jonnybischof

The price of the Conrad rod is like 5 Euros, that's really cheap. I guess if you buy these it's just good or bad luck - this is definetly no precision stuff. I think the material I posted above is top quality stuff - it's meant for actual precision industrial equipment. But I guess one rod will cost somewhere around 100 Euros including cutting and chamfering. But we'll see, I hope they'll contact me soon. At least the rods are something everyone can buy as he wishes - be it a 100 Euro overkill-rod or a 5 Euro standard-rod that will, with some luck - yield pretty much the same results... @Dim3nsioneer: How did you measure your banana rod error? The only thing I can do is roll it on the table which will probably tell me more about the flatness of the table than the straightness of the rod..

Well of course the not so pretty motors will stick out, but that can't be avoided anyways. Maybe I'll design some sort of cover (with fan) or something for them. I'll see that if I don't like the looks... metall-laden.ch yielded no results... They don't offer precision rods. I'm contacting a Swiss steel trader (www.hertsch.ch). I found this which looks interesting: http://www.hertsch.ch/-pdf/H-Cf53-1.1213.pdf I expect a horrendous price (or maybe they don't even do small orderes at all), but maybe they surprise me... I'll get an offering for some different quantities, maybe someone else wants some new rods, too? I'm talking mainly Switzerland, but Europe could be managed if necessary.

There's nothing wrong with advertising something if it's worth being advertised I didn't know your blocks existed, so thanks a lot for showing me! I noticed the printhead carriage is quite unstable and wobbly. It doesn't seem to hurt as I actually get pretty good results with my Original UM1 printer, but it's something I'll be happy to improve if possible. So I'll definetly give your blocks a try. They seem a bit complicated in comparison to the very simple and stylish Reptar blocks, but if they improve the XY carriage then it's exactly what I want to have Do you use the standard belts & pulleys? I'll switch to GT2, hope that won't be a problem... My Summer-2013 UM1 doesn't seem to need anything fixed on the Bowden system. Works like a charm. I don't expect having to make any modifications there... I'd be happy to hear about any kind of instructions / installation material about direct drive! I'll definetly do direct drive, but haven't decided yet which solution to use. As this will be an external mod, there is one more challenge to it: I don't want it to ruin the clean appearance of the UM, so style also matters here! Nick Foley's approach is very appealing.

Dito. Would be a very useful information I think. I've got a torque screwdriver but not much experience with mechanical assembly (I'm an electronics guy...). I've picked up a lot of knowledge on my apprenticeship at Esec (today Besi Switzerland) where there are more highly skilled people per square meter than I've ever seen before, but scarcely had to actually do assemblies myself. I screwed in my UM pulley setscrews really tight, very close to ripping them apart. I guess that's too much but I don't have that "fine feeling" of an experienced (and maybe simply "trained") assembly guy. There's another problem with Loctite: The usual stuff (242 as well as 243 I believe) simply doesn't work with stainless steel (according to the datasheet it should reach 25% strength after a considerable amount of time). It won't harden even after 12 hours of curing time because it just doesn't cure around passive materials such as stainless steel. I'm also not sure whether it's a good idea to combine Aluminum with stainless steel and whatever other kind of steel the rods are made of: That could lead to some electrochemical corrosion effects.. Of course there are special threadlockers for exactly that purpose. But where would a layperson find this, and what does it cost? Probably not feasible... So, one more reason to just use the right amount of torque (be it with a torque tool or fine feeling) instead of a threadlocker.

Interesting... I actually didn't try using the SD card in the printer, just tried to format it. Didn't even think about just trying

If you buy a SDHC card and format only a 2GB FAT-32 partition, it might work. I'm not sure though as SDHC has substantial differences compared to standard SD. Don't forget that the Ulticontroller is nowhere near a PC, it's just a small 8-bit MCU... I could try that, got a 32GB card lying around. If I don't forget about it, I'll report back /edit: tried it, but it seems Win7 can't format an SD card with custom partition sizes... The necessary settings are not available :( Maybe it works with some advanced disk tools, but I don't have any... It's best to just buy a standard 2GB SD card, no SDHC or even higher tech.

