eric-lester
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Posts posted by eric-lester
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I'm working on a project by which I construct single line drawings from a set of points (here's an example). This project is being coded in Python, and given that the program considers the coordinates of each point in its operation, I was thinking about translating these coordinates into g code instructions for my Ultimaker 2+ (upgraded from the original UM2) so that I could print the drawing as one continuous line! However, I do not really understand g code or how to write it. Are there any good tutorials out there for where to start on how to edit and write g code? I obviously don't want to mess this up as it could destroy my printer...
Any help is appreciated!
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I was wondering if someone could give some advice on how to decrease what I call "height shrinkage," that is, where the base of the print ends up being larger than the top of it. For example, I was printing a short ring with no buildplate adhesion out of PLA with a heated bed. The piece was about two inches across and a quarter of an inch high and is basically just a cylinder with letters across it. When I took it off the plate, I noticed that the top was clearly smaller around than the bottom! (In this case, only by about 1/16'' so it probably won't matter all that much.)
I looked the issue up and saw it called "elephant foot," but the reasons offered seemed weak. I can only guess that this occurs because the heated plate results in uneven cooling for the rest of the print. Regardless, any tips? Thanks!
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Ah I see what you're talking about. Does that screw just use pressure to say set? I assumed it ran into a hole in the axle.
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just loosen the screw on one of the pulleys that the belt runs over, the tension will equalize over the top and bottom
Which screw are you talking about? Also if the tensions equalize, then won't it no longer be taut along the top?
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So I noticed this a while ago, but it hasn't really had any bearing on my printer as far as I can tell. Basically, the frontmost belt (in traditional Cartesian the x-axis) is tight along the top but loose along the bottom. Take a look:
I'm obviously quite concerned about it, but after running several prints and carefully watching, there's literally no slipping due to the tautness along the top of the belt. Obviously, I don't want to try to fix what's not broken and ruin it (especially with a big influx of orders for stuff right now), but I'm curious as to what can be done.
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I think it would be easier just to paint it?
Perhaps, but I'm trying to do some stuff as well with different materials between layers....and also where's the fun in that?
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Jerryrigged a solution by means of removing the bowden end from the print head while material is being forwarded during the change. I let out a great excess so that even after retraction it's too long. Slowly reinserting the bowden pushes the extra plastic through the nozzle, keeping the chamber full so that resuming the print already has material primed and loaded. A bit cumbersome to be honest, but the seamless results make it all worthwhile
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I'll try greatly increasing it then. I can always just use pliers to pull off the excess. Thanks for the tip
Will post progress if any soon. -
The "pause at height" plugin has an option "Retraction amount". Just increase this value for your needs and it should work.
Hmm. I tried doing the exact opposite...that is decreasing retraction length for the plugin. You're gonna have to explain how increasing it could possibly help here. Also, if the material change is done after the pause, does that change even matter?
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So with the newest version of Cura came an update for my UM2 firmware. I like the changes and was especially happy about the ability to change material mid-print. I decided to try it out by trying to print a simple traffic cone in red with white bands. I used the "Pause at height" plugin in Cura, and the printer stopped at the right height, and I was able to change to a new color. The issue is that once the material has been changed, it retracts a bit when you choose the type. As a result, no material is extruded for (in my case) the first layer and a half. This made getting adhesion between layers obviously impossible, and I gave up after the second time it happened. Is there any way to fix it? I even turned off retraction, but that doesn't do anything in this case as the command to retract filament after a material change seems to rest entirely in the UM2's firmware.
P.S. I know that I could do a workaround with a new feeder and force the last few mm's through, but I don't want to go that route just yet.
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Thanks.
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Sorry if this topic has been asked a lot, but I've spent a fair amount of time looking it over and haven't really come to any satisfactory end...is there an official Ultimaker dual extrusion kit for the Ultimaker 2? It doesn't look like it (to me at least), but I've seen rumors of it for well over a year. I know that adapting Cura especially would be a royal pain, but as the current version has some tantalizing settings for it, I'm not really sure what to make of it.
