Nicolinux

Wow, cool. So many gamers in here. I hereby propose a name change for this thread: A Coffee between friends and gamers :-) How was Your Play ?

Right, back on topic. I had a great weekend. I met my friends and we played computer all weekend. We are all in our mid 30s right now, but there is this one thing that connects us all since we were young. Every spring and fall when the weather is bad and our ladies deny our romantic advances with "headaches", we grab our gaming rigs and bestow the great honor on one of us to be the host for the weekend's lan party. Since Steam and it's dreaded gaming sales, every one of us sports an impressive array of games that we do exploit greatly on this occasion. But there are also the classics, always the classics. This time's trip down the memory lane was Quake III Arena. God I have so many fond memories with this game. Used to play it so much back than, was all involved with "serious" clan gaming and such. After 15 years and this game is still great. Today's shooters are just but a shadow of it. They are unbeliveably slow, dumb, tell you what to do, where to run, feature self replenishing health. Back in my days we had to earn kills/frags while jumping uphill on one foot, thorugh a snow storm (so to speak...). But there are also great new games - like Chivalry: Medieval Warfare. There is a perverse kind of satisfaction while virtually smashing your best buddie's face with a crude 100 pound hammer while screaming "ARRR YAHHH YOUR MOTHER ARRRHHHH" Never met a lady who digs this. They are all so focussed on the violence and gore and can not look past the joy of wipping the floor with your friends's ass just to compete for the top ranks Oh, and the fast food was great too. Pizza tastes much better with friends.

Lol, I had to google it (looks dangerously similar to something contextual fitting) But no, I can't stand smoking and despise anything related to it.

Gentlemen, I guess you are well aware of electronic cigarettes. They too are made to scratch an itch. I am sure there is a similar solution to Ian's problem. I heard the internet was made for this kind of stuff...

Hey Skint, Apple controlls the hardware and the software - so what? Dell would do the same if they did not have to kiss Microsoft's... hand. Apart from the kickass hardware you get a very robust and easy to use operating system that's way ahead of Windows. True it is not suited for everything, but as with everything in life, focus pays off. And as an added bonus, you can still install Windows on a Mac, but not the other way around.

Well I am already printing at 230° which is pretty hot. But I can try though.

Tried two different filament colors so far (UM orange and UM metallic grey) and it is the same.

Ok, I tightened the x/y down, the belts have more or less the same tension. But still no difference in print quality :( It this wern't belt related, do you have other ideas what could be wrong?

I don't think this is too far fetched. Daid seems to be pretty smart and a few of these features would go a long way. For the enduser the true value would be to print already generated gcode files. No need to fuss around with slicer settings. This might be even an interesting business case for 3d printer manufacturers and 3d model makers. Buy a model, specify the printer you have and get the gcode file (guaranteed to come out right). The only remaining factors would be hardware tollerances and stupid user bahaviour (as usual

Here's an idea. Enable remote login (ssh) and when it happens again, log-in from another system via ssh and inspect the process list (ps -alx). If cura is running, try to kill it by hand and see if you can log-in. But I doubt that's the cause. You could also take a look at the console app. It agregates all logs. Just search for the latest entries (before the shutdown). I didn't have this problem with Cura, but it happened to me before. Even on a new retina mbp and with Mavericks :/

Oh wow, do they plan to sell UM2 kits? The assembly instructions are pure gold - now I can finally see behind the z-stage cover without taking it off

Yes the 20mm test cube comes out right. It should have a height of 10mm and I measured something between 9.93 and 10.08. Thanks, I'll take a look. I don't have sewingmachine oil right now, but moving the head by hand is ok...ish. Not the smoothest movement ever, but not problematic either. I can move the head without moving the entire printer around (something that I wasn't able to do back when I had the UM1). The cross rods are fine, they are seated correctly and dont scrape the inner walls (whould also make a hell of a noise if they did and leave marks). I was just about to loosen the short belts a bit when I noticed that they were already loose again. They are equally slack now but I wonder - did I not tighten the x/y motor screws enough? I don't want to overtighten stuff (because I usually tend to...). And just as I wanted to loosen the 4 long screws on the head, I noticed that I can slightly move them on the x/y plane. Even if they are properly tightened they do move around sideways. I think this is due to their length and the new added black spacers on the new units. I did loosen them a bit, but it did not make a difference regarding the layer tightness :/

Hey thanks Corey, I tried it but as soon as I put it on one belt, the other became extremely loose. I didn't put it on the other one because I have only one slack belt.

