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krys

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Posts posted by krys

    Help: Upgraded TinkerGnome firmware, now I get X or Y switch broken

    in UltiMaker 3D printers

    Posted

    Hi @Tinkergnome. Thanks for responding. :)

    I see. So, to upgrade I need a factory reset. Sad Panda! :(

    Out of curiosity, do you think that if I downgraded to an earlier stock version before the address changes, then put in the old Tinker 16.07 that I could get back to what I had before? It was working fine for me.

    I probably would not stay that way, stuck in time as it were, but I am just curious if you think I could go back in time by downgrading.

    Thanks very much. And thanks for your firmware! I really like it!

    Help: Upgraded TinkerGnome firmware, now I get X or Y switch broken

    in UltiMaker 3D printers

    Posted

    Hi folks,

    I have run into a strange new issue and I am not sure how to resolve it. Some help would be much appreciated. :)

    I have, up until yesterday, been running @Tinkergnome 16.07 on my UM2+. Today, I upgrades to the stock version in Cura 2.1.3, then upgraded again to Tinkergnome 16.08.1.

    Now, homing the head does not work correctly and I get the error message "X or Y switch broken". Using Expert funtions -> Move axis, I can move the Y and Z axes, but X does not move.

    Here is the weird part: Returning to stock firmware either the 15.x that comes with Cura 2.1.3 or the 15.y that comes with Cura 15.whatever_is_current, the X axis moves just fine and homing works just fine. So it is not hardware. But, even returning now to Tinkergnome 16.07, which worked yesterday, now no longer works, giving the same error as 16.08.1.

    And that is where I am stuck. Can someone help?

    Is this a bug in Tinker or the new Cura 2.1.3 firmware? Is this some weird missing e-steps or motor current or something? I am guessing it is something new saved to EEPROM, but I am not sure how to diagnose this. I looked in Motion control in Tinker and there are numbers there, but I do not know what I am looking at.

    (Ideally I would like to not have to do factory reset and lose my lovely usage stats, but I really like and need TinkerGnome's firmware.)

    Anyway, any insights would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance. :)

    ColorFabb PLA/PHA Exposure Temp

    in Improve your 3D prints

    Posted

     

    If you prefer PLA there are high temperature types that are reportedly good to 120 degrees after heat treatment. I've not tried them yet but here's an example:

    https://www.proto-pasta.com/products/high-temp-pla-v2-0

     

    Great link! Thank you, I'll be taking at look at this soon.

     

    Hello fellow Canadian! :)

    You can get Proto-Pasta stuff at http://filaments.ca. Not sure if they have the high temp stuff, but take a look. It'll be cheaper than ordering from the US. :( (I know I just did this exact thing.)

    http://makergeeks.com in the States also has high temp PLA. I am just starting to test it now.

    I have also used ColorFabb XT and Taulman T-Glass for higher heat resistance to good effect. But they have their own learning curves. nGen is probably better than XT, but I have not tried it yet. Taulman stuff is quite nice to work with though.

    Polycarbonate would probably work very well, but it can be a massive pain to work with.

    One additional thought would be to cover the area exposed to heat with one or more layers of Kapton tape. That stuff is thin and can handle up to 260C with little heat transfer through it. Space age stuff! :D

    Anyway, just some thoughts. Hope it helps! :)

    Best material for outdoor wifi mesh router?

    in Improve your 3D prints

    Posted

    There is a material called ASA. It is basically ABS but with UV protection built it. It could save you from painting maybe. I have not used it yet though.

    As for a heated chamber, I just put a front cover on my UM2 and put a box over the top. I have seen people use plastic table cloths or shower curtains to cover the top too. Or ever just cover the whole printer with the box that the UM2 came in. :) So, it is not too hard to set up a basic enclosed chamber for successful ABS printing.

    For cheap and outdoor rugged, I cannot think of anything that fits better than ABS (or ASA maybe?). ... or wood planks nailed together! ;)

    Anyway, just some thoughts. Hope it helps.