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I'm currently using .1mm hright and Form Futura filament. The tolerances and color constancy seem good, so the quality doesn't seem to be an issue. I recently cleaned the hotend as well. (Fully disassembled it and found it was clean) I have an idea as to what it might be, but I'll try myself before posting back.
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Abs does not bridge as well as pla. Add more top layers and increase infill. I use .8 mm top with .1 layer height and 25% infill. At .2 layer height i would try 1mm top layer. Do not drop print temperature to much otherwise you get layer adhesion issues. I print at 250 degrees or even at 260 for faster results. You can try some fan but not above 50% i would recommend.
Thanks for the tip on top layers. It solved the issue with the top not closing correctly...but that still doesn't fix my issue--and it may be one not related to the filament. That is, when the infill is being added, it's going down onto a flat layer of plastic that's had much more time to cool. As a result, it isn't adhering correctly on the first layer. The next layers of infill then just adhere to the faulty first layer. Take a look:
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I've been hesitant to go below 50mm/s, though I might if this persists. Could material flow compensate a little as well?
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I recently got a fair amount of ABS, and I've been really disappointed as it's been nothing but trouble. I can get the prints to adhere to the bed well enough (with a light coating of hairspray and plate at 110C), but my issues come from adherence between layers. For example, I recently designed a stamp with my school's logo and put my name on it:
You can see that the phoenix and letters are all raised off of the base. I printed overnight with 100% infill and woke up this morning to find this:
Based on the little dusty bits of plastic strewn about, it looks like it completely failed to adhere to the ABS layers beneath it. I don't really understand why, but this is obviously a serious issue--and this isn't the first time it's happened. I've also seen it happen with infill or support. For example, I designed a small box with 20% infill and printed. Here's a look at the infill and final print (ignore the warping--a brim takes care of it for me).
Obviously, something is going on. I've tried fans 100%, 50%, and off...temperatures from 225C to 260C with nothing seeming to fix this particular issue (that is, no combination of settings actually closed the box. Printing this model in PLA yielded no issues--the infill was solid and the top closed smoothly.
I really need help...this is crippling, infuriating, and just obnoxious.
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It isn't an issue of adhesion; what does actually extrude sticks fine. And I did check the bed height--but the issue persists to higher layers as well. I haven't gotten a chance to really look into it properly yet as school is killing me, and I have lots of other things to print with ABS.
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I agree with the statements above. I had an issue with a switch that needed replacing. (I was eventually able to jerry-rig a fix, but at the time I thought it was shot.) Anyway, I emailed Ultimaker first, and then the next day I called the company that had shipped it to me--imakr. They answered and shipped a switch that same day--no expenses paid on my part! I got it a few days later, and that was a little under a week before Ultimaker finally sent me an email back. They apologized for the wait, explained why, and were extremely professional, but it's still something to consider.
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I understand the slow speeds, but that doesn't explain why at a constant slow speed it goes from extruding perfectly well to suddenly barely extruding at all...
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try adding a little bit of oil in the bowden tube, it will reduce friction and probably help alot with the extrusion
I ran some Teflon through it, and it does seem to be helping.
reduce the speed to 50% or less (tune menu while you are printing)
Yeah, this was a common tip I saw, but it seemed to have varying success. I tried another print of that same case at full speed, and it was no better or worse than a slow one...
What printer do you have? (editing your profile to say so might be a good idea).
If UM2, are you still using the stock feeder?
I do have a UM2 (and have amended my profile to reflect so....thought I did when I made it...whoopsies
), and I am still regrettably using the stock feeder. I think that this may be the issue, as I recently cranked the tension up because ABS kept slipping. When I pulled out some of the soft PLA, it was deformed horribly. There wasn't a lot of scrunching up (as I would associate with a lot of friction, so the Teflon probably did help), but the dimensions had almost uniformly changed to around 2.35mm +/- 0.04mm by 2.90mm +/- 0.05mm. That last one bothers me, as there is a lot f variance, and it's entirely possible that some sections had a width of above 3mm. I'm in the process of printing a new feeder right now, because tensioning the stock one is a pain, and when I do, I'll try really decreasing the tension. The quilt on the stepper digs into the soft PLA very well anyway, so I shouldn't need a lot.
