gr5

There are 2 issues: 1) You have some play (and so do I - in the long belts on my UM1). 2) The outer surface of the rectangle on the right is always drawn starting at the left corner in this picture and proceeds to the right. But sometimes the edge before is an inner skin on the same rectangle and sometimes it is the yellow square to the left that is drawn just before the outer edge of the right rectangle. When you sliced you did skin 1.2 and it somewhat randomly ended up with this horizontal "groove". When I sliced it I did 0.8 so there were 2 skin passes (instead of 3) and this changed the order of these 2 yellow rectangles so that for my print they were always perfect. So one fix (for this part only) is to do walls/skin 0.8mm thick. A better fix is to tighten your belts. You have to tighten both short and long belts. You said your belts were extremely tight but did you mean short or long? edit: fixed who did 1.2mm and who did 0.8mm.

Some people have reported that the PLA doesn't stick very well to ground glass because there are tiny air pockets that the PLA doesn't get into. This defeats the van der waals force apparently.

The gcode for the orange print I did with picture above is here: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15273556/ultimaker/gcode/VersatzTest1a_0103_13.gcode

They completely updated the instructions with almost all new photos and made it a lot better this past year (2013) but of course it can always use an improvement. I think if it was updated with tricks used by people who actually assemble many machines then that would help.

Wow! I used your gcode exactly and... I got the same problem as you! My previous test was on the UM2 but I'm thinking it might be a slicing issue. I added arrows. The blue arrow shows the path before the displacement and the green arrow shows it after. I really don't think this is a temperature issue because it's shrinking on the short length, not the long. I think it's play/blackslash due to change in approach side of the wall. I'm wondering if my slicing settings swapped directions here - potentially because I had 1 more or fewer shell layers it may have reversed direction? That doesn't make sense. Or 20% versus 24% fill may have ended up at a different spot. Anyway I never delete anything so I can try: 1) Use my settings and slice up your stl (I don't have your short stl though - please post somewhere) 2) Look at the gcode for the print I printed (using repetier host - wonderful visual viewer for gcode) on the UM2 that came out fine I might not have time to do any of this until tonight.

I hate that this thread has been taken over. But anyway: @braddock - I think you need to tighten your extruder just a tiny bit. Rotate the screw head until the white part moves down and then back off a tiny bit. I think yours is so loose that sometimes it slips which grinds slightly and if you have too much retraction it gets worse until it takes a bite out of the filament. [illuminarti says: The conversation was subsequently moved into its own thread.]

I had to add shims as you can see in my photos. This way I made all the screws tight but it fight centered nicely on the Z nut. My Z nut is pretty tight. The design I believe is supposed to allow some play on the left side but that seemed unnecessary and I just adjusted the shims so everything was perfect and lined up and tightened up my Z stage very tight.

I had all of those problems: 1) My end caps are loose. In fact I took one off and the shaft came out about 3mm and just hangs there. I was going to do a better solution but it seems to be fine. 2) I added shims on both sides of the platform so that it was centered better on the Z screw. I will post pictures. I think yours might be slightly worse than mine even then.

Overhangs are tough to get "perfect". This is actually pretty good for this kind of an overhang. I would print slow, cool and thin layers and with as much fan as possible. Going below .1mm tends to make it worse but I would try it. Thin layers helps because that way more filament is touching the layer below and less filament is hanging over thin air. So set your flow back to 100%. Try 0.1mm layers, 20mm/sec, 190C. Now overhangs also have a problem where the plastic shrinks and lifts and then the print head hits the part you are printing - did you notice that at all? If you have that issue then keep things warm: 70C heated bed. Keep things warm by lowering fans possibly to 50% and maybe cover the front of the printer to keep the air warm that is close to the frog belly. If this isn't a problem then better to keep the fans at 100%. After you do that, try .05mm layers or .03mm layers to see if quality is better or worse. The limiting factor here is the Z drive. If you ask for .05mm layer but get .07mm on the movement of the bed, then you will be underextruding by a lot (and overextruding on the next layer where it corrects itself). So the lines can get *more* prominent when the layers are too thin. But the UM2 is pretty amazing so you might have no trouble going down to .03mm.

