3poro

Hmm... On the other hand, for some reason Ultimaker chose pretty much the most powerful (and noisiest) more or less mainstream fan which was available. For instance, Papst does not produce equally powerful fans in that size, AFAIK. I came to think of a stronger fan also because of the simulations in this post: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/5953-idea-on-underextrusion/?p=54477 Maybe having more airflow also around the Teflon part would help? One reason why I'm so interested in the topic is my closed printing chamber - where the temperature could (and kind of should) become higher than normal ambient temperature.

...and, how about using a more powerful fan, like this? http://www.yeahracing.com/catalog/yeah-racing-hacktronic-tornado-high-speed-ball-bearing-25mm-htn304-p-3471.html Instead of the standard fan's 3CFM, it gives 5.1CFM. Together with anodizing the aluminum parts, the heat dissipation should easily double?

Thank you! Yes, I have liked the setup myself. Earlier on I had to get behind the printer to reach the feeder and the filament spool was on the floor - ergonomics and level of compactness were terrible and I decided to optimize them a bit. I used this kind of a swivel between two wooden plates: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shepherd-Hardware-212482-Lazy-Susan/dp/B000HJ70WK/ http://www.amazon.co.uk/Web-Traders-Online-BEARING-TURNTABLE/dp/B00AFUKMOY There's also a simple mechanism (printed with my UM2 to snap the turntable to its default orientation.

The Pt100 is open. My guess is - its temperature range was not as broad as promised and it gave up. The cabling is OK. Thank you to gr5 also for the hints regarding disassembling the head; I was actually planning to use my soldering iron for heating up the nozzle unit in order to get the hollow "crown" bolt out. After that it will be a lot easier for me to get the long brass bolt out. I'm located within the EU. You are probably right about Ultimaker's limitations in receiving payments - I have faced the same rigidity with filament orders. The situation just really leaves me speechless - I have ordered stuff from Ultimaker worth of a bit over 5000 USD. The result - misinformation, seriously delayed deliveries, confusions - is something I have never experienced with other sellers. Only in 2014 and only through Amazon I have placed 41 orders, so I think I have some experience.

What I didn't document on this thread - but I did describe it to Ultimaker through the ticket system - were the next phases of my adventure. I managed to drill the old Pt100 sleeve out and I found from a local brick and mortar store a Pt100 which was smaller in size - so I used high quality thermal paste to fit it in. It worked, but not for very long: I don't know what exactly went wrong, but this time the sensor didn't cause anything to start smoking. However, when trying to disassemble the head, I encountered another problem: There seems to be a small leak of PLA through the threads fixing the hollow bolt to the nozzle unit. Strange as such - I'm 100% sure I secured the bolt pretty well. Now, in any case, it is pretty well secured :S So - I should heat up the nozzle unit in order to melt the PLA - which would be needed to get the hollow bolt off. Heating the nozzle is not that easy with a broken Pt100 inside it. What adds to the challenge is the fact that the long brass bolt now is _very_ tightly in its place due to partly worn out threads - and its Allen head is not in great shape. I guess I have an idea how to get the thing into pieces, but it would be easier to get some spare parts. I have offered to pay for them, but so far no luck.

Thank you! So far the only real help I received from Ultimaker was the link to a document where I could see the dimensions of the Pt100. That helped me to DRILL the sleeve out. I guess the reason for the sleeve getting stuck is simpler than that. It looks like it's very tight fit. When the long brass screw locks the sensor to its place, it leaves scratches on its surface - those scratches are coarse enough to lock the sleeve in place permanently. At least in my case the threads on the long brass screw were worn out from the tip, so there must have been some pressure applied on it. Well... If "being in a hurry" prompts getting the part custom made by Shapeways rather than relaying on Ultimaker's support, I'm really worried. Actually, ehem - I am really worried :S

I chose the latter option: Now the rough side stays on the inner side of the Bowden tube. Before I made the hack, I used to have the filament spool on a lazy Susan on the floor. However, in my room it was a very unpractical location - not least because of my two-year-old son who got very interested in the filament (and the lazy Susan made of glass). IMHO the current location is better also in terms of ergonomics, but that of course depends on preferences and environment.

I guess two key questions you should ask yourself are: 1) Do you (or your business) need to rely on your printer? 2) How much are you ready to spend time and money to get around problems? In my case, I ordered UM2 on December 27. Since then I have been able to use it for about 6 weeks - out of 23 weeks. OK, my math is a bit unfair, as the first 11 weeks I was waiting for the printer to be delivered. After that, I had about 6 weeks with the printer - and it gave me some marvelous results. Now, for the past 6 weeks, the printer has been out of order and I'm waiting for spare parts: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/5431-thermocouple-failure/ I have dozens of spare time projects and I live in a small country. I'm used to facing blockades with projects, partly because I can't find all possible materials/parts/services locally. So, for me the answer to question #1 is "not really"; therefore I haven't yet bought another 3D printer with another brand. If I was bored and didn't have lots of other projects, I could fix my UM2 myself, but it would require quite a lot of time and switching to a 3rd party print head. My answer to question #2 is "not so much", which leaves me waiting for Ultimaker to get their act together.

