gr5

I have only used Cura's support feature on about 1% of my prints. Like skint says, try other orientations, or just don't worry about it, or use meshmixer: http://www.extrudable.me/2013/12/28/meshmixer-2-0-best-newcomer-in-a-supporting-role/ As far as "nubs" you need to post a picture as there are 30 possible causes and post all your settings (just save settings to file and post that) but in general slower speeds give you better quality. So you can either print it fast and get something useful/functional or print it slow and get something beautiful.

Thanks. Cura has this feature built in - you just load a jpeg file instead of a STL file.

Sounds extremely complicated. Better would be to model the pattern in CAD on the "inside" of the lamp housing. That would be very cool. That reminds me of this print I did:

Do you really have a .35 nozzle? Stock nozzle is .4mm. I agree with didier. In order of importance: 1) Slow to 35mm/sec or even 20mm/sec for absolute highest quality. 2) Lower to 210C or even 200C if you go 20mm/sec 3) Shell thickness needs to be multiple of nozzle to get good quality. Also 2 passes comes out much better so do .7mm shell/wall thickness. 4) Increase travel speed to 150mm/sec or even 300mm/sec. The faster the better to break the strings and decrease the time where the nozzle isn't extruding. The biggest problem with Ultimaker is it doesn't print as well when you speed up or slow down the printing and during travel the extruder is stopped yet you still get some slow leakage. So minimize this by speeding up travel time. 5) Set infill speed to 0 so that it matches shell speed. With 2 passes on the shell this isn't critical because extrusion flow has time to adjust while printing the inner shell. In other words this setting might not affect quality. 6) Retraction should be 4.5 if the bowden is not moving at all on either end. If it moves when you pull up on it at the head then this should be even higher - perhaps 5.5. This setting affects stringing and you aren't getting any so it probably doesn't matter on this part. That loop on the leg is something else - possibly slow travel speed problem. 7) Fill density=50 seems very very high. I think you will find that 24% is plenty and it prints much faster at 24% than 25%. Again this doesn't hurt quality - just makes it print slower if at 50%. 8) You should print with a brim (drop down in basic settings). I assume your parts aren't falling off the bed but still - without a brim you are asking for trouble (parts get knocked off bed). I would set those to zero. There's a small chance the minimal_extrusion parameter caused that loop on the leg. It might not have retracted because it didn't print .02mm worth of filament (which is something like 4mm printing travel).

It's almost guaranteed to be that part. It breaks a lot. But you could look at the voltage to the base (probably the middle pin). If you have a volt meter then it should be at around .7V when fan is 100% and 0V when fan is set to 0%. If that's working then it's pretty much the transistor that's broken. Although the transistor may be killing that signal also so it's not definitive until you remove the part. With Q4 removed you should see 0V when fan is off and 5V when fan is on.

It's really a slicer question and you can use many slicers with the UM. But most people use Cura and Cura allows a different speed for: outer shell inner shell infill For example if the shell is two passes you can have the outer (visible) shell print slower than the inner shell and you can have the infill also print faster. But be aware that with a .4mm diameter nozzle (that sort of sets your XY resolution) it's hard to get a ton of plastic through that small a nozzle. It can print about 10 cubic mm per second at normal printing temperatures. For .1mm layers that is (10/.1/.4) about 250mm/sec. For .2mm layers it's 125mm/sec. And most people print at least 3X slower (3 cubic mm/sec). You can drill out the nozzle to for example .8mm and loose some XY resolution but gain massively in print speed.

More discussion here: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/4094-raised-edges/

The first link mentiones 3.0 +/- .05mm which is too large for the Ulitmaker. If you hit 3.05mm I'm pretty sure it will get stuck in the bowden. I've heard from enough people on this forum who had to throw away a whole roll because of this - so I would avoid it.

I think it's that. Printing a bit hotter might help. But really a heated bed helps much more. And enclosing the machine (or at least the sides).

