gr5

1) Fans are very critical to getting a good top layer. Make sure the fan is working properly and blowing (not sucking) and that the fan is aimed properly to the part you are printing (in other words if the shroud got damaged, repair it with kapton tape). If you printed a different fan shroud, I suggest you go back to the original which is hard to beat. 2) Thicker layers do better because the "string" coming out of the nozzle is thicker/stronger. So try .2mm layers if you are using .1mm layers (try .1mm if you are using .05mm). 3) Many filaments have different characteristics and don't bridge as well. So try changing back to an old filament that used to work or use a filament that isn't too old. 4) As mnis says, use a thick top layer - 1.2mm should be plenty thick (6 layers if .2mm, 12 layers if .1mm). 5) There has been some discussion about some new underextrusion issues in the latest Marlin. I'm not convinced it's real but its hard to ignore all the recent complaints. Nothing specific has been determined at this point. But there may be a new bug in Marlin.

Please update your settings to indicate that you have a UM2. Does it report the wrong temp even at room temp? At room temp it should be roughly 20C. The bed uses a simple resistor to measure current. Turn your UM2 on it's side and remove the 2 screws to remove the larger cover. Remove the larger cover and remove the two wires that go to the temp sensor (temp2). Check the resistance. It should be about 108 ohms at 20C. Anywhere from 90 ohms to 130 ohms is probably normal. While the resistor is connected try jiggling the wires where they go into the heated bed. You will probably next have to remove the heated bed - it's pretty easy - start with the 3 levelling screws. There's instructions elsewhere. Remove the 2 screws early on that hold the cable to the heated bed down at the back of the heated bed. I think those are the only 5 screws you need to remove (3 leveling, 2 hold down). Now be careful - there is a sticker about violating warranty somewhere on the heated bed possibly. Make sure that the 4 screws are all tight. Check the resistance at many places. The most common failur point is where the block of 4 screw connectors is soldered to the heated bed. Messing with this solder however may violate your warranty if you are still under warranty and if you have a sticker that says so. Possibly even if you don't have the sticker. I had to resolder those 4 pads and it was very simple and easy and trivial so I don't know why it would violate the warranty.

The X,Y build volume is exactly the same. You can get a bit more build volume (about 20 to 25mm - the distance between nozzles) with the dual extruder kit and you use the right nozzle to get the right edge of the part and left nozzle for the left edge. The Z distance might be a little larger or smaller after installing the kit. Not sure.

I believe the thingiverse license is very similar. So even if you publish under the "non commercial" license, thingiverse can still do whatever they want (like sell it or change the license or print it up and sell it in a makerbot storeo). This was the initial reason many people left thingiverse.

That would be incredibly nasty if the license made you sign over all your copyrights for projects that used their tool. What about if you use 2 different tools? Do both companies now own all your rights? Exclusively? That doesn't make sense. Anyway, I doubt they would do that but it doesn't take long to read the click license. I usually just read the first sentence to each paragraph as they are pretty well structured and after a while you see things like "You agree to indemnify..." and I know what the whole section will say so I skip it. The first time I didn't know what indemnify meant but after looking it up once, it's now standard stuff and easily understood.

Scale works just fine for something this simple. Unfortunately most models are more complicated. For example I have one model of a cube and I'm always scaling it to different shapes. e.g. 10x10x10 or 5x5x5 or 5x5x50 and so on. Scale works just fine. The biggest downside is I don't think the scale values are stored anywhere so unless you keep good notes then a year from now you might be confused how to print a new buckle. This is a pretty minor downside. You can just write a note to yourself or even put it in the filename e.g. "buckle scaled X1 Y1 Z.75.gcode".

It's usually the wire running from the top of the print head back to the bottom of the machine. Measure the voltage at the top of the tiny circuit board. After passing through the circuit board, the voltage at the circuit board is equal to the temperature such that 0v = 0C and 5V = 500C (200mv = 20C). So check the voltage and see if you agree. Raise the temp to around 100C (test with water on aluminum block) and it should read about 110C when water starts boiling. If this is working fine but ulticontroller is displaying different temp then it is indeed that wire. There is a spare wire. Note that often the fan can interfere with the temp when in PWM mode. Try turning the fan to 50% and see if that makes the temperature change significantly. It could also be the thermocouple or the circuit board on top of the print head. Also make sure the small board on the print head is properly getting 5V.

No. I tried the same thing and saw the same gap in gcode.ws. gcode.ws doesn't do a good job showing you the trace widths. Unfortunately. See my post above #345.

I don't think a .4mm nozzle will let you get to the resolution you need. I recommend you look at the b9creator. That should have good enough resolution for dental casts.

By the way I tested Cura 14.09.

@didier - I also sliced a tiny cube (5mm on a side) and tried gcode.ws. I checked the box "emulate extrusion width" but there is a problem - I had sliced for um2 which uses "ultigcode" which means E (extruder) values are in cubic mm instead of linear mm. So the lines were quite fat. So I sliced for UMO and checked the "emulate extrusion width" and it came out closer but showed gaps. So I loaded the traces into excel and checked and the spacing between diagonal lines is properly .4mm and the extrusion amount is perfect for .2mm layer height and .4mm width. Within .3%. So I don't think gcode.ws is useful for utligcode and for regular (UMO) gcode I don't understand why it shows small gaps between the traces - probably just to make it easier to visualize what is going on.

