kmanstudios

Hmmmm, we have the worst power in the world here in NYC with the aging infrastructure and population/power usage increases. Seasonal issues affect many things here as well as electrical consumption goes up and is actually turned down by the utilities to prevent blackouts, hence a lot of 'brown power' during summers. I have seen the lights in the apartment dim at times when just the refrigerator cycles on. When the winter hits, and most are using some sort of biofuel, the electrical grid is not so spotty.

Always use any electronics with a battery backup/uninterruptible power supply. While power surges can be bad, they usually only trip the sensors and do what you describe. although, if it is bad enough, it can fry a circuit or two. But, the dips in power availability can be just as bad or worse as it will not trip anything, but let the machine run on less than optimal power. The combination of dips and peaks in your power consumption can damage things in the long run. Something that passes the power through a battery, or 'conditions the power' to a much more constant sine wave and it makes your equipment much more stable and happy. It does not take much to trip something too. I had a brownout a while back, which forced me to dig out my old APC unit and it was not the brownout that caused it to trip, it was the sudden surge when it kicked back up. Now, I just hear a beep every now and then on the APC when the power goes wonky, but my printer hums along without a blip. And, it does help prolong the life of electronics and cut down on electrical noise in the environment that can interfere with other aspects of electronics. Now, this is how it was explained to me in the dark ages of computing when Dino ran on a treadmill to give me power, and I am very open to a more concise or revised explanation/correction, but the short answer is "Yes, absolutely!"

I do not think it would have occurred to me, so thanks for the out of the box idea!

This is the Neotkonized Egg print. Right now it is still soaking a bit to get rid of all that danged support. It is a bit gristly looking right now, but kinda cool, if I can get it cleaned up and looking better. Definitely could have used a few better settings. But the patterning is great.

Hey Udo, English is better than most Americans I can say. And, welcome :)Cool community here. So much to learn...been here since January and still learning things from these guys here, newbies and oldtimers. And, yeah, the UM3E is a sweet machine.

Huh...got an error 500 on loading this thread's original post. I can see korneel's reply though. odd.......

May I suggest building a filament drybox. There are many plans out there to design or modify from. You can just search filament drybox. Many people here may have input as to their favorite design. But, it is basically a plastic container that can be sealed with spool holders and holes drilled out to feed the filament. The container is filled with desiccant bags that can be dried when the color changes. Also, ditto on the humidity not being something I considered as I too have the AC on during these humid months and that takes care of a lot of things. It did not occur to me until you mentioned it not wanting to print overnight and many buildings shut off the AC systems during the nights and weekends. Also, a shroud of some sort may help with a small heating unit or dehumidifier inside the enclosure. While the polyester family is not as hygroscopic as most, it will still absorb moisture. So, a shroud that helps keep moisture out of the print area may help. Here is a link to an article about the effects of moisture on the polyester family.

I can attest that humidity is a major problem as at the very least, moisture can build up in the bowden tube and that can create issues. Also, while I am not sure about PETG being hygroscopic (there seems to be varying themes around about that) I did run across a bit of info about this here. A short snippet: I have also seen some places say that PETG is a bit more brittle when humidity attacks it. Most of my worst failures in printing can be directly attributed to humidity. A lot of the other can be user error and a tiny amount of WTF? Hey, what is life without a problem to solve and a mystery to confound?

Just throwing this out there, what is the humidity like? Does the air conditioning (cooling, heat, humidity) get shut off at night? Also, could there be a bad 'wind' in the spool, something that catches enough to make it grind? And, finally, off the top of me wee head, have you taken off the feeder and made sure the filament wheel is clean? Over time, the filament issues you have had may have left schtuffs inside the knurled patterns to where it does not grip as well as it should.

I have not seen that happening. I have a print right now that is displaying the temperature set in Cura (190°C) for the PLA I am using and that is not the default temperature. Which version of Cura and what machine? New? Used?

I have to second the fact that once logged in, the speed is significantly slower. It is not a speedy site, but average for the amount of doodads animating around and such. But once logged in, the forum is really bad other than that one bump I had a day or two ago. But even logged in, the rest of the site seems ok. I just went through several product pages.

Pictures would be helpful. I, for one, cannot even fathom the description as I have not seen anything like this.

Ain't that the truth. The 'why' is everything to me. Drives me bonkers if I cannot find the why. ...and, yeah, this is true too. I have found, over time though, that eventually it will out in time as I gain more understanding of intricacies. But, with software, I accept it a lot more easily because of the nature of the beast. Sometimes software just acts weird without any other reason, but it is usually constant in behaviour. Makes it fun to find repeatable patterns for bug hunting.

