Torgeir

Hi, This sound very much like a belt is trying to climb off a pulley. This might happen if a shaft is not locked by a pulley at the side where the shaft has to escape the body if you like to remove them. Check that the shafts do not move along shaft, but only can turn. This might happen if one of the pulley is loose on the shaft, the pulley that lock the shaft and preventing the shaft to move out of the hole. Be especially aware of the shaft with the double pulley. Just my 5 p. Good luck.

Thanks. Do not have any Capton or blue tape. Can I use a couple of hairspray layers on a cold glass plate? This cause I’m only having the Verbatim PLA, that jump of the heat bed when it’s cold. Torgeir

Hi Folks, This is interesting; there are so many parameters that are to be checked when things go wrong. Do you remember the zebra stripe topics? This one is yet to be solved, if I’m not wrong? Well, this one is about the heat bed: As I’ve been printing different test object in order to understand the influence the various parameters has to my 3Dprint object, I found this problem when tried to print the “3Dbenchy boat”. I found some strange printing in the forward part (at the bow) of the boat. It just look like the PLA is overheated at that first part of the bow, were the overhang is closest to the heat bed. To be honest I’ve always been suspicion to this heat bed, as it really radiates lot of additional heat to our printing object, especially to the part of object that’s close to the heat bed. Also, when the extruder is away from the heat bed, say an inch (25mm) or so, there is no sign of this. Have a look at this picture. This picture shows 6 ea "3Dbenchy boat”. From left to right: First 3Dboat, head temp 208, bed temp 60 and layer h 0.2. Number two only change head temp down to 203 and position turned 45 deg. Clockwise. Number three; only turned 45 deg. more clockwise. Number 4 and 5 some extruder feeding change 103% and 98% ough.. Number 6 as number 2, whit Z-hop. Enough said here.. I’ve also happened to notice that the EMC test did not pass the test of the “UM2” (?) due to the high radiation from the “PWM modulation” of the heat bed. (This can be fixed by a hardware correction). I’ve also monitored the bed temperature to be approx. 60 deg. C., same as the setting at the controller. Have anyone seen this on their “3Dbenchy boat”? Thanks Torgeir

Hi Folks, Hmm. I must say that Neotko is up to something here… I’ve read in one of the topics about the experiments of adding a more powerful fans for cooling the printing object and the upper part of the extruder (the 5 volt fan). They soon discovered that the extruder temp failed erratically. People assumed that the added power consumes from this more powerful fans lead to voltage drop and made this failure… However, here this is not the case! Those fans are brushless and have electronic speed regulator built in. Such controller/regulators often spread lots of harmonic around the feeder lines (the two wires feeding power to the fan). The voltage from the PT100 (platinum thermistor) is amplified by an OP amplifier. So which level (voltage) do you think the PT100 deliver to the OP amp? Well, this voltage calculated here is for the temperature span from (0-210) deg. Celsius. The answer is only 85.4 mV, yes millivolt! This is only 0.407 mV/1 deg. Celsius, or if you like; 407 µV/°C. Armed with those numbers it is easy to see that high level radiation will/can jam out such a low level signal when wires are bundled together. Another thing here is; the original temp sensor harness has a copper tinned braided jacket and also a transparent insulator overlay, covering the three conductors all the way from the stainless steel cap to the connector. Just where those three wires escape from the jacket, there is a heat shrink insulating the braided jacket. This braided jacket is meant to be a shield for this lo signal feeder, so it would be smart to ground this wire at the controller PCB. This wire is to be shielded all the way to the board connector… Thanks. Torgeir. Just made a correction of the calculation.