    • Like 1

    Questions about measuring filament diameter

    in Improve your 3D prints

    Posted

    Hi folks,

    Just wanted to post an update to this.

    I had replaced the battery in my caliper, but it did not change the measurements. Now I have finally got around to buying another (and a bit more expensive) digital caliper. Sure enough, it's measurements are exactly what is expected and what @Labern gets.

    So my original cheap calipers are off by 0.4 - 0.5 mm. It's possible this only happens on measurements under 5mm, but I would have to test that further and frankly, I like my new caliper better anyway. :) Maybe they can be recalibrated? Meh. Project for another day.

    Anyway, just wanted to conclude this topic with a result and to say thanks again. :)

    Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

    in UltiMaker Cura

    Posted

     

     

    - add a small gap between traces, so we can see how 100% infill layers are printed

     

    I don't quite understand what you mean by that.

     

    In the 100% infill layers, we can't see the tool path: we just see a flat yellow surface. Adding a little gap between each tool path would allow to see them.

     

    In videos of S3D that I have seen, it seems that the tool paths are rendered as horizontal cylinders with gradients so you can distinguish each path when they are directly adjacent to each other.

    I believe @fma is asking for the ability to distinguish each tool path, even when they are directly adjacent, by adding a small gap or black line or something. I.e. so that, for example 100% infill does not just look like a solid wall of colour but looks like distinct lines.

    E.g. Like this or this. (From Google image search.)

    Now, I am not saying copy S3D necessarily. Cura should be it's own brand of awesomeness. :D But the end result would be nice. The trick would be to still be able to distinguish between a space between tool paths and merely adjacent tool paths.

    Anyway, I hope this help clarify things. @fma, correct me if I am wrong. :)

    Nylon finishing

    in Materials & profiles

    Posted

    Hi there.

    If you are getting stringing and/or little bumps, try turning up your retraction settings a bit. Mine hover between 5.50mm@35mm/s and 7.50mm@45mm/s in extreme cases. I even used 10.50mm once on NinjaFlex and it seemed to actually make an improvement, but that felt rather extreme to me.

    Other than that, I cut bits off with flush cutters and an Xacto/hobby knife. I find 3D printed part quite whittle-able if you are careful.

    Taulman says nylon can be dyed, but I do not know about finishing. I do not know why sanding the crap out of it would not work either. Maybe try taking a Dremel/rotary tool to it? (More power! Ha ha ha!) ;)

    Anyway, hope this helps. Good luck! :)

    fill under-extruded

    in UltiMaker Cura

    Posted

    Hi there.

    I have had that issue in the past too. But that was when Cura had the infill speed set too high (80m/s). Per forum suggestions, I lowered the infill speed and things worked fine after that.

    But if you are already print with all speeds slower (40mm/s) and still getting that result, then I do not know.

    Could it be the filament? What if you try a different filament and see what happens? Different materials, and even different brands can behave differently.

    Maybe also try hotter and/or slower until you can find new baseline working settings?

    Just some thoughts. Hope it helps. :)

    What is going on here?

    in Materials & profiles

    Posted

    Hi there,

    I have only used XT Clear, but what works for me is 240C and 50mm/s (or 30mm/s on occasion). But because it is clear, I use only 25% fan.

    I wonder what would happen if you tried less fan with the XT White.

    That said, my gut says go cooler, like @gr5 suggests. But that contradicts my less fan suggestion, so I guess I do not know. :)

    Also, there are other forum posts about XT with working settings, maybe search around a bit? I don't know if any refer to White though.

    Anyway, just some thoughts to try. Good luck!

    1.75 Filament with Ultimaker 2+

    in Materials & profiles

    Posted

    Also i was considering buying a UM2+ what are your thoughts on yours?

     

    I love my Ultimaker 2(+)! There is nothing quite like taking the idea in your head and turning in to a real thing you can hold in your hand! ... Plus I get lots of cool and unique toys too. :D It is lots of learning and trial and error, though, so be prepared to sink some time in to it.

