Nicolinux

Yes, the only problem is that I get underextrusion at 200C...

Hey Simon, I have re-read parts of this thread since underextrusion strikes again and I am looking for clues. The sound accompanied by the blob comes from the extruder. It skips on the first extrusion. Also the bowden tube buckles at the head end which indicates that there is way to much pressure building up very quickly.

The big FPGA guys do not always know what they do, but don't tell anyone

@yellowshark: Thanks for the long advice. It is too early in the morning for me to comprehend all this. I'll read it after the tea has kicked it @gr5: The two bad octopussies where both printed with 0.8mm shells and at 20mm/s... And the bumps line up with retraction movements (infill is set to 0). I wouldn't ask if it were easy to solve

WTF Robert? How can someone with your modelling skills be unemployed? And I heard you say PHP and modern... I, well, don't want to start a flame war but if you want something modern, you'll have to put on your hipster hat, grab the smug mug and learn Objective-C like all self respecting iOS developer kiddies these days :cool:

Oh by the way, just saw this in the "...latest print" thread. Take a look at the second picture. I do recognize this effect somehow http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/467-post-your-latest-print/?p=46011

@Dim3nsioneer: I'll check the switch, thx. @Skint: Well it does bother me because if you try to print small models like the http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:53451 at 0.5 scale, a messed up first layer means that the gears will stick and the model is broken. @gr5: Don't know if you meant me but I think the gap between nozzle and bed could very well be problematic for the the last layer. True, filament expands after it has been extruded, but if the bed leveling gets worse over time and the gap widens, then a thinner filament strand could be due to the large gap because filement strands will get thinner if streched. The z-stage of my replacement UM2 felt a bit filmsy from day one. The range where I can adjust the height (with the bottom thumb screws) is fairly narrow because the front right screw starts to turn with the thumb screw if I turn it a tiny bit too far out. I'll check the switch and the screw that holds it in place. Also, I am using UltiGCode (one reason I don't use OctoPrint to its full potential right now is because it still doesn't speak UltiGCode). @yellowshark: Lately it happens with all layers. During printing I am able to see the layers beneath between the actual layers. Top/bottom thickness is set to 1.2mm. But now that I think of it - the models where this effect is visible most, are those that are not printed at the center. This is another hint that there is something wrong with the bed leveling. The whale was placed on the far left side on the bed. I printed several objects at the same time (one after another - I don't dig printing everything at once because of excessive stringing) and the wale looked worst. There was another effect, again only on the whale model: The shell looks filmsy and irregular on curved areas. Straight, flat areas are fine. I haven't seen this before. @Shurik: Well I am printing most models at 230°. Also, I have responded to your thread. Check the filament diamenter and if the nozzle is clean/free. @all: By the way, the bed leveling was necessary because I performed a factory reset on the UM2. And I did this because I tried to print the octopus model (at 0.5 scale) and it looked bad. I thought that I might have messed up the motion settings in firmware and wanted to start with a clean slate. The model features some ugly bumps that coincide with retraction moves. Also printed this at 205° and 20 speed (and there is slight underextrusoin with 0.1 layers). But I printed this model before (don't know how, lost the gcode file) and it came out without those bumps: However, with the actual bad bed leveling, I let the print finish and it looks like this: This time I disabled combing and reduced the minimum travel for retraction to 1mm. The bumps are still there and the quality is sh*t :/ And there is always always (even if very faint) underextrusion. Most of the time (and visible on all three octopussies) an entire layer is either missing or receding inwards. I should go back to printing calibration cubes, then I can pretend to have a perfect printer...

Did you measure the filament diameter? Also make sure your nozzle is clear and there is no partial blockage.

You know what? Maybe I will. If time permits and if I start to dig Python (or I copy&paste&modify your plugin )

Hey guys, I am loosing my cool over something that should be a no-brainer. Lately prints started to feature bad top surfaces where the filament strands wouldn't touch each other: So I thought maybe the bed leveling is off and the nozzle is too far away from the bed. Now regardless of what I am doing, it seems the nozzle is always too close to the bed. I've leveled the bed on the UM1 countless times before and a few times on the UM2. This shouldn't be such a problem for me. When I level the bed now, even if I use a fairly thick sheet of paper (more than 90g/mm^2 anyway) and there is no resistance when moving it between nozzle and bed, the nozzle is still to close. I have also tried to level the bed by eye, beeing very generous regarding the gap between nozzle and bed. To my eye the gap looks like 0.5mm and then I still get this: Initial layer thickness is set to default (0.3mm). WTF? I mean I could level it again by eye and make the gap bigger, but then the "use a sheet of paper" advice would be pointless. And I don't remember this beeing such a problem before. When leveling the bed a few weeks ago I leveled it in such a way where I felt a ver very very slight resistance (because I took into account that the bed and nozzle expand when they get hot). Is there something I haven't thought of? Help!

Cool head lift ist great but I wish I could activate it only for the last few layers. Otherwise when the head moves away, it oozes a bit and when it comes back it leaves the excess filament on the model. Doing so for couple of layers adds ugly artefacts at the top.

I didn't change it - left it at 5s. But this setting is problematic anyway. If the minimal layer time is too low, then layers on small objects don't have enough time to cool down. If it is too high, then on the last layer the nozzle spends too much time and the layer is messed up. Kind of a chicken egg problem.

Hi, Ultimaker has released a dual extrusion kit for the Ultimaker Original. It is still marked as experimental. For the Ultimaker 2 there is no dual extrusion kit, although everything is prepared (the head has a second hole to fit another nozzle). So I'd say if dual extrusion (for multi colour prints) is very high up your priorities list, Ultimaker might not be the best candidate right now. But I think dual extrusion is messy and does not work really well anyway. One nozzle is trouble enough - like I always say

Hey -104-, ich will für das Sugru gar nichts haben. Schick mir einfach eine pm mit deiner Adresse und ich schicke es dir zu. Achte nur darauf es möglichst bald zu verbrauchen denn wie gesagt - es ist schon älter.

