anon4321

It's dead Jim. But Bones, it only printed like 7 things, I'm sorry Jim, it's dead. There is nothing I can do. Well, unfortunately, I found out something about the stepper motors and drivers in the Ultimaker. Back driving them (doing something that causes them to rotate at a good speed) with the power off causes them to produce enough voltage (they become little generators) to destroy the driver. This is a poor design if you ask me. There should be some kind of clamping to prevent this. I was funtzing with the extruder unloading the filament by spinning the big gear and noticed that even with the UM completely unplugged (no power, no USB), the indicator LED on the thermocouple amp board was pulsating on. Also, whomever deigned the board and flipped the two drivers sockets on the left 180 degrees and did NOT silkscreen a huge message stating that they are flipped should be shot. So I now have at least two dead drivers and worse yet the pin that signals the extruder is apparently dead now. So now I need to replace two drivers, the audrino. I wonder if I killed anything else on the shield or the TC amp. Very unhappy at the moment.

I agree on the pricing. Hopefully UM is getting some of that coin...

One other question, during printing ABS do you need ventilation? I mean more than printing in a large room? Like fresh air from an open window of exhausting through an open window?

PS: why doesn't the forum search for ABS return anything?

Can you use ABS without a heated platform? I have a UM1 with the acrylic platform. If it is possible, how would I do it? I'm willing to use rafts and such if that is the answer. I'd like to print this replacement minimum print head: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:154845

Jonathon, that looks real good. Gr5, I picked 180 just because that is what I thought was the right temp for PLA. For some reason, I thought 210 was more appropriate for ABS. In general, I think pictures make the prints look worse than they are. When the robot was done, I really thought it looked nearly molded.

No, it was ALL day with some started the night before.... Probably equivalent to three evenings depending on how much time is an "evening". I've guessing took me something like 18 hours. I have a bad back and poor workspace so probably took 30% longer than it should have.... And I really need to put tools away so I don't spend 30 minutes looking for a damn hammer.

I think I had the temp too low. There were some chunks missing on the back. I lower the default to 180 from 210. I printed some calibration cubes at 100%, 150% and 200%. Even at 2x they came out OK.

Yeah sorry, it is an UM1. I got it going. Just a little more daunting than I thought. Just put the ulticontroller together. Even have the doodle3d working on my network. This was from last night:

First print, no tweaking, barely know what I'm doing.... C'mon that's not bad: Looks worse in the photos. Looks much better in the real world. Meant to note that the underextrusion on the base was because I didn't "prime" the filament feed.

Wow, more complicated than I imagined!

My printer arrived. Wish the process was smoother but in the end I got what I ordered so I can't complain too much.

My printer arrived. Wish the process was smoother but in the end I got what I ordered so I can't complain too much.

So after a couple messages to Sander, I now have a tracking number for my order. Not the smoothest transaction but it looks as if I will receive what I ordered.

After sending two PMs to Sander, this is the reply I received: "It was scheduled for yesterday and it was suppose to be shipped. But the order-status has yet to be updated so I send out a request for information on your order. I expect to get notified about your order later today and I will report back to you." I went to check the order status and now the order information screen results in: Ooops Looks like Something went wrong! We track these errors automaticly. (sic) Try refreshing Contact Support if the problem persists Refreshing reports the same error. Ooops indeed... I'm not sure UM is in a position as a company to sell something this expensive and popular...

So here is my experience: Order the special combo UM1 kit + ult controller + doodle3D on Feb 11. Note on web site did say that these order would ship in March. PMed Sander on 2/24 to obtain a ship date. It was read but never received a reply. Opened a ticket on 2/27 to obtain a ship date. Simone replied that these orders would ship in March. OK, not helpful but OK. Opened a second ticket on 3/7 to obtain a ship date. Simone said "At the end of the week, we will have more information, when your order is being shipped.". No further information was provided. PM'ed Sander AGAIN on 3/9 (then end of the week). Sander said "We have the intention to ship out a large batch of Originals this week. I will try and make sure yours is included" After the week came and went, On 3/17, PMed Sander again as was told "My apologies that previous mentioned date was not managed. I will make sure your order is going to be shipped out tomorrow." At this point tomorrow was either 3/17 or 3/18 because of timezones. I gave Sander the benfit of the doubt and waited until the end of 3/18 I PMed again late or 3/18 when the order was not shipped and it is now late on 3/19.... So it has now been more than 5 weeks since ordering and we are more than halfway through March. UM already has my $1430 since 2/15. Had I not been charged, I would be long gone...

I understand but that is how most e-tailers work. Customer places order. If products are in stock, charge customer and if successful then ship the order. If obtaining payment is unsuccessful., notify the customer that their order will be cancelled in X days and the stock will be used for other orders. If not in stock, notify customer of backorder and that they have not been charged. The biggest issue in that model is ensuring that you don't carry more stock than is required. However, right now, you don't have that problem as you have more orders than product. If someone can't/doesn't pay, it's almost guaranteed that another order will consume the stock and you won't have to "float it". Also, for credit card orders, if you preauthorize the amount, 99.9% of the time, the charge will go through when you go for payment just before shipping.

Daid, one clarification - UM should not charge until the order is ready to ship. No one I've ever did business with shipped before being paid. However, unless it was a pre-order, no one I've ever don business with charges when the order is placed when there is a significant lead time involved.

I feel I might be in the same boat but we'll see. A few points / suggestions for UM to improve the situation- 1) Don't charge until the order is shipped. This is the only company I've ever dealt with that charges as soon as the order is place and there isn't stock available for immediate shipment (that isn't a preorder). I would be a lot less demanding if you didn't already have my $1500 2) If you tell someone a date, make absolutely sure you can and do ship on that date. 3) Fix your damn ordering system so that Shipment: Ready is NOT displayed until the order is being packed implying that it is shipping that day or the next.

Daid, It don't think it's that simple. I had a lot of electronics in school and forgotten most of it. However, I believe your estimate of 2W is for DC. Because the motor coil forms an inductor, the current and voltage will be different than the DC values as the coils are switch on and off to move the rotor. An inductor resists the change of current through it. So if you start with an unenergized motor (in other words, zero current flowing) and apply a voltage to it, it will take time for current to build. The coil will look like an open circuit and then start to appear as a decreasing resistance with increasing current. The rate the current builds is dependent on the amount of voltage applied to it. For steppers, to increase the step rate, you have to build the current faster so drivers apply much higher voltage that the V=I*R of the DC characteristics would indicate. Once the desired current is reached, the driver starts to chop the voltage to control the current. During this process, much more than 1.8v will be applied to the coil. This implies that you will also see much high power used by the motor. The actual power delivered to the motor will be dependent on the frequency of the chopping and the rate of stepping.

Can you buy catnip with bitcoins?

I decided to go with the UM1 kit and ordered directly from UM but even those take 2 to 4 weeks. There was a special offer that included the UM1, the ulticontroller and the Doodle3d which looks like it provides wifi connectivity for 999 euros so about $1,450 with shipping. I also thought about buying one of the cheap Printrbot Simple just to have something to play with but even those take 2-3 weeks. Still waiting for the UM1 to even ship and it's been more than 4 weeks now. Supposed to ship this week but there isn't many days left in "this week". This is definitely not a hobby for those seeking instant gratification...

I agree. I ordered in the just before mid-Feb and it was immediately "Ready" for shipment. It seems as if they want to frustrate people.

Received a PM from Sander and hopefully my order will ship this week.

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