gr5

Head floods are probably not rare. Glass coming out of the printer is rare.

Very strange. I'd remove the glass and check with a steel ruler or other straight edge. I think you have a bump on your glass that is too small (in between the probe points) in X and Y and unusually large in Z.

There's a lot to unpack and unfortunately I don't have much in the way of answers. It would help to see a picture. Usually the head hits the print on overhangs - particularly think of the bow of benchy the boat. The overhang curls upwards because the liquid PLA is acting like a rubberband which has cooled enough to shrink but not enough to be solid and this pulls the new overhang layer back inward into the print and causes a lip that can get caught. If it's hitting the infill then that's more rare. Sometimes it can happen if your bed is vibrating. Is it? If so you can move the print to the back of the bed where it might be more stable? Generally the answer to the print head hitting the part is to ignore it. If the part ever comes loose then you can watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t58-WTxDy-k Regarding zhop - this usually causes ugly horizontal layer lines because with zhop you need a super high quality Z screw (not some cheap chinese printer and even most Ultimaker's don't do great with zhop - you get z banding). If the Z only moves one direction it's easier for the printer to get evenly perfectly spaced layers but if you add zhop then you have play (in the Z axis) and some layers a slightly squished and stick out and some are a little high and are underextruded. Finally about combing - what you say is true - especially if the part is very large and has lots of walls and the combing has to take a very long path -then combing can be slower. But usually combing is faster because you don't do the retraction.

Okay I just looked at some modern post processing plugins. I looked at the 2 by fieldofview and I looked at this one: https://github.com/Ultimaker/Cura/blob/master/plugins/PostProcessingPlugin/scripts/PauseAtHeight.py And it is definitely more than 5 lines of code (legacy cura was much simpler). But it's not to hard to separate out the "guts" of the code into a function/functions and call that from either the standalone code or from the plugin version. You can have the "basic business rules" of your plugin in one function or a set of functions and then add one python file for standalone mode and another python file for plugin mode. I wonder if someone already did this...

It sounds like you want a "post processing plugin". Which is what those examples are above. It's easy (at least it used to be) to have one program be both a plugin and also a standalone. Please look at one of the examples above. We are talking about maybe 5 lines of code to make a standalone program also be a plugin (at least that's how it used to be the last time I looked into "post processing plugins". I assume you mean it's a CLI standalone and not some fancy gui where you have to click "file open" and such. A standalone CLI program needs to be told where the file to process is located and so on. I believe the post processing plugin gets the data on the input stream? Maybe? I'm not sure. Writing a standalone program that can do either is pretty easy. You don't even need a special option (e.g. "-plug") as the plugin should be able to detect which mode it is being used.

Don't "test" the teflon based on how it looks. Push hard on the end that gets hot and see if it is softer. If it deforms easier. Push very hard. If you are just trying out the i2k I suppose only cut one of the teflon parts but then if you like it you can cut all the teflon parts going forwards. Of course you should never need to buy another if you keep temps below 300C.

I'd google this forum about problems with Apple computers (you can tell google to restrict to a site like this: "site:ultimaker.com"). There are many people with problems with their Apple computer and many solutions but I don't understand them (I'm mainly Linux myself) so I don't remember the many work arounds. Also I think there is a type of Apple hardware that absolutely will not work with Cura at this time. But I just hear code names of things like "grapefruit bridge" and I don't know if it's a version of IOS or if it's some kind of hardware and I just end up remembering nothing, sorry.

You restarted cura and it didn't create a log file? Even if the program crashes before you see it visually, it should create a log file.

I think the spring is better than the spacer personally. Just slice off a bit of the teflon and that will help quite a bit. If you do want to print a spacer, I designed this one and it works quite well in ABS (I have green abs filament): https://www.youmagine.com/designs/um2-spring-replacement But really the spring is great. It's very powerful so if you compress it an extra 2mm thats... too much.

on cura menu do "file" "save project"

Let me describe the most common head flood issue in more detail. You don't use any adherents (like glue stick, or better alternatives - like magigoo). You start printing and the first 2 layers look perfect. You walk away. At about 5 to 10mm up, the upper layers shrink and pull up the print off the bed. At this point if your part is tall and skinny it falls over and you get spaghetti mess. But if your part is wider than tall - like a hockey puck - it often gets carried around by the print head. As the part is sliding around the print bed, more and more filament is going into the "print" but the print is stuck to the nozzle so the molten filament has nowhere to go and a lot of it backs up into the print head eventually pushing the print head door open. Meanwhile the part that is being dragged around can hit the sides of the printer, or the printer doors and pop the doors open. It can even hit the clips that hold the glass down I suppose if it's a large enough print. That's the common problem and the fix is usually to prepare the glass better. There are other techniques. Using "brim" feature helps as well. I have a 20 minute video that goes over all the ways to get your parts to NEVER come loose from the glass (well up until you are done printing and it's time to remove the part).