This might be a bug... When does it move to its destination? When the bed is already in printing position?

Hey that's a great explanation. So it is fixable - very nice. I hope Daid notices this. Oh and you were putting together a new extrusion test? What's new?

Ok, thanks. As I said, I need to create a custom belt clip that's not too wide. Although I don't like the idea to put on a tensioner on the belt that hangs on the sliding block with a built-in tensioner.. Btw. are there any drawings of the slinding block's innards? I'd love to see how this belt tensioner works. I can at least report that it is not related to the latest firmware. I reverted to 14.01.02 and the problem remains. Also tried another Cura version - still the same (Cura 14.01 and 14.03). And I played with the x/y jerk settings. Doubled and halved the value - no difference. This is weird anyway. If you look at this image and the cube in the middle: You can see the layers beneath and the gap between those too. I noticed that the gaps get bigger with increasing z height. The first 2-3 layers are fine. Then for every pass, the strands are further and further apart. Maybe this issue is somehow connected to the bed leveling problems I am experiencing (http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/5218-bed-leveling-trouble-um2/).

Little update. I had to re-level the bed because after downgrading the firmware to 14.01.02, I had to reset to factory settings. Now it behaves the same as before. I level the bed with very little resistance from the paper/nozzle. But the first layer is still squashed and ugly. I moved the bed up and down a few times, gave it a very slight tug (hoping that whatever is loose will show itself) but nothing changes. The bed is way too close. I will break out printrun asap and test around.

Ok, understood. But I don't like this solution anyway. When the head moves into position to print, the clothespin crashes into the pulley at the other end because it is too wide. Wouldn't work anyway. So I'd need to bend a metal piece in such a way that it bends the belt without taking too much space. But since I seem to be the only UM2 owner with this problem, I hope to find another solution "soft" solution. Oh and by the way, you changed your avatar. Nice, you look more seasoned and authoritative

That's the first picture then. Or I could bend the pin the other way and then see if it fits the way you describe it. And regarding acceleration - I didn't try it. But I did something else. So to answer my former question - no, it is not safe to downgrade the firmware without resetting to factory settings I started a print after the firmware downgrade and the heated bed crashed into the head. Nothing broke thankfully. I'll let it cool down, re-level the bed and try again. And thanks for the tip with the acceleration settings, I will try it too. By the way, we should really start a thread with the UM2 motion settings. So far I reverted everything to the defaults a long time ago. I have only adopted your retraction settings (retraction 5.5 and speed 35).

I haven't been able to find a proper belt tensioner. The clothespins I found do not fit. The space between belt and sliding block is too small (tried both orientations) :/

Hey guys, I think I am onto something here. The blob seems to always occur when the UM did not have time to cool down from a previous print. Since the heated bed takes a bit to heat up, I often (carefully) remove finished prints from the still hot heated bed. Then I start another print. And that's where the blob comes. Maybe there is a connection between hotend temperature and the pressure inside the nozzle.

Hi, I am a backer of the M3D printer (yes, I own the UM2, but that tiny M3D is too cool to ignore). However, reading the comments I stumbled over this one. It describes the evaluation of somebody who analyzes the tech behind the printer. I don't know what to make of it, sounds too good to be true. Just wanted to show it to you guys, especially Ultimaker - are you aware of this? Because some improvements (if viable) would benefit the Ultimaker too.

@colorFabb: Why don't you print the last tip separately and glue it to the top?

Well, then say NO. Or you could let him wait for a bit until your other job interviews are over and you got a new job.

Clothespin... nice. I'll try it. Gotta nab one from my neighbours I did try older versions of Cura, no difference (other then better surface quality with Cura 14.01). But I did update the firmware lately. Another thing to try. Can I downgrade the firmware safely? Thanks.