fbrc8-erin

Thanks @chuckmcgee & @kmanstudios for your sweet words! Chuck, Since I know you've got a UM3X and the S5, by any chance do the Cores you currently have installed on the S5 have the red rings around them? The red rings won't fit right with the S5 nozzle cover, so if you've swapped the Cores out for your UM3X Cores, the ring could cause an issue. Is your lifting switch lifting correctly at the start of the print? If not, you may need to run the lifting switch calibration (basically the same process as on your UM3X). If the wrong nozzle is down when you start the active leveling, it will error out.

Glad you're able to get back to printing!

Welcome!

Hi, gencab, I'm glad you were able to solve the issue by resoldering it and get your printer working again. Sometimes the damage is bad enough that it can't be resoldered; there are places like Digikey that I think sell compatible connectors, but at fbrc8 we choose to go the OEM route so we know that we're getting you good quality parts we can stand behind and feel confident in. Most of the parts we stock at fbrc8 (unless otherwise clearly noted) are OEM Ultimaker parts--it allows us the best way to make sure you're getting good quality parts that we know have been through QA and are totally compatible with your machine. The new bed design has a lot of benefits and has been in place for a couple of years now. It includes a longer cable with an extra bit for better strain relief under the cable clip, press fit screws, and coated connectors with a push-fit instead of the screw in terminal.

Are your heater and temp sensor both firmly inserted in the brass block? Is the brass block touching the fan shroud? Has any filament gotten between the brass block and fan shroud? Are you using an infrared temperature gun or something with a contact probe? Contact is usually more accurate for nozzles because of the reflectivity. How does it feel if you push filament through by hand with it heated to 250? Is there any sign that heat is reaching the filament?

Worn out couplers can definitely cause expansion. I'm not sure how long the 3D Solex ones are usually good for (I use the Ultimaker ones). Depending on what sort of filament you're using, that can also make a big difference--anything high heat or abrasive is going to put that much more wear on your coupler.

Spares are always good to have on hand. ?

It looks like your bowden tube probably isn't seated all the way. It can get stuck on the metal plate when you go to insert it. If it does, then there's space (where your spacer is above the coupler), where the filament could expand due to the heat because there's no tube to force it to hold its shape. If you're having trouble getting it seated all the way, you might try loosening the thumbscrews a little to give you a bit of flexibility.

I don't see any visible damage to the PCB board at the back (sometimes during disassembly for cleaning after a flood I've seen the contacts at the board become damaged). One thing I do notice in the photo--it definitely looks like you need a new silicone nozzle cover.

I'm glad you were able to resolve it! Definitely important for the printhead shafts to be seated in the sliding blocks.

Have you checked the axes alignment? If you pull the printhead to the front-center of the printer, and check the gap between your pulley and sliding block on the left-front and right-front sides, are they equidistant? It's possible for things to shift a little in shipping. If they have shifted, loosening the set screw on two opposite pulleys (I like to do it at a diagonal), and moving the printhead shaft/sliding blocks until they are equidistant again, should do the trick, then tighten the set screws again. I have some more detailed instructions here.

Hi, Inworks, Normally the heat creep/swollen filament issue is usually related to the front fan. Can you confirm that the front fan is running? The front fan's purpose is to keep that upper part of your print cores cool. If it's not running, the filament is going to swell due to heat expansion. Are there any filament hairs visible around the fan? It can cause it not to spin.

If the spring has come out of the top part of the printhead, it's definitely going to need to be reassembled (it might need a new spring, but often just reassembling it does the trick--there's several moving parts that make up the lifting switch).

Can't wait to read it! Welcome back. ?

If it feels flexible--like you could tie a knot in it, or scrunch it up like a piece of paper--it probably has absorbed too much moisture. When it's fresh out of the package, bending it feels pretty similar to bending PLA or ABS. You can try baking it on the heated bed for a few hours at 50 or 60 C to see if it helps try it out--put the whole roll on there. When not printing with it, I recommend putting it in an air tight back or plastic tub with silica packs to absorb the moisture. It's not going to go back overnight or anything, but the more moisture that's in the air, the more is going to find its way into the filament if it's exposed. BB .4 is perfect; I see a lot of questions sometimes about whether PVA can be used with the AA Core, so I always like to check.

You can use a regular piece o paper and it should be fine. Alternately, you can level the bed by eye. I usually level to the point where the nozzle is just touching it's reflection, and then back it off slightly. I like leveling by eye rather than with the card because if you're using a card or sheet of paper, you could accidentally put extra pressure on the bed and throw off the leveling process. What model printer do you have? If it's a UM2 series printer, you want the springs about medium tight (too loose can cause issues with bed stability). If it's an UM3 series printer, you want the front of the metal heated plate about level with the lip at the front of the base plate. If it's too high, your active leveling won't work.

How long has your PVA been open? How has it been stored? Does it feel flexible? What nozzle size are you printing with? Layer height?

Have you lubricated your rods recently? How does it feel if you move the printhead by hand?

I think those tiles should do the trick. If you've got them underneath all of them it should help with the overall vibration of the structure. We built a custom rolling cart for the one in our front office. It was a fun weekend project.

It is a press-fit. The bearings on the housing parts are also press-fit. If your motor feeder motor is screwed in tight and none of the bearings have popped out, I don't think there should anything to worry about alignment-wise.

The lever splitting like that definitely looks unusual; while I have seen the groove issue, I haven't seen one split like this. The levers are press fit with specialized tools. It's always possible the tolerances was off on one of the plastic pieces; respond back on your ticket on the support system and we'll get another lever out on Monday.

Hi, Adam, Impressive set-up! I'll share the photos with the rest of the fbrc8 team on Monday. I think rubber/foam feet should help act as dampeners on the Z-issues you're seeing. That many printers on a single rack probably has some cumulative effect. (My racks run with printers on 2 levels currently.) I did also want to let you know that after your initial feedback about the alignment issue occurring on 2 of you 6 S5s, we got that feedback to Ultimaker straight away, and the S5s are now getting zip-tied the same way the UM3s are. We take the feedback loop pretty seriously and are always looking at ways to improve and make sure the information we see out in the field makes it back to the appropriate departments.

I'm in.

No issues. It's still as solid at the end of the print as it was at the start. I will admit I took the precaution of using a new spool, but that was also partly because the estimated PVA usage for this one was almost a whole spool. There was still a little left on the spool though and I used that on another print without issue. I think when you're constantly printing with it (like on a long print), you're consistently exposing new PVA, as opposed to having a rolls that's been sitting open for a month or two. I've definitely printed with some marginal PVA in the past--stuff that had been left out a while, but that I thought was still firm enough. On those cases I knew I was taking a chance and sometimes it turned out okay, and other times...time to clean the Core after it either wrapped around the feeder or the filament got brittle in the tube (depending on whether it was left out in an office during winter months with the heater on, or left out in the humidity). I've partly done some prints with PVA that's been exposed to get a better idea of how to recognized when it's gone bad, and when it may still be okay to use but not quite as clean.

We did a 9 day print recently on the Ultimaker S5. I love how this turned out. Admittedly, that tail is so fragile, I'm a little afraid to breathe whenever I walk by it. We've got the S5 set up on a custom rolling cart we built with some built in storage areas. The STL is here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:284409