peetersm

Hi, I hope someone can help me-sorry for the long post. I have the great fortune to be asked to do a guest blog for the ultimaker site and part of what they want me to provide are gcode files for both UM1 and UM2. (due to the fact that my print benefits from manually turning off the fan at a certain height which I do with basic text editor) I have lots of UM1 files (sets of files for different filament sizes) but I do not have access to an UM2 and have not been paying attention to any slicing and/or CURA setting differences between these two machines. Also since the post has a Mother's Day theme I want to have all the UM2 gcode files ready by Thursday (5-1-14) so I am scrambling to come up to speed. What I need help with is this list of questions: 1. can someone with a UM2 print this gcode file and see if it works? (see file below) 2. The idea is that some newer users can just download gcode and print, SO for the UM2 should I be using UltiGCode? - I am excited by the idea that filament size and temperature are not in the gcode file but entered at the machine (not like what I have to do on my UM1) BUT not sure if that is how most new users would be using it. For the UM1 gcode I have a bunch of files for different filament diameters, is this also what I should for for UM2 files (make them as RepRap gcode?) 3. Where do I want to deviate from the default settings??? For my UM1 I have a list of things I change away from the default settings in CURA. like speed=70mm/sec, retractions: enable comb=off, min travel=1.5, min extud=0, ETC and other settings that I know work well, but for the UM2 I have no idea what "basic settings" I can change away from default and which ones to leave alone. any advice there is great. THIS IS MY FIRST ATTEMPT AT MAKING A UM2 FILE is here: https://www.youmagine.com/documents/4642/download UM2-1.8.1-Medium Trumpet Stigma5-x4-fan.gcode that can be compared to my UM1 file for the same flower: https://www.youmagine.com/documents/4552/download Um1 1.8.1 2.86mm Medium Trumpet Stigma5 so here's link to more explanation about why I am turning off the fans: here's the design link https://www.youmagine.com/designs/drooloop-flowers-customizable thanks for any help you can offer, Mark

I think 600x360 is the answer you want. after trial and error I use this rule for myself youmagine images- 600x360 - also note that top has file name and lowwer right will get YM logo watermark thingiverse images- 690x518 - preview might look funny, but expanded view works. then everything will show in the preview with no cropping. I use this template to make sure the watermake and files name are accounted for. FYI - I love that YM puts the watermark on for me, since some sites "borrow" images and at least with the watermark logo you'll know where they got your picts from. great idea if you ask me.

Thanks again for the spot on advice! here's what I spent my weekend doing. check list: -UM firmware , check, at least I think so...I used the CURA 14.01 to update and now my ulticontroller says - firmware=13.12 Dec 16th 2013 -retractions clip thing - check, i have one of these http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:24363 -stringing , love that link gr5 - I want to make that a poster and hang it up in the printing room. So I really wanted the bears to print closer to ~2hours each. so I did not go slower than 30mm/sec , I am happy with the results and I think the bears look better in person that these photos show since picts are so close up. For this model I really needed the miminum travel to be 1.5mm see picture. and lower temp helped.

this thread is just want I needed , I am trying to print a voronoi style bear on my UM1. I am printing a ton of these since the elementary kids want them. anyway...please look at this picture, I was able to make great improvements by using the settings shared by illuminarti. and I think these are going to work, BUT there is still a bit of messy stringing. my questions are: 1. Would this print better if I printed it bigger? I did scale down to 50% in CURA before printing since I did want to make a lot of them and smaller objects print faster with less plastic, but maybe I could do 70% or 60% and get a much better print?maybe? 2. Should these settings be tweaked at all for UM1? or am I already getting the best prints possible with this difficult model? thanks, for any advice you have oh and if the settings do not show up well in the photo. here's text versions: Print #3 - only one printed for this test [profile] layer_height = 0.1 wall_thickness = 0.8 retraction_enable = True solid_layer_thickness = 0.8 fill_density = 0 print_speed = 70 print_temperature = 220 retraction_speed = 40.0 retraction_amount = 4.5 retraction_min_travel = 1.5 retraction_combing = False retraction_minimal_extrusion = 0.02 travel_speed = 150.0 cool_min_layer_time = 3 Print #4 a'la illuminarti - two at once printed for this test [profile] layer_height = 0.1 wall_thickness = 0.8 retraction_enable = True solid_layer_thickness = 0.8 fill_density = 0 print_speed = 30 print_temperature = 230 retraction_speed = 35.0 retraction_amount = 5.5 retraction_min_travel = 1 retraction_combing = False retraction_minimal_extrusion = 0 travel_speed = 200.0 cool_min_layer_time = 3

thanks Callum, looking at these two sources do you think this is what I need to do? I thought I saw a detailed piture of the ulticontroller wiring yeterday but I can't find it today. http://reprap.org/wiki/Ultimaker%27s_v1.5.7_PCB http://reprap.org/wiki/File:Arduinomega1-4connectors.png

