gr5

Either it *always* goes down or the directions are backwards. Hopefully the later. Let's figure out which and then fix the problem. To figure out which you need a way to move it both up and down and see if it's backwards or if it always goes down. There may be a way to do this in cura or from the ulticontroller - not sure. But if it were me I would try pronterface. It's a free download here - you connect to the printer with a USB cable and move it small amounts - you don't want to break the glass. 1mm or 5mm is plenty: http://koti.kapsi.fi/~kliment/printrun/ Once you know which (always down versus backwards) I'll tell you what to do next. Also please mention what country you are in within your profile settings as parts and other things depend on the country.

You could probably use pause-at-height. This is very intriguing. I hope you try it and let us know. Try it with something that only takes 15 minute to print - maybe an upside down "L". Support the overhang but then add capton tape. Make the vertical arm of the L only 5mm so you don't have to wait long before adding the tape. Tolerances will be very tight - but the UM2 can handle that if you experiment. I think this could work. Not sure. Normally you want the kapton tape heated to 45C or so. I haven't used Kapton tape in years and I don't remember if PLA sticks to it without the heat - I think not. A hair dryer could heat it up enough for the PLA to stick.

I think your printer is underextruding. I know you said you just rebuilt it but something is still wrong. There are about 30 causes of underextrusion. I guess I could start posting the list. Here's probably the top ten - this is from an old post I made. #1 is temperature and printing speed but you are within my normal suggested values - you just need to go even hotter or slower. I recommend hotter. 2) Isolator - this is most common if you've printed extra hot (>240C) for a few hours or regular temps (220C) for 100 hours. It warps. It's the white part touching the heater block. Test it by removing it and passing filament though it by hand. Consider reducing the pressure on the isolator from the spring and the bowden tube both (see #5). 3) Curved filament at end of spool - if you are past half way on spool, try a fresh spool as a test. 4) curved angle feeding into feeder - put the filament on the floor -makes a MASSIVE difference. 5) 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. 5b) Bowden pushing too hard - for the same reason you don't want the bowden pushing too hard on the isolator. 5c) 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. 6) 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. 7) feeder spring issues - too tight, too loose 8) 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. 9) 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 9b) 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.

You should definitely test this with small prints that take less than 10 minutes to print. A small cube 10mm on edge with only 10% infill should be about right. The main thing I think you noticed is that it is printing slower on the bottom layer (default 30mm/sec maybe). I don't think this is fan related. Unless your heater block is touching the fan shroud - you could test that by looking from behind the print head and trying to slip a small blade or putty knife or piece of paper between the fan shroud and the nozzle block. No much more likely you are seeing things better due to temperature. Different can have quite a bit of error. I've seen some temp sensors that print cold by 10C. I normally print at 210C or 220c but occasionally go up to 240C. Never hotter than 240C and never that hot with only 0.1mm layers.

So that you never have to deal with taking the head apart again you might want to get an Olsson block (delivered to NY only) from my store gr5.org/store. It makes it easy to swap a nozzle. I do it all the time now. About 1 minute to swap nozzle and re-level. Makes it easier to unclog the nozzle. Hopefully I will have i2k's again within a few weeks also - extends the life of your teflon isolator.

Wow. Okay - good to know. Can you put all 4 countries in your profile somehow? It matters for many reasons. If you bought your printer in USA you get different customer service. If in Sweden you probably get IRobertI above. And so on. If you want parts and you want delivered to USA they come from fbrc8.com in Memphis and so on. When I say things like "cut off 15cm of filament" I use inches for UK/America people. When people want to buy blue tape the stores are completely different in Japan than in UK or USA and so on. People in USA call Isopropyl alcohol "rubbing alcohol". Digikey is great in USA but useless everywhere else. And the list goes on.

If you change the steps/mm by using the control panel, make sure you save the values or they don't get saved when you power cycle. I usually use pronterface to do this. I don't know how to use S3D but hopefully it allows you adjust and save steps/mm also. Or you can do it in the Marlin build.

So increase by a factor of 100/60. So use: {131, 131, 200, 282} You should also calibrate the Z axis and the extruder. To calibrate extruder remove filament so it is only half way in the tube. Mark it with a pen. Have S3D move 100mm and make sure the filament actually moved 100mm.

I updated your profile settings. I hope you don't mind. Feel free to change it back. I don't recommend switching plastic types very often. ABS will cause all kinds of problems with your PLA printing (nozzle clogs mostly but also make the teflone wear out faster). You will be best off if you stick to one type of plastic for at least 100 prints. Everytime you switch you are likely to encounter major headaches. the steps/mm has nothing to do with platform size. It has to do with the type of stepper motor you use, the qty of microstepping (controlled with jumpers on PCB). Also the diameter of your pulleys.

The extruder won't go unless you have the nozzle over 170C. You can override this with a gcode. Regarding 12V, you are right - I looked at the schematic. There is a 12V but it only goes to the arduino to be immediately converted to 5v. I don't know if IC1 can supply the current you need for 2 fans but if it can you can use the output of the fan PWM signal "low" side and connect the high side of the fan to 12V. But I suspect IC1 can't supply that much current. Do you have pronterface/printrun? It's very useful for debugging - you can download it here: http://koti.kapsi.fi/~kliment/printrun/

You can install repetier host (it's free) and load the gcode file into that, then on the right select "show single layer" and choose the layer. Then click "view" "top", zoom in and take a screen shot. That will show a 10mm background grid to help you make measurements if that's desired. That gives you a png or jpg. To convert to pdf you would need some tool such as adobe distiller or third party pdf creation tool.

