Brulti

@SandervG Will Ultimaker release a 0.6 BB core to allow the use of PVA as support in conjunction with the Ruby core? There are many PLA-based abrasive materials that could benefit from that.

Why are you not using the standard setting for PVA which is 215°C?

@TwoDrunkOwls PVA gorges on any kind of moisture like you wouldn't believe, and it leads to failed prints like yours. PLA is also kind of sensitive to moisture, but much less. The solution when doing long prints with PVA is to use a drybox, as @kmanstudios mentioned. Take a look at this thread for more explanations and links to DIY dryboxes; you can also buy some in some stores, but they're expensive and not really better anyway:

You can modify nearly everything through CURA. Just make sure to go to the Preferences -> Configure CURA Then select the 'Settings' tab in the pop-up window and check the 'Check all' box. It will reveal all the settings and menus available, you will find that you have about absolute control on nearly every parameters of the printer.

I believe 3.4 had the circular prime tower, which already helps with stability. You can make it thicker, like 3 or 4 mm thick instead of the default thickness and also move it away from the corner and into the middle of a side, so it sticks better.

I haven't had any problems, PVA sticks to PLA with no trouble at all.

I tended to use prime tower every time I used two filaments, be it PLA + PVA or just two colors, then I progressively tried without it and I realized that it works as well, perhaps even better, without the prime tower. Settings for UM-brand filaments are quite good. I recently finished printing a sculpture for a customer that required quite a bit of PVA, and there was nearly no problem with the PVA: no strands, no mixing with the PLA, etc, while I would have more when using the prime tower. Plus it takes less material and less time, the sculpt was thin but tall (about 20cm). That being said, the new prime tower that consists of basically two towers nested into each other, one per material, should help with the problem of towers falling that was caused mostly by the two materials (like PVA and PLA) not sticking together well as they're not really meant to be used on alternating layers.

Those extruders: https://www.bondtech.se/en/product/ddg-extruder/ ? They work for UM3 and UM3E, unless I am mistaken?

I'd take you on this deal if there wasn't an ocean between us, thus prohibitive shipping costs.

@JohnInOttawa You'd better tell us the results of your tests once you get those filaments, John. Lucky you! ?

Thanks to them for their answers!

... Time to invest in spare parts then...

How long is the whole process of creating a new material, from the idea to testing to the actual product being sold? Do you run computer simulations being doing actual testing? How many different iteration of a material do you go through during testing before you find the right mix to achieve whatever objective you had for a material?

That reminds of the fabric dice holders some of my friends use when we do our RPGs. Too bad this one could probably crack a window if I threw it against one... ?

Have you tested your materials in very extreme conditions, ie antarctic-style weather for example?

Some shops, at least here in France, have begun to offer sample size quantity of filament. Though what I've seen is outrageously overpriced when compared to a normal roll.

Unless your firmware update bugged, it seems unlikely to be firmware-related as the latest update isn't recent and such a problem would have had these forums flooded by reports if it was the firmware. One way to know would be to reset the printer to factory settings, do a test print to see if the problem persists or not, then update the firmware again and run another print and see what happens.

@yellowshark It will be hard to get pictures from different angles of a dog who's been dead for a few years... Unless you want the model to be Halloween-themed... ??

There was definitely a firmware update at some point in the past nine months, that might be it.

I've had to abort several prints in the past couple weeks for various, but I did not observe this behavior in my UM3E at all. I did not power it off after aborting, sometimes I would just says 'Yes' when it asks me if I want to retry, sometimes not and start something else or the same print after tweaking something I had forgotten. So it's not a general bug. Still mysterious though. Maybe the log file could help find out what the problem is? I've no diea how to read it, but we have several people on this forum who can and who might find out what the problem is.

This happened to me even though I had no brim activated, which was very strange. Even stranger was that turning the piece 180° made the problem disappear... I switched back to 3.4.1 as well. Bit disappointed by 3.5, but I guess one very bad deployment of an update in a year, for me as well; isn't that bad compared to other software, and I trust them to fix it anyway.

@EVRC You should make a separate thread about your problem, because it is quite different than @Yarcich's problem. I don't see how a jamming could cause the printer to not power on.

Log file is attached. As a side note, the Help -> Show Configuration Folder menu does not work. Clicking on this does nothing, I had to manually go where the log file is located by making visible the hidden files. Not sure if it's new, I need to use this menu, fortunately for me! Except today... ? cura.log

Cura has decided that it does not like my brand new custom profiles for some reason as of today: it keeps telling me that they are corrupt and ask to reset everything, to which I reply 'no' every time. I created a custom profile for the Reflect-olay from CC products, it saved it well but if I close and reopen Cura, and I get an 'something is wrong with your profile' message, even though then it will print using this profil with no qualms. Should I worry or not? I've backed up everything just in case.

The first solution is to heat up the core for a while at the same temperature than if you were going to print PC. Heat up the core, wait a while while the core is hot, like 20-30 mins, so the heat can diffuse through the blob of PC and soften it. Then you should be able to remove most, if not all of it, and then clean up what little bits that could still be stuck to it somewhere.