That sounds strange. What slicer are you using?

I'm not sure if it's a big deal or not but it might be. I mean it has to squirt .1mm worth of filament sideways between the previous/lower layer and the shoulder of the nozzle. It's a tight fight - and it has to do a 90 degree turn. It *might* be a big deal. To find out one could print a cube with no shell and just infill and fine the limit where the extruder starts skipping back e.g. 60mm/sec at 210C is typical for me and then do the same experiment with .5mm nozzle setting in Cura and see what the max speed is before skipping back at the same temperature.

The parts need to be far enough apart so the fans won't hit them. So there are 6 settings you have to check: Check under "tools" to make sure it is selected "one at a time". Then check under machine settings and look at the 5 distances. The gantry height must be taller than your tallest part. Then look at the other 4 distances, they must be small enough or your parts must be farther than these distances apart.

Yes, 142 ohms is high but there could be 30 ohms resistance in your meter wires. Try touching the red and black together and see what that reads. If you are under warranty I would just get a whole new plate. If not I would order a PT100. You can get the exact correct part number from somewhere in the forums. Unfortunately the heat plate is the one thing where you can violate warranty - I think by doing soldering - I'm not sure exactly. I think there is a warranty sticker on that connector for the newer printers. But if you are no longer in warranty then definitely go for it. Get a PT100 part and either replace the existing one or place it nearby and run wires over to it. But first double check - make sure your meter cabling wasn't bad (so check both the meter and the resistor one more time) and also swap the 2 meter wires in case there is some current coming from the UM2 (you really want to disconnect the cable underneath the UM2 before doing these tests).

Oh didier - that was a bad choice. That cube was sliced with .5mm shell meaning *all* infill is .5mm wide lines meaning you are printing equivalent of 125% flow which is difficult. It takes quite a bit of extra pressure to squeeze that plastic out the thin gap *next* to the nozzle. This particular issue is complicating any other underextrusion issues. Which is unfortunate because I'm still not convinced the top layer is the only layer that is underextruded. Although I'm leaning towards "yes, it's just the top layer".

Can I use simClaim with DSM?

Please post a photo. Also please follow your own topic. To follow click "follow this topic" at the top right of this page. But I think you have to validate your email to do that. You should have gotten an email - go check your spam folders. To post a picture, click "gallery" at the top left of this page, then click the blue "upload" button. Later start a new posting and click "my media" next to the smile icon.

I'm not certain but it looks like the extruder is skipping back and causing extrusion in a few areas. You might want to consider sanding, filling, and then painting. Anyway, if it *is* skipping backwards there are many causes of underextrusion. The quick fix is to print slower and hotter. I would try 240C at 40mm/sec. Your current settings of 210C, 55mm/sec at .2mm is right at the limit of what a um2 can do. You are right on the blue line of the graph (first image in below link). I recommend printing at half that speed of the blue line so for 55mm/sec you should be fine at 240C. http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/4127-um2-extrusion-rates-revisited/

Those are both great solutions however I usually load the profile from a recent print. All gcode files have the profiles stored at the end (in an unreadable-by-human format). Plus I name all my gcode files with ABS in the gcode file name if it is meant for ABS. So I just load the most recent ABS print or PLA print if I am switching. (edit - to clarify - I use "File" "Load profile from GCode..."). But Daid's solution is better I think. If you change a setting for one "machine" it doesn't seem to affect the others.

The thin strings of filament at .1mm layer aren't thick enough and break easily. Also they tend to be underextruded at the beginning of movement. Print the top layer much slower - say 25mm/sec. Printing slower will allow you to have a more consistent extruder flow (because your extruder isn't slowing down and speeding up at every new line). Or use .2mm layers. If slowing down helps (I'm sure it will) you can use a plugin which changes the speed near the top of the print. Also some brands of PLA don't break as easily. Also triple check your fans. If only one fan is working or if they are sucking instead of blowing, then this kind of hole in the top is common.

The horizontal lines look like underextrusion or maybe Z issue. Underextrusion could be caused by the nozzle cooling temporarily by 10C or if the filament tangles and requires much more force for the feeder. Z issue will sometimes occur at the same spot on multiple models due to some problem with the Z screw or the Z bearings.

Lowering speed from 50mm/sec to 40mm/sec will make only a tiny bit of difference. Printing .1mm layer versus .2mm layer however is printing at half the volume and makes a big difference. If you are getting bad top layers at .1mm layer, 50mm/sec then I don't think this is typical underextrusion. I don't know *what* the hell it is. Definitely print hotter (try 240C). Some PLAs print much better at higher temperature. Um, stupid question, could this be ABS plastic?

Single wall is useful for many things. One example is writing. If the single wall is only a few layers then there certainly isn't a strength issue if that's what you are thinking.

So are you all set now? Do you know where to connect the wiring? Take off the larger cover underneath the printer. The circuit board has writing on it to make everything understandable.