gr5

Nope. But I think you care a little more about the quality than I did. Now that your spring is a little tighter I think we probably will get similar results at a given speed. I doubt it. I had some warping in my gears and they mesh perfectly. I recommend you print the pins all facing the same way and you reduce their width and height by a scale factor of 0.9 (but leave the long direction scaled at 1X). I did not do this and regret it. I did probably 4 minutes filing per pin! Recently I printed out Emmett's "heart gears" and I printed them at 90% (but left the length of the pins at 100%) and they were just about perfect and didn't need any filing. Emmett designed the heart gears and also this transmission.

I have to re level pretty much every day. I have a heavy aluminum bed and the wooden cantelivered design of the UM causes it to droop tiny amounts from day to day (just as a guitar string stretches quite a bit the first few weeks). My droop is less than when I first got the aluminum bed but humidity probably messes things up as well. I'm pretty lazy about leveling so I usually print the first layer .3mm thick and occasionally will just grab the z axis by the coupler (at the bottom) and twist it enough to force the bed closer to the nozzle. Or I'll level as it is printing the first layer with a screwdriver. But if I need a good quality bottom surface I do a good job of levelling ahead of time.

Can't you get a used one? In the USA we have craigslist.org and ebay and you can get things like this at 1/4 the price. http://boston.craigslist.org/search/?areaID=4&subAreaID=&query=lathe&catAbb=sss It looks awesome but I don't know what you will need so can't answer your question.

Could you photograph your pulley from the side view as it sits on the rod? I'm curious if your pulleys have a larger inside diameter (or your rods are smaller diameter).

This print isn't showing any of what you describe where one or both axes are non-linear. To test for non-linearity you could print a grid pattern where the spacing is equal to 1/4 of the pulley diameter. It's probably visually difficult to see. It could possibly effect things like hole diameters but hole diameters are a problem regardless (they tend to be too small - easily fixed by increasing hole sizes in cad).

Bearings like this are very cheap. I would just order a few on the internet. You only need 3 dimensions: inner diameter, outer diameter, width. In mm.

1) Wiping the blue tape with isopropyl alcohol (found anyplace that sells bandages) will DRASTICALLY increase the adhesion to the tape. Try it. 2) There's nothing wrong with printing the first layer at a higher temperature and then lowering the temperature manually either with Cura or with an ulticontroller. It's pretty straight forward and simple. This is *not* a difficult print. You will learn about difficult prints later, lol. I agree with illuminati here - are you sure it's not *trying* to fill that hole? Look at the gcode view - blue lines are non-extruding passes. You might need to visit the 'fix horrible' checkboxes. You could reduce stringing by reducing the pressure of the filament in the print head which is easiest to do by lowering the print speed. Both Cura and Ulticontroller let you set the % print speed - when it gets close to the top lower it to say 30%. When you are printing at high speed you get high pressure at the nozzle and it's hard to stop the PLA from oozing out. Also you will get less stringing at lower temperatures as the PLA is more like toothpaste and less like honey: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/1872-some-calibration-photographs/ Your filament and UM will vary so do the test I did in the top photo to determine how much stringing you get at various temperatures. Its an easy test and only takes about 10 minutes.

My images assume a tall rectangle. You are printing a square. It matters if the infill stops at a vertical or horizontal wall. With a square it stops at a vertical wall on one side and a horizontal on the other. My images didn't consider this and if they did you get a different but similar pattern. If you felt the x axis print head was loose then that's probably the problem. It's complicated to explain. My diagrams help but again my diagrams only show one case, they don't show infill for a square so I still think this is the problem. Not really, no. Again this is your looseness in the X axis. You will need to fix this. Are you sure it's a bearing? Is it loose in the wood? Or defective? You can get a new one from ultimaker if you email support.

Are you running cura and printrun/pronterface at the same time? If so, there are problems with that. If not and you usually use UC, you might want to get a USB hub to increase the voltage power of the USB signals. Some people have found this to help.

Looks like underextrusion - please post a photo of your extruder with the extruder closed. Also with the extruder closed, measure the length of the spring. It should be about 11 to 11.5mm.

