gr5

Can't skype today - too busy. Just have a few minutes then I go back downstairs. Put the multimeter on DC Volts mode (DCV? it might show a sine wave for AC and two straight lines for DC - I hate icons - words are better). You want to find any ground in the schematic and use that for the black wire. The touch the red wire to the "dir" signal in various places (near the arduino and near the stepper driver) while moving the Y back and forth. Maybe test the good axis first for a baseline so you know what to expect. You probably need 2 people to do this - one to control the machine, one to probe. You should be controlling the UM through the USB because it's easier for tests like this - Cura print window lets you move an axis or pronterface: http://koti.kapsi.fi/~kliment/printrun/

First of all know that the power supply that comes with the UM has a fail safe of some sort. Once it trips, you need to reset it by unplugging it from the wall and letting it full discharge. This is probably not an issue for you. You can check for "bad" components because usually they get very hot. There is one part I would check - it's the regulator that lowers the 19V to 12V. It's the part that gets the hottest even when things are working fine and it's the part that is supposed to be tilted away from the PCB into the airflow. It has 3 pins. When powered up one pin should be 19V, one 0V, and one 12V. If the arduino got damaged this kind of implies that 19V got into the 5V line. So any 5V part on the PCB could be damaged. That's - well - most of the chips. Sorry to say. All the non-chips should be fine (resistors, capacitors, etc).

The link that dimensioneer posted above is the best information on it. If you look carefully at the magnified images you can see that some bridges break on that first layer because of underextrusion for the first few millimeters so acceleration helps a lot. If it were me I would edit the gcode by hand for experiments. An acceleration of 1000mm/sec/sec is much slower than typical (3000 or 5000) but is still kick ass fast. I think non-ultimakers are around 100-200mm/sec/sec. Like the makerbot but not sure. The gcode command is: M201 X500 Y500 and then restore with M201 X3000 Y3000 I also did a bridging test once - not as detailed - but here it is (post #17): http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/1872-some-calibration-photographs/?p=25304

Both glass and plastic shrink as they cool, so one point here is that if you spray freeze spray on the part, it will cool faster than the glass and pop off. A different point is that although both plastic and glass shrink - they apparently have different coefficients of expansion. Therefore if you put in the freezer or at least cool to room temp, it gets easier to pop off the part. A third point mentioned is that if you cool or heat glass too fast, you get cool/warm spots and the differential shrinking can cause the glass to break. If I am impatient I remove the entire glass plate and wave it up and down gently in the air or put it on a towel. Or on my lap. Leaving it on the aluminum plate I assume means it will cool more slowly than on a towel but I don't know.

On the front of the printer. I haven't played with it: maintenance/advanced/motion settings I suspect if you turn the machine off and on again it will go back to defaults unless you choose "save" or something. That's how it works on the UM1 anyway.

This thing - where one of the 3 axes hits the end but keeps trying and makes that horrible loud noise - just be aware that the UM1 and UM2 are designed such that nothing will break when this happens. It certainly looks like you found a firmware bug - sounds like it will be easy to fix.

cat hair and dust can really ruin your day if it doesn't melt at 240C or cooler. Regarding the spools getting stuck. 99.9% of the time it's fine. But if you are doing a 5 hours print with 1000 lines of height and one line is underextruded you get this annoying horizontal line in your print running all around every detail at that level. Without measurements - I would say the extruder can pull/push 10 to 20 pounds of force. It takes about 1/4 pound of force to turn the filament normally. But sometimes something sticks a little. It's very rare. And might take a whole 2 pounds of force to get things moving again. Meanwhile that layer looks different from all the other layers.

I would wrap that sucker in 30 rubber bands and then dip it in boiling water (water that was boiling a few seconds ago 70C is hot enough 100C not necessary) for about 20-40 seconds and you should be all set. Keep the rubber bands firm but as loose as possible. Use the smallest - weakest bands you can find. Otherwise they will cause grooves. Yes - use wider blue tape. I use 2 inch wide. Illuminarti has 6 inch wide I think. @0235 - remind me - UM1 or UM2? Maybe you should put it in your profile description (e.g. lives in UK has UM1).

Hasn't been a problem for me. I even walk away for a few minutes when changing colors. The motor is on extra low current so it skips steps pretty easily and causes no harm to the stepper. If you get any grinding either you have an unusual filament type or something else is wrong (extruder tension too tight probably).

And in this image that sander posted my gap is 2.2mm:

I did the same thing - pulled up hard on the bowden. The ring held up by the red clip moves up and down a bit - I've noticed it before and was thinking of printing a thicker clip to replace the red clip. I measured it just now and with a strong pull (maybe 5 to 10 pounds force) it moves less than 1mm. About .5 to .8mm. Looking down at the spring area I see nothing happening there. I looked from different angles. And through those holes in the metal. Nothing is visibly moving. The bowden is probably going up and down but you can't tell because it isn't dirty or scratched enough to see movement.

Joe - your post is very unclear what the issue is. But after reading it 3 times (and the picture wasn't any help - sorry) I'm going to go with "retraction". Make sure you aren't using the quickprint mode because that doesn't do any retraction so you get lots of strings in between "islands" of printing on a given layer. To get rid of strings you need retraction. And then there are 5 different things related to retraction you can mess wtih in Cura but as an absolute minimum: turn it on.

