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Yeah - that would be the firmware. To do it in Cura wouldn't make sense as you need to know characteristics of PLA at various temps and length of bowden and all kinds of stuff. There's been some more talk recently of making the firmware compensate for the delay/pressure of plastic in the nozzle. I don't think anyone is working on it. There is an existing feature that does this in marlin but it's, well, not quite correct implementation. But it does help really crappy printers quite a bit. Not sure if it helps the UM2. Never turned on that feature myself.

By the way, printing at 150mm/sec .25mm layers with .4mm nozzle is (multiple the 3 numbers together) 15mm^3/sec which is way above what my UM2 can do and very few people have a UM2 that can achieve that throughput of plastic even at 250C. It is however possible with the right filament and a brand new nozzle, and brand new teflon isolator. You can see the results of printing at different speeds here and you can test your machine (after you unclog the nozzle) with the original test (that only goes up to 10^3mm - download it in the very first post): http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/4586-can-your-um2-printer-achieve-10mm3s-test-it-here/ Or the tougher test that goes higher here (again - first posting): http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/5436-a-tougher-extrusion-test-o/

260C will just make things worse as PLA at 250C and higher can slowly be baked into a difficult to remove gunk. I think it is caramelization. 180C is a safe temperature to leave the head for many minutes and warm enough that PLA is soft enough to remove and work with. It's common for the head to hit the part due to shrinkage on the top warping the edges inward and lifting the corners especially. I'm just really surprised that the z screw would move part way and then not the rest. And only on some models. I'm not surprised at all that the head hits the part and not surprised at all that it stops printing. So I would be damn sure Z really stops and I would experiment with it using pronterface and set the Z to various values and watch the bed go up and down and see if it has trouble at some point. pronterface is very easy to use: http://koti.kapsi.fi/~kliment/printrun/ Back to clogged head. There's lots of solutions. The easiest is the "atomic" method described in extremely long detail here (but is very easy to do): http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/4118-blocked-nozzle/?p=33691 Altermatively combine that method with something that can fit inside the nozzle tip such as either hypodermic syringe or acupuncture needle. Or the most reliable method and the most work - take the head completely apart and put the nozzle into some gas flame and burn all the PLA and teflon (from black feeder) out of the head (but not so hot as to melt the brass). Then soak in acetone for an hour, then put it back together and perform the atomic method until it comes out clean. I've only had to do this once.

It could be pinched servo cables. It could be a bad PCB. It could be a bad power supply. If it were me I would: 1) Inspect all the servo cables carefully. There are 2 metal covers in the back two corners that hide the servos. Each one has a single screw to take it off (this entire printer is easy to disassemble). Take those off and take them off slowly and look at the cables at the bottom to see if maybe they are damaged (insulation bent or wire coming through insulation). Do the same thing with the larger cover on the bottom of the machine particularly pay attention to where cables go under the cover. The cover on the bottom comes off easily after removing 2 screws. 2) If that doesn't show anything obvious and the cables to all 4 servos look good (no possible short circuits) then I would leave the cover off the bottom PCB to increase cooling. 3) I would also hook up a volt meter to the 5V power supply (not 24V) somewhere on the PCB and do a print and monitor the voltage carefully. See if the voltage slowly drops to 3V. You can pick it up at TP16 and many other places. TP16 is on the "left" side of the PCB (with text around edges in normal orientation). Or you can look at the UM2 PCB schematics and board layout in this pdf here: 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

Anyway you will never be happy if you don't experiment and find the limitations of your exact printer and then compare it to other's limitations to see if there is something wrong with your particular printer: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/4586-can-your-um2-printer-achieve-10mm3s-test-it-here/

Is that through a .4mm nozzle? I searched for 10 minutes with google and looked on cubify website and couldn't find the nozzle diameter. But you have more interest than I do - maybe you can figure it out? I assume the cube has a larger nozzle which offers less resistance and allows you to print much faster but the detail won't be as good (XY resolution). Everyone posts the Z resolution but it's harder to find the nozzle diameter.

Diamond age. Very nice filament but no longer sold in USA. But there are better filaments in UK (I'm jealous). But this is mostly irrelevant as I can get this kind of result with every standard PLA I've tried including many from Ultimaker. That particular Robot was before I had a UM2 (last fall) so it was done on UM Original but I've printed robots on UM2 just as good. Exact settings for the robot in the photo above are in post #19 here - also there are more photos zoomed in closer above that posting and other discussion about getting quality robots (other objects have other challenges so this is mostly UM robot related): http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/3038-can-your-ultimakerultimaker2-print-such-quality/?p=28588

Does cura show the layers in layer view? The background slicing engine may have crashed - for example if you have too many millions of polygons.

Connection issues debugging steps to isolate your problem - but before reading this - is it possible you download UM2 firmware into a UM Original? Or UM Original firmware for the UM2? If so don't panic, you can fix it. usb debugging (post #7): http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/5100-how-to-update-um2-firmware/?p=46156 also win 8.1 drivers: http://forum.arduino.cc/index.php?topic=205837.0

Do you have retraction turned on by the way? Without retraction one should expect stringing like the 3rd part in top picture.

