fran

Hi Simon, I found the culprit eventually - the USB cable was defect! Since the cable was transmitting power, the LED's on the board lit up and I suspected nothing. However the data transfer was broken, thus the board would not get recognized by any computer (I tried four different operating systems and two laptops...) Lesson learned - always check the cable Hope this helps. Cheers, Fran PS: you can read the whole story in this thread: http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/5530-cant-connect-to-cura-via-usb-please-help-solved/

Jeesh.... Finally found the cause - it was the USB cable which caused the defect. Even though the board reacted when connected with it (lights went up), the transmission was somehow not working properly. Got a shorter high-quality USB 2.0 cable and now everything works perfectly! Am so relieved that I can finally work with my new Ulitimaker Thanks Gr5 and Daid for your support! Cheers, Fran

OK, now I'm really out of options... Just tried connecting the Ultimaker to Cura on Windows XP - on an old Macbook Pro with bootcamp installed. Installed Cura first, tried to connect - no luck, serial port could not be found. Then I installed Arduino IDE, tried to get the board detected there, again it didn't work. The device manager only shows an unknown device connected to USB. So far I have tried the following OS's (the first three all on the same HP Elitebook 8530w laptop): Windows7 64bit - error code #43, device not recognized Ubuntu 12.04 on virtual box - no serial port found Ubuntu 14.04 on dual-boot / separate partition - no serial port found Windows XP SP3 (Macbook Pro from 2007) - device not recognized, no serial port found I did all the tests with both the original arduino board which came with the UM1 kit, and a new (original) arduino which I bought at a local electronic store. Only thing left would be to test with the third (!) arduino board I've got now, a replacement which was sent by Ultimaker this week. However I doubt that I got two malfunctioning boards here, would be very odd indeed. Any suggestions how to proceed with this one? Never thought it would be this difficult to get the printer going... Many thanks in advance for your advice! Cheers, Fran

In the mean time I got another replacement board from Ultimaker. The first replacement board I bought myself as it unfortunately took quite some time until I got a reaction from UM support. The UM board board is still in its original package - kind of hesitant to unpack and try it as well - if it is indeed a software issue (as I suspect), I'd end up with two extra arduinos...

That's what I thought at first too, however a new arduino board (ordered as replacement) has exactly the same issue. Only difference is that with the second one, the orange LED blinks instead. It would be rather odd if both boards are defect...

Thanks for the link, looks like more people are having trouble with the arduino board... During the installation of Cura, all went well and the arduino driver was supposedly installed - no error message then. I do get a sound when connecting the board via USB, and it does light up (green LED and orange LED at pin13): However, only an unknown device pops up in the device manager. In the port section of the device manager nothing changes at all, so I can't get a COM number for the board: Then I downloaded the latest driver from arduino.cc. When I try to manually update the driver for the 'unknown USB device', I get this message: I found a thread online about how to temporarily disable driver verification in Windows 7: http://en.kioskea.net/faq/3914-windows-7-disable-signature-verification-of-drivers Did that as advised, tried to update the driver again, and still no luck. Installing the arduino software and its drivers also could not get it to work. When trying to upload a test program to the arduino mega 2560, the communication fails or cannot be established: Changing the COM port number in the arduino program made no difference. Is this an issue with the arduino mega 2560 running under Windows 7 64bit? What I don't understand is that it also won't recognize the board on my fresh dual-boot install of Ubuntu 14.04. To be fair, I have to add that I haven't yet tried to install the arduino drivers manually onto that system (Cura is of course properly installed). It's a tricky one... Hope you guys can help! Cheers, Fran

Hi everyone, I'm running out of ideas what to do differently in order to get my newly assembled Ultimaker Original finally up and running. Assembly went all well, however when I tried to connect the printer via USB to Cura 14.03, Windows 7 (64bit) would not recognize the printer (error code #43). I installed the latest Arduino drivers as well as the FTDI drivers, but no luck. A new arduino board (connected via USB) was also not recognized. Then I tried using Ubuntu 14.04, running on a virtual box. I installed Cura there and connected the printer via USB. This time I got the message that the serial port could not be found. Thought maybe this was because of running everything on a virtual box, so I decided to install Ubuntu on a separate partition with dual boot instead. It still won't work though, again got the message about not finding the serial port. Have you guys got any tips how to solve this one? It starts to get a bit frustrating... That I might encounter problems on Windows 7 / 64bit I can relate to, but that even on a fresh Linux install things won't work - I'm out of ideas what else to do. Please help! Many thanks in advance, Fran PS: I did all this on a HP EliteBook 8530W with an Intel Core2 Duo T9600 @ 2.80GHz

Hi everyone, What kind of 3D models would you recommend for a beginner's class of 3D software? I will be giving CAD courses later this year, and am currently working on small projects that can be used to teach people how to use 3D software and create their own models for printing. Things I came up with so far are small items (to keep costs down for printing), which are not too complicated to build, yet still have enough different elements to get to know the modelling process: - key chain - shopping trolley token with clip - small jewelry such as a ring or a pendant - a small figurine / simple character What were your first models (and your experience building them) when you first started using CAD? Looking forward to hearing your input and ideas! Cheers, Fran

Thanks, should have come up with that one myself...

Thanks for the quick reply. I did this already, unfortunately though it still didn't work. Just found out that even on a computer of a friend of mine (who works with arduino boards and who's got the arduino software installed) this particular board doesn't get recognized. Seems like I really have to get it replaced. And I just can't wait to finally start working with the machine... Does anyone know how long such a replacement might take? Cheers, Fran

Hi everyone, I just finished assembling my new Ultimaker 1, when I discoverd that it won't get recognized by my computer (Windows 7). Tried other machines as well, still got the same error code #43. However, there is a green and an amber LED lighting up when the board is connected via USB. Installing the arduino.inf driver also did not work. Is it really a defective board or could something else be the cause? I already waited soooo long for the kit to be delivered.... Many thanks in advance for your tips! Cheers, Fran