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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.

Please update your settings to include "taiwan" in your location. Sorry it's out of warranty. First you should get a multimeter and work with someone who knows how to use it. Again, the resistance should be 108 ohms at 20C. The machine is probably seeing a resistance > 1000000 ohms. so anything from 90 to 130 ohms should be expected. Disconnect the wiring at the bottom of the board under the printer and measure there. If it is correct then the problem is at the board or the connection there. If it is bad then measure at the screws, measure at the pads, measure at the tiny tiny resistor. Most likely it is at the pads where the screw connector meets the board. They may look fine but may need more solder. This is pretty easy to fix. Some people gave up and bought a PT100 part (any PT100 part will do as they all have the same resistance/temperature curve). Then they glued the part down somewhere else and ran wires from the part to the pads. PT stands for platinum.

Sander thinks maybe we should get rid of the 3 post rule and Ultimaker should start selling penis enlargement pills. What do you guys think?

Ja!

By the way you can tell if it's going to do "one at a time" by moving through the layers in layer view. If in one-at-a-time mode it will show it print one part, then go back down and do the next.

Look at your machine settings "gantry height". You don't want those rooks to touch the cross bars. But if you place them far enough apart at a diagonal you can have it ignore the gantry height settings by setting it to 200mm. Or maybe it's a feature? Have the gantry knock one of the rooks over when it starts printing the second rook?

If you had looked at the part in xray view it would have shown errors in red. Any red is where you are looking through an odd number of planes which means there is either a hole in the part or an extra wall such that there is no inside and outside. You probably could have fixed this with some combination of the 4 "fix horrible" checkboxes in expert settings.

The UM2 issue is probably mostly a firmware issue which shouldn't affect UMO. I hope. It hasn't been figured out yet. Your basic problem is underextrusion. The one key parameter you didn't mention is printing speed. Underextrusion may be happening everywhere but it is always most noticable on solid layers other than the bottom layer (bottom most layer depends too much on leveling and so don't use that layer as a judge). Walls aren't always obvious when underextruded if the underextrusion is low enough (say < 25%). In general the easiest way to fix underextrusion is to raise the temp (I recommend 240 as the top temp though - but 240 is a reasonable temp to print PLA) or slow it down (I don't know how fast you are printing? How fast?). At 200C filament is like toothpaste. At 240C it flows like honey. So either go up to 240C or cut your print speed in half and see if that helps. Print a small cube. Another fix is to increase flow. You could increase by 25% but the filament might just grind up so that might not be the best solution. If it's truly only the top layer that is a problem then another possibility is that it doesn't have enough support from the layer below. Sometimes it takes 5 or 6 layers to fully support that top layer. For me, .2mm layer with .6mm top/bottom thickness is plenty for excellent looking top layers. Also I usually do 20% infill which supports those top 3 layers. For .1mm layers I also like .6mm top/bottom thickness. There may be a new slicing bug with Cura as there is a ton of people complaining about top layers right now. I'm currently slicing with Cura 13.09 and have no trouble.

@varsanny - Did you also use different slicers? The only changes I can think of in the firmware is that the PID control for both nozzle and bed changed. This affects temperature. You might want to observe the nozzle temperature in the TUNE menu while you are printing to see if it is stable or if it fluctuates. Or just stick with firmware 14.03 for now (I haven't upgraded firmware in maybe 6 months as I'm pretty happy with the current firmware) until someone figures out the problem and Daid fixes it.

This is getting a little crazy because there might be 3 distinct issues going through this thread: 1) Underextruded top layers (the main thread!) 2) Underextrsusion everywhere (the main problem?) 3) Overextruded edges @nicolinux - regarding #3, your orange "people" photo just above this post looks like #3 is fixed with faster acceleration. The edges look better than the cube you printed earlier where the edges were overextruded. You still clearly have underextrsuion - on the top layer if nowhere else. I don't know what the cause is but another solution might be to just increase the flow by about 25% Do you have the latest firmware installed? I don't. Maybe that's why I don't have a problem? The latest firmware changed PID stuff for both nozzle and bed.

