starbuck

@gr5 I work with college students who are not always 100% trained on these machines like you and I probably are. Plus with 18 UM3s and 6 UMS5s I see some of the small statistics like how often head floods pop up. I'll be sure to watch your video still! I'm always training my staff to look out for things like when parts are peeling up or underextrusion so maybe I'll find more training material for them. The magnets were my cause at least 3 times. I bent the frame of the head back into place so they had a stronger grip which fixed the issue. Also stuff like this exists for that reason https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2658960

I've had this blobbing happen to me a few times now. Typically, the extruded filament didn't stick to the bed well enough, the printer was still extruding and filament had nowhere to go but up (into the head). I usually clean this very slowly by heating the head up, picking away any melted plastic I can get to, then taking apart the head and finally using a heat gun to heat up the plastic to peel it off. It takes a lot of patience to do and have a good printcore afterwards.

Downloaded and installed without a hitch! I noticed two things immediately. 1. Opening a Cura Project 3mf file from <4.0 does not inherit any of the project's settings. I had to reinstall 3.6 to get a bunch of settings to show up that I had tweaked iteratively for a project. 2. I can't seem to slice... I've had errors like this before and typically changing the Prime Tower X and Y location fixes it. But the Extruder Prime X Position is not available for me to change/fix.I feel like this is buggy behavior, but please correct me if I'm wrong. Edit: Well, I haven't come across the issues described above again, so I'll consider them flukes! I forgot about the setting to change how Cura Projects open underneath Preferences...

@SandervG I'm having trouble with the HTTPS certificate of accounts.ultimaker.com as well as signing into the forums on a new computer. Every time I go to sign into the forums I get this message. Tried using Chrome and Firefox. Cleared the cookies and tried again, still happens. I'm currently remote-desktoping home to an already signed in session to post this.

Because I just guessed off the top of my head ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

We often print small parts, less than 2 hours, on the S5s because they have a lower failure rate than the UM3s. Mostly because of the filament sensor I think. I think it's overall a better experience using the S5s. It totally depends on the slicer settings. The F400 (the model I have versus the F410) prints faster by default at around 100mm/s while the Ultimakers default to much slower around 60-70mm/s. When we use the F3s, we print XL models so they take a really long time anyways. But a benchy takes around an hour and a half on each printer.

Hey there. I would use the S5 without a doubt. If you need consistently large print volume in your prints, get the Fusion3, but the UMS5 has plenty of build volume for most prints we run through. I like how many UM3s can fit all together and we rarely use the Fusion3 anymore due to ease of switching printers in Cura versus using Simplify3D for the F3. And I suppose, even if you only have consistently small prints, I would probably still use the S5 since it's the newest bestest product.

Hey @geert_2! The mats I ended up buying were these plain 1/2" thick EVA foam mats. All of the printers are on top of them now. They certainly made an improvement of tiny vibrations of other printers over having nothing there. Here's a picture I just took after I moved the printer from where it normally sits. My only issue now is the fixtures that all of the printers sit on need to be updated to more industrial, sturdy materials. After that the foam mats should have a greater effect on the vibration dampening since the fixtures will not be moving around as much, if any. Cork sounds like it would be an good choice. In my situation, getting around 100 sq ft of the stuff might prove expensive. The EVA foam mats were like $100 or something, I've slept since then.

I like your thought process here! Checking the Z position would be very helpful. Perhaps I can make a second script to "run once" and double check the values during a test print (calibration cube type thing).

Yes, I think I know what's going on. It's the (x,y) position of the head in the corner there. I mean the physical position of where the Ultimaker head parks, not the tall 1x1mm dummy object. I wonder if the coordinates are exactly the same as mine or if something like firmware or Cura versions change it. Here's how to test it, During the first couple of layers of your print, run this python3 test.py: https://github.com/starbuck93/um3timelapse/blob/master/test.py after editing IP_ADDRESS in the script to be the IP address of your printer. While the (benchy, calibration cube, whatever) print is running like you have set up in the screenshot, the test.py script will output X and Y coordinates of the head. When the head is parked in the corner waiting for PrintCore 1 or 2 to reach the correct temperature to resume printing, check what the X and Y coordinates are. When I was testing, I saw the same coordinate set around 3 times in a row. After that, in timelapse.py, go edit the location_check function (link to github) to have the X and Y coordinates you discovered with the test.py script. For UM3 I found test.py output x213 y189 and I also saw x209.375 y193.0 several times too. I ended up with 213,189 in mine, but yours could be different.