As an engineer, I am sure that you can grok the strange nature of something like this. While the industry has really come a long way, it is still nascent. And, it takes all the pieces falling into place to get something out right. I can empathize with your frustrations, especially when trying to 'prove' a proven technology to your peers and it fails at odd times. I just try to remind people that tech will fail, and usually at the worst times. I think people have gotten to used to complex machines like phones, tablets and such doing simple tasks that they have no patience for something that requires a bit of babying. And, as robust as the UM3 series is, it still needs some TLC and not condemnation for not being the end all and be all right now(!!! Dammit!!) LOL Not you, but others I have seen that just get dismissive over something without being fully versed or just wanting a very narrow answer while not really explaining what they are looking for. Ain't no silver bullets folks. And having worked with really temperamental machines in my life (proprietary and open) this thing is a beauty to work. But, that does not mean a faulty part here or there will not go out. And, in the US, the tech support I have received is, bar none, the best I have ever had in 36 years of computing experience.

Is it the simple stuff or the large stuff? To me, the piece that gave you troubles was an easy piece. Not complex geometry.

Back to the usual times. Here it is when I try to log in and then go from thread to thread. It loads much faster before I log in. I am using a toolbar shortcut to take me to the usual forum main page, so I do not come in through the main Ultimaker site.

Not sure what you have going on there, but I can honestly say that I have never encountered your issues.

Ummmm, something strange happened this morning. All pages loaded much faster and no major waiting. Will be interesting to see if I just caught the interwebby gods being asleep or benign.

Oh yeah....right...throw it back on me!! LOL Usually I am pretty good about cleaning, but sometimes, not so much....like changing out a print and filament at 2 or 3 AM. I would tend to agree, but I noticed that different manufacturers can have materials that are stiffer/softer/slicker/etc. than others. And, it is possible, I missed the change from a generic 3.00MM (really 2.85) and a real 3.00mm diameter. Just a squirrel trying to get a nut. My schedule exploded a bit in the last two weeks and all I have been able to do is cycle prints in and out. Well, that and designing. I am just trying a lot of different things. For instance, I went nuts on spiralize type of prints (somethings like about 30 of them) that I need to make bases for and then light. I am trying to rearrange the apartment/studio to be more efficient for work. Not an easy feat. But, I will get some prints up when things are not 'half done'. I also went on a 3D Fractal binge. Sadly, most of my prints are anywhere from 70+ hours to about 190+ hours.

No worries. It sounds like you just may have something awry with your machine. Would not know where to begin, but I always think of Scotty disabling the transwarp starship by just removing 5 bolts. (Nerd alert) The more things gain complexity, the more prone to need perfect balance. I have been lucky. But I think your machine should still be under warranty and I would have that looked at. And, sometimes, things just go funky. For instance, I had a print kick my heinie last night. It was literally just the difference between the type of PLA. Not the brand (Matterhackers) but the type of PLA. I usually do not have any trouble with their materials and they have a broader spectrum of transparents. Since I started to design lamps and lightings, I am interested in that sort of thing. But, for some reason, this Neon green transparent just behaved radically different. Once I figured it out, no problem, but it just goes to show that so many things can affect printing. And all us noobs, until we get more experience(d), we do not know if it is us, the printer, the software or any combo of the above. And, I have found a lot of people just expect everything and are disappointed when it will not come straight out of the printer like an injection mold. Heck, even models require some work to fill seams, trim flashing, etc. But, dats whut I like 'bout dis place, maaaaaannnnnnn....da community

That would depend on a few things. One would be what printer would you be using. If you are going to use a printer that has 1.75 filament, then you should check out the Mosaic Manufacturing Palette. It can splice in new colors and has software to take your already present designs and assign colored filament with it. If you are talking about straightforward design programs, there is a lot of options. Meshmixer is available for MAC and PC. There are a lot of alternatives for you to look for as it would depend on what you are designing: Architectural, mechanical, organic, etc. And then there is 'bforartists' (Blender for Artists) which is an artists oriented version of blender. It appears to be a more conventional version of Blender and is fully compatible with Blender add-ons. And, remember, "Best" is what works for you and the way you think. what is 'best' for one is not best for another.

No problem. I am glad you found it. I forgot it was hidden by default since I have had all my controls opened and available since first starting. I could not tell you what is hidden or not anymore. Duuuuhhhhhh....... Good luck with the ooze shield. To be honest, the worms do not bother me as I am making display pieces for the most part at this time. As gr5 said, it will leave tiny pin prick holes in the surface when dissolving the PVA, but it is either too small for a raw piece, or it will be covered in primer and such if I am 'finishing' the model.

Have you tried an ooze shield?

No worries. I took a look at the other thread that you pointed to. It seems to be the same issue: basically an incompatibility in the format exported in/program exported from. That is why it is good to explore more than one package. As good as MAX can be, it could not see it, but 3D Coat (1/10th the price) found it just fine. File formats can be tricky....should have been here in the olden days when we carved symbols into our granite monitors. It took about 3 years before TIFF became stable across all platforms believe it or not. I used to get instructions from film separators (Back when they used film to make plates to print from) on what flavour of TIFF and whether to use and what kind of compression. Back when a 38MB graphics file was HUGE.