peanudt

@illuminarti: It doesn't matter whether Cura is running or is already stopped when the computer hybernates. I cannot rule out every possibility, but I'm quite confident it is caused by Cura.

Hi all, each time when I have used Cura, I am unable to login when my Macbook awakes. The Macbook is responsive (keyboard lighting for example), but the screen remains completely black. A hard shut-down is required to get things going again. The problem remains even after a hard reset. Starting the Macbook in Safe Mode solves the issue, so now I need to start my Macbook in Safe Mode each time I've used Cura. Does anybody has a clue what is going on? Or even better; does anybody has a solution? - Macbook Air (medio 2011, Intel 1,8 i7, Intel HD-Video 3000) - OSX 10.9.2 (13C64) (Issue also occurred with previous versions) - Cura 14.03 (Issue also occurred with previous versions)

It was the temperature :oops: Everything works as it should work (including the extruder fail safe)

:shock: I feel a bit stupid now...... Heated the head in order to get rid of the filament in the nozzle. Then I calibrated the bed height a I guess that the head cooled down during that operation. Will try it again shortly and now keep an eye on the temperature. Thanks Sander :oops:

Hi all, my extruder motor is not working anymore. - The extruder motor and cables are OK. Hooked the connector to another axis output and that works fine. - The stepper is also OK. Changed the stepper with the one on a working axis and that looks OK as well. - Tried another motor on the Extruder output, but the motor does not move either. I used the Ulticontroller to manually move the axis. Any ideas what the problem is?

Used the galley, but I think the original is not that large.

Update: second set of test results Thanks for your thoughts. I agree with the reactions above that the ringing effect is caused by the movement of the print head and the resonance it produces that is transported throughout the whole Ultimaker (and bed) and the underground. As the new fan duct is heavier than the stock version, so I wanted to check what the effect is of the weight difference. Furthermore the reactions above made me think about how the resonance is affected by the underground. Does a sturdy base prevent ringing or do you need some flexibility to absorb the forces. And of course the print bed is a potential source of resonance. My assumption is that print at the front of the machine are more vulnerable to resonance effects compared to the back of the platform. First of all, I tightened all belts and placed some belt tensioners. There was a bit of slack in the previous tests, but all tests were done with the same slack. Stock vs Printed Fan Althoug the results look the same, the top part is printed with an Acceleration setting of 5000 mm/s with the standard fan and the bottom part is printed at 3500 mm/s with the following fan duct: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:69327. I will use the stock fan for now as the weight appears do affect the ringing in my machine significantly. Base My Ultimaker was placed on the corner of the desk. My idea of heaving a sturdy base and prevent wobbling in the middle of the desk. For the bottom print the Ultimaker was placed on the floor. A wooden floor with some insulation beneath. The top part was printed with the UM located in the middle of my desk. Surprisingly the UM in the middle of the desk produced the best results. Apparently the resonance of the machine is partly absorbed due to the fact that the underground is able to resonate as well (and thus absorbing some of the forces produced by the machine). Location on the bed I printed a test cube at the front of the print platform and one at the back. As you can see below the print on top (back of the platform) is less affected then the print from the front of the bed (bottom print). Conclusion (after second set of tests) The parameters to work with for my machine: [*]Minimise weight of the head so stick to stock fan.[*]Print objects preferably at the back of the platform (new Cura setting: load a model and place it in the back of the platform by default?) [*]Do not use a stiff underground/base [*]Acceleration settings [*]And of course: proper belt tension

Here you go, hopefully you can zoom in some more.

As promised an example: Some comparison shots with the Ultimaker PLA. All owls printed with a layer height of 0,1mm. The green and left owl's speed was 50 mm/s and for the right grey owl 100 mm/s. The Colorfabb filament has a nice gloss and a lot of detail is showing.