Yes, I believe it does. It sounds like you might be using windows? You can either copy the ffmpeg.exe to the same folder as timelapse.py you can edit timelapse.py to include the full path to ffmpeg around line 126 starting with ffmpegcmd ffmpegcmd = "B?path\to\ffmpeg.exe ...rest of the line stays the same" Or you can add ffmpeg to your PATH. (something like this https://www.java.com/en/download/help/path.xml)

Hey @PaulMiles! Here's the information in your error message that's important: ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'requests' To fix that, I'd use python-pip to install the package called requests like this pip install requests or "pip3" if just plain "pip" doesn't work for some reason. pip3 is the python3 specific version.

The latest code is on GitHub here https://github.com/starbuck93/um3timelapse. Use the "Clone or Download" green button and then click "Download ZIP". Or "Clone" it if you're so inclined! Go ahead and unzip it where you downloaded it, probably in the Downloads folder, or your Desktop or wherever. After that, go to the unzipped folder, and at this point it depends on your operating system. For Windows I'd say to run `cmd` and then all you'd do is `cd` to the unzipped folder and run `python3 timelapse.py 0.0.0.0 1 video.mkv` and let it run! It handles the frames automatically so you'll never see a folder full of pictures and the video is saved in the same folder you run the python script in. That would be really cool. I suspect there would have to be support for saving to the USB stick as there is not much onboard storage for these types of things!

@cloakfiend yep! It uses the built-in API to access the required information including the camera. The original code just has a time delay for when it takes pictures to build the timelapse, but I wanted the head to move out of the way too. So I looked at the X and Y position when the printer changes printcores and does its thing and told my forked code to watch for that exact position. Therefore whenever the printcores change, we take a picture and build a timelapse! Setting it up to work on any given computer should be fairly easy. I'm using a Linux server (Raspberry Pi) so it was not hard for me to set up. All you need to do is install Python 3 (latest) and install ffmpeg for your system. Then run the script on the command line with the IP address of the printer, the number of seconds of postroll you want (probably 1) and the output file like `timelapse_1.mkv` or something.

The print time is increased by the nozzle switching. I increased an 8.5 hour print to 9 hours by adding the ghost tower for extruder 2 in the corner. I feel that is an acceptable amount of time for the reward. I haven't had any nozzle clogs yet but I've only done this a handful of times already. I suspect you're correct and that the 2nd nozzle will clog after a little bit of time doing this. Also, I've added support for the Ultimaker S5 as well and I'm testing that right now with the print I mentioned above!

Hey everyone! I was inspired by a Facebook post to fork unlimitedbacon's Ultimaker 3 timelapse Python code to create an Octolapse-style timelapse. The Facebook post had printed hardware, a bluetooth shutter and a smartphone mount to do it. I used their idea and made it work by using the position that the UM3 parks in when switching nozzles. Octolapse is a piece of software that links into Octoprint to move the print head and/or bed out of the way to systematically take a series of pictures to make a timelapse. If you don't know what Octolapse timelapses look like, here are a few examples! https://www.instagram.com/adamsprints/ https://www.instagram.com/wildrosebuilds/ Check out the GitHub repository to see how to set it up. I don't go into too much detail about installing, but this thread might help more. If you have questions, I'd love to help out. Here's a video of how well it works! I think this was the 2nd iteration of the script after I forked it. It's a little bit more refined now. Feel free to clone the repository, submit pull-requests and check out the timelapses! https://github.com/starbuck93/um3timelapse Thanks for reading!

@kmanstudios You're exactly right. I meant to say that the manual leveling process would loosen the screws and therefore raise the build plate a bit. The point is to get rid of a lot of slack in the bed so the automatic leveling process won't scrape against the glass.

As far as I know it's just a simple test model to show that the printer works on arrival and can do some geometry.

I think I ran into this issue on one or two UM3s. I tightened the build plate leveling screws all the way down/tight then ran the manual leveling script and that seemed to fix it.

One thing I noticed when I got the S5 printer in is the missing "S5" behind the build plate. It's even missing in Cura. Almost like they meant to leave it out ? So I decided to cut out my own! Here are some pictures of the result. It's obviously not color-matched as I think the "Ultimaker" wording is screen printed. I just used shiny silver vinyl. If I get comments irl about it I'll probably change it, but I'm going to be the only one who notices that it's even there right now. Thanks for checking it out! ? S5 Logo.zip

Perhaps it's the gold pins that connect the PrintCores to the back of the print head? Use a flashlight to check those out real good.