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Most of my potential tidbits have already been addressed, but I do have a few little ideas that don't seem too major:
- Better time estimates during the print (e.g. I can change my print speed from 100 to 99% and suddenly the printer quadruples its expected time before eventually figuring out a rough estimate).
- Larger Bowden clips (something like this: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:621862...I only say this because whenever I tried to remove my small one, it kept falling into the print head D:)
- No glue! Gah, it has its benefits, but there are so many better ways to get prints to adhere that are less messy. I know that most veterans won't even use it (or already be masters with it), but for newbies it could be a little frustrating.
- Possibly a different dial? I struggle to keep turning it without pushing it and likewise to push it without turning it, both of which can be very bad sometimes. Maybe something a little more forward could be useful for this.
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For the love of God, please have a way of changing filament mid-print. To me at least, this seems like the biggest plain oversight of the UM2. It's something so easy to do, and it's crucial for big prints when running on empty for filament.
All this said, I do LOVE the UM2, and there are some things I don't want to see go, such as its beautiful appearance, rugged design, and of course...the Breakout Easter egg :mrgreen:
- Better time estimates during the print (e.g. I can change my print speed from 100 to 99% and suddenly the printer quadruples its expected time before eventually figuring out a rough estimate).
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I recently got a pretty good deal on some soft PLA. I bought it because I thought it would be a good material for printing phone cases. Shown here are the first two layers of a print I did with it recently.
I've never used soft PLA before, and you can see that there are TONS of little holes in it from some pretty inconsistent but severe underxtrusion...while I did manipulate the parameters a little (eg I increased the flow rate and turned up the temperature to around 230), the entire first layer and most of the second layer where printed very slowly (bottom was at 30% and top was at 65%) with constant parameters, yet you can still tell where some sections worked flawlessly and others just look horrible. The plate is fine and so is the model; I recently printed this gcode in ABS, and it came out beautifully. Any help on temps, speed, flowrate, fan speed, etc. for soft PLA?
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If you can push filament through without any issue (that is, you can straighten a piece of filament, head the nozzle, and push it through with no major issues like burning or smoking), I wouldn't expect the problem to be at the hot end--it could be either in the Bowden tube itself (ie check the ends of the tube for any potential blockages and if you feel the need run a little Teflon through it to reduce friction) or the feeder.
I had issues with regular skipping; it turned out that I just needed to really increase the tension on my feeder. I don't know why it was so low when mine came in, but it was a pretty effective fix. Worth a shot if you know what you're getting into.
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Ah! Finally. I did some work to retension my feeder not too long ago. So it turned out that the wire I had running to my Y endstop got caught between the feeder stepper motor and the printer's frame, crushing it. The insulation got pressed flat, and the metal of the frame and stepper motor caused it to short. I just covered the wires in kapton tape and reran them. All is well! ^^
), and I am still regrettably using the stock feeder. I think that this may be the issue, as I recently cranked the tension up because ABS kept slipping. When I pulled out some of the soft PLA, it was deformed horribly. There wasn't a lot of scrunching up (as I would associate with a lot of friction, so the Teflon probably did help), but the dimensions had almost uniformly changed to around 2.35mm +/- 0.04mm by 2.90mm +/- 0.05mm. That last one bothers me, as there is a lot f variance, and it's entirely possible that some sections had a width of above 3mm. 
Where to Start in Writing G Code for UM2+?
in UltiMaker Cura
Posted
I checked, and the gcode my printer takes all seems to be UltiGCode flavor...what does this mean? What's the difference between flavors?