Make it 6 weeks.

Thank you! The IP camera market is actually very frustrating to research. There are hundreds of different camera models, most of them having crappy sensors and hopeless software full of bugs. Finding detailed specifications (sensor size, minimum focusing distance, availability of remote manual focus) is next to impossible for most makes. My current 2-camera setup serves me quite well, not being perfect though. As I have one PC close to the printer, I'm wondering whether I should use DSLR connected to it. For another project I'm using a Nikon DSLR with Nikon's Camera Control Pro software to communicate with the camera. Using live view mode, you can actually use the camera as a very good IP camera - although the user interface is far from optimal. In my case, I'm using remote desktop connection to the PC with the camera attached. Probably the cheapest camera which is compatible with Nikon Camera Control Pro is Nikon D5000; I could find them on eBay for around 150 USD. My current top view camera is an Edimax IC-3030iWn. While I wouldn't praise it too loudly, it offers accurate manual (not remote) focusing. Here's a screenshot: The resolution is 1280x1024, which is practical for a top view camera. Having a "Full HD" camera wouldn't give almost any additional (usable) resolution. For a front view camera, the aspect ratio of a Full HD camera would naturally be better.

Welcome to the club. My UM2 has been out-of-order since April 24. I managed to get it working temporarily using non-UM Pt100 sensor, but it gave up as well. Now the crown bolt is glued to the nozzle unit with PLA - and I can't heat up the nozzle as there's no (working) temperature sensor. Anyone has a good idea for an alternative printing head, so I could get rid of the original parts altogether?

Yes, it does. However, like in my case, the threads on that screw can be partly worn out, as its tip is holding both the heater element and the temperature sensor in their places. In theory, you don't have to screw it _all_ the way, but I would recommend doing so. Leaving it 1mm in doesn't really help anything. The temperature sensor has a very tight fit, so you may face some trouble getting it out even if you remove the long screw. The screw may have left scratches on the sensor - and those scratches are coarse enough to keep the sensor stuck to its place. I had to essentially drill out the sleeve of the temperature sensor. The diameter of the sensor is 3.0mm.

Thank you! The device on the top is actually just an IP camera. While the camera in front of the printer is good for monitoring progress of printing, its depth of field is not sufficient to check the quality of the printed layer(s). The camera on top has manual focus which actually allow you to adjust the focus down to a few centimeters. Most IP cameras have quite limited focusing capabilities. As such, I'm all ears about hints for good IP cameras for this kind of monitoring purposes. Most cameras with remote focusing and high resolution seem to be fairly big and often very expensive - and they only allow focusing starting from half a meter or so. Hrmpfh - well, yes, true, but - the space behind the printer would be very packed after that and I would have very little freedom to continue improving the filament path. Especially if Ultimaker will manage to come up with a dual extrusion upgrade for UM2. Also, for ergonomics I prefer to have the feeder more accessible than it is in its original location. However, I had also other reasons for taking the stepper motor out from its original location. First of all, now as the enclosure is more closed than before, I was concerned about the temperatures of the stepper motors - the feeder stepper motor is right below one of the motors moving the print head. According to my experience, increasing the feeder stepper motor current to 1.5 amps really helps - which of course adds to its temperature. Now, the heat from the feeder stepper motor is actually useful, as the air it warms helps to close the gap needed for the moving Bowden tube and the cables. Here are a couple of photos of the current setup: The movement of the feeder during printing seems to help extraction of the filament from the reel. The spool holder has bearings, but that doesn't help a lot if the filament gets stuck with itself - but movement of the feeder can do the trick. Currently vapors are not extracted. If there will be need, I'll probably add some fan inside the dome and put there a filter which would collect some of the vapors. Due to temperature management, I would like to keep the circulation closed - but let's see how things turn out. The aquarium is a great idea, thank you! I thought of making a terrarium out of the thing... If there were some spiders living in the printer, they could be printing some webs when I'm not printing. They would also help me find any holes I may have forgotten to fix...