I assume (hope) there are some women who would be interested in shirts and they might want the option of showing something more feminine "under" the shirt. So if either of these "win" the contest we will need to make a female version. :-P

I printed the same transmission. I printed the whole thing at 240C and fast. Some parts at 100mm/sec some at 150 and some at 200mm/sec. They all showed some minor underextrusion but the transmission works great. Back then I was using a heated bed (not anymore - don't need it) and the heated bed was at 70C for most of the prints. I guess I'm not as picky as you are but the higher temp definitely helps the PLA flow like honey. Here's pics of my print: http://www.thingiverse.com/make:32987 (looking back at it I should have leveled the bed better for more squished first layers) After you print all the parts, read my comments at the above link to get it working nicely. It was quite a head scratcher to get it to work in all 6 gears without binding. Now it moves smooth as in Emmett's video.

Either never use the green, or some day get a larger bowden tube and use the green filament then. Sorry, man. The other filaments are probably okay. Or maybe you can send the green back. Give them some feedback about the diameter.

It's designed only for those 2 voltages and no other. It will work fine at lower voltages. At higher voltages - who knows - there are 2 possibilities: 1) You can blow up the LEDs. This isn't a problem if you don't install them. 2) You can heat it so much that something starts to melt or burn. That's probably pretty damn hot - like at least 200C would be my guess. Maybe even 300C before there's a problem. But I don't truly know. I suspect it can take at least 50% more wattage than it is specified for but I don't know. Personally I would go for it and see what happens. If you smell smoke be ready to turn it off right away. But I probably wouldn't go over 15V.

Yes and no. Technically it's not designed for voltages in between but I'll get back to that... These are the kind of specs that piss me off. Going here: http://reprap.org/wiki/PCB_Heatbed#MK3_ALU-Heatbed_Dual_Power There is slightly more information. It turns out that it's really 2 resistors in series. You can put 24v across both of them (which would leave approx 12v at the center point) or you can ground the outer points and put 12V at the center point which takes twice as much current. This way you get same heating power and power draw either way. The problem is they don't specify the power draw nor each resistance. So it's unclear if the whole thing is 1 ohm (both resistors added together) or if the whole thing is 4 ohms but is 1 ohm when you hook it up in 12V mode (both resistors in series). I would email them. So from their description it appears to be either a 523W heater (1.1 ohm total, quarter ohm in 12V mode) or a 130W heater (4.4 ohm total, 1 ohm in 12V mode). I'm going to guess it's 4 to 4.4 ohms total because at 523W or more it's hard to beleive it would take 10 minutes to heat to 100C. So I suspect you can wire it two ways: 4 to 4.4 ohms or 1 to 1.1 ohms BUT THEY DON'T SAY THAT ANYWHERE! It's a guess but a very good guess. Having said that, if you put 24V across where the 12V is meant to go the resistor should be okay (hopefully won't melt) but you might blow out the LED's. But that's not a big deal - you can skip the LEDs. But I'm sure you could up the voltage somewhat - to maybe 15V (in 12V mode hookup) where you would get 205 to 225 watts. I wouldn't go higher than 15V though. Not without playing with it. If it were me I wouldn't order the power supply until I received the MK3. I would then hook up 12V to it and look at the power draw. Use that to determine the resistance at different temperatures. I would then try to create higher voltages and see how hot the thing gets (don't want to burn anything). Only then would I order a power supply for permanent use with the UM. You can get (almost) free high current 12V power supplies out of any PC. My junkyard has all I could ever want. I just have to drive over, take an old junker PC, bring it home and remove the supply. Then short the green wire to a black wire and power comes on (more on wikipedia about the green wire thing). Then later you can graduate to a larger supply by ordering one online.

Yes! And the USB can be unreliable depending on the PC. Definitely use the UC. It's not a big deal to leave it unattended in my opinion. It's just nice to not waste the plastic if the print fails. Some people have built their own webcam and power kill systems. I suspect you can buy something on the internet that is a controllable power switch. Maybe from X11 organization.

Illuminarti speaks truth. This is a very common problem with a new UM. This is easy to diagnose because as it is printing you can see the belt twisting one way then the other. Fix this by adding washers under the plastic standoffs and possibly (if necessary) move the pulley even closer to the motor. It should be as close as possible without touching the stepper. Around 1/2 mm is good. It's either this or loose set screws. Tighten all 6 (if you only found 4 keep looking!) on the X axis. Tighten the hell out of them.