The firmware is in your cura installed folder. Something like this: C:\Program Files (x86)\Cura_15.01\resources\firmware\MarlinUltimaker-UMOP-250000.hex UMOP = UMO+ 250000 is the baud rate that the new marlin will talk at once you install it. 115200 is a bit more reliable so you might want to go with that one but I think 250000 is the default that cura expects (and pronterface) but maybe they both autobaud and it doesn't matter. To install it onto the arduino you can use the arduino software (not sure how or even if it's possible without building it first but hell it should be possiible so google it). Or you can use cura "machine" "install custom firmware..." or you can probably use pronterface.

that explains everything I think! You have the wrong firmware. You have UM2 firmware but you need UMO firmware.

Please indicate what country you are in -- in your profile settings. To unplug it under the machine? Did you remove the cover? Just 2 screws. ALL screws on the entire printer use a 2mm hex so you should get one like this as I use it every day: I guess I don't understand the question. Maybe you mean in the print head? Under the machine you remove the cover over the board (just 2 screws) then if you are an expert you just pull out the old connector and push in the new connector. But I recommend you remove the 4 screws and tilt the board so you can see what you are doing. I posted this up above with more details. It's all so obvious I must be missing something.

Ah! That means the white board is powered up and the knob is working. It's just the display. Or the cables. Or something on the white PCB. I would contact support.ultimaker.com. They are very good. You are in the USA so you should get a call from Simon most likely. In Memphis. He knows these machines very well.

You still have other issues, maybe you don't have a good qulaity nozzle. I recommend getting one from e3d online. You didn't say what country you are in. If in england definitely try e3donline. If in usa try gr5.org/store. If other country do 3dsolex.com. PLEASE SAY WHAT COUNTRY in your profile settings. If in france then there's a better place. What country?

It may be bad filament. Some filament just doesn't bridge well or do overhangs well. Regarding the top square - there is a checkbox in cura under cooling called "cool head lift". Check that and it will improve the top square but add strings to it. You have to just try it. The strings will be easy to remove. Then after you try that, model up a cube and add that to cura next to your pyramid. click on the cube, click the "scale" icon. click the lock icon so the x,y,z are unlocked and scale to 10mm by 10mm by 30mm tall (or whatever height your pyramid is). Put this tower next to your pyramid, then slice and print (also make sure "one-at-a-time" is set in tools). What will happen is as it is printing the top of the pyramid it goes over to the tower and while printing the tower, your pyramid has a chance to cool. It makes a HUGE difference in quality for that top block.

I wish Ultimaker had provided a layer of insulation between the feeder shaft and the knurled sleeve somehow. They are in netherlands and if the temp reaches 25C they act like they are going to die of the heat, lol. They probably rarely run the machine that hot. I have had the inside of my machine at 40C but only when printing ABS which doesn't get soft until around 100c. There was a woman in brazil on the forums who had the same issue at 30C.

How are your long and short belts? Are they tight? That's going to be your next issue I think once you get this cooling thing worked out - by the way it might just be bad filament - some filament is hopeless. UM2 has hidden springs inside the blocks - they are the same spring you can find inside a clothes pin.

Also for the very top - what I see there - that top cube - is normal - you can fix it by one of two ways: 1) cool head lift - not the best solution but a huge improvement. The side effect is that you will have some easy-to-remove strings. 2) print 2 of these parts at the same time. That will allow the top cube to cool. Or just print a 10X10mm tower right next to your part. Also please note your country in your profile settings.

Hey congrats on building your own printer! Are your fans working? Do you have one or two? Are they blowing (and not sucking?)? Are they on full power by the time it does that first bridge (a few mm up?). By default Cura doesn't turn the fans on until something like 5mm (depending on the version). You need 100% fan before you get to that first bridge. Also I recommend you check your nozzle temp using this video. You might need to print at a much cooler temp such as 190C (although I usually print at 210 or 220 and can get better quality than this)

Are there any lights on the board underneath the printer? You have the white board, right? not the green one? If you push the controller knob do you hear a beep? I would start with pronterface as nallath says: http://koti.kapsi.fi/~kliment/printrun/ See if you can even connect. When you installed cura it should have installed a usb driver that is compatible with any arduino. If not install it again? Then you should be able to see a new COM port on your list of com ports in device manager when you connect the usb cable. You have windows, right? You should hear the USB musical two notes when you plug the cable in or unplug it. If you don't hear the music something is wrong with the built in arduino - e.g. it doesn't have power or it is a complete failure.

Witbox might not be back to see your suggestion nallath :(

You could design Cura to do it either way and either way would be valid but I prefer "line width" to affect both the width and the spacing. And "flow" to allow you to over/under extrude.

.py files aren't built or compiled. Python is an interpretive language - it compiles the file on the fly. So there's nothing to compile or build.