heater block/nozzle assembly and use flame. Or soak it in acetone overnight (after removing 90% of the material with cold pull). 8) Temp Sensor bad - even the good ones vary by +/- 5C and bad ones can be any amount off - they usually read high and a working sensor can (rarely) fail high slowly over time. Meaning the sensor thinks you are at 220C but actually you are at 170C. At 170C the plastic is so viscous it can barely get out of the nozzle. You can verify your temp sensor using this simple video at youtube - on you tube search for this: mrZbX-SfftU 9) feeder spring issues - too tight, too loose 10) Other feeder issues, one of the nuts holding machine together often interferes with the feeder motor tilting it enough so that it still works but not very well. Other things that tilt the feeder motor, sleeve misaligned so it doesn't get a good grip. Gunk clogging the mechanism in there. 11) Filament diameter too big - 3mm is too much. 3mm filament is usually 2.85mm nominal or sometimes 2.9mm +/- .05. But some manufacturers (especially in china) make true 3.0mm filament with a tolerance of .1mm which is useless in an Ultimaker. It will print for a few meters and then clog so tight in the bowden you will have to remove the bowden from both ends to get the filament out. Throw that filament in the trash! It will save you weeks of pain 11b) Something wedged in with the filament. I was setting up 5 printers at once and ran filament change on all of them. One was slowly moving the filament through the tube and was almost to the head when I pushed the button and it sped up and ground the filament badly. I didn't think it was a problem and went ahead and printed something but there was a ground up spot followed by a flap of filament that got jammed in the bowden tube. Having the "plus" upgrade or using the IRobertI feeder helps you feel this with your hand by sliding the filament through the bowden a bit to see if it is stuck. 12) Hot weather. If air is above 30C or even possibly 25C, the air temperature combined with the extruder temperature can soften the filament inside the feeder such that it is getting squeezed flat as it passes through the feeder - this is obvious as you can see the problem in the bowden. The fix is to add a desk fan blowing on the back of the printer. Not an issue on the UM2 "plus" series. 13) Crimped bowden. At least one person had an issue where the bowden was crimped a bit too much at the feeder and although the printer worked fine when new it eventually got worse and had underextrusion on random layers. it's easy to pull the bowden out of the feeder end and examine it. 14) Small nozzle. Rumor has it some of the .4mm nozzles are closer to .35mm. Not sure if this is actually true. I'm a bit skeptical but try a .6mm nozzle maybe. 15) CF filament. The knurled sleeve in the extruder can get ground down smooth - particularly from carbon fill. 4 spools of CF will destroy not just nozzles but the knurled sleeve also. Look at it visually where the filament touches the "pyramids". Make sure the pyramids are sharp.

@marjobarjo I just activated you. Try it again and if you still can't send a direct message reply here and add @gr5 to the start of the message.