Can you send me your gcode file? I want to just print it exactly as it is - the gcode file. Make sure this isn't some slicing issue. I might have used a different version of Cura or a different setting. Maybe post the file somewhere and then post the link or I can email you directly if you want and you can reply with the file. I'll print it on my UM Original.

Yes. This is strange as hell. It sounds like play/backlash where the head keeps going. But it is happening on both axes. Could the nozzle just be loose? You tested that already, right? Or did you only check the entire head?

@braddock - I had the same thought as illuminarti - make sure this rear fan comes on the instant you power on the UM2 (even before the lights). It should always be on. If not you can get upper head clogs. My extruder won't grind the filament no matter what I do. This is because the amount of current sent to the extruder stepper is low enough so that it just doesn't have the power. I think your tension is either too high or too low. My tension is set so that the white square on the extruder is near the top - basically at the top. This is how it arrived and I haven't messed with it. Or maybe your knurled bolt on the extruder is a bit clogged up with material at this point? If you do an experiment, and heat up the head to 210, and then go into advanced and extrude filament "manually" (meaning using the "move filament" menu option). If you crank it out fast, does the extruder stepper move forward slowly and then skip/click/jump back suddenly quite a bit? It should slip back a lot - something like 1/3 turn. It should never let the filament slip - instead the whole motor should slip backwards suddenly.

I just made the same measurements but mine is put together so it is harder to measure perfectly. I measured and remeasured each measurement 6 times. I think my accuracy is around +/- .3mm. Maybe .2mm. I also have an assymettry similar to yours but the tabs fit pretty tight into the slots so I didn't file away more than maybe .25mm at the most. I didn't touch the tabs - only the slots. So top to bottom left side - same measurements as in your photo: 134 131.5 50.2 top to bottom right side: 134 132 50 I checked and rechecked. The slot and tab on the left panel seem about .5mm higher - the second tab/slot from the bottom - left panel. Possibly my left and front panels were out in the same directions as yours but slightly less maybe and I managed to force it together and the front and left panels came to a compromise half way between? I also noticed that particular slot is wider than most as though I filed the heck out of it but didn't know which of the 4 sides of the slot to file and filed the wrong edge (the edge towards the center of the left panel). There is a .5mm gap. If it were me I would just file off the 1mm in the slot or whatever it takes to get it to fit. I know the feet may then be not level so that might later be another adjustment. Actually it sounds like maybe your front panel is the part that is off at this point so maybe you should file off the tab in case you eventually get a new front panel.

Sander I think he is saying that he is keeping the t-slot screws loose for now -- you mentioned that tightening other t-slot screws could warp slightly and he is saying this shouldn't be a problem because they are all loose.

I just measured the rods on the UM Original and UM 2. They are all the same. 6mm rods got through the head. 8mm rods - four of them - go in the top 4 corners of the machine and are connected together by the long belts. The two vertical bars are 12mm. The z screw is much smaller on the UM2. edit: Here's the thing - I measured them all and verified they were the same and memorized the sizes but then my dog distracted me and we went outside in the deep snow which he loves to death. So I may have memorized one of the above measurements wrong. I'll double check later today. But the point is that the UM1 and UM2 rods are the same.

I measured the front bearing hole location (the one near switch #4) for both left and right panels and the blue dimension is 5mm, red distance is 8mm (+/- 0.5mm). So 5mm from the top, 8mm from the slot in the front of the machine. Incidentally I don't think i had to do tons of filing because of the paint. That paint was so thin I don't think I added more than 10 microns.

