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This is bizarre. Are the belts popping out of the pulley's? Skipping a tooth? Look carefully at both short and long belts. If you turn off power and push the head around does it feel smooth or is there a periodic resistance?

Oh - that. You need to retract. Is retraction on? Look at the extruder gear - it should turn backwards on moves like this. Also you can look in cura layer view and non-extruding moves are blue lines. If the blue line has a vertical component (a vertical line) at the start then that is a symbolic representation of retraction. If no vertical line then your retraction settings aren't right (there are 5 settings). Also I recommend this part - it makes it so 4.5mm is plenty of retraction. Without this part you need more like 6mm retraction: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:46157

You can do it using prontrface also if you don't have an ulticontroller. You can get prontrface here - it's free: http://koti.kapsi.fi/~kliment/printrun/ I think prontrface will help you set all those parameters up - it certainly queries Marlin for you and displays all the motion settings such as acceleration in the window on the right. You might have to look up the gcodes for setting Z acceleration but it's very simple. Here is the complete list of gcodes (scroll way down): https://github.com/ErikZalm/Marlin/ more details on gcodes here: http://reprap.org/wiki/G-code

I'm not a mac person. Someone else might help. Or google this forum for mac plugin. You have to put them in the right folder and the correct folder might not even exist yet so you just "have to know" the name. So if no one else answers search the forums.

Ultimaker2 marlin source: https://github.com/Ultimaker/SecretMarlin Instructions are in the README file. Here's my explanation: Basically you download and install arduino ide: http://arduino.cc/en/main/software Then copy the sanguino software as explained in README file. Open Marlin.ino file in Arduino IDE by double clicking it (not pde file as stated in README - I think that's old). Select board as "Mega 2560" as explained in README file. Go to "file" "preferences" and select "verbose output" so you can find your hex file. Then build it by clicking the check box in the upper left corner. At the bottom you will see it compiling Marlin. At the end of this it says where the hex file is. If you are currently connected to your UM through USB you can just click "file" "upload" and you are done! But you should locate that hex file and save it somewhere along with the Configuration.h file used to create it so you can recreate the same version with maybe one change. Also you can upload the hex file using Cura. Alternatively you can build Marlin with somewhat more detailed step by step instructions the command line way (which I don't prefer): http://www.extrudable.me/2013/05/03/building-marlin-from-scratch/

To print multiple parts "all at once" you can set the gantry height to 0 in machine settings. That's a quick way. The cool head lift is a very nice option for fixing the top. One way to fix the bottom brim is to move the head a tiny tiny tiny bit away from the glass. Another way is to maybe print the bottom layer thicker. I usually print bottom layer .2 or .3 and the rest thinner. Did you do that? This can help a lot with that extruder slipping on the bottom layer. Now finally - the blobs on the corner. Not certain how to fix that. I think it's probably caused because it slows down quite a bit at each corner from 30mm/sec along the edge to about 10mm/sec at the corner but the extruder still has pressure. Really not sure what to do. You could lower the speed to 10mm/sec of course but that just seems silly. Maybe lowering the acceleration to around 1000mm/sec would do it? And hopefully not slow down the print as much as lowering to 10mm/sec would! Raising or lowering temp might help: raising because pressures won't build up so much, lower because built up pressure is less likely to force out too much pla. Not sure what will happen.

Maybe it works anyway? If your UM is still relatively new then you should be able to get a free replacement at support.ultimaker.com. It's not easy to swap heaters - you have to change the firmware a bit. Actual code changes. Easier to unsolder and move faulty components over. Is anything actually broken other than the plastic? Can you just solder the heater cable instead of screwing it in?

I think maybe it *is* a PT100 RTD in the print head. I'm pretty sure that's what Illuminarti claimed after reading the Marlin code for the UM2. Maybe he's wrong. But this is a new device for me. I've heard of thermocouples (which are sensitive to noise) and thermistors (which typically get damaged a bit if they hit 250C) but not these "resistor thermometers" which can typically go up to 450C and aren't so sensitive to noise.

At first I thought - robert is clever - he thought of something I didn't consider. But thinking about it more I think the moves during calibration are single LONG moves. So I don't think it's USB related. I would check the power supply voltage - the 19V - see if it is dropping down to 12V or something a few times per second. I would get prontrface - it's free: http://koti.kapsi.fi/~kliment/printrun/ Connect to the printer with that and do controlled movements of 100mm at a time at different speeds. Try to figure out what is going on. I've never heard of this. Maybe post a video?

1) Make sure it really is retracting by watching the extruder. 2) Lower the temperature. Much more information here including photos of your "hangers" which I call "strings". http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/1872-some-calibration-photographs/

Cura 14.01 comes with a relatively new version of the firmware for UM original - maybe only a few months old. So once you load Cura 14.01 you can do a firmware upgrade if you haven't already. Just takes a minute and a USB cable. Those bumps are usually improved by slowing down your printing speed by 2X but that's kind of a crappy solution. Speeding up your Z acceleration is a great solution. I think you missed the point of the article - leave Z speed alone but increase acceleration. In ulticontroller there are many "motion" settings including accelerations max speeds, jerk, steps per mm. When I set my Z acceleration to Illuminarti's suggested value it was too much for my stepper. It looked good and sounded good but when I moved up and down 20mm repeatedly it didn't come back to the same spot. I ended up simply doubling the Z acceleration. After you change it, you must choose the "save" feature in the same menu or it will go back to default values when you power cycle your UM. I recommend you save and power cycle and make sure the value is still correct before printing anything. I have a .65mm nozzle and I love it. In cura just tell it the nozzle is .65mm. I usually do layer heights of .2mm. There are other ways to get rid of "bumps" and they all have to do with slicing. One needs to know EXACTLY what is happening when the bump appears. Is it really the Z scar? Or something similar but different? Is it infill pushing through? Is it right before retraction? Right after retraction? Is it when slowing down after a long, straight, fast extrusion line?

