gr5

I don't think he's following this topic but I told him this morning and thanked me for the info. I'll post back here when he replies that it's fixed.

It's important to use the strain relief. Everytime the head moves the wires bend slightly and eventually the temp sensor wires tend to break first. You can alternatively use the alternate cable. If you do that, make sure you unplug both ends and plug in the other cable on both ends.

In case you didn't already know this: z=0 should be the nozzle just touching the print bed. When you tell Cura the first layer is .3mm thick, Cura will move to z=.3 when it starts printing. If you tell Cura the first layer is .1mm thick, Cura will move to z=.1 when it starts printing.

>I am printing at 0.2, and first layer is 0.3. Oh!! That's a problem. Your first layer is much too thin then. It looks like .1mm and thinner in spots. You need to lower the bed by about .2mm. Here's my leveling procedure: Levelling here is defined as setting the Z height and also levelling. It's one procedure that does both at once. Optionally heat up the nozzle to 180C because a cold nozzle shrinks and you will be setting the bed to the wrong height. Make sure tip of nozzle doesn't have any plastic on it or you may level to the wrong height. I usually prefer to level with a cold nozzle but if you want extra accuracy then use hot nozzle. Home the z axis only. If you must home all 3 then you need to disable the steppers once it's done so you can move the print head by hand. Move the head as close as possible to each of the 4 screws in turn. Once at a screw tighten the screw and then slip a piece of paper between the nozzle and the print bed. Make sure the paper slides very freeley. Then loosen the screw until the paper gets slightly stuck. You want the paper to easily be able to slide in and out under the nozzle with one hand pushing the paper. If the paper gets stuck it's probably too tight under there. Repeat this procedure for the other 3 screws. Then go back to the first screw and repeat on all 4 screws again. Then repeat on all 4 screws again. Then again. It may take you 20 minutes to do this the first time but the second time you do this it should take much less time because you are both better at it, faster at it, and because there isn't much to adjust the second time. If you levelled with a cold nozzle you are done. If you levelled with a hot nozzle you should then loosen the 4 screws 1/8 of a turn to compensate for the thickness of the paper. Once done levelling rotate the z screw by hand to keep the nozzle off your bed. This makes it less likely to damage your bed surface and gives the nozzle room to leak. On a new ultimaker repeat this procedure before every print (at least every hour) because the print bed can move/droop like a new guitar string. After many months the droop slows down.

1) you are right, the software endstops don't make it into configuration.h. I just let the owner of that page know. He will probably fix it within a day. 2) Alternatively you can disable software endstops (which I just tested and it makes it into configuration.h) 3) "s the LCD display shows lines of block". Make sure you uncomment this line: //#define ULTIMAKERCONTROLLER //as available from the ultimaker online store. 4) "still can't manage the last version of Cura to process slicing". I would consider completely uninstalling and reinstalling and being careful in the wizard to check reprap and then setting size. Can't you tell it that it's a UM and *then* change the dimensions to bigger? I think that's what illuminarti did and he said it worked, right?

I like 50mm/sec if temperature is < 225C and 100mm/sec if temp is >=230C OH! I didn't notice that. This is a common problem with the new Cura. The infill sometimes destroys the skin/shell. If possible I recommend .8 or 1.2mm for "shell thickness" in Cura but maybe that won't work with your phone case. Alternatively you can reduce the infill overlap to a negative value. Try -25% maybe? Even better, try the older cura, (13.04) when you have blobs on the outside edges. Here is a brief description of the problem: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/2501-is-this-slicing-settings-or-hardware-problem/?p=17683

Sounds like underextrusion due to printing too fast.

Don't know. YOu have to try it. Dimensions are under "file" "preferences" I beleive. As far as Marlin... There is a new Marlin builder here: http://marlinbuilder.robotfuzz.com/ It seems to be working okay now. If you have any problems send feedback! I've done some limited testing and other's have also. Not sure if it's ready for prime time yet. Or you can read this and build Marlin yourself: http://www.extrudable.me/2013/05/03/building-marlin-from-scratch/

This is pretty good. To get any better than this you either need to do thicker layers or get more accurate equipment. I have a thick MIC6 aluminum bed which is very very flat. But even if your bed is flat you need straight rods that hold the print head. Also if you want so flat then maybe blue tape is too thick - you might need to use aluminum bed with kapton tape instead.

1) The infill looks okay to me in the picture but if you say something is wrong then I believe you. What is the problem exactly? Would solid infill fix the problem? 2) I can print fine at 100mm/sec but only if layer height is .1mm. If it is .2mm then I need a temp > 240C. 100mm/sec with .2mm layer at 220 is just too much pressure in the nozzle. The extruder slips and I don't get enough plastic. 3) In another photo, the very first layer is thin in some spots, thicker in other spots. This looks okay to me but if you need it flatter you need better hardware (straight rods, flat bad). 4) You don't have the standard fan shroud. Your fan is blowing on the nozzle. This means your nozzle tip is colder than normal. This means you need to print hotter than normal. I'm not sure how much hotter. Maybe 250C? I recommend you print this: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:17602

To attach picture: in top left corner of this page click "gallery" and add it there, then make your post and click "my media" next to smiley icon in post editor which lets you insert the picture.

Ouch. Does disabling the stepper motors fix the problem? I have never had this problem but it's probably bad contacts. You could clean both the card and the contacts inside the UC. I think rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) might be a good cleaner. Be gentle - you don't want to remove the amazingly thin layer of gold plating on those contacts.