Nur um alle Klarheiten zu beseitigen, hier ist ein Screenshot wie ich es meinte:

It should be 2.85 but it anywhere between 2.81 and 2.93 for my filament.

Oh but it does. With normal gcode when you slice a model in Cura you have to specify the filament diameter. If you then change filament and it has a different diameter, you have to throw away your gcode file and slice it again in Cura. This means take the sdcard out, go to the Mac, slice in Cura, go back, insert card and print. With UltiGCode you can simply change the filament diameter in the material preset on the UM2 display and start another print.

Ich hatte ja geschrieben dass ich momentan keine Probleme mit underextrusion habe und keine weiteren Upgrades einbauen will. Gerade heute hatte ich underextrusion bei langsamen Drucken... Vielleicht stimmt es ja was die anderen (im englischen Teil des Forums) gesagt haben. Der Extruder wird mit der Zeit schlechter :( Übrigens, wenn ihr Fragen habt - dann schriebt lieber im englischen Teil. Das ist dort viel besser besucht. Markus ist ja dort schon aktiv.

Du solltest das Teil um 90° drehen, dann hast du das Support-Material nur auf einer Seite (am besten die die Richtung Filament-Rolle zeigt damit die schöne Seite nach Aussen zeigt). Ansonsten könntest du die automatische Support-Material Generierung in Meshmixer ausprobieren. Illuminarti hat auf seinen Blog darüber geschrieben. Wegen den Schrauben - die untere habe ich auch, das scheint wohl mit den neueren UM2 dazugekommen zu sein. Die obere Schraube würde ich nicht so weit nach rechts platzieren. Nicht dass du die dahinter liegenden Kabel triffst beim Bohren. Nimm am besten die Motor-Abdeckung ab und schau was dahinter liegt. Alternativ, wenn du nicht schrauben willst, schau dir "Sugru" an. Das ist eine knetartige Masse die man direkt nach dem Öffnen formen kann. Es haftet an glatten Oberflächen. Dann 24 Stunden stehen lassen und dann hält es bomben fest: http://sugru.com Ich habe noch etwas davon hier, wenn du magst kann ich dir etwas schicken. Diese Teile halten sich nicht so lange und laufen irgendwann ab. Meine sind auch schon älter und müssten verwendet werden (man kann die Lebensdauer verlängern wenn man sie im Kühlschrank aufbewahrt - was ich gemacht habe).

Me too, set it to 1mm because I thought it would do least "damage". Just wanted to mention the difference because it looke like a typo to me.

I dunno, the filament changing procedure sounds tedious. And my problem is that the space behind my UM2 is very limited. I can only access it from the front and need to bend over the table because I can't get behind the printer. Already got a manly scar on my thumb when I tried to pull filament out of the extruder and rammed my thumb into the (sharp) side of the case... So right now I am relying on the standard filament changing procedure and hope for the best.

The difference is convenience (cool, it rhymes ). With UltiGCode you get gcode that does not depend on the filament diameter. Usualy when you slice your model, you have to specify the diameter. With UltiGCode the diameter is saved in firmware (menu entry "Material"). Now you could slice a model and print it in different colors (assuming all your different filament brands have the same diameter). To be honest I am a bit torn on this issue. Filament is rarely consistent reagarding its diameter. But then again if the fluctuations are small enough, they are negligible. I am printing nice models with only one material preset set to 2.9mm diameter... And since presets can't be renamed on the UM2 yet, and you can't select a preset in the tune menu - they are not that useful to me right now. On the other hand OctoPrint ist extremely useful. Not only do you get a nice interface but your past prints are saved so you can allways come back and take a look at the print settings. It does allow you to track the printing time (vs. the calculated time - something that's a hit or miss issue with Cura). I wish OctoPrint would do a bit more regarding logging and accountability. It could track for example how much filament you have left because it knows what you have printed. It could also allow rating/taking notes for finished prints so you can later search and re-print your best models (in different colors if it would support UltiGCode). It could automate the "I made one" feature for Thingiverse (or YouMagine) if you have a webcam. So many cool features. But for now I'll stick with Cura/sd card/walking up to the printer. Since the dreaded filament strand always gets in the way when a print starts, I'll have to be there and snag it off. There is no fully automated click print and come back when done system yet.

I hope Gina (OctoPrint developer) will add support for UltiGCode. That's the only reason the put me off using OctoPrint. Right now I am using it only for streaming...

Hi, more often that not I have to remove the bowden tube (head end) because some filament strands get caught inside the tube. This is a problem because the bowden clamp will play nice only so many times and then the tiny teeth will loose their grip. Another issue occurs when the filament strand snaps off and stays on the teflon coupler. If you look closely, you'll see the red filament strand. If I were to insert the bowden tube now, I would wedge in the strand between tube and teflon coupler. This would block the path for the new filament and/or will slowly dispense some red filament and ruin prints visually. Not to mention that it is quite annoying to have filament strands that end in a blob of plastic, inside the extruder. I bought a crochet hook in order to fish for loose filament inside the extruder, but it ain't nice anyway. I suggest the filament changing procedure should be adjusted (less heat, pulling faster at the beginning and then slowing down - not sure). This will surely tone down a few support requests for broken bowden tube clamps in the future (and make filament swapping easier). What do you think?

Hey Ian. When will you be near Frankfurt? I am in Wiesbaden (not far from Frankfurt). Wanna meet up?