valcrow

I too have lots of 3-6 meters of left over filament. I primarily use them for atomic pulls and printing small objects like pins and such. Or, find a friend with a doodler pen and make their day. Now the spools on the other hand... I have no idea what to do with.

2.85 works best for UM. You can also sometimes use 3.0mm filament so long as the tolerance is on the smaller side. You will notice an increase in friction in the bowden if you do. And you will usually need to lower the speed a little bit to compensate. I wouldn't recommend using anything that's >2.95mm or it may get stuck. But you wouldn't be able to use 1.75mm filament without modification. Also if you DO use a different format be sure to enter the filament diameter into the firmware or Cura (depending on model) so that it calcuates the proper extrusion rates.

You shouldn't need to push the filament by hand. But kudos for sticking it out for 3 years. If your machine is 3 years old, have you taken apart the hotend assembly at any point? Sometimes buildup occurs between the nozzle and brass tube or peek part and causes excess friction which would cause the constant under extrusions. I found that after about 1.5 years on my UMO, enough gunk had built up on the interior of my brass tube that I would have to lower my speed to compensate for the extra friction and then as you describe it would fail a few minutes into each print. I changed out the brass tube, block and nozzle and everything is all good again. (I was lucky to have ordered an extra hot end pack)

It's apparently in the works. We are using the IRC temporarily. http://webchat.freenode.net/ #ultimaker

Thanks for your investigations everyone! I agree this is certainly a stepper thing as my test object has no infill. I disagree that turning the object 15-45 degrees is a 'fix' for it though. It's kind of a workaround. But it is actually still visible at those 15/45 degrees but they manifest themselves more as a denser ripple in the surface than zebra stripes. I tested the curvey shape with the UMO, UMO+, Ext and UM2 and they all do it. *edit* I found the pieces! UMO - black UM2 - White They have the same zebra locations except for the center where the UMO is closer (red lines) and the UM2 is further apart. (green) curious, those are the only two differences. I think gr5 is onto something, a gentle curve shouldn't make the steps THAT noticable. But I dunno anything about gcode or steppers...

Check your expert settings. Under [advanced tab] [speed] [infill speed] and ensure the infill speed option is not at 80mm/s The defaults are: Basic Speed 50 advanced Bottom layer 20 infill speed 80 top/bottom 15 outer shell 30 inner shell 60 I would recommend something like: Basic Speed 50 advance Bottom layer 20 infill speed 0 top/bottom 0 outer shell 45 inner shell 0 (note that setting 0 means it'll use your basic speed. which is 50)

What printer are you using? Is your print hollow? (looks fairly thin) When you say print head moving 'towards' the print, are you printing something else at the same time as this object?

Err, did you leave the plastic film on your heated bed?? I'm pretty sure you're suppose to remove that before putting the glass on.

Nice skull! But if there is a firmware issue or other that's causing this, better it be resolved and you'll get even BETTER looking stuff. Sorry for hijacking your ship thread btw...

Oh i can get behind this! I've been asking for it for a while Maybe just have a checkbox in the save option? By default it would embed the STL, but if you check the box (for advanced users) it would allow for dynamic links. I'd like it to hold position, orientation data as well as the advanced settings like support details. I go back to prints often, and usually it's small parts that require a fairly specific setting. It's hard to remember sometimes what settings were successful in the past. This would greatly help workflow.

This is actually ringing and is a different issue which is quite solvable unlike the zebra stripes we're talking about. If you lower your acceleration settings down to about 1500, you'll get rid of the 'shadow'. This is why I made the curvey piece, so there are no sharp corners to introduce ringing and no infill to confuse the issue.

Oh yes, that's what I meant. :Pchanged it. I'd be interested to know how it prints, if you wanna print the boat great! Or the curvey piece I posted great too! If you wanna use less filament and isolate the variables the curvey piece is better but you don't get a boat by the end of it I have tried both Cura 13, and 15. I've tried it on a UMO now as well and it's still there. So far it seems to be all models of the UMs. I did UMO+, UMO, UM2EXT. I'm pretty certain the 2Go and UM2 do it as I've noticed this before on other objects.

