spiruline

Thank you. Good to know. It all makes sense now ! When the printer was cold I could print a 2 x 2 cm test cube. Once it was warm it will fail after a couple of layers. I hope it helps other users.

Thanks a lot peggyb, I have tried with a friend's printer fan and it works, so problem solved ! amazing how temperature increase can have such an impact. Any technical explanation?

Thank you for that answers. The power supply is delivering a good 19.5 v. I am going to see what happens with a new fan. Is it a 12v fan? I removed the sticker in mine to lubricate the axle and I don't remember the voltage

That's one of the thinks I was thinking about. The fan is working BUT, it used to be very noisy, specially the first minuted after turning the printer on, and now it doesn't make that much noise anymore, although I feel it is spinning. The fan noise stopped around the the time the problems started, so it could be related. How heat could be affecting this random movements? The damage doesn't seem to be permanent, as the first few layers (a couple of them) are correct. Should I try to change just the fan, or anything else should be changed? how could I test if it is really a heat problem?

Hello, I have had my UMO for almost 4 years and use it intensively. It was working very well until recently. The problem is that after very few correct layers the printing head moves away 5-10 millimeters and keeps trying to print where it shouldn't. After it moves a little It keeps moving away from where it should be printing. It moves away from the print in both axes X and Y, In the photo below you can see the printing head trying to print about 5-6 cm from where it should be. I have checked all the pulleys which are tight on their axels. I have added belt tensioners and both the short and long belts have good tension. The guiding rods for the printing head are all properly tightened. I have check all the mechanical parts and everything seems to be OK. What else could be going wrong? Can both motors (X and Y) be malfunctioning at the same time? Or could it be an electronic problem? maybe motor controllers? What should I check? I have never changed the belts. But they have good tension and they don't slip even if I lock the motor axle and apply moving force to the print head. Sorry about the bad photo, but it's just to show how much the printing head has drifted from where it should be. I really need some help with this, as the printer is totally useless now. I have a UM2 and UM2+ too, but I need to use this UMO as well

it was a scam. Amazon cancelled the listing and now shows the regular price.

I am very surprised to see this price. I guess that with Amazon guarantee behind all their sales there is no much risk ordering one https://www.amazon.es/Ultimaker-UM2-2/dp/B01ALOTLG8/ref=aag_m_pw_dp?ie=UTF8&m=AGXKYAAF02TKK

In this case the price is lower than the original and the quality doesn't look bad at all

Has anyone tried this thermocouple?: http://www.ebay.com/itm/0-4mm-Nozzle-K-Type-Thermocouple-Ultimaker-Original-Arylic-Extruder-Head-Kit-18v/221783407223? My UMO is wearing out after a lot of use and I need to replace few parts. This looks like a good option at a reasonable price.

Thank you for the answers. This is a brand new UM2 with few hours of use. is it possible that the coupler has already deformed? How can I check that? I built my UMO, but the UM2 seems more difficult to access to component. What temperature are people using for ABS with UM2? Any setting advise for those acceleration/yerk parameters?

I have been using 250ºC for ABS. I have gone down to 240ºC in the UM" and there seems to be a light improvement but the prints are still not as smooth as with UMO. ¿what temperature are you guys using with UM2? ¿any other suggestion besides temperature? I have tried to go down to 60% in flow and the prints were very weak. I don't clearly understand how the Flow setting works. What % should it be set at?. I think the default for ABS was 107%, why wouldn't it be 100% instead of 107%?

I am printing the same part, with the same settings in my UMO and my new UM2, and I always obtain better quality with my old UM original. I am using the same ABS in both printers, Layers are at 0.2. I have some doubts about flow. I have tried to go about 10% above and below 100% in the UM2 to try to improve quality, but doesn't seem to improve things. Top part is UM2: Top part is UMO in this photo: The final surface is also more glossy and rougher in the UM2 (left): Any help ?

I have installed your latest firmware and it is a huge improvement over the stock. Good job, THANK YOU !!! I am much happier now with the interface and all the screen information. It always amazes me how you smart guys can code things much better in your spare time than the factory people. I understand they wanted to keep things simple, but c'mon, a more complete interface was needed, even if the expert option was hidden low in the advance menus. I havne't tried to abort a print, but if the excessive retraction is fixed, I don't see a need to purge manually quickly. The standard purge before printing should be enough. If i'd live closer I'll help you moving boxes to your new apartment, so you could program the preheat option sooner ! :-) Seriously, I think the preheat option is the main important feature missing now. Who wants to be 10 minutes waiting in front of the printer to heat up after ordering it to print a piece? Much better to preheat, go have breakfast, and then print right away. Looking forward to the preheat option in the main menu window.