Could you update what machine you use on your settings please? I dont' want to have to always go search for it. Usually belt wear is when it rubs against something and usually that is the wall. Sliding the pulley .1mm closer to the motor might help or adding washers. Or the long belts might not be lined up with the rods such that the belts rub against the pulley rims. This also tends to make a ticking sound. It's easy to fix - just loosen the pulleys and push the head around and tighten the pulley that the head is closest to (push it back and forth along the rod until it's happiest).

radio waves (electromagnetic waves) have both an electrical field component and a magentic field component. If you block either component you will reduce the waves somewhat. A mu metal such as iron or non-stainless steel (one that magents stick to) will block most of the magnetic component but aluminum doesn't affect magnetic waves. Aluminum won't block electric fields very well either unless you ground it. So I wouldn't expect that to help without grounding the aluminum. Interesting. Mine starts spinning closer to 30%. If you hold the fan still with your finger does the temperature behave itself any better? Or worse?

There are at least 3 factors that make parts slightly different size than the positioning of the nozzle. These have to do with elasticity of liquid PLA and also shrinkage issues. Also over and under extrusion - especially on the first layer. It would really nice to see your part. Anyway, the experts here all do the same thing when they need precision: They print a part, then measure it just like you did. Then they ADJUST THE STL to compensate. So if a wall is off by .5mm they move it by .5mm. Then print it again WITH ALL THE SAME SETTINGS. Especially temperature and print speed. This seems like extra work. But you will find that particular sized shapes will shrink different amounts. For example a circle will tend to pull inwards more if it is a vertical hole. But less on exterior surfaces. When you change color of PLA the adjustments all change. With experience you will eventually be able to compensate the correct amount on the first try each time. You may think CURA should do all the compensation for you but it's difficult as simply changing your fan setting or nozzle temperature or bed temperature will change the needed adjustments. Also changing color of PLA.

Sounds like a first layer only issue. That's usually related to leveling. There are a bunch of bugs related to leveling such that if you don't have the absolute latest firmware (from July 2014) then you should level without using the leveling procedure and instead just turn the screws. If the bed is .1mm low and your first layer is .1mm thick then you will need about 200% flow to do the first layer. Also 205C is a bit cold for this PLA. I could see how this might cause some underextrusion. I print with this color at 220C often and it works fine for me. I recommend you do first layer at .3mm (which is the default in cura but maybe you changed it?) as this is more tolerant to bed leveling errors.

Getting the board fixed through support could take a few weeks. So that's one route. I recommend you just replace the transistor yourself. It's near the fan connector. It's Q4. This part is one of the more common failures on UM Original. Mine has never been damaged though. They tend to fail in one of two ways: fan always on, or fan always off. If you aren't comfortable soldering, ask around. I'm sure you have a friend or neighbor who can do this in their sleep.

260C is dangerous for PLA - if you leave it at the temperature very a few minutes you can caramelize it into gunk that clogs the nozzle. I recommend staying at 240C or lower for PLA. I'm not sure if it's really caramelization - but it seems like it. To reduce stringing, make sure retraction is truly on. There are about 6 settings and a few of them can disable retraction here and there depending on the situation. So look at it in layer view. In layer view reatractions are indicated symbolically by a vertical blue line. Faster travel speeds helps break the string - 150mm/sec is the absolute slowest. 300mm/sec should be fine. Lower printing temperatures helps keep the plastic from leaking out. At 190C it's like toothpaste. At 240C it's like honey. More tests and results here: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/1872-some-calibration-photographs/ But lower temps also means you might have to print slower to avoid underextrusion.

It's assymetric because the nozzle is to the left of the head and the right side doesn't get as much fan. You can still print a perfect robot though. lower print speed to 35mm/sec, lower bed temp to 60C (or even 50C but no lower than 45C as around 30C to 40C it stops sticking) and maybe possibly lower nozzle temp. 210C should be fine but maybe that particular PLA needs it a little cooler. Maybe 200C or even 190C. If you lower it too much you will get underextrusion. Every PLA color is a bit different in viscosity versus temp. Make sure min and max fan speeds are at 100%. Make sure fan comes on full by 1mm or so off table.

The endstops are those switches that click when you push the head to either of the 4 ends. Do they seem to be working okay?

