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no. Please post a much larger version of the picture above. And also where did you get this PLA?

windows or mac? When you plug it in you should hear a noise (bung bung) in windows. Then go to "device manager" and you should see a new com port called "arduino" e.g. COM3. If this doesn't work, check for an unknown USB device. If you have an unknown usb device, unplug the UM. If unknown device goes away then you need to install the usb serial driver. Once that works, connecting is easy with Cura. You can specify the com port and baud rate. I strongly suggest you get the newest Cura (which also includes the usb-com driver): http://software.ultimaker.com/

Those parameters seem okay. Pushing it a bit but it should be fine. I still like the tangling hypothesis. Or temporary clogs. Is this a dusty environment? Someone recently found that the clip that holds the bowden down on the extruder (which has blades in it) was shaving tiny pieces of clear bowden tube and they were getting transported along with the PLA and causing nozzle clogs. But your problem only seems to last a layer or two. I would certainly go to .2mm layers *or* 50mm/sec (not both) which will put less strain on the feeder. Just to see if it helps. But normally 240C, 80mm/sec, .24mm layers should be okay.

I see you have retraction on now. Good. But I can't see much else. How did the object come out? Any better? A tiny bit better? Check out this test I did: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/1872-some-calibration-photographs/ That was 20mm/sec. Every PLA color and brand is different. What was your speed?

This is definitely under extrusion and it is probably on the inner layer as well. I like the many theories above. The most likely is the spool got stuck or tangled. But you may have gotten a partial clog due to dust or you many have been printing too fast/cold. What was your printing temperature, layer height and speed? (that's all I need to know). It could also be a slicer issue but this is less likely.

Yes. This is it exactly.

230C is definitely not too hot. Sometimes I print at 240C. If you are getting *any* clicking/extruder slip back then you need to slow things down some more. Here is a test I did with the UM2 but it is for an open nozzle - not one pressed close to a part being printed: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/3418-um2-extrusion-rates/ Since the time I did the above testing I noticed that sometimes the extruder misses steps but without sliding back (clicking). That's harder to spot/notice/detect. It was doing it on nylon so maybe it only does the silent skip with nylon.

My belts are quite loose and I get great results. No visible backlash or play in my prints. More importantly you could test the pull strength of your extruder. It should be able to pull filament with 22 pounds of force (assuming no additional load in the print head). Also you could load pronterface and experiment with different values of acceleration. I doubled my Z acceleration and that helps with the Z seam and makes changing layers more of a "click" now as it's much faster.

In addition to nick's advice, if you are printing something that has a surface area similar to the same size of the nozzle then you have the problem that the nozzle is pretty much contacting the entire top layer and so the top layer doesn't have a chance to cool. For parts this small it helps to print 2 or 3 of them at the same time so that each part has time to cool while you are printing the other(s).

in IMG7567 it looks like you have some serious under extrusion. Check to make sure your roll of PLA isn't tangling. This is common on a new roll especially on the Ultimaker 2. Higher temperatures give you better adhesion but I really don't think this is a temperature issue - it looks like underextrusion. This can be caused by plugs/dust, or by printing too fast, or by nozzle too cold, or defective extruder, but I'm thinking tangling is the most likely.

Hassan!! You have retraction off!! no wonder! I see it in your screen shot!

1) Yes, first layer too high 2) Use the brim feature. I see you used it for the pencil case but not the wrench. 3) Please do the following experiment: Get a thin piece of pla - maybe from a failed print that is only a few layers thick. Thicker than 3mm is too thick. In fact if you can get 5 or 10 or 20 that is better. Place it(them) on the heated bed and heat to 60C. After 5 minutes go back to the printer and remove the PLA part from the glass. Try bending it quickly before it cools down. Repeat at 70C and 80C. Try to find the temperature where the PLA is very soft. You want the bed hot enough to achieve this - you want the PLA soft enough so that even if it does warp a little at least it won't pull of the bed - it will just self adjust. Also you want the fan on a low setting for quite a few layers so the PLA doesn't cool below this "glass transition" temp. My blue PLA seems to transition around 55C.

I can't see the pictures you posted. Also, did you read my previous post? Did you change all those settings in my previous post? Eliminating stringing is tricky but possible. The key is to keep everything as cold as possible and make sure retraction is working. Look at the extruder motor. Learn to hear the sound of retraction. Then make sure it retracts every time and watch the filament at the top of the tube. It should go from the top of the tube to the bottom but no farther! This halts the pressure in the nozzle. Also some filaments work better than others. I have found white to be difficult but I have still gotten white PLA to work.