After some weeks with UM2, I found several reasons for building a quasi-closed chamber for the printer. The key reasons were: 1) Noise. While UM2 can't be claimed to be noisy for a 3D printer, I got tired of its sounds if I had to stay in the same (small) room with it for a few hours. 2) Heat management 1/2. The room where my UM2 is located is air-conditioned. For comfort reasons I don't want to switch off the air conditioning. Having one non-insulated device heating the room and another device keeping the room cool doesn't feel smart. 3) Heat management 2/2. I plan to print primarily ABS, so getting the heat spread evenly across the printing chamber makes sense, to fight warping. 4) Vandal protection. My 2-year-old son loves to grab whatever is on the build plate - whether the build plate is cool or not, whether the print is ready or not, whether I like his gesture idea or not. 5) Odour mitigation. As mentioned above, I plan to print primarily ABS - and, as mentioned above, the room is air-conditioned. As the air circulates in the room, the smell of hot ABS becomes quite dominant. To get to my implementation, here's the general view of my UM2, Greenhouse Edition: Currently the top lid is kept in place by gravity; I'm planning to add similar fixtures to it as I now have in the front door. The most interesting part is probably on the left hand side of the printer: When designing the dome, I couldn't find any meaningful place for the filament reel on the backside of the printer anymore - so I decided to move it to the side. This required re-locating the feeder: (Thanks to IRobertI for the feeder!) If you are wondering about the perforated plate on the side - I'm in the process of figuring out the optimal location for the filament reel. Now I can fix the filament reel holder to any of the holes on the plate without having to modify anything. It looks like different filaments might have different optimal locations - also there might be a difference depending on whether the reel is empty or full. So far everything looks good, I just need to get back to printing. I'm wondering whether it would make sense to add a fan inside the greenhouse to improve the circulation of air within the chamber. I'm also planning to make the chamber more tight by covering a few holes/gaps in it. Already now the thermal insulation makes quite clear separation between the room temperature and the temperatures inside the chamber, as can be seen with a thermal camera: Everything below the build plate level stays cool. I wonder if this construction raises any questions or concerns?

Any news on this? My UM2 has been out-of-order since April 24. After 5 weeks, I don't even have a schedule for the spare parts.

Yuri Gagarin was the first person to see the whole world (literally) and he also returned to Russia. So, we'd better believe it - it IS a nice place. Regarding your question about fixing the sensor, I would use this: http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_thermal_adhesive.htm

Well... I used to run a growth company before I sold it some time ago. When I learned about the possibilities of 3D printing (late last year - I'm a fossil : ), I found Ultimaker. When placing an order, I found this on their website: Investor and distributorship inquiries: .com'>info.com So, I wrote and asked about opportunity to invest in the company as an angel investor. My offer was turned down. It was not the first time my investment offer was turned down - but it was the first time my investment offer was turned down by support staff. Then I realized I'm not dealing with an ordinary company... But I was still brave enough to place an order for an UM2. There's a fine line between being brave and being stupid.

The helping hand means apologies, invoking support to send half-baked response and additional apologies - but what about spare parts, reliable information and deliveries of orders?

Useless, I feel for you. I waited for my UM2 for over 10 weeks. I used my UM2 for about 6 weeks before it broke - this was 3 weeks ago. Since then I've waited for spare parts - which, as I learned yesterday, Ultimaker themselves don't have. The good news: now I have time to wait for my 9-week-old filament order to be completed. Go Ultimaker.

Calimero, I hope you will receive your filaments soon; the shortage notifications of ABS have been removed from the Ultimaker store. This doesn't mean I would have received all my filaments yet. On the other hand, I'm using less filament now as my UM2 broke on April 24 and I'm still waiting for the spare parts.

I also got a response from support on May 7: delivery of spare part was promised. Nothing else has happened since. Except - the ticket status has been changed into "closed" in the support portal. My UM2 has been out-of-order since April 24.

Absolutely. I could also visit them or send them a fax. With Ultimaker it's not only a problem to get a response from them - but it's also difficult to get relevant information from them. For several times, after receiving a response, I have thought to my myself - had they really read the messages I had written them? As I have need to refer to my earlier messages, I really prefer using e-mail (or the ticket system) as I don't want to start recording my phone calls. In general, there is a limit to how much customers can be blamed for poor customer service experience.

An update: I received part of my ABS order in the beginning of this week - 7 weeks after ordering.

The priority of my ticket is already at the maximum - it was elevated by the Ultimaker people, so I guess I should feel privileged. As Sander has written on the forum, sending support plenty of messages doesn't help: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/5059-arrrggghh-bits-missing/?p=46122 I have tried different levels of my own activity. My conclusion: you can sit quiet or spam or something in between: Ultimaker just doesn't bother.

On April 24 my UM2 broke: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/5431-thermocouple-failure/ I created a ticket through the Ultimaker ticketing system on April 25 - which is 12 days ago. I sent a reminder on April 4. No response. What has Ultimaker managed to do during this time? They have elevated the priority of my ticket and they have allocated the ticket to a named person. Does my printer work? No. Do I have a clue of what shall happen next or when? No.