I've also seen screws that had some kind of pre-applied, hardened Loctite on them. These would probably also be more expensive than standard screws though... I generally use only Torx screws. Almost impossible to mess up the screwheads. But UM uses stainless steel hex screws which are also very good quality. Not the crappy stuff you usually get... Usually, I buy my own screws at a Swiss quality hardware store and replace the original stuff (mostly for computer stuff), except for the Ultimaker which is probably the very first time

I don't know about blue. I've always been more the red type... Especially since Titan Colossus Armor from Mass Effect 1 But the blue Ulticontroller screen kinda kills the black - red scheme. I'll have to do some sketches, or maybe someone else wants to? I'm about as skilled as a chimpanzee when it comes to drawing... I also like the Crysis-style hexagon paint. Being a geometric pattern, I might actually be able to reproduce that... Anything that is not drawing shapes by hand Oh, and about the posts that I ignored up until now: Thanks for mentioning everything! I did read everything and will also consider everything. There is just not enough time at the moment to consider all the stuff at once, and for some things it's too early to decide...

Yeah, but you've got a point. I don't want it to look like a product of the-company-we-don't-mention We'll see. I really like black with red details... On a side note: Digitec.ch, Switzerland's biggest online computer stuff shop, has recently added the Replicator 2 to their product lineup. They sell filament for 100 CHF per kg o.O. Is the Makerbot stuff really that expensive or are they just hoping no one will notice??? All the products are marked as best-sellers... I've already protested, but I guess it won't have much effect. I want to encourage other Swiss people to also comment there! I may have some influence there (some people seem to recognise me being a long time customer and commenter) but it's always good to be backed up by other people.

Hmmm... I don't have the slightest clue about materials. C45 says nothing to me. Tolerance h6? Yeah, cool. I don't know what that means... metall-laden.ch has states the alloy is "4301I / 4301F". "property" of the stainless steel rods is "H9-S". Great, now I know more. They also have "blank / black steel" rods. Alloy is S235JR", property says "WRMWLZ". Again, now I know everything... I emailed them describing what I want in normal words, we'll see about the answer. Maybe they can get the right stuff, should still come cheaper than importing something from the US. About timing belts / pulleys: It seems that MXL belts in general are actually not suitable for the UM because there is some backlash regardless of whether you use good pulleys or not (square pattern vs. rounded pattern). So I guess I'll switch to GT2 belts & pulleys anyways. I can still use my good MXL pulleys for the first machine once the second is up and running. Right now I don't want to touch my only running system... I found robotdigg.com as a supplier of some of the hardware I'm going to need. They make promising statements about quality, but it's all chinese stuff (and we all know what that means in this industry...). Anyone has experience with their products? /edit: Found another one: http://openbuildspartstore.com/ Also seems to have everything I need (except for rods :(). Anyone knows this store?