I can't answer that. Maybe they will. In the meantime all your photos and videos don't really show the problem - I know that when you put the left panel on top of the right the bearing hole looked way off. So maybe it was the right panel that was off all this time? You can wait and hope that they send you a complete new kit, but if it were me I would check the parts against the drawings and show EXACTLY what the problem is. What if they send you a complete new kit and it still doesn't fit? Whereas if you can say "on this panel, this hole was 10mm from the edge and needs to be 15mm" then the person shipping it to you can measure it and if it's wrong they won't ship it and they will try to find one the *does* fit properly. I mean if one panel is bad, maybe all the remaining kits are all bad? Maybe if they shipped you 10 kits they would all have the same problem. That's why it seems to me it's best to simplify the problem down to as simple a measurement as possible (with photo I suppose). I can tell you the distance from the bearing holes to my edges if that helps -- if you don't want to open up the pdf files with the laser cut drawings.

Um. Yes. That's definitely a lot. That was probably it. You got all 6 set screws for the slipping axis? Even both of the short belt ones?

Several people. SEVERAL (including me) have had the side fans simply not connected. The connectors pull out during shipping. YOu don't need any tools. Just slide up the net mesh above the print head. Slide it up the cable until you expose the wiring inside. There are 3 fan connectors - they all have red/black twisted wires going to the 3 fans. The side fans connectors (coming from inside the UM) have a different color and the side fans have a common wire connecting them together. These connectors pop out during shipment easily. Waiting for the 10th layer of a print before the fan is on is too time consuming. Instead print a random print and immediately go to tune menu (before it starts printing) and adjust fan there. You don't even need filament in the machine. You don't need to level. YOu don't need to start the print - just go to tune menu and it will not start printing until you leave the tune menu.

The problem is almost certainly: 1) A bad solder joint such that the DIR signal does not make it from the arduino to the stepper. The DIR signal tells the stepper which direction to go. It can only be high or low (5V or 0V). If this is a bad connection the stepper will only see a floating input and interpret that as always the same direction. 2) A limit switch is stuck. Both of these are VERY EASY to test with a voltmeter. The limit switches are even tested as part of the Cura first time wizard - I would run that first. #1 is easy to test also - run pronterface and move the axis in one direction several times. Look for the 5V or 0V coming from the arduino. Then reverse the direction and expect the opposite signal. After confirming this at the arduino probe the input to the stepper driver and expect the signal to make it there. If it doesn't than that "green board" you refer to has a bad solder join. There are only 2 solder joints so you just heat up those 2. If the signal instead is fine at the stepper driver than it is the stepper driver that is the problem (ignoring the DIR signal).

Those dark spots are almost certainly an older filament that was in there and FINALLY came out after such a long time. If those are ABS then that could definitely be related to the problem. The simplest solution is to just print even slower. It seems like you are having intermittent trouble either in the nozzle or with the feeder.

Oh - you keep mentioning the bearing hole is in the wrong spot and for that I got the impression that it was off by more than just a tiny bit. Did you compare it's position to the official drawings that I sent you the link to?

I just watched watched up to 3:00 in your video. You should know that I had to do hours of filing to get everything to fit. The slots were just a little bit off. Not hours for the panels alone - actually the bed was the worst. But wood expands and shrinks and the slots were all too tight (better too tight than too lose I guess). It's been over a year but if my memory is right there wasn't a single slot that fit the first time without some filing. And not only were they too tight - I had to do a little more filing on one side than the other sometimes. I have a set of very small files that fit just fine in the slot holes and sanding would have taken much too long. So I guess I'm just asking - can't you file the slot a bit and make it slightly larger to get this to fit? I also painted mine (although not as many coats) and this made everything larger and warped the wood ever so slightly but it wasn't a problem for me. While you are waiting consider assembling the head or the z stage as these can be done out of order (I may have already mentioned this to you but a few weeks have gone by so I'm not sure anymore - sorry if I already did).

I'd love to see a video when it is printing the "bad" portion. I want to see where it is approaching from an instant before.

I think the gray ribbon cable has a red stripe down one side of the cable. This red stripe normally indicates pin 1. 180 is talking about degrees. If you rotate something 180 degrees it is now rotated opposite. So you want to plug it in so that the red stripe is closer to the switch. Whatever that means.