(don't want to sound lazy) but before I launch into this project I hoped to get a quick verifiaction that I might be sucessfull if i put in the brain work. Or advice from the more experienced folks pointing out my folly and/or helping me understand the scope of what will be needed for success. I have a Type A Machine (which uses a RAMPS board and Marlin) and an ulticontroller. I read a while back in Make Magazine that I could use the Ulticontroller to give me headless SDcard printing on this printer, but alas I can't find anyone who has documented this online. Some TAMs users have posted that this controller works (http://www.reprapshop.us/product/lcd-control-panel/) so I am encouraged that theortically I should be able to get my ulticontroller to work with the TAM. I think I will need to: 1. figure out the pysical connection pin differences. 2. possibly write custom pin assignements in the marlin firmware. or am i over thinking and just need something to do the work of this adapter that attaches to the RAMPS? (picture below) thanks for any help and/or discouragements you have to offer.

I love my UM1 build plate. I hate my Type A Machines Series 1 Build plate, since it's thiner and has wraped, also the manufacter admits this design flaw and just says to use get a peice of glass and tape it onto to the warped one. ANYWAY - I want to find out what type of material was used to make my UM1 plate (since i guess there's lot's of platics out there) so I get get the same stuff to make a new plate for my TAM printer and get it printing again.

I am playing around with Droop+Loop=drooloop printing. and I made a video showing some of my methods for manaully controlling the fan by modifying the gcode so my prints do not have to be baby-sat so much. things and ideas: https://www.youmagine.com/design_ideas/drooloop-droop-loop http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:240158 http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:243994

great start, i want to be here. But I find it hard to use beyond random browsing. These features have eluded me if they exist, they would make me more productive if they did exist, if they do exist make a help page or something. 1. let me follow designers, so I know when they add new things. 2. let me see a list of designs i have starred. (or let me bookmark or collect designs for future refrence). 3. the mail icon number does not appear to be a counter of unread mail since it never changes. i would prefer it to reset to zero once I have read all my mail, not be a running total like it is now. 4. share the logic on image uploads, i can't figure out how to make images that will not get bungled up..what's happening is it being cropped based on a aspect ratio, or size or what?

gr5 - I do not have a makerbot (I try to only expose the kids to open products) the red was printed on the MakerGear M2 and green on the Ultimaker1 (we also have a TypeA Machine Series 1 but it needs a new bed so it was not avalible at the moment) and both did have trouble with the top ring. Even after lowering the temp a bit and slowing things down the top ring was fussy. If I tried to print it filled it would be blobby, if I tried to print it hollow it was weak. I told them if the top breaks off maybe use to for a table top decoration, or use that as a chance to design a new hanging mechanism . :-)

I really appreciate the expert help and your patience guiding me through this! I have posted pics of my latest prints, looking much better. I delivered the trees to the 1st, 2nd and 5th grade classrooms today and they were very pleased. They were all waiting on the trees since last week they worked in pairs with openSCAD to make thier own tree modifications and posted pictures of thier individual trees to our classroom forum. I was able to tell them about how much I learned in the past few days and how grateful I was for the chance to deepen my understanding of the slicing and printing process. A wonderful example of the problem solving process, I showed them slides of the yuckiest prints and how (with your help) the prints got better, I was able to tell them all about how I was stumped by this printing job, and how i was able to find help from the amazing open-source community here. (I even included a slide of this forum in my presentation and some of the slice/head path photos from CURA) anyway, please know how much your time and willingness to share your knowledge is valued.

I guess I thought (incorrectly) that Cura generates a retract only when moving the head over "empty space" or from one island to another. Now I think it's making retractions when ever it's not actively printing, so even moves inside the object (like the solid layer in the picture) will retract if it's turning a corner, or positioning the head for another pass of solid fill. ?yes?

Just by looking at the path I can tell turning off combing should help a lot. see the picture of the path changes and the picture of the blobing I expect was caused by the "off object" retracting.

What should the path look like? I am trying to make sense of the tiny blue lines going up that indicat retractions. See the picture. should I strive for a single retration line when the path leaves the circle part of this layer (kinda like the far right settings) or should I expect two lines one when it begins the circle area and one when it leaves?

thanks all for the great input, here's my retraction setting details and what I am going to try next (following suggestions): was using will try (new settings) retraction speed=40.0 retraction speed=40.0 (this is default do I need the make it higher too?) retraction distance=4.5 retraction distance=4.5 (default again, not sure if this is high enough?) Travel Speed=70 Travel Speed=150 retractions min travel=1.5 retractions min travel=0 enable combing=yes enable combing=no min ext before retract=0.1 min ext before retract=0 I will also read up on the firmware build..if I am understanding , do i just download the beta 13.12 CURA and let it update the firmware on the arduino board of the ultimaker1 when it asks? then mabye switch back to using the stable version(13.11.2) for slicing and printer control? I should have some more pictures tonight. :-) thanks again!