[*][*]Which axis is shifting suddenly (large shift)? X or Y? Please give us more information. It's a little frustrating to have to say if ( a ) then do this, if ( b ) then do this, if ( c ) then do this when sometimes we have already asked the question. You only be trying to fix the axis that shifts at this point. [*]Did you get all the pulleys? Each axis has 6 pulleys. SIX. Count them - perhaps you missed the one on the motor? It's usually the 2 pulleys that people forget about that are most likely to shift/slip. [*]"my shorter belt is about to rubbing the frame". Did you fix this? It's very important to fix this. Not only does it cause the shift, it also will wear away at your belt. Make sure the pulley on the motor is as close to the motor as possible without touching - about 1/2 mm. Also add washers under the plastic standoffs. [*]There is also a known slicer bug (not sure if it is in the latest Cura or the old Cura slicer) where the slicer tries to move 4 axes at once (normally Z axis moves without the other 3 moving). There is a bug where when this happens the acceleration and velocity are too fast for the stepper to actually move. If the "large shift" always occurs at the same spot of the same model it might be helpful to have illuminarti look at that spot in the gcode. [*]You could try to lower your acceleration. By default, the acceleration in Marlin is 5000 mm/sec/sec. You could try lowering to 3000 mm/sec/sec. You should know that when you turn the UM off it will lose this setting unless you "save to eeprom". You can adjust this value using the ulticontroller or with Pronterface (free software) combined with gcodes. It would be bad if you had to fix this problem by lowering acceleration. Much better to fix the hardware.

Up at the top of this and every forum is a link "follow this topic". If you post a question you should DEFINITELY click that.

Well my favorite is still my own. Not just because I like chocolate but I really like this design and might order one regardless: And my second favorite is this one:

Daid claims all those fancy ducts don't work very well because the stock UM fan isn't designed for restricted air flow so you get much less air flow than with no duct at all. Unless you get a different type of fan designed for this. Also adding any weight at all to your print head will increasing "ringing" lines although those fan ducts tend to be extremely light weight and not affect anything. They also have a tendency to melt/droop.

More info about the bug here: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/2501-is-this-slicing-settings-or-hardware-problem/?p=17683 It's still quite possible that you have a different issue but this is the most likely in my opinion.

sorry, yes "shell", not "skin". And "layers" view which shows you the gcode graphically/visually.

I'm 90% sure I know what the problem is and it's easy to fix. This is a new problem that we've been seeing on these forums with the latest Cura. So not too many people recognize it yet from pictures but I'm starting to be able to spot it better now that I've seen it on my own prints.The latest Cura basically has a bug in the infill where the infill comes out through the walls (skin) under certain conditions. You can verify this by looking at the gcode view and you will see those dots line up perfectly with the infill. There are several solutions. The simplest and probably the best is to make your skin thicker. You want at least .8mm skin if not maybe 1.2mm. That usually completely fixes the problem. I did a print today at .8mm skin and you could still see the problem but it was much better. Alternatively you could set your infill overlap to -50% or so - look at the traces in cura to see what's going on before trying this. Or you could turn off infill completely. Or you can go back to Cura 13.04.

What you are reporting (tilted parts) is very common for newly assembled machines and usually simple to fix. Illuminarti just gave you a list of the most common causes. There is a 98% chance it is one of those. I just want to elaborate on one: This is evident because everytime the x or y axis shifts direction (the stepper switches direction) the belt twists a different way (back and forth - back and forth). If you see this then it is touching the frame. Usually some washers as spacers fix that particular problem. I selected this particular issue as it is probably more likely than other issues for this particular gradual tilt like this. Second most likely is just set screws not tight enough.

The bottom layers, the first 1 or 2 mm tend to come out not as good - they tend to get what some people call "elephant's foot". The bottom most layer can't shrink because it's squished into the tape but each layer above that shrinks a little bit more until it eventually settles down. So I would print at least 3mm before measuring.

I've never used the bottom endstop. In fact I've only ever used the homing ones (left, front, and top). Cura has software endstops for the other ends by default already. They are nice to have but shouldn't stop you from getting going with printing.

Take a piece of kleenex or toilet tissue. Bunch / wrinkle it, then wrap it around the filament below the feeder. Put tape around it to hold it tightish against the filament. Make sure it slides up and down. Use another piece of tape to attach this "cleaner" to the side of the UM so that it doesn't slide up and get jammed in the feeder. After printing for 4 hours, take it off and examine how much dirt you removed from the filament. Did you ever check the feeder carefully for chips of wood?

I haven't figure it out. The lifting is usually not a problem but it is scary. I think it's going to knock the part off the bed but it rarely does. Unless I forget to put isopropyl down. But it only does it on corners that lean out. Straight up or shrinking layers are always fine. I guess it's a shrinkage issue where higher layers are pulling back on the lower layers. Each layer pulls on the next. More fan should help, or print slower (give lower layer more time to cool before next layer gets placed on it. Or heated chamber might help. Or low expansion PLA might help. But usually I just try not to think about it and it works out okay. Maybe reduce the infill a little if possible.

I have a little bit of the same eccentricity and go/slow/go movement and it prints just fine. I think your endcaps were a little tight but you should be good now - just keep assembling. Maybe put a drop of light oil on the x and y rods that go through the head.