Hi Umagi, First to your procedure powering up the Ultimaker, -you did not state the model you have but I'll assume UM2 here. As there is a DC power switch, this one should be switched on last and off first! First AC then the DC! The reason for this might be a slow rising voltage from the DC power supply delivering power to a "computer". As such slow ricing voltage may prevent a proper start reset; this might be the reason for the DC switch... But this answer should normally come from the producer. You also said that the U3 IC has been blowing up, -how many times? As there are two more OP amps as U3, with supply voltages paralleled, I doubt this problem is caused by the power supply. This U3 OP amp is used for amplify the signal from the (platinum) PT100 temperature probe no1. Here I would check the wiring from the extruder and to the control board. The fact is that the heater (containing one wire with 24 VDC and another coming from the PWM controlled ground reference). If the 24VDC line is intermittently come in contact with one of the (two) wires from the PT100 temp sensor, your U3 OP amplifier will be history. Please check those wires carefully, the part to mostly pay attention to is; the wiring part from the extruder –to the feeder –also through the hole close to the feeder motor. Those wiring thats allways move. One last question, does this occur during printing (loosing temp and stop)? Or? Good Luck. Torgeir.

Hi Folks, As it's almost a year since this tread started, I'll like to ask; has anyone tried out / checked if there is one micro step missing? Meaning one of the micro steps (of 16) is "two steps long" instead of one, leaving visible lines on our prints under certain conditions. This should be easy to check, -and hopefully easy correct hardware wise as well. At the moment I'm far away from my printer, so can't do this check. Thanks Torgeir

Hi, Here's to print of the "famous" 3D cylinder test. This first one is done with a brittle and water contained PLA. This occurs over time when PLA is stored unprotected in open air, as the PLA subtract water directly from the humidity in the air. In fact, when I made this first print, I've had to use one hand to add some extra force to the feeder all the time when this print was made. Here is another picture of the same withe cylinder, but this one show the print just after printing the feeding flow. Here you can see the little lines going upwards where the stepper change direction I'll think, as this match the actual step to step points along the circle. As the accelleration is constant (ideally) around this circle we should think that the extrudance was even all around. However, since the two steppers accellerate/decellerate from point to point all the time this will have influence on the extrude flow and even make this lines more visible. Ok., the funny thing is if you try to find the center of gravity for this cylinder, it will be right in the middle. This next one is printed with a proper PLA, right from a sealed bag. It just come out like this. I made two in a row with same result. Enjoy. Thanks Torgeir

Hi Folks, This is one of the more interesting topics I've been reading here so far -for me... As I have exact the same zebra stripes and some more strange details appearing on this boat, I'll think this is a good thing to elaborate on further. I'll think GR5 is right on the track here, -thank you so much! I have some print to study, my own and some of the famous boat made on an UMO. But the 3Dboat is hard to print properly by any printer for sure... The best reference is the 3Dboat printed by the UMO (Ultimaker Original printer). I've got the zebra stripes as well, even with my home built printer. When I looked at the examples I've also noticed some other "error" that got my interest more than the zebra stripes. If you look at the bow of the ship frame, the low part there, close to the heath bed has sign of overheated print in that place. When I looked to the reference I have, the UMO -it's just perfect, and I could not see any zebra stripes at first glance. I'd really become interested in this, so I used some magnifiers in order to study the surface of the print. An important factor here was the source lighting when studying the surface of the print. This first print of the 3Dboat, is made with Verbatim gray PLA using my printer, nozzle temp 204 deg C., Bed 60 deg C., infill 20 % and 0.2 mm layer tichness. You can clearly see the stripes bot on the steering house and the ship frame. The other side is a mirror of "this" right side. Next one is the UMO, do not know any parameter, except that the extruder temperature is 208 and bed is around 60 (deg C.). Next one is the same as above, but tis time a close up of the steering house. Can you see the zebra stripes? Another two pictures of the UMO printed 3Dboat. Next, a picture of the 3Dboat printed with my printer with Verbatim PLA, 0.06 mm height, nozzle 204 deg C., bed 60 deg c., 60 % infill and double wall tichness. I have some more pictures of this phenomene, the X/Y step marks you can see on your 3D print, well -on some prints. Btw., you can observe the zebra stripes on all of the prints above. The other interesting print to se is the extruder flow test, the 3D cylinder test. Thanks Torgeir