2nd and 3rd from the right in your first picture look good - use those settings. You have some stringing on some of those parts in the top picture. That can be improved by lowering the temp, lowering the speed, and increasing retraction distance. E.g. 70mm/sec, 220C, 5.5mm are probably good to start with. In picture #2, the 4 parts in the background, the bottom layer looks like crap. It was printed much too high off the build plate. Re-level with paper. You don't need to touch the 3 screws, just do digital leveling with the dial and paper at the rear screw only. Paper should be grabbed a little bit by the print head. If you turn off power after leveling you will lose it due to a bug recently found. After power cycling it levels too high. You can fix *that* by turning all 3 screws such that the bed moves up by .2mm. And don't relevel. Until Daid comes out with a fix. But your levelling was off by much more than .2mm I think. Make sure the bottom layer is .3mm thick so that the leveling doesn't have to be "perfect" and you can have an error of .05mm and still get beautiful bottom layer. The two parts closest to the camera in the 3rd, final picture look pretty good but if you want better you appear to be getting some tangling on your filament spool. Move the spool to the floor to get further improvements and if you want it even better slow down the printing to 35mm/sec.

If you are patient you can make the Z scar almost non-existent by slowing it down to 20mm/sec because you don't get any oozing when you print that slow. Also it helps to crank up the Z acceleration to lower the time it sits there moving the Z. Daid wouldn't it be even better to move the head to an "infill" region of the part during the Z move? Most of my parts have no visible Z scar by the way (at 35mm/sec).

It is possible to get much better overhangs - this is my best UM robot:

Ignore that - you don't have a second extruder. Wow! Much too hot for PLA. Dangerously hot - a little dangerous - leave PLA at that temp without printing for a half hour and you will have to take your nozzle out and burn all the PLA out. Anyway - do bed at 50-60C for PLA (100C for ABS). 75C for PLA is a last resort after you can't get any of the other methods of getting the part to stick to the bed and you still get major warping (corners lifting) on large parts. 75C will give bad quality on the bottom 5mm or so where the air is too hot. It will pull inward kind of look like warping but it's just that the material is too soft on the corners when the next layer goes down. 75C won't affect more than 20mm off the bed. I vaguely remember that gold needs lower temp - maybe even 190C. But start at 210C or 220C. If you get any underextrusion (holes in the wall, or skipping feeder) then slow it down to 35mm/sec but 50mm/sec should be fine regarding overhangs. Also make sure your side fans are working. They need to be at 100% by the time you get to the first overhang. By default they come on at 5mm up. Make sure minimum and maximum fan speeds are both at 100. Many printers fan connections disconnected during shipping so this is a likely problem. Test that the 3rd fan at the rear also comes on (the 3rd fan comes on as soon as power is on - even before the lights). To test that side fans work do: PRINT, select any print, then immediatly go to TUNE and set fans to 100%. Turn off machine when done testing so that it doesn't start printing (will not start printing while you stay in TUNE menu).

You can get it even tighter if you loosen the 4 thumb screws 3 or 4 turns, do what you describe above, then tighten them back up. If the bowden keeps slipping even after that, you should take it out, cut off the last 2mm and put it all back together again.

Z dimensions are extremely accurate and should be within about .1mm. If you print in a heated chamber (recommended for ABS) then there will be shrinkage from the heated chamber temp to room temp. XY dimensions will shrink for PLA about .3%. Not sure about ABS but I think it's about double. I believe both materials have a similar density/temperature graph and it's pretty linear in solid, glass, and liquid states - there arent major sudden expansions or contractions at any of those transitions. So mostly you only have to worry about glass temp to room temp shrinkage which is much more extreme for ABS because glass temp is much higher. Anyway - this doesn't answer your question. The mechanics of the printer itself should give you around .1mm accuracy and better than that repeatability. The speed you print, the acceleration settings, cause over/under extrusion (repeatably) on corners such that you might get a bump out on a corner if you print "fast" because the bowden has some sprint to it and the filament keeps coming instead of slowing down on the corners. The most extreme innacuracies will be for "bores" or vertical holes. There are 3 factors that shrink these things. I always add a minimum of .5mm to all diameters. Sometimes even 1mm. The 3 factors are shrinkage, number of lines inscribed in the circle (fewer lines = smaller hole e.g. 4 lines gives you a square hole) and the rubber band effect when printing the hole that pulls the lower layer inwards as the current layer is laid down or the upper layer may even be printed more inwards - think tight rubber band being glued down into a circle with the glue not quite dry. This effect seems to be worse for PLA because it has a lower glass temp. In other words, PLA does most of it's shrinking while still liquid/glass. ABS does much more shrinking after it is a solid. Repeatability - if you don't change any filament, temperatures, fan speeds, printing speeds - should be at least .1mm, probably half that. So you can put chamfers and other compensating factors onto your parts and get a non-conforming part to print so much better and still print very fast.