These are the results of the performed test. No it is not a proper lab test, but good enough as a starting point. General print settings: [*]Speed: 50 mm/s[*]Temp: 210 C [*]Infill: 10% [*]Wall: 0.8 mm [*]Nozzle: 0.4 mm (stock) All changes done via the Ulticontroller. The photo's show the front of the objects as it looks the most dramatic on that side. Jerk No noticeable differences between the settings. Temperature Printed within the advised printing temperature for this material. No noticeable differences between the temperatures. Rotation Although it does not really show in the picture below, the ringing appears to be a bit less, but for me not enough. Acceleration Changes have been made to the Acceleration setting (Control --> Movement --> Acceleration). Changed the default value of 5000 to 4000 and subsequently 3000 mm/s. At 3000 mm/s the ringing is reduced to an acceptable level. However the corner is still a bit deformed, but that is probably caused by some over extrusion. I also tried to lower the individual Acceleration setting for the X and Y axis, but that gave no noticeable differences (no photo included). Conclusion (for now) The Acceleration setting helps reducing the ringing effect, however I do not completely understand how lowering this setting is affecting the overall performance of the printer. What are your ideas? Furthermore I assume my belt tension is good, but to be completely honest I have some doubts. However, if I am able to improve the tension, the Acceleration setting appears to be the parameter to tweak with respect to ringing.

Thanks, modified the first post, forgot about the temperature as I was in a hurry. I have photos and will add some comments to them.

After changing my filament I noticed some fading bumps in the walls of the test cubes. It looks like some sort of back lash effect, which is probably caused by the fact that I changed the stock fan duct for a printed version and my new filament color and finish shows more details. Apparently it is called 'ringing' and is caused by some resonance of the print head and/or platform after making a sharp turn (all to do with speed, acceleration etc. but I'm not going into details here). In order to solve the issue I found several suggestions on the Internet. - Tighten/loosen belts - Change the temperature - Change the jerk settings - Change the acceleration settings - Rotate your object 45 degrees - Add weight to the platform or print head The last suggestion I do not cover, but I will share the results of the other tests soon. For those who cannot wait: - I found the solution in lowering the acceleration setting via the Ulticontroller (not axis specific Acceleration settings).

Last week I ordered a variety of colors from Colorfabb. I could come over to pick up the order in Venlo and was pleased by the invitation. It was great to see their in-house production line and showroom/test facility. All materials and new materials are tested by Colorfabb's employees themselve, so they have 3D printing experience themselves (amongst others of course with the Ultimaker). @Colorfabb: Thanks for the tour guys! Now to the filament.... It felt like Christmas in the middle of summer. Every spool is packaged individually in a cartboard box and sealed. The lable clearly indicates the type of filament and the characteristics including a QR code with the link to the product page (no easter egg found). For printing I started with the following settings: Temp 215C Speed 50mm/s Layer 0,2mm Filament 2,8mm Compared to the silver grey Ultimaker filament the PLA/PHA looks/is more liquid when oozing from the nozzle. It flows easily and the initial prints look good with regard to infill and layer adhesion. The finish is more shiny and fluent then the UM PLA. It also feels a bit oily / smooth. Recognize the model? More examples will follow shortly.

Hi all, here's a new owl with the following settings: speed 100 mm/s, layer 0,1mm, Temp 230C, Flow 104, infill 0%, wall 1,2mm (3 loops), nozzle 0,4mm The result is very good. Flow: layer 0,1 x nozzle 0,4 x speed 100 = 4 Comparison with previously printed owls: Left: 0,2 x 0,4 x 50 = 4 Middle: 0,2 x 0,4 x 100 = 8 Right: 0,1 x 0,4 x 50 = 2 Some very little imperfections due to some backlash. I noticed that it happened in some layers, where the start of a new loop is in a specific place. However after a few layers the starting point shifted again and the backlash was gone in that location. Are belt tensioners any good for a new machine? Will also have a look at the resonance of the desk and tighten the short belts again. The ears however needed some cleaning up, because of oozing (min. layer time 5 seconds). Read something about a plugin for this issue, but is it possible to run plugins in Cura 13.06.5 (OSX)? Compared to the other owls the quality of the finish is even better than the right owl in my previous post. And yes, it was a much faster print (100mm/s and no infill). The thicker wall (and lack of infill) resulted in a smooth finish. Thnx for the tips Illuminarti. Just for fun a miniature version of the Stratum vase (great design and a nice tune during the print).