Yes, got that problem as well, but after a "little" cleaning- no problem. Can do two or three print, then you'll need to clean well again. As I haven't tried anything else but Verbatim, I really cannot say how good or bad Verbatim are versus other brand of filaments. My point was just to tell that RS also sell other brands of filament. I’m quite happy with the quality of Verbatim, but this is just by comparing pictures of the print results others put up. But sure, I’ll like to try some good proven stuff to see how good the improvement can be. By the way, I have so many questions about the quality and why. Yes I’m sure you know.. Cheers Torgeir

Hi Folks, They have Verbatim as well, the (first) one I'm currently use.. See this link: http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/3d-printing-materials/8226500/ I wrote a story about this PLA another place in here, -anyway it's stored in a sealed plastic bag (vacuum packed) and finally protected by a cardboard box. Torgeir.

Hi folks, This is interesting. I have had the same problems, when I started to print those test things after building my printer. I read a lot about all kind of problems with these 3 dimensional plastic printers before I decided to try building one. First thing first, and this is about the filament. As it's not easy to find a perfect filament, you always try to follow other people's experience. However, I come across an offer from a shop selling normal printer stuff as paper, ink, and laser replacement cassette’s and among all this also filaments for 3D printers. They were selling the Verbatim filament, the one I'll remember was selling those floppy disks many years ago. I bought tree (1 Kg) spools of PLA with the color withe, gray and black. All of them were packed in a vacuum plastic bag together with a small crystal bag to keep humidity away. However the withe spool had the plastic bag leaking, the bag did not stick tightly to the filament spool. As I had no idea about the properties for this PLA and how it should be, I just installed the filament and printed this little robot we all know with standard settings that Cura offer you first time. The first print I made was a shiny withe «Ultimaker Robot». When I studied the object a little closer, I thought that maybe the temperature was a little bit to hi (210 Deg. C), so I made a lot of those robots and find the best temperature to be 204 Deg. C for this filament. I also made some test with the «Um extruder test», the cylinder with increasing flow from 1 to 9. During this test, the extruder suddenly stopped extruding; sometime there was a little blub, and then no more plastic from the nozzle. When I looked at the feeder motor it was rotating, but just grinding into the filament. The pressure setting on the feeder was set to lo position. I helped the feeder by pushing on the filament into the feeder, suddenly the filament get loose and started extruding again, but now just into the open as the z-had moved some distance down. I removed the filament by using the software, when the filament moved out, it just snapped off outside of the feeder before the entire filament cleared the feeder. This filament was that brittle, it snapped off easier than those dry spaghetti rods we all know... You would not believe it; well the funny thing is when the filament goes through the heat block coming out as a tiny tread, the «normal» PLA property is back. What do I learn of this, well on the PLA spool there was a warning about when you finish your printing; -remove the spool from the printer and put it into a sealed bag so the filaments properties do not change. Meaning plastic attract water directly from (the normal humidity in) the air, some plastic's more than others!! So what happened when the nozzle stop extruding? If the filament have a high level of water, this water become steam, as the temperature is well above the melting point of this plastic, the steam bubbles form fast and climb easily upwards in the heat block, it will move as far as it can before the temperature fall down to the temperature were the plastic start to be solid again. This seems to occur inside the «Teflon coupler», this bubbles draw «plastic glue» to suddenly have the filament glued just above the heat block. All this is due to too high water content attracted in the filament. There is nothing wrong with the original feeder, just faulty filament properties. After changing to the «real vacuum packed» silver PLA spool all problem gone, I could bend several times on this PLA filament without breaking, not brittle at all! Those lines of yours printing used to happened when I had to high feeder flow, yes I wanted to see what my printing become when fiddling a little with the various parameters when printing. The grooves inside the left coup looks like high water content in the filament. Worth to know is some spools might have parts of the filament with high water content, while some part can be ok. And yes, I got a little like this on the white filament spool… Some learning here, don’t rice the temp sky high in order to loosen up the stuck filament, as this will make things worse and make real sticky plastic stuck inside your nozzle. Make the filament loose at the extruder, then you can feed some good filament and problem will be gone. Well my experience so far. Thanks Torgeir