    My only complaint with my printer is that my robot project got put on hold as I got distracted with the printer. That was more than a year ago! ;)

    To keep this on topic, though, I have never had the urge to convert to 1.75mm and I have not trouble getting 2.85mm in Canada, both cheap stuff and quality name brand stuff. In the US or with having several different printers, maybe it makes more sense to convert, but for me, I do not see much point. Though maybe I do not know what I am missing! :p

    Anyway, hope this helps.

    Cura 2.1 open beta has been released!

    in UltiMaker Cura

    Posted

    The only issue I have with auto-slicing is that it can occasionally hang if I don't let it finish before doing another scale,rotate,move, etc... And once it's hung (hanged?) the only way to fix it is to exit Cura and restart it. That can suck if I've just placed a lot of items on the build plate and have to do it all over again.

    That's where a 'Save Layout' would be nice...

    Just my 2c

     

    I have this problem too, but only with Cura 2.1.x (I am on Linux). The old Cura 15.x never had this issue for me and the auto-slicing was fast and never in my way.

    I suspect it is just a bug, and that Nallath or someone else is already working on fixing it. :) But currently, I too find it safer to wait for one slice to finish before I do the next change. And it is quite tedious.

    Cura 2.x is nice, but it definitely still feels beta. ... Because it *is* beta. :) So, for now, I wait patiently and appreciate Nallath's (et al.) hard work. :D

    Ghost image on Ultimaker 2 screen

    in UltiMaker 3D printers

    Posted

    @krys I checked today and I've been printing for 6666 hours, but the printer has been on for 9000 hours, mainly because I also leave print at night that finish printing at 4-5am, which leaves a time gap until I get off bed. :D

     

    Yeah, I am in a similar boat. 5000hrs printing, quite a bit more just "on".

    ThinkerGnome's firmware both lets me reduce the brightness of the display and has the screen blanking. I appreciate both very much. :)

    Though, it is weird to see the printer printing with the lights and screen off. Seems like it is possessed or something! :D

    Advice needed on materials...

    in Materials & profiles

    Posted

    Hi there,

    I am no materials expert or structural engineer, but from what I have read and played with here are some thoughts that might help:

    Nylon is super strong (tensile), but has some flex (like ABS), is super slipy, can be hard to get to stick to the bed and warps. But if you have solved ABS, then maybe it would work for you. Check our the Taulman stuff. They are several kinds, all for industrial use. I've used Bridge to good effect.

    Polycarbonate is also insanely strong, but warps, is crazy difficult to get to stick to the bed and requires higher temperatures. 260C is a *minimum*! Also watch out for weak layer adhesion. I am still experimenting with this stuff myself, and it is driving me a bit batty. But YMMV.

    Lastly, if you want rigid and strong, you can get excellent results with PLA or even better PLA/PHA (Colorfabb). This stuff is easy to print. Just use thicker walls (more shells), higher infill (but not 100%, it does not buy you anything) and print slower for better layer adhesion (I think). I saw @gr5 recently comment about PLA being plenty strong. He seems to know his stuff! :)

    I do not know if this is a good example or not, but I have built a standing height electronics workbench from some cheap wood (it was a closet shoe shelf), ABS pipe for legs (PVC would have been better, wood or aluminum would have been even better) and 3D printed connectors for all of it. Flat plates to hold the wood slats together, fasteners to mount the wood to the top of the legs and t-junctions to hold the cross-braces. All in PLA/PHA and they are all holding just fine even after months of use of the desk and weight on it. ... I did make sure, however, when printing that all the stress points would not be along layer boundaries, as that is the weakness of all FDM printing.

    So for your prototyping tests, why not just see how far you can go with PLA. Then get fancy later?

    Oh, and I have seen videos of people doing various break tests of filament materials. Maybe check those out too.