Thnx Illuminarti, Controlling the flow makes sense. Will have a go at 100mm/s with a 0,1 layer height and play around with the infill. Great articles on your website by the way.

Hi guys (and girls), tried some owls and the results are improving..... Left: speed 50 mm/s, layer 0,2mm, Temp 230C, Flow 104, infill 15% Middle: speed 100 mm/s, layer 0,2mm, Temp 230C, Flow 104, infill 15% Right: speed 50mm/s, infill speed 100mm/s, layer 0,1mm, Temp 230C, Flow 104, infill 10% Left owl shows a good result. Some imperfections on the smooth surfaces and some problem with overlap on the chest. Any tips on fine-tuning? The speed for the second owl was too high. Many imperfections on the wings, chest and head. Must slow down the speed of the perimeters. For the infill the speed is not an issue though. The right owl has the best result with very little imperfections. Nevertheless the ears were not as clean and nicely defined as the other prints. The printer slowed down and dragged a bit through the material. Probably related to the minimal layer time, but that I need to experiment with. Next stop: - lose the imperfections - experiment with the flow and temperature (now 230C and flow of 104 gives good results) - get some more colors/types of filament :-P

Thanks Gr5. I did some research and it appears to be a combination of multiple causes. Adjusting the filament diameter appears to solve most of the issues. I measured 2,85mm, however when I change it to 2,8 the infill and top-layer of the sample prints look good. Furthermore when printing at 75mm/s I should set the temperature at 220C, otherwise it sometimes under extrudes. In the picture below you can see that in the first few layers at 210 are showing some gaps. Rest was printed at 220C. Third cause: the filament was slipping sometimes. I disassembled the clamp and noticed that the part that puts pressure on the bold with the bearing could not freely move. The nut placed in between the parts did not fit properly so when you put all parts on top of each other, it is a bit wider in the middle. A small file did the trick. Furthermore I think I tightened the screw before putting in the filament....... On the sides of the circle there are no visual signs of backlash (I will try the vase again later), but where the printer head holds to move the z-axis it forms a small blob. Will try you're suggestion of experimenting with temperature and speed as proposed in another topic about the z-seam.

Hi all, got my Ultimaker up and running. Below some pictures of my first prints showing some issues I want to get rid off. Hopefully I can get some advice on the settings I should experiment with. Vase [*]Using latest version Cura[*]Temp: 200C[*]Print Speed: 70 mm/s, went back to 50 mm/s for upper 4 cm[*]Wall: 0,8[*]Layer height: 0,1 Things to solve: 1: Tried to slow down, but the holes still appeared in some layers (pic 1) 2: Stringing, already pulled some treads out, so on the picture it is not a spider web anymore (pic 2) 3: Blobs on the walls (pic 1). These appear on all sides in the middle of the axes plaines (front, back,left,right) 4: You can see a pattern of small diagonal squares. Is that normal? Handle After checking the belts and leveling the bed (can slide a piece of paper underneath the print head with a little bit of friction) I printed the handle below. [*]Using latest version Cura[*]Temp: 210C[*]Print Speed: 50 mm/s[*]Wall: 1,2[*]Infill: 40%[*]Layer height: 0,2 Issues: 1. Some layers show gaps (pic 1). The infill pattern looks fine (nice lines, connects to edges) 2. The top layer is horrible in some places. The upper layer could be peeled off easily. The pattern is not overlapping, but consists of separate lines of filament. Advice is more than welcome.