Every reseller is different. If you have to ship the printer to them for them to fix it then likely they will charge you shipping. Some will fix the head for free after that. Some might charge $100 per hour for one hour of service. If you live near the reseller and can drop it off that can save you a lot. I don't quite understand the "dragging the glass" issue. Maybe the autolevel failed. I've never seen that issue. I've seen 1000s of issues on this forum and having the glass go out the doors - this is the first ever. I'd like to see a video of this "dragging the glass" thing but hopefully you won't see it again. Anyway it's not so hard to fix yourself. Heat the BB core to 200C and get a heat gun and some metal tools such as needle-nose pliers and maybe dental-pick like tools and just get started and take your time. Don't overheat and melt the white plastic parts. If this is PLA the softening point of PLA is around 52C and 90C is plenty hot. The softening temp of that white plastic is around 100C I think and will maintain it's shape if you don't push too hard on it up to maybe 150C. So it's really not that hard to heat up and remove that head flood. It just takes an hour. You could be done already 🙂 I'm kind of kidding - I'm sure you have other things to do.

The printer is pretty tough. I suspect if you push the bed down it will un-crooked itself. The bigger problem is that you have a "head flood". If this is a brand new printer, contact your reseller. You can fix that with a heat gun and 30 to 60 minutes of patience. You'll have to throw away the core in slot 1 as I think that error on the screen indicates the head flood damaged the wiring of the left core. But your printer came with a spare. And they are consumables like filament (but cheaper in the long run than filament). What caused the head flood? Either the print head door popped open while printing or the part didn't stick well to the glass. I'm thinking the later in your case. I've never had a head flood (thousands of prints) but it can happen to the best of us. Mainly you might want to learn how to keep your part stuck to the print bed. But first you need to fix that head flood. Again, if this printer is brand new, maybe you can get your reseller to fix it or send you a new head. But if it were me I would break out the heat gun so I could get back to printing today. I would heat up the BB core as well to help heat things from the inside. Also after it's fixed make sure that the magnets are working and the print head door takes a little more than a feather touch to pop open.

fionagrutza and I are discussing this issue in another thread but I think the problem is that fiona needs to rotate the control knob on the printer - not the 3 leveling knobs. Knob confusion.

Stopping 60mm from the nozzle is normal. Then you spin the knob and it moves the bed up some more. Read the instructions. They may be confusing but now that I told you to spin the knob you should be fine. I'm thinking you thought you were supposed to spin the 3 mechanical knobs but no - spin the control knob - the computer device.

@mafi - did you try the Z offset plugin? I think it has the behavior you want. If not explain what is wrong with that behavior please.

That's normal. "up" means move the nozzle up but on an Ultimaker the nozzle doesn't exactly move. It's the bed that goes down. So "up" means move nozzle "farther from bed". In other words "down". So that's good. You didn't answer my question about leveling. Maybe you just haven't done the bed leveling yet? Also since you changed the firmware several times now - definitely do the "factory reset" on the menu system on the printer.

Or maybe you have the regular UM2 (non-extended) but somehow got the um2go firmware on there. Just go through the menus and the firmware will tell you which version and flavor it is.

I recommend this firmware by the way: https://github.com/TinkerGnome/Ultimaker2Marlin/releases

Are you sure you don't have the extended? If you put the correct firmware on it and previously it had the wrong firmware than you must do a "factory reset" to get the Z height updated in the firmware.

There are many possibilities. We need more information. One likely thing is that either you have the wrong firmware (you may have the normal firmware but have the UM2 extended. The normal printer is roughly cubical but the extended is about 4 inches taller. Another is that you just haven't done the bed calibration yet. Did you do that? It could also be that you are skipping steps because the z screw is too dirty. But that would probably make a pretty loud vibration noise (not a smooth voom sound but a bouncy, noise like a box of rocks thrown down the stairs). Even better show a video of what you are talking about.

Yes, please post it so we can see.

If you used sketchup then here's a tutorial to fix your model: https://i.materialise.com/blog/3d-printing-with-sketchup/ You can try one of these 3 repair services if this isn't your model. Cura has an amazing plugin to test your model to see if something is wrong with it and can repair a very few of the many potential problems: In the upper right corner of Cura click "marketplace" and make sure you are on the "plugins" tab and install "Mesh Tools". Then restart Cura. Now right click on your model, choose "mesh tools" and first choose "check mesh", then "fix model normals" and "fix simple holes" to see if that helps. Cura doesn't fix most issues so... netfabb free repair service is here (you have to create a free account first): https://service.netfabb.com/login.php Here's another service - drag and drop mesh repair service: https://3d-print.jomatik.de/en/index.php

Are you willing to pay? I know that sometimes @ahoeben will do contract work for plugins. This sounds like a somewhat big job to me but I don't know. Maybe 20 hours? Maybe a ton more. He only does open source projects I believe so if you paid for this it would benefit everyone who wants to do the same thing. Cura has a plugin architecture which is extremely versatile and could allow this sort of feature in a plugin. I imagine the plugin would have 36 built in STL files (for 26 letters and 10 numbers - or maybe some more characters and maybe lower case characters) and allow you to somehow modify the raft. Or maybe modify a flat topped part included in your tray of parts.

Could you please post a project file? A project file will include your STL (feel free to use an example one if yours is proprietary). Include it such that we only have to check or uncheck Mold (and reslice) to see the difference. Project files contain your model(s) position and scale of model, printer (machine) settings, profile, profile changes. To get the project file do menu "file" "save project"