gr5

Why did it take me so long to notice????? Versions of Cura that came out in 2013 start with 13.X 2014 14.X and 2015 15.X (and so on)!! Wow - the month also. Version 14.12 came out december 2014.

There's a great explanation for PID controllers on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PID_controller Quick explanation: "error" is goal_temp - current_temp. P is multiplied by error to get power input to nozzle heater. That is P controller. So if you are right at the correct temp you put out 0 watts. If you are too hot you put out negative watts. The I term is the Integral of the error term. Multiply *I* by the integration of the error - the cumulation of the error (just add all the error up from all history). This is what finds the equilibrium point - this is what is causing the failure: If the temp is 219C and goal temp is 220C and this lasts for a long time the integral_error*i_term gets larger and larger until equilibrium is found but if it stays too long at 219 this value never shrinks until the nozzle PWM is set to 100%. The D term is multiplied by the differential of the error and is used to reduce overshoot and oscillations. It is looking at the "velocity" of temperature change and warns you that you are going to overshoot if you don't "pull back". These 3 values P,I,D are added together to get total power sent to nozzle.

Okay - I just looked at the code carefully. There's only one small bit of code that generates the "Heater Error" message. It generates this message if the PID controller is outputing 100% power to the heater for more than X seconds and the temperature hasn't increased by at least Y. Once you are up to the goal temperature, the "Y" factor isn't important. The point is the PID controller put out 100% power to the nozzle because the temp was well below the goal temp and it tried to do this for more than X seconds (30 seconds in 15.01 as shown in table in my above post). This means the fan is blowing on the nozzle or heater block too much. A few simple fixes come to mind: 1) Try to aim the fan differently. 2) Play with the M106 S amounts but leave them for at least 40 seconds before trying the next speed. It takes 30 seconds of temperature low (minimum - could take longer for I term to max out). In fact once you find the max fan speed that passes, repeat the test but leave it at a particular speed for at least 90 seconds. It would be nice to put an oscilloscope or volt meter on the heater power circuit to see when the heater is at 100% versus switching in PWM mode to know how close you are coming to being at full power for 30 seconds. 3) Put some insulation around the heater block. Maybe as simple as some polyimide tape (kapton tape). Or put some kind of air-barrier around the nozzle to keep the fan away. I really don't think the larger heater block is the issue - unless it has significantly more surface area The fact that it is *clean* might be more important as having a dirty surface adds some insulation (as would some polyimide tape) or preferably a better insulator that can withstand 250-300C. Or simply having the nozzle stick down a little more into the air flow might be part of the problem

That's about right. I have UMO with heated bed kit (and UM2) and did a test once on the UMO heated bed which is identical hardware. Also I did a print last week and getting from 100C to 110C seemed impossible - I think the room was too cold or too windy or something as it actually dropped a bit I think so printed at 105C instead. 0:00 20C 1:28 46C 2:16 50C 3:03 57C 3:25 60C 4:48 71C 6:03 80C 7:34 88C 8:04 90C 9:50 97C 10:43 100C So for me it took almost 11 minutes to reach 100C and never really got to 110C unless I put a box over the top and plastic over the front.

http://support.3dverkstan.se/article/23-a-visual-ultimaker-troubleshooting-guide http://support.3dverkstan.se/article/30-getting-better-prints http://support.3dverkstan.se/article/38-designing-for-3d-printing

1) It's hard to see in the first picture but in the second picture is the part upside-down? Because in the second picture it looks like only the bottom layer is bad. Maybe you just need to re-level. You need the nozzle maybe closer to the glass. I could be completely wrong but that's what it looks like in the photos. 2) What layer height, print speed, and temperature did you print this with? And what is the highest temperature you have used lately? I ask for a few reasons - one reason is that high temperatures make the isolator fail faster. The more important reason is that you might need to print either slower, thinner, or hotter. 3) Have you used more than half your filament? Often the tighter curvature of filement in the last 1/3 doesn't pass through the teflon isolator very well and causes this skipping. 4) In the video was that skipping on the first layer or a different layer? Typical max recommended print speeds at .2mm layer (print twice as fast for .1mm layers) 20mm/sec at 200C 30mm/sec at 210C 40mm/sec at 225C 50mm/sec at 240C On a perfect machine you can print *almost* twice as fast as those speeds but you will get occasional skips. At the above speeds you shouldn't get any skips.

Is Pta a country? Please mark what country you live in - in your profile settings because this affects solutions (e.g. Ultimaker has different support centers). Please post a video - I'm not sure what you mean. And which printer do you have? Did you measure the filament diameter carefully? Was it truly 3.0mm and not 2.9mm? I'm not sure how this would be related but maybe some filament dust got in the feeder gear and you just need to blow it out with some compressed air.

I recommend you print your projects with 3dhubs. It will match you up to a local person with a 3dprinter and the prices are reasonable. You can print *a lot* of stuff for much less than $2500 through 3dhubs.