Hi Meduza, Really liked your way of doing it.. It's a "Roll Royce" feeder unit, imo. I made a very simple belt gear with a 16 and 32 theeth 2GT Pulleys. I used same belt as the two short ones in the UM2. Two small (outer dia. 10mm and inner 5mm) bearing a 5mm shaft from a model helicopter and two adapted 6mm plexiglass sheet. Sure there is 5 ea 18mm spacers in there too. I have been printing for about 11 hour in this way, an it does not make much noise -only the stepper backtracking is noticed, but this is like the other steppers. I've made this with normal hand tools, not very nice but work very good. Do you share your stl files for other? I would love to make your pro. ver.. Thanks for sharing your idea. Regards Torgeir.

Hi Nicolinux, I liked this idea, actually very smart -and don't worry about the wiring as it can be long enough for the ext. version, so when you go to the standard version the wire bundles is just clamped behind the side covers. Even the Z axis could be the long one, going through the roof into a cylinder cover in short version configuration. Great idea... Regards Torgeir

Hi Mick, Do you still have the old nozzle block? If you have, -with the wires intact, try to use this one as it should be ok, hopefully.. Well, you can use a 100 ohm resistor to check that the temperature is reading approx. 0 deg. Celsius. You'll need another resistor at 180 ohm for a hot check, when connected to the board it will show approx. 212 deg. Celsius. This is an easy way of checking your main boards response to a resistance equivalent to our PT100 (platinium sensor). You have to be very careful when installing the termoistor, do not bend more than once on the wires going into the termistor block.. It is very easy to break, or to make a close break become an intermittent connection as you have. Those resistor should be very easy to find at your place.. But I'll guess you just order a few of those PT100 as spare, -as they fail now and then. Good luck. Regards Torgeir.

Hi Didier, Thanks for the welcome, and you was right it was set to private.. Well, i'll learning something new every day. Regard Torgeir

Hi «Ultimaker 3D printer community», As I'm a complete newbie in the 3D printing world, I've been lurking around here for about 8 months in order to learn as much as possible. I come from the aviation working as an avionic engineer. Hence I've been drawing (with Auto cad, Solid Edge and Solid Works), -this is the reason I'll like to make something that can be drawn -but never made in the traditional way.. The time from design and drawing to a model is just some hour away, amazing. Originally I was looking for the Arduino printer, cause of all the interesting electronics devices and project herein. I was looking for some «free» slicer software, when I happens to find Cura and the Ultimaker printer.. After some studies of Ultimaker 2, I realized that this is the 3D printer I want -but cant afford.. :( The only way for me -was to build one myself, so I started to collect/buying various parts. Among those parts I've got some six NMEA17 stepper motors, 1,7 Amp and 200 step per rev. At this time I did not know that the extruder stepper should have 400 step pr rev. I also learned from this forum about all the problem with this extruder as; hot shaft (as the knurled wheel is mounted directly on the stepper shaft that soften the filament) and too lo torque for feeding the filament under some condition. As the stepper I had needed to be slower (half the speed), I made a 2:1 reduction «gear» with one belt and two pulleys. I used the same belt (200-GT2) as the two short one's already in use in the U2 -and the same original feeder unit. I'm just use the four original holes for the feeder stepper motor for this modification. Doing it this way does not require any firmware changes or modification of the original files for UM2. I just posted this thing to show an alternative that's a little simpler and can also use the original 400 step per rev. stepper motor for feeding the filament. I've added two pictures of the modification. Thanks Torgeir.[/media][/media][/media]