I have worked with every model so far. I would say in general (in my experience) the UM2 prints a bit better than the UMO if you're talking about a stock machine. There are a few reasons for this: the UMO only comes with 1 fan on the side. This makes one side print better and the other side is often left hanging. (overhangs, get it? heh) The UM2's have 2 smaller fans on either side which is pretty good cooling all around. Other notable differences: The start/stop code is handled on the UM2's firmware and it is much cleaner and smarter. Meaning you can start prints back to back without having to manually do stuff like prime the nozzle and such. Retraction for whatever reason I can't determine is more reliable and better on the UM2s. Virtually no stringing where stringing occurs on my UMO. Many people complain about bowden printers having bad retraction but this is certainly not the case for the UM2s. In terms of raw quality of prints. I would rate the following assuming UM2 quality is our baseline @ 100%. UMO: 92% UMO+: 93% UM2: 100% UM2 EX: 98% UM2GO: 115% The UM2GO hands down prints the best out of the box. But with obvious disadvantages of being smaller, and no heated bed. The surface quality can be quite superb and I'm not sure I can get my UM2 to duplicate the surface quality. -probably all due to the smaller frame. The UMO, while lower in the list I think is capable of reaching the UM2 levels of quality. Printed fan shrouds and other mods along with being well built and tuned should be quite capable of producing pieces of equal or better quality than a stock UM2. Mine doesn't print as well as my UM2 but I've seen one UMO that does. Even though print quality is very similar, I wouldn't discount the usability aspects of the UM2s. I trust them way more starting prints back to back and leaving them for 10-20 hours compared to a UMO.

Here is my test piece. I printed a few. It does this with the UMO+ and Extended so far. The UMO+ is much more pronouced than the extended though, but same thing. It looks a lot worse than it is in the picture because I used a flashlight to highlight the issue. But none the less it's there in both prints. Cura 15.01. Someone have a different slicer they want to try on the same object?

I have this issue as well. It doesn't appear to be caused by ringing or infill. It seems more like it's 'steps' of the motor on the XY when it's doing very fine curves. I've uploaded a model for everyone to test out. It's curved so it shouldn't experience ringing issues, and there is no infill so we can eliminate that right off the bat. https://www.youmagine.com/designs/curve-test-print When I print it, there are certainly noticable vertical stepping on the Y edge. And diagonal stepping on the X edge. (this is because the X edge is very slightly twisted. Ripples on the Long diagonal edge similar to the boat. I'm doing more testing, but wanted to make the file available for people to try out.

I usually print small detailed angular things, this has been a huge thing I've been toying with over the years. Frame rigidity & the surface it sits on plays a big part in it too besides just the acceleration. The more micro 'wobbles' the worse it gets for small 90 degree angles. like you I've found around 1500 works best for UMOs. I run 2300 on my UM2's and leave the default 4000 on the UM2GO. The small frame of the UM2GO lets that thing go at full speed without introducing much ringing artifacts. it's awesome. While lowering acceleration helps the ringing artifacts, it seems to affect the top surface quality. It slows down as it reaches the perimeter sometimes creating thicker fills near the edge, and thinner (sometimes apparent line separations) in the center top of your print. So consider this when making big flat top objects. UMO print at 4000 acceleration UM2 Print at 1500 For your ringing test, consider adding some small grooves on the side. That stuff rings like mad.

Check your pullies first before being totally convinced it's an electronics thing. If one of your Y pullies is loose it will show symptoms as you've posted them. (although usually a bit more of a slant) Where the layers will shift only in one axis. This is especially common building your own printer. make sure to REALLY tighten those set screws on each pully.

I don't think the rod should be able to pop out like that... check that the X pullies are not sliding around on the rod. Moving the axis by hand is usually a bit stiff and 'sticks' when not moving. Feels like you need a decent amount of force to overcome the static friction but is relatively easy to move when it's already moving. Its safe to move when off, or not powered. (as in after an aborted print or just turned on). But I wouldn't move it around super quick.

