gr5

I mean when you get to the platform - that's where I had to do the most sanding and fudging to get it all to fit.

You can just move on and it will work even if things are out of alignment or too loose or too tight. Anyway, did you listen to the pitch in the video - you don't need the exact pitch on the long belt tightness - just it shouldn't flop like there's no tension and it shouldn't be so tight it has a mid range pitch. It should be a low pitch - they should seem on the loose side of things. If they are too loose you will have play and you will see a pattern like this when you print solid layers: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/1872-some-calibration-photographs/?p=14474 So don't worry about it too much as you can adjust later. The slider blocks should be clamping on the rods to the print head as tight as possible. You probably knew that. The pulleys should line up with the belts. In other words, slide the print head into each corner and as you do the belt will either go straight into the pulley or crooked. If crooked slide it along the rod until things are straight. If it isn't perfect you will probably hear a clicking sound when you print - not a big deal. You can always adjust it later. The clicking sound is the belt riding up onto the pulley a little and then snapping back into place. It will print fine but make this noise to let you know that you should fix it eventually. Just slide the head around and make sure things are all aligned nicely. Don't worry too much about it.

look at it in xray view. If you see *any* red then you cad model is illegal. You can fix it or you can experiment with the "fix horrible" settings. There are 11 combinations of those settings to try. (don't do A *and* B as it is the same as B).

Yes, what slicer and what version. The minimum timing parameter in cura *only* affects print speed for a given layer. Nothing else. Are you absolutely sure there is no retraction? In cura you can see it in the gcode view - if there is retraction, the blue line has a little straight-up line at the moment where it retracts. As far as that final glob is concerned - the problem is more that the nozzle never really leaves that spot. One way to fix that is to add a seperate throw-away tower next to your print so the nozzle keeps going over there to let your part cool. This will also increase stringing (which can be fixed usually by lowering temperature). Stringing is easily fixed afterwards but if you want it to look perfect without cleanup - well here's more info (doesn't work for all types of PLA though): http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/1872-some-calibration-photographs/

No. Set minimum *feedrate* to zero. Anything but 0, it can end up printing too fast. Set minimum *layer time* to at least 5 seconds. I've done experiments but they aren't conclusive. My tests found 2 seconds to give good results, but 6 seconds noticeably better with fan at 100% (4 seconds probably would have been fine but didn't do that test). With fan off, 3 seconds was horrible, 5 seconds was quite good, and 7 seconds was noticeably better than 5 seconds. This test was without heated bed (which would need longer times). My nozzle was at 230C for this test (wanted to find the min times for hot nozzle). My results probably vary depending on the exact distances that the head is traveling and how much airflow the part gets when the head is farther away and how thick the layers are and temp of nozzle. Also the part itself matters as some parts don't care as much (like cylinders) and some parts care more (like overhangs). My test was with overhangs. I think my layer height was .2mm but that isn't in my notes.

Again, same size as particles from a candle or from frying with oil, right? Similar chemical composition also, right?

I had mine crooked the other way and it melted the fan shroud (easily fixed with some kapton tape). But to answer your question: Twisted isn't an issue. It doesn't matter much - at least not with single extruder. Not sure about dual extrusion. I don't think the heater cord will get hot enough to melt the shroud but it might. Order some kapton tape on ebay just in case you need it. It can withstand amazingly high temperatures and is easy to work with (it's just tape). And it is non conductive.

You have to create a wiki account first. The wiki account is unrelated to any other ultimaker account you might have. Then you just click any of the various "edit" buttons that will appear all over the page. Especially the main edit at the top.

Well.... You could just spend the $3 and get this: https://ultimachine.com/content/thermistor-100k Everything you say makes sense. I'm wondering about the 1.1V reference I guess. Maybe it isn't properly going into the ADC mode you think it is. Maybe some code somewhere else prevents you or overrides you in some loop or ISR somewhere. I have done embedded programming before but not with Arduino. I would read about all the ADC modes and see if somewhere something is putting it in a mode you didn't expect. Did you measure the voltage at the input to the ADC? With a voltmeter? To see if the voltage is as expected?

slide the pulleys just enough so they don't tip. This is a good way to "align" the belts with the rods. Either that or don't worry about it until it is time to tighten the set screws. When you are tightening the set screws (after head is mounted) pay attention to this alignment - slide the head to each corner and make sure the long belts are going straight into the slider and not crooked.