    Anyway, I am no expert, and YMMV, but I hope this gives you some ideas. Good luck! :)

    • Like 1

    Ghost image on Ultimaker 2 screen

    in UltiMaker 3D printers

    Posted

    Hi folks,

    I also have this issue. It did some research on it and it seems that OLEDs are subject to burn-in. ... like old CRTS, and unlink LCDs! :(

    Some people, in the context of OLED TVs say that if you turn all the pixels on max and leave it for a long time, you can at least burn all the pixels to the same level and hide the ghosting. (Sounds dangerous to me!) But you cannot actually fix the problem once you have it.

    I was quite surprised that no one else has mentioned it until now. (not even me!) :( Thanks flowalistik! :)

    For me it occurred because I will put on 5 or 6 hour prints over night or while at work and then it sits there saying "done" for a 2-3 hours after that because I am still asleep or at work.

    In fact, screen blanking was one of the major reasons I switched to Tinker's firmware. (The other being 300C for polycarb). :)

    I would seriously recommend that the stock firmware be changed to have some kind of basic blanking capability because of this. I was really bummed out when I first saw this. It still bugs me every time I see it. That's my $0.02. Also, can we buy replacement OLED displays?

    Anyway, I hope this helps. Glad to know I am not the only one! :)

    Tips for using the different nozzles sizes?

    in Improve your 3D prints

    Posted

    Hi gang,

    One thing I noticed over the weekend regarding nozzle sizes is this:

    For a given layer height, switching to a larger nozzle size caused more filament to be used. At least that is what Cura 2.1.2 estimates.

    For example, if I say I want 0.25 layer height and I use the 0.4mm nozzle, I get, say, 17m of filament estimated will be used. Keeping all else the same, and changing to the 0.8 nozzle, I get around 25m of filament that will be used.

    I suspect this is because the infill line width will be that much wider, using more plastic. It probably would contribute to a stronger part too, but that is just a guess.

    If you want to keep the amount of filament used down (at the cost of speed), then the smaller nozzle might help. ... Assuming Cura's estimates are reasonably accurate.

    I did not think of upping the layer height beyond 0.25, however. So, if 0.4mm layer height is feasible with the 0.8mm nozzle, that might help offset things. Again, just a guess.

    Anyway, this is just an observation I noticed. Hope it helps! :)

    Original Ultimaker 2 - need stainless steel nozzle - do I go Olsson block or UM2+ addon?

    in Third party products & modifications

    Posted

    Hi howardsmith,

    Well, you *can* use CF20 with your regular brass nozzle, but it will wear out much more quickly, or so I have read. I have not yet tried CF20 myself.

    If you want the steel nozzle (hardened steel or stainless steel, apparently there is a difference), then the Olson block is the way to go.

    Just getting the Olson kit is the cheaper option and would get the job done.

    But the Extruder Upgrade kit includes a lot more and makes a big improvement over the UM2 (better feeder, better temperature control, faster heat up and more). So, if you can afford it, I suggest the upgrade kit.

    Both the kit and the Olson block kit include the exact same hot end and nozzles, so they are fully compatible with each other, no difference.

    I also read that E3D nozzles work to and really anything with a metric M6 thread.

    As for where to get stuff in the UK, I do not know. You can get the Olson block and the Upgrade kit from Ultimaker itself, of course. 3DSolex is also a possible source on your side of the pond. :)

    Additionally, 3DSolex now has a new upgraded Olson block replacement you might consider if you are not going to get the full upgrade kit.

    Anyway, people with actual CF20 experience can probably provide better insights, but since I have recently done the upgrade kit and recently done a bunch of research, I thought I would try and help out. :)

    Hope this help clear things up. Good luck!

    UM2 extruder upgrade feeder vs Bondtech feeder. Why Bondtech?

    in Third party products & modifications

    Posted

    If flexible filament is important for you, I suggest to exchange the PFA bowden for a PTFE tube, as l'm advertising all over the forum :PIt has far less friction, so maybe oil isn't necessary at all. See this topic.

     

    Thanks for the hint, avogra! :)

    So did you get the exact same one as joseph-kim mentioned in that other thread? Or do you have a different one that you are in love with? :p

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