Are you monitoring the temperature during this time? Is the temperature dipping much? I might have to look up everything in Marlin that causes "heater error". This is what I know so far but I don't think it's the same error because this is when heating it up I think and the temperature must change by more than X degrees C in Y seconds. 14.09 - does not have the feature 14.12 oct 16, 2014 - feature introduced nozzle must change by at least 20C in 20 Seconds 14.12.1 dec 15, 2014 - from 20C to 10C (still in 20 seconds) 15.01 jan 14, 2015 - from 20 secs to 30 secs (now 10C in 30 seconds) - George

That's completely normal. Stepper motors tend to make that kind of sound.

Well then that sounds reasonably safe. But if you heat the coils without the fan might it then get too hot? Are you thinking of powering the coils with house AC power? Or with some DC power supply?

I don't know much about this but I think you have to modify one pin in the cable to get this to work. Or maybe one of the cables has to be reversed. Hopefully someone will reply here but this is the kind of ancient question that the really old timers know the answer to and they are over on google groups: https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!forum/ultimaker

I don't think that's true. If that were true then I wouldn't be able to print larger than 210mm wide. But I know for sure I've printed to 225mm wide (just checked something I printed in the past).

Some people above are confused about a few things: 1) First of all you should be able to get 230mm travel with only one nozzle. With two nozzles in theory I suppose you can get another 25mm or so. 2) when you choose "no brim" you get a skirt so you can't print as big. Instead perhaps choose a brim but with length 0 and passes=0. 3) Telling the machine that it's 232mm wide will move the center over 1mm and so it won't be centered properly and hence you get a .5mm wall instead of a 2mm wall because the head is hitting the block (gently of course).

Bare metal heating elements glowing red hot seems a bit dangerous even with a grid - isn't it quite possible for some filament to fall down and go through the grid and then act like a fuse to bring fire back up to your part?

By the way, there's no need to run the bed leveling procedure - I haven't used it in a year. Just adjust the 3 screws a half turn each and try again. Then probably 1/4 turn adjustments after that.

Sam - there is only one very clear problem and that is that your bed is too far from your nozzle when printing the bottom layer. There may be more issues but that is clearly one of them. This affects only the bottom layer which means it also affects how well the part sticks to the bed. What is your shell thickness? Make sure that it is a multiple of the nozzle size. .8mm is a good start. And what is your layer height? And print temp and print speed?

heater error 14.09 - does not have the feature 14.12 oct 16, 2014 - feature introduced 20C in 20 Seconds 14.12.1 dec 15, 2014 - from 20C to 10C (still in 20 seconds) 15.01 jan 14, 2015 - from 20 secs to 30 secs (now 10C in 30 seconds)

That's severe underextrusion. Maybe 30% of what you need (one third). I'm thinking you might be printing too cold or too fast. Here are recommended speeds for .2mm layers. If you are printing .1mm you can print twice as fast and so on: 20mm/sec at 200C 30mm/sec at 210C 40mm/sec at 225C 50mm/sec at 240C If you don't know your printing temp or your printing speed, get out of Cura quickprint mode to find speed. And go into TUNE menu while printing to get temperature.

1) Is "Lincoln" in USA? Please specify a country, thanks. Could you please post a picture? I don't quite get what you are saying - also look at the part in cura in "layer view" to see if the supports are printing on the first layer or not - scroll through the layers paying attention to the bottoms of your supports. To post a picture click "gallery" on the top left of this page, then click "upload". Then make a new post and click "my media" next to smile icon.

Did the problem occur recently after upgrading firmware? Or recently changing fan shroud? There's 2 distinct errors - one is something like "temp sensor" and the other one "heater error". The "heater error" message means the nozzle did not heat up the desired amount in the desired number of seconds. The crazy thing is the feature was more likely to fail in 14.12.1. It had tighter limits then and has been loosened since then: 14.10 RC6 oct 16, 2014 - feature introduced 20C in 20 Seconds 14.12.1 dec 15, 2014 - from 20C to 10C (still in 20 seconds) 15.01 RC8/9 jan 14, 2014 - from 20 secs to 30 secs (now 10C in 30 seconds) So as you can see version 15.01 is much looser. You might want to go back to 14.09.

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): 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. 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. 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.

Underextrusion has many causes. The most common is printing too cold or too fast. Even if you've printed at these temp/speeds before, raise the temp by 20C but don't exceed 240C and if you were already at 240C, lower the printing speed by 50%. Think of this as not a permanent solution but an experiment.

That picture you posted is on your computer still - I can't get to your computer (good thing!). Please click "gallery" on the top left of this page, then click big blue "upload" button, then do a new post (so I'll notice) and click "my media" next to smile face to insert your picture.

Bob, not bomb. Atomic Bob. So I'm not sure what you did. Are you simply saying 90C is not hot enough to pull it out? It's okay to try 95C or even 100C (95C should be fine - 90C is usually perfect). Here's the instructions for "atomic" method: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/4118-blocked-nozzle/?p=33691 Or maybe you took the bowden off and now it's not working right? I'm just confused as to what the problem is that you are having. Or can you not take it out even at 180C? Sometimes you can get an upper print head clog. These usually occur when the 3rd fan isn't working. Or maybe you are trying to do it and the feeder stepper is still on. Just turn the printer off to get the feeder stepper to be off and when you turn it back on avoid menu itmes that turn feeder on such as "change filament" (haven't used that in over a year now) or "move filament" or "home" or "print". I think those are the only ones that power up the feeder - instead stick with setting the nozzle temp menu item only.