I think you might run into trouble with the exactness of the rod positioning if you weaken their mechanical support (meaning the mounting of the bearings). The standard solution with the bearings firmly in place inside the precision-cut frame walls is probably hard to match with printed parts that are somehow attached to the frame. But please prove me wrong! I'd love to have a solution with the stock rods. I know a Swiss metal trader (metall-laden.ch) who does have stainless steel rods with 5mm,8mm and more diameters. But I don't think these are precision "shaft" rods. I'll have to check though; will visit them when I have time.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I'll try to keep up with everything: 1. Colors I have black and "white" (natural smart ABS by Orbi-Tech) ABS, plus clear BendLay as well as access to red ABS. I'd like to stick to one of these because I don't intend to have a big variety of ABS colors. I don't like ABS and will only use it when necessary, so I don't want to have too much of it laying around. So, my next approach would be red frame with black printed parts. Is that far enough away from the company-we-don't-mention color scheme? 2. Direct drive Okay, so I want direct drive. I'd really like to be able to stick to the standard rods if possible. I want to stick to a "swap out as little original material as possible, with maximum effect" policy if possible. I'm located in Switzerland, so every part I have to buy will come at a high transportation cost (be it in the EU or overseas...). But if that poses a serious problem - sigh General rule: It should be printable. Having to buy flex couplers is OK, I can probably get them from qu-bd.com where I'll buy stuff anyways. So, I prefer Nick Foley's motor corner http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:208343 which looks very nice and clean (great job!), but needs longer rods. Just had a closer look on my machine to figure out why exactly you need longer rods. So the problem is that the bearings are in the way, and in order to stick to the standard rods you need to relocate the bearings. I fear that any modification like this would have a negative impact on print quality because the positioning of the rods is not that good anymore. Comments on that part? 3. Belt tensioners / Belts I agree that belt tensioners should be avoided if possible - I want to make the motion system as lightweight and simple as possible. 298MXL Belts sounds interesting, but where do I get these? Switching to GT2 belts & pulleys (or maybe HTD) is another option, but I already have foehnsturm's pulleys which I don't want to go to waste - they were expensive and look very promising. Will look for a source for 298MXL belts on my lunch break... 4. Levelling / Z-stage I might give it a shot to make a complete custom Z-stage. With my Basalt HBP there is some need of modification anyways, so I might just as well make it a more thorough modification. Levelling should be 3-point, I agree with that. Also, I need stronger springs (already have these on my first machine, major quality increase...) and bigger washers but that's unimportant details for now. 5. Extruder drive I don't want to swap out the actual extruder drive, I'm happy with the standard (I guess they made some improvements over time, the one I got in August 2013 works perfectly...). But the mounting bracket has a lot of room for improvement. I guess I'll see to that myself, I already have some ideas on how to address that. /edit: 6. Vibration dampening I want to address this as well. My printer should be as silent as possible because it operates in an office building with people working on the floor above it. The printer will run most of the time so it must not disturb anyone. I know about the physics of vibration, but don't know how to use the formulae in practice. In short, vibrations have a certain frequency (probably with harmonics). In order to cancel them out, a means of dampening should be used which works on the same frequency. Does anyone know more about that or cares to measure what kind of vibrations the UM generates? I think I'll just try addressing that issue the KISS way: I notiecd there is some actual vibration as well as a much slower shaking. That's two different kinds of vibrations which should be countered with a two-stage dampening system. Now, what would be most useful for a "vibration" and a "shaking" dampener? Note that I need to rise the Ultimaker about 5cm from the ground anyways because I want to get rid of the standard electronics cooling fan - it sucks. Using a standard axial fan means needing some more headroom in front of it ( = printer bottom to ground clearance). Plus I want to put the PSUs under the machine to have them tucked away.

Sounds like there is a parallel development for the same thing? Maybe you two should consider working together on that - no use doing all the work twice...

Mine never clogged, except one time when I didn't notice that the bed levelling was way off, nozzle sat flush on the Basalt bed... o.O I'd prefer not to have to replace the core of the hotend because I think it's a waste of material and money to buy a new and well working (at least for me) hotend just to throw it away... But if there is something which gives a significant benefit I'm open to have a look at it. I'm going to check out UBIS now. /edit: It does look interesting, mainly because of the tiny size and weight. But it seems Printrbot is only selling 1.75mm versions??? I don't want to switch to 1.75mm because I don't want to have different filament diameters around... The crossflow cooling fan (UBIS has no fan mounts) was also something I'm curious about. But I need the UBIS for 3mm filament. /edit: Ok, read some more (http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/3786-ubis-hotend-on-an-ultimaker/). So there is no more 3mm UBIS -> no go.

Aww man :( But black does look nice :( :( :( Open to suggestions for better color options...

Thanks for the suggestions. I prefer the one above because it's inside the machine and doesn't hurt the optical beauty of the Ultimaker Added to the list!

Definetly worth considering What are MBI colors? Direct drive is definetly worth considering, especially because this also keeps the motors out of the hot zone. Haven't looked that much into it yet, which one is the best implementation yet? I guess you need some kind of bracket for direct drive? /edit: Also on the list: Something to improve bed levelling. Maybe with an optical or inductive sensor. I think there is already someone toying with such a thing? Also I might have to reinforce the whole build plate because the Basalt HBP is really heavy. Worked well so far, but it can be improved (which is the goal of the Black Edition UM!). /edit: Interesting: https://www.youmagine.com/designs/db-three-point-magnetic-ball-joint-levelling

I agree it doesn't take much more than that. On the other hand, I guess that for example Nick Foley's Minimum Printhead has a notable advantage over the standard one because it's lighter. This should make up for the two fans that I'll use over the standard single fan. And the Reptar sliding blocks look awesome, plus they're easier to assemble which is also an advantage. Just realised that the 40mm fan ducts in the list will probably not fit that one - gotta think that over... I've seen some printed "wave" clips somewhere, these looked interesting, too. I prefer printable upgrades over metal hardware because printing a piece is pretty much no effort at all. But of course the printed upgrades must be long-term stable. That's something I'm not sure about on these wave tensioners... Last but not least, I'll print all the parts in red ABS which will look awesome on the black frame /edit: found and added the wave belt tensioners.