This is a good question for google groups. You should post it there also. https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!forum/ultimaker

I disagree with Johnny. I have set this to 0 for all my prints and not had any trouble. .02 is a reasonable value - any larger and it won't retract as much as I want. If your retraction distance is set to 4.5mm (many people use 5.5) then the same filament may pass back and forth through your extruder no more than 4.5/.02 or 225 times. That is kind of a lot but my extruder seems to be gentle enough that this works for me. I actually printed the Eiffel tower last week and it came out fine with no filament grinding. And again, this was set to 0. I counted the quantity of retractions in the top section of the tower and it ended up averaging such that each piece of filament went back and forth through the extruder about 10 times. But that was the average - some sections were much higher. However not all UM2's are the same and you might have a different experience. Your extruder might grind up filament often. I think a better description of this parameter might be "Maximum retractions over the same area of filament" and it could default to 200. Unfortunately, retraction length is set in Marlin and so Cura doesn't know what this is. Alternatively when you enter .02 in this box it could let you know that it will retract no more than 225 times on a given part of the filament if your retraction is 4.5mm. edit: Also some filaments might not handle repeated retraction as well. I don't know if the harder or softer filaments would have more trouble but I'd guess the harder filaments would grind to dust more easily.

Some hot end designs are designed to go to 300C and hotter. Some will melt certain low temp metals. Have you looked into the E3D for example? 270C is probably fine but 300C is too hot for the teflon part I think. The thing is the 3rd, rear fan cools things so well that it probably doesn't get anywhere near as hot on that teflon part but it's hard to tell what the temp is on the *inside* edge of it. Of course you would also have to edit Marlin and change the max temp constant. That's pretty easy though.

First of all you need to include the speed if you have a Marlin based machine. 255 is max speed. Try this: M106 S255 What kind of printer do you have? UM Original? UM2? Cura probably inserts a M107 right after your M106 which of course turns the fan immediately right back off again. Look at the resulting gcode file in an editor and search for all instances of M106 and M107. Do you know if your fans work at all?

I'm not a big fan of spiralize. Did you tell it shell thickness .4 or .8? In your screenshot it is .8. If you did non-spiralize, then it makes 2 passes and on the second pass it will connect the inner edges. So that's a problem. In spiralize mode it guarantees only one pass but you ask for .8mm so it overextrudes 2X so that you get a .8mm wide bead out of a .4mm nozzle (it can do that because there is a flat area on the tip of the nozzle). This *also* connects the inner edges. So in other words it is important to do .4mm shell either way.

If you will be in NYC tuesday night through Saturday night and want to get together for dinner with me and probably Illuminarti and others... send us a PM well before Tuesday to get our cell numbers.

Because of the springiness of the bowden and delays and such sometimes you get blobs - but usually at the *end* of a line segment - not the begining. Anyway - anywhere it pauses it can happen. The usual fix is to just slow down some more which reduces the pressure in the nozzle. For extra beautiful prints I've been doing 220C, 30mm/sec, .1mm layers. But please, post a picture!

Change the layer height to .2mm and if it still crashes try .4mm. I think you are slicing into too many movements. This large print at .08 layers is going to take maybe 20 hours by the way. I think you are basically running out of the 2GB of memory that Cura slicing engine has access to.

I think the very first variable: printTime might have a bug where it includes the warmup time of the bed and maybe even the time while left in the tune menu before the print starts.

According to daid it is the file size and not layer number: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/3250-time-remaining/?p=24244

Yes. This. Slide the black netting up above the head and look at the fan connectors - they are red and black cables going down into the head. Is one of them almost disconnected? Tug gently on all the wires to see if one is loose.

I sliced it just fine. Tried a few different settings and it worked fine until... I changed "20" to "20%". It turned bright red and did 0% infill. Could that be what you did? It also says "20% is not a valid number or expression".

I don't totally understand what causes that shrinking but it has to do with temperature. People usually get rid of it by modifying fan speeds and bed temp. 75C is a bit high for PLA. Try 65C or 70C. I usually do 70C. I'm not sure what's better for this low level shrinkage: more fan less fan more bed heat less bed heat But I'm pretty sure those are the 4 things that affect this. By default the fans come on to 100% by 5mm height and they come on gradually each layer. So at 2.5mm they are at 50%. Bringing the fans on too suddenly causes the nozzle to cool too fast and you often get underextrusion. The PID temperature controller in Marlin compensates within about 30 seconds. So bringing the fans on at 30%, then 60% then 100% is probably the fastest you want to do it. 100% fan helps many many other things besides this: bridging, sides with good quality, overhangs.

Well - it doesn't do stress calculations or temperature simulations. But it's pretty good. If you want to create animals go for blender. If you want to create "parts" then most cad software should work okay. I doubt google dropped sketchup but I don't know. I know some professional architects who swear by it. Daid mentioned it also. Daid wrote/writes Cura.