Is there a reason why you have an internal shell in the model? it's often easier to just have a solid object and print it hollow and define the shell width. I would try deleting the interior shape that defines the thickness and re-slice.

K, done that. You guys are right, the fan was the issue at least for my UMO. After I soldered the wire back on I ran the thing for a 12 hour or so print and it had no funky mis-steps. So even the slow fan made it better, or the fan wiring had interfered somehow. Regardless the solution is to make sure the fan is connected and running for this particular case. Now to figure out the other one!

Looks really great!! don't get discouraged!

Thanks for the suggestions. Very similar issues to you peggy. I have no idea which are stepper drivers or what pot meters are... But I think your initial assessment of overheating might be right? I took pictures of both UMO boards. UMO1 UMO2 So here's the thing, apparently both mobo fans were kaput in some way. UMO1, the fan was shorting or something because after plugging it in for a few minutes the fan was SUPER hot. I could feel it through the label. Something must be shorting, in addition there was a burny electronic smell. I thought it was just weird stuff purging from the nozzle, but I'm convinced it's the mobo fan. I have disconnected it for safety. UMO2, the red wire on the fan had broken off so the fan hasn't been running. I soldered it back on and it seems to be working albeit a bit slowly. I successfully printed an Ulti-bot so I guess the fan had something to do with it, either a short or too hot or something... the cooling it provides doesn't seem very significant but it seems to be working so far. The heat sink on one of the microchips fell off, 1 on each printer...

Hey all you knowledgeable people out there. So I have this really bizarre issue with my UMO and for the life of me, I can't figure it out. Basically everything seems to work fine for the first 30 seconds or so. Preheat, start process all works great. Then once it gets to about 30 seconds in, the stepper motors start making clicking noises and stopping periodically fairly unnaturally. It will do a zig zag when it's suppose to do a straight diagonal line on the infill. Watch this video of it in action. (I have the filament out so it's not suppose to be extruding, just watch the action of the pullies + printhead.) At this point it should be doing long diagonal strokes for the bottom layer infill. It's not getting caught on anything and there isn't an abundance of friction on any axis. There is something electronic at fault. Ok, so that's not so weird. but it gets weirder! I have another UMO I have access to that has a broken ulticontroller wire. So I thought hey. Maybe I'll just swap the Ulticontroller over so I can use the other printer instead of mine. Sure enough I swapped over the controller to another UMO and sure enough it does the same thing, but not consistently the same as the other one. So I thought maybe there's some issue with my file. So I re-slice. Same issue. Maybe it's my Ulticontroller, I swap the controllers keeping only the wires. Same issue. Maybe it's my memory card, swap memory cards, and re-slice. Same issue. Ok, maybe it's my CURA... I run a standard ulti-bot code already on the SD card. SAME ISSUE! As you can see the first 2 layers went down perfect and then clicking started and motor stalls. Funny thing this time though, the extruder motor was doing the same thing... So I'm at a loss. This CAN'T be the same issue with both machines it just seems completely unlikely. The ONLY part that is consistent with both machines is the Ulticontroller flat cables, of which I only have 1 set of so I can't swap that out to test. Could a bad cable cause such a strange failure? Any thoughts?

You'll have to modify it in your modelling program to have volume by closing all of the borders on your object so it's 'water tight'. Your object probably has 0 thickness walls. You can either negatively extrude those walls to create thickness without loosing your shape. Or combine your whole model and close all the open surfaces to have a solid car model. The process is fairly situational and depends entirely on how your original model was created. Meshmixer can fix 'some' issues, but more likely you'll need to bring it into a modelling program.

I actually had the reverse problem, the 'new' glass seemed to stick TOO well to the point where I couldn't get prints off. You just have to level your bed a bit closer and it works like a charm again AND it's easier to release when done. Alternatively if you really want it to stick well you can use a bit of gluestick.