First step is to know the resistance of the heated bed in ohms. Typically they are around 1 ohm. Then the wattage will be V*V/R (v squared over r). So if the voltage is 12V and resistance 1 ohm, 12V will give you 144 watts. To get 360 watts (that's a lot - I have 100 W which is slow but 200W I would think is enough) take the square root: 19V (if 1 ohm heated bed). If it's 2 ohm's heated bed then 12V gives you only 70 watts. 19V gives you 180 watts and 27V is needed to get 360 watts. So it's good to understand ohms law and the power law. They are extremely simple formulas but really knowing subconsciously them is very helpful when doing anything with electricity. If the manufacturer tells you the heated bed is "1 to 2 ohms" well that's a HUGE range. You really need to know this before you can pick the ideal power supply. If you get a 2000Watt supply but it only puts out 12V and the bed is 1 ohm then you will only get 144 watts into that heated bed. The 2000Watt is a maximum, not a given. This is frustrating when ordering a heated bed because you don't know how many ohms it is until you get it. Also the resistance changes when it gets hot. So you kind of need to know the resistance when it is at the extremes (room temperature and 70C) so you know if you will draw too much current (too much power) for your power supply. For example if they tell you it's 2 ohms at 70C but don't mention that it is 1 ohm at room temp. And you buy a 400 W supply at 27V. When you hook it up it will try to draw 729 Watts and probably the supply will go into protection mode.

Great! I saved that in my tips file for the next person who has the same problem.

Your belts might be tight enough but this video shows you how to measure the tension and how to adjust:

Look in preferences to get the answer. That's probably your problem. See second photo here which shows pattern if only X bearing slipping: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/1872-some-calibration-photographs/?p=14474 Make sure it isn't connected backwards, make sure you feel air coming out. Each layer will get better. That's why you need 4 or more "top" layers. Not just 2 layers.

That certainly *was* a problem. It wasn't turning. Does it turn now? You should get a steel one. Someone a few months ago posted a replacement steel ball bearing that fits perfectly where that delrin ring is (which is currently already around a smaller ball bearking). Having two ball bearings around each other is redundant but it was a nice inexpensive solution. I don't know the part but you only need to know the dimensions and you can order online.

But your warped print looked pretty good other than the warping. What is different? And did you put alcohol on the blue tape? The alcohol should help PLA stick to blue tape. Print a skirt or brim and try to lift with your fingernail. It should be very difficult. If it isn't being squished into the tape, stop the print, raise the bed and try again. Otherwise it will lift and warp.

Squished looks good to me. But it's blurry - hard to say. The first image - um - something looks wrong. It looks like both backlash and underextrusion. Still. It's hard to tell. Maybe you should stick with the squished print and do the second layer over *that*. When you did you belt tension testing - I'm not sure if you did all 3 sections. Because there are 2 belts on each axis and because all the pulley's are locked the tension can be unequal in the 3 sections of the pulleys. Make sure they are all similar (don't have to be identical. Also I'm wondering if you have a loose pulley at this point. That might explain the backlash. There are 6 pulleys per axis and if only one of the long belt pulleys is loose it's not obvious. Tighten the heck out of the 8 pulley set-screws on the long belts. Make sure things seem perpendicular (move the blocks around a bit until as centered as possible) before tightening. Consider marking the pulleys and the rods with a sharpie (permanent marker), then push the head around tiny amounts and see if one of the 8 pulleys is slipping.

>i think i had the bed too high since it kinda "squeshed" if thats a word the pla flat Squishing flat is good. It's probably okay. If your first layer is .3mm then it should be almost square. If your first layer is .2 or .1mm then it should be squished. You can see the first layer height on the ulticontroller if you have one or look at the cura settings "first layer height". Bed height is very critical. It's often the most common problem. You have to relevel every few hours or everytime the temperature changes and so on. After many months the bed doesn't need adjusting every few hours - but still - it's a common annoyance (always having to level the bed). >Here are some prints: Can't see the prints. Sorry. >Here is the sound from the belts Wow. Tight. Plenty tight I think. If you still have backlash/play it can be from somewhere else maybe. It could be something loose in the print head. If you grab the nozzle and push it one way, then the other, does it move without the steppers moving? Turn the stepper motors on and push the head around. It shouldn't move. You can do this with UC or with Cura. With either, just move the X and Y axis and the steppers will stay on for a little while. Maybe you don't have backlash (aka play) anymore?