Any advice is greatly appreciated. I am having trouble going from single object print to multiple. I work at a small elementary school which focus on “STEM curriculum”, we have several 3D printers (FYI - the ultimaker1 is my favorite). I often need to print ~120 of the same object or similar objects (if the kids designed their own). So I find myself wanting to find a good balance between producing good looking prints with high production volume. My current need is to print a bunch of tree ornaments. I can change anything about the model in order to make it print faster and better, and I think I have created the best model I can by following the process detailed below. What I am having trouble with now is to figure out... Why I am getting so much blobbing on these prints?? This tree prints pretty good one at a time, but when I print a bunch at once I get a lot of blobs, more blobs than I would anticipate due to stringing. This pic compares a tree printed in a group with a tree printed alone.(same print-slice settings used on both) more prints showing my progress in this album FYI - My thought process for making a model that will print fast and pretty, and how to print a lot of them: 1. retraction should be avoided (because is slows down the printing and can make yucky blobs) – so try to make as much of the model as possible so that it will be sliced as a single path outline, or each layer is a solid path with no retractions needed. So I make the smallest dimension equal to 2 x Nozzle size, and for parts larger that 2xnozzle keep them small enough to not become too week when sliced with the following settings. To minimize retraction slice with: Shell thickness=nozzle size Fill Density=zero Printing speed = as fast as you can (for me this is usually 70mm to 100mm) 2. Go for long print runs. Removing objects, replacing tape, and re-starting a print jobs takes time..and usually if the 1st and 2nd layers print well you leave the machine alone and just check on it every hour. Make a STL file with a bunch of copies on the bed, since letting CURA do this puts too much space between them, you need to make your own full plate with the objects closer. Also this will make CURA print all objects at once (the ability to manually set this in CURA comes and goes from release to release).

thanks all. for sure this is not a bug. it is me trying to understand the settings and getting them right for this print. I will start a new thread describing my diffculty with printing this model under the "Questions & Answers (Help Each Other)" forum. thanks again for the great input, and pointing me in the right direction.

thanks for the input, I did not notice the min speed. So my min speed is set to 10mm/sec, ganrty=0. I am not sure it's slowing to 10mm/sec but I will watch is closely to see if this is the limit I am reaching. (normal print speed 70mm/sec) Multiple objects might be the way I need to go.

I have a print that ends in a small diameter peak and need to slow down the print or the whole thing is a melty blob. I have tried using 2 and 5 minimal layer time, but I do not see the print slowing at all, it just keeps going at the normal speed. My expectation would be that it would slow down to the point of only printing 1-layer/Minimal layer time. So if the setting is 2 secs the z-axis should only advance every 2 seconds. Has anyone else see this, or is there another setting I need to check?

other details - winXP, 32bit ok so that file name truncation bothered me, so I made sure to make a file name that was 8.3 so I put this in T:webcam/timelaps.mpg and this time when I closed the print window I got a movie! yeah. also in case your temped to use avidemux to make your image sequence into a movie, don't try the latest version. you need 2.5.x to assemble jpg sequences, i gather that was left out of 2.6.x

I am not getting timelapse either, here's what I am finding: good things: 1. camera enable works, preview works and stays active during the entire print. 2. python is using the camera 3. I am getting snapshots written to this folder T:Cura_13.11.2Curagui\__tmp_snap 4. even with the strange path that shows in the camera window with the funky forward slash, I DO get a file written to that folder, but only after I close the finished print window from cura...BUT Bad things. 1. the file made is 0KB and also has a truncated name.... (details) Cura wanted to name the file: T:webcam/timelaps_2013-12-03_05:09.mpg but the file that was created when I closed the print window was T:webcam imelaps_2013-12-03_05 like I said this file has zero KB and not extention. help, anyone? is there a log file some where that might shed light on my trouble? and I missing a step? I can use avidemux to make a moive from the images, but that seems like a pain.

i am the proud new custodian of our school's ultimaker , i got it to use with our students and made this short (and hopefully fun) video to help show the staff, parents and kids what this 3d printing thing is all about. Please Enjoy, and share with people who need to see a super simple and short explanation of what the "home 3D printer" is all about.

I have this info to share CURA 13.06.4 , it seems you can remove the strings in the gcode generated if you set Fill>Bottom/Top Thickness(mm) = o see these two picts same object, http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:104694 one with 0.8 bottom fill THE OTHER with bottom fill ZERO. not sure what this means but thought the info might be interesting and someone might be able to figure out how to print these things with out back-reving CURA I think i will print the bottom and stop the print after about 0.4mm, then start over and print the hollow on and glue it to the base.

I too am having this issue, and solved it by doing a lot of test prints. I feel like CURA is treating my inside holes like outside walls and adding wall thinkness to the inside(making it smaller), is there a way i can tell it the hole needs to have the wall thickness go in the opposite direction? I am new to creating my own files from scratch..just unsing inkscape, blender, and tinkercad, and still learning about how these programs work.

thanks for the great info and help! I am contacting the seller to find out their return/refund policy. Also I understand how the large variation in this filament will be an ongoing issue (looking at standard dev of my measurements silver=0.016mm, others = +0.024mm). So I bet even if i did get a larger Bowden (great suggestion) i will probbably have more trouble with this stock than the silver stock.