I am glad to see I am not alone with these details and that things are being taken care of. I find it surprising that it wasn't done before, considering all the time the UM2 has been in the market and being present in the UMO. I guess the idea was to simplify the process, but the results is it takes me much longer to start a print. My trick now is to "tune" the bed temperature to about 70º and lower the speed before the start, so it begins earlier and then after the first layer increase the temperature and speed (I use ABS). That way at least I don't have to wait for ever for the bed and head to to heat up. I´ll keep and eye on those updates and links

Hello I have two Ultimaker Original which I have used for 2 1/2 years and I have just got an Ultimaker 2. I like the building quality of the UM2 but I find few firmware and hardware things annoying and time consuming. - Why is not there a "preheat ABS/PLA" option in the menus?: It would be nice to be able to preheat platform and head to a preset temperature with one menu touch. I like to preheat the building platform and head while I slide my models, so by the time I put in the card the printer is ready to go. If you want to do that now, you have to go to ADVANCE SETTINGS, preheat the platform spinning a million times the menu knob and repeat the same for the head. And if you wait until you put in the card it takes a long time to heat the bed. - A purge hardware button to prime the head, equivalent to manually turning the feeder wheel in UMO would be a nice addition. I know the firmware is supposed to do that before starting the print, but I find that many times it doesn't do it (or at least not enough), specially after aborting a print and tries to print without any material coming out. If you want to do it manually you have to go to advance settings, move material, and spin the dial for some time until material comes out. Am I the only one noticing these inconveniences ?

Thank you for the tips. Yes the photos are oriented in the build direction. I haven't used any fan at all, because it seems to cool the heated bed and affect adhesion. I may have to try with a lower fan setting. BTW, I am using the new heated bed: http://reprap.me/Alu-Heatbed-MK3 which is working very well. But my thermistor must not be the right one because it doesn't show more than 90º C and I am getting good adhesion with large flat and fat ABS parts.

Hello, I am printing ABS at 255º, layers are 0,1mm, with a heated bed. I am getting some vertical innacuracy at the bottom 10mm of the print, there is a narrowing of the walls of the part. After those initial 10mm the walls are nice and vertical, so hardware seems to be all OK. ¿what could be the reason?

Exactly the same behavior here. It should be easy to correct because it works well at some stage.

Same problem here. Cura worked for a while, then it stopped slicing. I f I try to save gcode I het a "FAILED TO SAVE" message. I have deleted the hidden folder with terminal, which has reset the settings, but still not working. Very frustrating when you need part to get work done...

Glad to hear I wasn't doing anything wrong myself this time ! I´ll try a combination of 0,8 skin and 20% overlap

Hello, Printing a 70mm ring, 10mm high in ABS, I am getting some very smooth outer walls in some areas but in some parts the infill exceeds the outer perimeter resulting in less smooth vertical surface. In this photo of the first layer you can see what I mean. In Cura 13.06.5 Infill overlap: 30 (I need a strong part with good wall and infill bonding) Print speed 60 temperature 255 diameter 2.95 flow 90% Initial layer thickness 0,3 Any idea how I could solve this rough walls?

Thank you for your answers. Things are going better. These are some of the mistakes I was making, in case it can help someone: - The model had rounded (in the Z axis) corners and very little contact base to stick to the heating bed. So, that was solved by changing the model. - My heating bed is made of 4mm aluminum placed over the heating PCB. The thermistor was placed between both parts, so it was reading the temperature of the PCB, which was much higher than the aluminum base. So I taped the sensor the the top of the aluminum platform and now I am getting a much hotter platform which has helped a lot. - Also I am using real acetone now, instead of nail polisher. Now that the hardware is tuned up, Cura has stopped working, it doesn't save the GCODE. I´ll look in Cura forum...

Hello, I have tried every single trick I have seen online and all kind of Cura parameters, temperatures, speeds, etc... and I can't manage a single ABS print. I have made a heated bed with kapton tape just to be able to print ABS. I have tried the hair spray, the sand paper, the ABS juice, without success. PLA prints are not resistant enough and temperature stable for my purposes, and I really need to print ABS. Any last advice to get ABS to stick before I throw the printer down the window? thanks !

Bingooooooo !!!! Thank you so much for your patience with my novice clumsiness. Your last post made me think about the resistor, I checked again and I realized it was 4,7 ohm instead of 4,7 K. Now everything seems to be working fine and the board controls the relay according to temperature. I just have to make some hardware adjustments, like lowering the Z stop switch to fit the taller heating bed and I´ll be ready to try ABS printing

I have checked that and one side of the thermistor was 5v but the other one was 0. Why could this be happening?