I don't recommend replacing the nozzle. It's a very strong part and you are unlikely to damage it. If you cant get the sensor out and you don't mind destroying the sensor you can drill it out, or use a wood screw, insert it partly in and then pull it out with pliers. Or you can drill from the opposite side a smaller hole and then push it out with a paper clip. You can build your own sensor with any pt100 part but if you use solder make sure you use high temperature (all lead 300C) solder and not normal (200C melting point) solder. As far as the other end of the sensor - remove the larger cover underneath the UM2. It's very easy to remove (in fact the entire UM2 is very easy to take apart and put back together - it is designed to be hacked). The temp sensor wire is very distinct - it is a white braided cable with two conductors. And it is connected to I believe "temp 1" or some similar name.

@printerfan - I find it interesting that you think there is an association between 3d printing and asthma. Do you have similar associations with candles or hot oil frying? I sometimes get asthma but it's not much of a problem for me. But I am not a runner specifically because of the asthma. I still get lots of exercise - just not aerobic. I think once I might have gotten a bit of asthma from some candles. I'll have to pay more attention in the future. I have definitely had no asthma from my 3d printer. I have quite a large house and it's not as air tight as it should be.

Wrong temp sensor LTC. If it was the "bed" sensor it would say "bed" in the error message. So it's the nozzle sensor. How old is your printer? If under warranty create a ticket at support.ultimaker.com. These sensors are repairable but they usually fail inside the nozzle heater block. And getting them out can be easy sometimes or at other times impossible without damaging them. Start by disconnecting the wires underneath the UM2 and measuring the resistance. It should be 108 ohms at room temperature (20C). Anything from 90 to 120 ohms should be considered normal. What country are you in LTC? Please update your settings "location" to indicate your country. I could guess Australia but better to mention it explicitly.

I do an "atomic method" or "cold pull" on ALL filament changes. So there is no need to prime until you get the right color. All of the old color is removed completely. I do this even if I might end up using the same color on the next print. Sometimes I'm just cleaning up and putting things (filament) away.

Oh - I should mention that that print of the "people" looks underextruded. Maybe go to 220C or slow it down a little more. Different colors need different temps.

I would expect lower accelerations to give worse qualtiy. I beleive default XY acceleration is 5000 mm/sec/sec (not 1500). 5000 is what my UM2 is now and I don't think I've ever changed it (currently my UMO is at 4000). The reason is it's really bad for the feeder to ever change speeds. The more it changes speeds the worse the quality. If you have high jerk (default is 20mm/sec) and high acceleration (5000 mm/sec/sec) then the feeder doesn't slow down much and not for very long. You want the extruder to extrude at a constant rate - never speeding up or slowing down or doing so minimally. Everytime you ask it to speed up it will underextrude briefly and vice versa. One fix is to just print slow - if you print at 20mm/sec it will never slow down because the jerk setting allows it to make a sharp corner without slowing down. 35mm/sec is *almost* as good quality and so on. So I have 2 recommendations: 1) Keep acceleration high - 5000mm/sec (note that this can cause ringing along the walls on sharp corners however). 2) For this particular print, I recommend printing the bottom and top layers slower (say 30mm/sec) and then printing much faster (possibly 75mm/sec) on all the other layers. You can do this with a plugin. Changing speed on a layer change should be safe because it should print the interior lines first and by the time it gets to the final outer shell it should be at a constant feeder rate speed and everything equalized.

It makes quite a bit of difference on print quality. Don't buy just anything off of ebay. UM of course has good quality filament. Faberdashery in England is pretty amazing. Maybe the best according to many (I haven't tried it). I don't think anyone sells it in USA but fbrc8.com plans to sell some soon (they have some in stock but the web store doesn't have it - I suppose you could call them but maybe easier to ship from england). In australia there is also an amazingly good filament, diamond age. If you want your filament shipped within USA then one good choice is printedSolid.com. They have colorfabb filament. They are a fast, responsive seller of filaments. Beware that other filaments won't fit on the back of a UM so you might have to put it on the floor. Which works quite well actually.

http://support.3dverkstan.se/article/23-a-visual-ultimaker-troubleshooting-guide

The edges look overextruded and the center underextruded which is what you would expect if printing somewhat fast because the bowden stores pressure on the filament like a spring and as you slow down for the edges it overextrudes and then when you speed up towards the middle it underextrudes.

I recommend you cut the tip of the new filament at an angle from 3 different angles so that it has a pointy tip. If you don't do this then it can easily get caught up inside the head at several junctures such as at beginning or end of isolator.