BE VERY CAREFUL. Do not remove the old probe without removing the thin screw first. You have to take the head apart - remove 4 thumb screws. Then remove the small fan, then take out the white isolator. Next unscrew the nozzle by rotating the nut with the holes but ONLY DO THIS AT 100C to 180C or at least do it very very gently. The plastic can get in the threads and if you turn too hard you will easily break this brass nut. It is almost as thin as paper. Then you need to remove the tiny long screw (hex 1.5mm I think?). That thin screw holds in the temperature probe. You might be able to remove the screw first!

Oh wait - is it the vertical lines you want to disappear? I think you need to be more clear what you want. The vertical lines are not typical. I'm wondering how many polygons you have for that circle and how fast you were printing. Cura can only plan 10 to 20 line segment moves in advance and it needs to be ready to come to a complete stop so if there are too many polygons it slows down and can cause some overextruding like in your picture. Also temperature affects the vertical lines - I can send you a photo if you want. Or you might be on the edge of underextruding (printing too cold or too fast).

If you are only printing cylinders, then yes, .2mm is probably better. And you can make the lines disappearwith many different techniques. The best would be vapor solute. Is that what you want? The tiny lines to disappear even when you shine light off it perfectly like in the photo?

If you print a "wall" cura will print "both sides" of the wall. One pass in one direction, a second pass in the other direction. Always. The only way to get only one pass would be to write your own gcode. You can do it with excel spreadsheets and some text editing commands (substitute/replace). I recommend this over trying to get Cura to do this very specialized function. I recommend also you get repetier host and send your ultimaker some gcodes manually to get a feel for how AMAZINGLY SIMPLE this printer is to control. G0 and G1 do the same thing on Ultimakers - they "go". pronterface is here: http://koti.kapsi.fi/~kliment/printrun/ It's free and very easy to use. It connects to your printer through USB. You can send one command at a time like G0 X5 and it will move only X axis to position 5mm. More details in anon's post above. Or google "marlin gcodes".

how to check it? Oh - you can't really - you just replace it - it's only a few cents. But I doubt it's the darlington. I'd check the 5v supply going to the print head first (with fan running at 50%) to see if the voltage looks really spikey and ugly on the oscilloscope (lots of noise). Or replace all the relevant wiring with shielded wires. The shielding will block a large amount of the radio waves. This would be the 3 wires to the test head, the 2 wires to the probe and the 2 wires to the fan.

For um original it's Q4. Kind of in the middle of the schematic on the left. It looks like a transistor on the schematic. It's labeled clearly on the circuit board and it's positioned near the fan connector. It is a 3 lead device. Where to get circuit diagram: ULTIMAKER1 The circuit diagram, and board layout are here: http://reprap.org/wiki/Ultimaker%27s_v1.5.7_PCB There is a zip file at the top. It contains the "brd" file which is the layout. Also the "sch" file which is the schematic. Both files can be opened by eagle software which is free: http://www.cadsoftusa.com/download-eagle/ ULTIMAKER 2 SCHEMATIC - click "raw": https://github.com/Ultimaker/Ultimaker2/blob/master/1091_Main_board_v2.1.1_%28x1%29/Main%20Board%20V2.1.1.pdf

If you want really beautiful prints you have to have the extruder never stop and never slow down and never speed up. That's really hard to do. You want all non extruding moves at as fast as possible (250 or 300mm/sec). You want acceleration high. You want jerk high. Also you might want to round all your corners so they are smooth and the head never comes to a stop. Printing really slow helps because you can get up to full speed on the extruder that much faster.

Something is not level. I recommend you get pronterface: http://koti.kapsi.fi/~kliment/printrun/ It's free and easy to use. Set Z to .1 or whatever you think your paper thickness is (typical printer paper is about .1mm) then move the XY head around to many parts of the print bed - Try 9 points maybe in a grid. Or 16 points. Test it all over and adjust with screws and test again. Maybe your gantry rods are bent. Maybe your glass is under too much pressure and bends while in the bed. But I suspect you just have the leveling off by a bit. I also recommend the bottom layer of your raft be .3mm so that leveling to an accuracy of about 1mm is fine. You can set Z to .1 by homing the Z and then do gcode: g0 Z0.1 You can then turn off all steppers and push the head around by hand but careful you don't bump the Z or you have to re-home it.