It's fine to have cubic voids, but not double walls. Try robert's suggestion first, then look at the part in "xray" view. Any red areas are a problem. They are generated by passing a 3D line through the model and counting how many polygons it passes through. Even polygons are shades of blue and white. Odd polygons are shades of red. Red indicates an internal wall that doesn't have meaning or a hole in an intended wall. If you have no red zones then unchecking all the "fix horrible" boxes should result in a perfect part. The exception is if you have to vertexes very close together (less than maybe .2mm). When Cura slices a layer it interesects a plane with your polygons (which are unordered in an STL file). Then it has a bunch of lines. It tries to figure out which lines intersect and tries to create loops of lines and assigns those together to be a "surface" but sometimes it gets confused if 3 or more vertexes are very close together. Also STL files have an indication of the polygons which side is "inside" and which side is "outside". You can tell Cura to ignore that with one of the "fix horrible" settings.

I never use "CHANGE FILAMENT" anymore. Just heat the nozzle to 90C and pull hard on the filament. If head is hotter than 90C wait until it reaches 90C before pulling. When the filament is half way up the tube, let it cool for 10 seconds, then pull it the rest of the way - pull as fast as possible when the tip goes through the feeder. About once every 30 times it breaks off inside the feeder :( To put the new filament in, just push it in through the feeder.

It's quite good as it is. I mainly use it to check that it will print where I expected and not print where I expected - for example to see if walls are too thin to print. I also use it to check if retraction is on for a particular move, and if it will be printing "in mid air". Changes: - I'd like it to be more obvious that the first layer is 3X thicker when I have .3mm first layer, .1mm remaining. - It might be nice to show "height" and rounded end points with radius matching nozzle size instead of squared off lines. Yes!!! That! I guess you show the height of the top of the trace which is also the nozzle height for that trace. - Instead of showing the vertical line on a retraction move, show a different color. - Sometime's there are so many lines so close together I can't tell which diagonal the infill is. Black lines to seperate would be nice. - I don't know how to do it visually but it would be nice to know the travel direction - maybe each line could fade from one color to the next. For example from a grayish yellow to a brighter yellow. Just a very slight fade - enough to tell travel direction. - Please use less saturated colors. For example for red, start with 255,0,0 as the color and go into HSB mode and lower the S (saturation) and maybe the brightness also. Intense colors should be reserved for small things like text and very thin lines. That would be great! DSM does this well. When you are in top-down mode and you pan around you stay always straight above the part at the center of the display. As soon as you orbit/rotate the view you lose top-down mode. In top-down view mode I should also be able to measure wall thicknesses and part dimensions such as hole diameters (even though I can already do this in cad) so that I can double check any scaling I might do. This is not a critical feature though.

You mean a cross bolt? Picture(s) please.

That would be good for nylon! Nylon seems to absorb water very quickly and it doesn't print quite as well when it does. I can hear the water sizzling as I print nylon.

Very strange. Usually Z is most accurate direction. And usually PLA and ABS shrink. They don't grow!

You have two completely different problems. The lower area has problems caused by overhangs I think. The upper area has basically slicing issues. What version of Cura are you using? There was a bug introduced recently and then fixed in the latest version that can cause the problems on the upper areas of the shade. You might be able to improve the upper area by having a shell of .8 (2 passes). The lower area will be improved if you slow it down quite a bit and it's critical that the fan is on 100% to get good quality surfaces. Try 20-35mm/sec just to see what happens. Let it print for 24 hours if that's what it needs. A third issue: there are some layers that look thicker - as though the Z didn't move enough. I would grease the Z screw and move the bed up and down to make sure it isn't getting stuck on some layer moves. Also consider .2mm layer height as the thinner you go the more likely you get these long horizontal bands.

The easiest way is to raise the bed a tiny amount. Right now your bed is probably too far from the nozzle and so the filament isn't getting squished enough. It also helps to have the filament extra hot for the first layer (240C) to allow it to flow well. It even helps to heat the bed with a blow drier even by only 20 degrees F. This allows the plastic to flow better. But at some point you can't do anything about it except for post processing. You can remelt the part a bit after you remove it, or you can sand-prime-paint it or you can use a vapor of THF or ethyl acetate (for PLA).

You are showing us a problem I'm not sure that anyone has seen before. 1) What country do you live in? (This is an important question - but I don't want to explain why - please update your profile location to indicate your country). 2) So can you explain the symptoms again? Does the head knock the part off the bed? You say it's grinding into the part. Do you abort the print at that point? Or does the head just keep moving and moving with Z never moving and no more filament coming out? Or is it printing in the air? With the head above the part by a little gap but the filament isn't coming out? 3) If you hold the z screw while it's printing the "failing" area you could feel if the shaft is spinning a small amount between layers. Depending what country you are in, you might want to return it but then you might just get another one that has worse problems. The shipping service is very violent to these printers. Usually you are better off fixing it yourself. You might want to lower infill to maybe 5% or 0% just to speed things up so you can get to the failure point sooner. 4) I see you are printing with brim. Is that working? Or is the part lifting off the bed on the corners? 5) What is your: print speed, layer height, nozzle temperature? (these 3 numbers combine to let me know if you are printing at reasonable flow rates - knowing only 2 of the 3 numbers doesn't help much).