Are you missing a spacer? Can you take a picture please? Even if you don't plan to fix it. What are your important 3: print speed, layer height, temperature?

Thanks for the video but maybe it should be on another thread such as this one: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/467-post-your-latest-print/page-52&do=findComment&comment=32374

Robert seems to have great advice here. I don't know if this is relevant but Sander recently posted this. On my machine the gap is about 2mm (see post #8): http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/3971-more-clogging-issues/?p=31744

Yes. Cura even has a checkbox "solid bottom" that you can uncheck to reduce warping effects if the bottom will be invisible. That is the main purpose of that feature - not filling the bottom of something that won't be visible for example a statue or something that sits on a table like a lamp, a piece of artwork, a stand, etc. Why get wider tape? Is it the part that is peeling or the tape? If it's the tape, get wider tape. Did you use brim? Brim helps a lot. Also it helps to make sure the first layer is squished a bit into the tape. Also it helps to do the first layer hotter (I do 240C if I'm worried about lifting) and slower (no faster than 40mm/sec) and then I lower the temp for the second layer. Also I have even heated my bed/tape to 30C with a hair dryer as this often helps the plastic flow into the cracks of the tape. 30C is not particularly hot but it helps a little. But if you do 240C for the filament then 20C for the bed should be fine. Show a photo please if you still have trouble.

Ah! Okay - this picture is MUCH more helpful than the previous ones. This is almost certainly lost steps in the motor. That happens when you have very high friction. You are only losing a few steps per layer but it adds up and the print is slanted. First of all, turn off power and push the head around by hand. It should be about the same in X and Y. Oil the X rod with one (or two) drop of light petroleum oil. Preferably with no additives (WD40 has additives). Push the head back and forth and see if that helps. Also oil the 2 rods that the X blocks are on. Now more likely issues. The X motor is in the back right corner. Push the head back and forth and see if the short belt there is possibly touching the walls of the UM. If it is touching something it usually twists a bit and twists the opposite way each time you change directions. Some people recently got UM2's where a belt was touching something and it caused this "lean" issue. It was *very* subtle. You might need to put a piece of paper in there to check. Or something like that. You might want to loosen the X pulley on the motor and move it a half millimeter closer to the motor if that's possible. Also check the long belts and make sure they aren't touching anything. Push the head back and forth and look very carefully all up in there at all the X long belts. Also look where the other end of the short belt attaches up at the top. Make sure the belt isn't rubbing. Also check the tension of the belts - if they are too tight this adds tension. A quick software fix might be to lower the XY acceleration to 1000 mm/sec. I think 3000mm/sec is a reasonable value but I think the um2 comes with this set to 5000 mm/sec possibly.

I think if you ask nicely sander will send you a new set then. But ask sander directly. Click on his nickname in this thread and send him a direct message.

Sometimes when I load a new filament it gets stuck somewhere inside the head - not sure where. I retract with the menu a cm or so and then reinsert a few times and it usually gets past the sticky spot. But then everything is fine. Not sure what the filament gets hung up on but it could be the same thing.

First of all - the heated bed is plenty of heat for a heated chamber. You don't need an additional heater. You need to cover the side and put a box over the top. The shrinking issues all start around the glass temp so you only have to have the air at around 50C. This should be cool enough to stop jams I would hope. Even if the air is at 40C it is a huge improvement over air at 20C. Also if the chamber is around 40C and the bed is at 60C then the part is somewhere in between those temps. I think a more important modification is to keep the servos from getting too hot. On the UM1 this is pretty easy as the motors can be mounted either inside or outside the box with no modifications or hardware changes. They just go either way.

Takei - after you fix the 3rd fan I recommend you do "change filament" and try to get the filament out. If there was a problem related to the 3rd fan the symptom is that the filament partially melts a little above the nozzle and gets wider and causes clogs there in the upper portion of the print head. If you do "change filament" and it comes out easy then probably your underextrusion is something else. Note also that the 3rd fan should come on the moment you turn on power. If instead one of the side fans come on then just change the connectors around until the rear fan comes on first. The 3 fans have red/black wires leading up to the area that illuminarti discusses in his post above.

I hope you occasionally try active listening as well and let other people steer the conversation. Consider asking people questions about what they are interested in also occasionally. 3D printing shouldn't be more than 80% of the conversation.

I'm not convinced you have diagnosed things properly - but you should know that if you somehow thicken that red clip or add a shim in there or put two clips in there (or you could print a clip) then you will get more force holding the Bowden. That clip lifts a ring and lifting the ring pushes some metal blades inward that dig into the bowden tube and hold it in place. I think the proper solution might be to take the bottom area of the head apart, push the bowden in 1mm more and then put it back together. But I've never taken my head apart so I'm not sure how it all works.

Wow. Okay. Well then either you have to do option 4 or wait for a new bed.

I drilled a large half inch hole in my bed plate where the Z homes. So when my Z homes it homes into thin air and sometimes when it primes the filament goes through the hole to the area beneath. On the negative side of this: I can't build a part that utilizes this spot on my built plate. Or if I do it will be bridging on the first layer.