Hi community I NEED MOAR PRINTING CAPACITY!! No, seriously, I'll get myself a second UM1 kit next month because I want to be able to print more stuff in less time. So, now that I already have a 3D printer, I can throw in all the nice upgrades for the new kit right from the start. Why no UM2? Just because I want to build the printer myself, and because I'm perfectly satisfied with the printing quality the UM1 has. Oh, and it's cheaper... I painted my first UM1 in white, so the new one will obiously need to be black, hence I call it "THE BLACK EDITION". Also, the black Basalt HBP will integrate nicely into a black printer. Anyways, there are hundreds of UM1 upgrades on Thingiverse and Youmagine, the range goes from "truly awesome" to "just obsolete". So, I want to collect a list of all the Upgrades that "need to be in my printer", and I hope some of you care to help me with that Some guidelines: I'm looking for any functional modification that will actually improve anything. I will stick to a single extruder (at least for now) as I'm usually making functional parts, not art. Please share your experiences with the parts you suggest, if you have any. I'll continually update the list below until it's complete. Hopefully we'll come up with a really nice upgraded printer that may inspire others who don't know which fan duct or which extruder drive to take... Okay, here's the list, which is VERY INCOMPLETE AT THE MOMENT! (gotta get back to work...) Also, there's some parts that are double-mentioned (slider blocks) or won't go with another part in the list. That's alright for now, it means I'll sort it out by actually printing the stuff and do comparisons. /29.01.14: The list is very NOT up to date at the moment. Lots of basic stuff in discussion right now... /09.12.14: WOW, a lot of time has passed... I'm ditching the list below as the UMBE project has quietly grown waay bigger than what it started with... I'll leave it there for your reference, but note that I'm not working on this anymore. By now, 99% of the parts have been redesigned, and when I'm finished, it'll be 100%. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Basic parts from UM - UM1 original kit - Ulticontroller Assembly helpers - Ultimaker nut holder cap by AnthonyT https://www.youmagine.com/designs/ultimaker-nut-holder-cap Heated build plate upgrade - Basalt HBP & silicone heater from qu-bd.com - MosFET Relay board for switching (custom - tbd) - 12V industrial PSU, 200W - Ultimaker Cable Chain by drayson http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:247573 Heated chamber upgrade - Need one, suggestions? Z-stage upgrades - Z-axis end-switch fine-adjuster by GeneralRulofDumb http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:11033 - Probably going to redesign the entire Z-stage - 3-point levelling Motion upgrades - Improved pulleys by foehnsturm (never put them in my first machine o.O) - Reptar XY V2 slider blocks by nhfoley http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:154859 - TwisterBlocks by chopmeister https://www.youmagine.com/designs/twisterblocks - Microwave belt tensioners by chopmeister https://www.youmagine.com/designs/microwave Hotend upgrades - Ultimaker Minimum Printhead by nhfoley http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:154845 - 40mm Fanducts by 3dcase https://www.youmagine.com/designs/40mm-fanducts-for-dual-extruder - 2x Noiseblocker BlackSilent 40mm fans Extruder drive upgrades - Ultimaker Extruder Gear Grip by Elwin http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:38311 - Replace Delrin wheel with steel bearing http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/1676-modification-of-upgraded-extruder-drive/?hl=%2Breplace+%2Bdelrin - I want to replace the extruder drive, the standard drive mounts poorly to the frame... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tools needed - Momentive RTV106 silicone adhesive (for glueing the silicone heater to the Basalt plate, buy @ Amazon.com) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Open questions: - Belt tensioners? - Different belts needed? (I don't think so) - Must go with the Pulleys by foehnsturm - Does it make sense to switch to a completely different Hotend, like the E3D? I'm quite pleased with the UM hotend, never gave me any headache until now... btw, everything that's in the list already may be questioned and improved, if you think you have a better option!