Do me a favor? Add that video to the wiki for me? It won't move. That link will work for years.

You have it correct so far. You should find "spare" set screws (white/silver) for the pulleys in your kit. Those set screws are better than the ones that come with the pulleys (black). Install those spare ones (silver ones) - especially on the pulleys for the short belts. Tighten the heck out of all the set screws at some point. When you are done. And consider leaving the end caps loose. After you get the head installed, move it around and feel the friction with the end caps tight versus loose.

Okay well I made and posted a short video explicitly explaining exactly the order of how the rods and pulleys and sliding blocks all go together. youtube is down right now so I posted it here: http://gr5.org/rods_and_pulleys_low_res_ultimaker.mp4 I suggest you right click and download the 20mb file and then if you can't play it directly then install VLC media player (a wonderful, free, open source video player).

Still? the video didn't help? Did you watch it? It's very short.

Yikes - that's a lot of red. If there's any red at all you usually need "fix horrible".

Uncheck all the fix horrible settings if you don't want Cura to add surfaces that don't exist. Details here: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/2745-cura-fix-horrible-setting/?p=19896

Keep in mind that this study (if it's the study I saw previously) mentioned cooking with oils and candles as creating similar sized particles. Scented candles can also give me a headache. Not to say there is no danger - just keeping it in perspective.

Ian - make the vase topographically the same as a cube or cylinder. In other words give it a top. Then tell Cura to not print the top. This way you can get .4mm thick walls to your vase which will be very elegant. If you actually design in the walls of the vase in cad then it gets complicated - you need to make sure cura thinks they are exactly .8 or 1.2mm thick and Cura will disagree at the vertexes and either not print anything or over extrude. It will just come out much better to let Cura do the wall thickness instead of CAD. At least in the old Cura this method will also give it zero infill. Check layer view to make sure it isn't putting in tiny infill areas to support certain features. That would be bad. Consider using the old Cura and the "joris" feature if you want to get rid of the z seam. But in that case your wall needs to be the same as your nozzle width (.4mm). Joris himself, who comes out with a new cup every week, uses the old Cura for cups and vases. The old Cura was very very good at that. His cups are water tight even with only .4mm walls.

You should probably post a new topic if you have a new question. People who are the type who are helpful and answer questions are less likely to open a topic about "let the build begin". People who want to see a picture of your progress might not be the type to answer your questions.

Don't tighten that bed up too much on the left side. When you get the vertical rods in check the spacing at the bottom and the top of travel without z screw in. I ended up adding shims all around where the left arm attaches to the bed. With thicker shims near the bearings and no shim at all at the front of the bed.

Here is some video of the top of the UM - maybe it will help you: www.youtube.com/watch?v=grHmmmSoOfc

You mean this part? http://wiki.ultimaker.com/Ultimaker_rev.4_assembly:_X-Y_axes Slider blocks can only go one way. 2 of them are kind of upside-down from the other 2 Look at the assembly for print head - the bars that go into the print head come from the slider blocks. It's easy to take it all apart. Especially if you don't tighten down the setscrews. You don't need to put end caps on either. Half of mine are loose right now anyway.

fyi - if you are waiting for answers for some other assembly you can always skip to the assembly of the bed. That took me quite a while. And you can do it first, last, in the middle, whenever.

Maybe instead you should take a photo of what you already have and ask if it's okay? Were you the one having assembly confusion? I haven't looked at assembly instructions in a while but they used to have plenty of great pictures. Maybe you can skip ahead and see pictures later in the instructions?

I don't believe it. You changed something. Anyway I've seen similar problems. Text is usually added to the CAD late and they don't always do it right so that you have all kinds of edges/walls to the text *inside* the model. This kind of thing is fixed with the "fix horrible" settings.