I'm kind of guessing here. But when you have a team/factory assembling Ultimaker2's and one part stops arriving because it is defective, and you order a whole bunch of that part (the belts). I assume you can keep going with assembly so that when the belts arrive it is a quick step to attach the belts to all the UM2's that are ready for belts. Of course you still have to test the printer at this point, but no "man hours" are wasted - it delays a week or two worth of orders but not the order's "farther out" in time. You can even pre-test that the electronics at least light up the display. This all assumes you have the space to store an extra 2 weeks of UM2's somewhere!

In Cura - make sure retraction is enabled ALWAYS. Must set blue circled things to 0 On ultimaker, set retraction to higher value than 4.5. I don't know what value to use as I am still new to UM2. There are 2 ways to do this - you can modify the PLA settings permanently or you can just modify for one print. Here is how to do it for one print:

Lol! I am confused. You explained several ideas but never said what you actually did. The purple section is PLA, right? What is the white section? PLA90? ABS? This is very clever! I really like this idea! Especially the zig-zag triangular seperation between white and purple.

Consider using some teflon plumbers tape. Other's have used this to help seal the threads in the hot end: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thread_seal_tape Apparently it can handle 250C no problems. edit: teflon melts at 600K or 327C.

Die wichtigste Eigenschaft ist, dass es <3.000 mm. Wenn Ihr Filament 3.01mm, es wird ein Problem für Ultimakers sein. Es wird in der Röhre stecken bleiben. Die zweite wichtige Eigenschaft: Keine Partikel> 0,1 mm, die die Düse verstopfen können.

Normally 75mm/sec speed is fine but if you want to reduce stringing it helps to print slower (20mm/sec) because there is less pressure in the nozzle. You probably can print this at 75 but I would try 20mm/sec first. Also heat is your enemy for stringing so if you can print on a cold bed instead of heated bed and print on blue tape instead of glass that will also help but I think that you will be okay with a heated bed.

Yes, that's where and how you place the flyback diode. Do you know/can you measure the current draw of the current existing fan? That would tell us a lot. You would need to insert a current meter in between the fan and the controlling circuitry. Or maybe someone posted this info somewhere. The other issue is I don't know if those air valves you linked to will output variable control if you feed it a pwm signal. They are designed to take a variable voltage/current. Not a pulsed voltage/current. But I'm guessing it will work okay. It worked for the fan anyway!

Damn. There is no flyback diode on the fan circuit. You need to add that. You need to add a diode - the smallest you can find will be large enough. Personally I would rip one out of my old electronics pile. You want it to allow current to flow from pwm1 to pwm2 (see the 1.5.7 schematic). This will happen every time time Q4 switches from on state to off state and if you don't do it you can get hundreds of volts on Q4 and you can damage it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyback_diode schematic: http://reprap.org/wiki/Ultimaker%27s_v1.5.7_PCB You will need eagle software (free) to view the schematic: http://www.cadsoftusa.com/download-eagle/

You don't need to convert to current. If you get the "0-10V, max 12.4V" version it comes with an internal coil resistance of 54 ohms. So the current will be voltage/54. So 12V will give you 12/54 or .222 amps (222 mA). The max current draw would be around 222mA. I don't know how much power that head fan pulls at 12V but I'm guessing it's similar. So you might be okay with no wiring changes. Find out how much current that fan pulls or how many watts it is. That fan *is* a 12V fan, right? I just checked the schematic. Yes it's a 12V fan. The worst you can do is overheat Q4 and then you can just replace it. But before spending the money for that valve I would check how much current the fan draws. That darlington (Q4) is one of the more common parts to fail on the UM so it is already operating near the limit. Hopefully your valve uses less power than the fan.

Regarding the graph above, those numbers I posted were kind of wild guess memories that I know are safe to print at. However there is a little more accurate data here: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/1872-some-calibration-photographs/?p=13194 And Illuminarti did some interesting tests with a .65mm nozzle here: http://www.extrudable.me/2013/04/18/exploring-extrusion-variability-and-limits/ I recommend scrolling down to his graph. .65mm nozzle has 2.64X the area of the .4 so you might have to divide all his values by 2.64? Or maybe not quite 2.64 as maybe his limitation is the power of the heater to melt versus the hole size? Also I did some tests on the UM2 for extrusion rates: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/3418-um2-extrusion-rates/

In the UK, any PLA you leave in the car all year round will not survive. I suggest you get PLA90. ABS is more difficult to print and you practically are forced to get a heated bed that can go to 110C if you print ABS prints more than 2 or 3 inches long. PLA90 I believe is even easier to print than regular PLA I believe as I think the thermal coefficient is better (less shrinkage).

You can adjust a little bit - if you take it all apart (while hot!) - after removing the nozzle, screw the threaded tube further in from the top so that it goes further into the aluminum block (the peek part will be much closer and there will be a shorter cooling distance but it should be fine).