I think this sounds interesting, though it's probably rather overkill than necessity (the UM1 runs pretty well, even at high speeds...) Do you have an estimate in BOM cost? How complex is your main PCB? 4 layers, 6 layers? The one huge advantage of an Arduino mainboard is, that it costs some ridiculous 35$ (or something). I've been playing with the thought of making a custom electronics for myself, expecially regarding shortcomins on power supply design, ESD protection, dedicated watchdog IC and expandability. Imho it makes sense only if the new electronics are a complete replacement for the UM original electronics including the Ulticontroller. These cost 275 Euros combined, which is a price range that could be matched IF you don't charge anything for the development costs AND you produce them in small series quantity (like 100 or 200 pcs). But the most important thing would be that it should be completely open source, just like the original. I'd love to see such a project come to life and would like to participate, and I'd definetly buy some. I must admit though that I'm not very experienced on the firmware side of things - I don't think it's trivial to recreate Marlin for a 32bit ARM CPU. It's probably written in C (is it?) so there should be some level of portability, but that's just not (yet) my strong side... I know that the Marlin firmware is constantly being improved and debugged, which means that "you" (meaning the guy who makes the firmware in the end) will also have to track that progress and, if necessary, adapt the ARM firmware as well. This could become a very time consuming process - time I would probably not have. /edit: I'm planning on buying a second UM1 kit for my prototyping lab soon, throwing in "a few" upgrades. Improved electronics are definetly on my wishlist...

The easiest thing to "learn" how to tighten screws properly is to use a torque screwdriver. It's also the fastest way to work because you don't have to worry about getting the torque right anymore but you can just screw on until it slips. While we're at it, use only Swiss quality tools of course: http://www.pbswisstools.com/en/quality-hand-tools-qht/screwdrivers/torque-tools/mecatorque.html By the way, these are not even expensive, they're actually among the cheapest torque tools I've seen so far, but it works like a charm and has a great grip. Considering the UM vibrates quite a lot when printing fast, it could also make sense to use a threadlocker like Loctite 243 (metal screws AND threads only! Standard threadlockers don't take plastic well) for some screws. This is also common for example with RC helicopters to prevent screws from coming loose because of continuous vibration. /edit: Almost forgot: Of course you need to know what torque is optimal, but once someone determined that and wrote it down, it's easy to reproduce with a torque screwdriver. You can just "determine" that by hand if you're experienced enough, that's not rocket science... /one more edit: By the way, the MecaTorque is newer (2013) and better than the DigiTorque, even if it seems to be the more out-of-fashion way of making a tool.

Hail to the (ex-)Governator!

It sure would be convenient, but as long as the already provided "outer-box" dimensions are accurate, you can always calculate the rest if you have the source files. Sometimes I noticed that downloaded STL files have a very strange 100% size, and typically I don't have the source files for these, or I don't have them in a file format that I can use (I'm a total CAD-software noob using only Sketchup 8). So imho, yes, I'd like that feature, too. But I guess it's not a very high priority. Also, for that feature to be really useful, it needs to be quite mighty (measure radius and measure from center of a circle to a line or stuff like that). I've seen that on ProE / Creo and it doesn't seem to be a trivial thing. Also, Creo is a nightmare to use! Better to keep Cura simple

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JST_connector Mind the reference links, you will find detailed descriptions of every JST connector there is. Maybe you find the correct type in the BOM for the electronics, most JST connectors have a 2-character series designator, like the XH series (very wide spread in RC electronics).

@Mischiminator I didn't find any max-temp setting on the Ulticontroller, except for the extruder. Config.h says 150°C. Fact is, it has worked before, so it shouldn't be a configuration problem? @gr5 1.) I'm using a Silicone heater, 12V, resistance somewhere around 1 Ohm (it says it draws up to 10 Amps). I'm using a dedicated PSU with 12V, 16.5A max. rating (200W). But I'll still check it asap, so far I've only measured the MosFET gate level. 2.) I'll check everything, but there shouldn't be any issues as it's all pretty massive stuff (I used 2mm2 wiring, and the only solder joints are on the UM electronics). 3.) As long as Cura doesn't do automatic firmware upgrades in the background, then I definetly didn't upload a different firmware. Automatic upgrades would be pretty stupid regarding that there are many custom-firmware-users, so I guess that's not the case. But it sure does sound like Marlin tries something with PWM and a baaaadly configured PID regulator. Thanks for your help so far! I hope I can do the checks tonight and I'll probably redo the wiring and the MosFET. I don't like the fact that the MosFET gate signal is at 19V, maybe (even though 19V is less than the absolute maximum allowed voltage) the MosFET did get damaged after all. I'll put a Z-diode on the gate (I hope I have one laying around) to make sure that doesn't happen.