Latest print over the weekend! Took 1 day and 18 hours to print these trophies at .15mm layers. Here's the time-lapse video and a snapshot. Printed with Gold Happens on the Ultimaker S5 with a 0.4mm PrintCore. https://photos.app.goo.gl/oXysdaCuLJUymwMK8

It almost requires acrobatics! Let me attach a couple of pictures to show that better. In the future, we plan on moving these further from the wall... Hindsight is always 20/20. Also, pardon the mess in the pictures... It's certainly cleanup day. Thanks, @SandervG! Yes, before I started, there was another college on campus who had a maker space that fairly closed down to the public and even within the college, so we sought to change that. Also, when I met our Dean for the first time, he showed me Duke's Ultimaker wall and more or less said "Make this happen" so here I am! Previously, when the students had access to the "industrial level" 3D printers, they had to pay for half the cost of materials so as you can imagine they were paying a hefty amount out of pocket. So the #1 thing I hear is "wow, that's way cheaper than I thought it was going to be" and that makes me smile. If the college can absorb the cost of these awesome printers and the students only have to pay for the materials, I've met a goal. Now, from what I understand, they expect to pay a certain amount for supplies like clay, cardboard, wood, etc, and now 3D printing has become one of those things they spend their money on for class. But to really answer your question, everyone loves seeing the printers running and most people seem really interested in how they work. Certainly. If they are not happy with the quality, we will almost always help them reprint it, often for free. They print a lot of massings and fairly "regular" objects which probably helps with the quality and time as those prints are not complicated. Our failure rate is less than 10% overall if you don't count the times where the print fails in the first minute of printing (like if the bed leveling fails or something like that), so the students are fairly understanding when there is something that goes wrong with their print. This past Spring semester, we started nearly every morning with all of our printers available and no jobs waiting to start, and by every evening all 15 (at the time) UM3s would be running through the night. So most people got their jobs the next day. We keep a record of one person's name in any given project (a project is a group/collection of prints), and in their studios, they often have groups of 3-4 students. Spring 2018 we had 265 unique people, 533 projects, and 1110 recorded prints for over 11,000 hours of printing according to 3DPrinterOS. In Fall 2017 we had around 339 people and around 1000 prints. We used a different technique in Fall 2017 to keep track of the prints. I'll follow up with this after a little more testing as you suggested! And I need to order those foam tiles now that it's not the weekend anymore... Haha Thanks for your questions, everyone!

@fbrc8-erin: Thanks! I'm 100% sure y'all built these for us. We got them all from Dynamism. We had some extra foam tiles like these that I put under B1-B3 (and I think C1-C3) in the photos. They're around 1/2" thick and pretty cheap. I have a feeling I'll get more of those and run the z-banding test again on the S5. Perhaps if all the printers had it the entire thing would vibrate less. In the future, we're going to build some fixtures in-house to hold these better. These current ones came from Sam's Club! But imagine 2-3x as many printers in like two rows of fixtures... I love dreaming big. ? That is incredible! Great to hear. I'll holler if I think of anything else like that for sure. @kmanstudios The Texas A&M University College of Architecture Awesome MakerPlace. Rolls right off the tongue! ??

Howdy y'all. ? I run the Texas A&M University College of Architecture MakerPlace (it's a mouthful... we just call it the MakerPlace) and we bought six Ultimaker S5s to further expand our printing capabilities here. Now we have eighteen UM3s, six S5s, two Fusion3 F400-Ss and three FormLabs Form 2s. There are also two industrial-type machines that I do not directly manage but often have to talk to students/customers about: Stratasys Eden and a 3D Systems Projet 460 Plus. We're (the MakerPlace) quite new still and the purpose of the space seems to change week by week. When first I started here, the MakerPlace had a FlashForge Dreamer, a MakerBot Replicator 5th Gen, a MakerBot Replicator 2 and a Cube Trio. Half of them were down at any given point and when it was time for finals, we had students wait up to 3 weeks to get their 3D prints because of how backed up we were. Right now, we serve the students of our college and the main way people outside the college hears about us is through word of mouth. We also have a few other services that any maker space should such as vinyl cutting, tool rental and tons of table space to work. In the future, I hope we will have more specialized tools in the space like an Inventables Carvey or similar. The college has two other spaces that encompass the rest of what students need to make projects: the Woodshop and the FabLab (AKA the Ranch). The Woodshop is a large space with hand tools and power tools galore with 7 laser cutters while the Ranch has the huge tools like a new HAAS CNC machining tool, 2 full size CNC routers, CNC plasma cutting, a CNC water jet and a small warehouse that faculty members rent for XL projects. Now back to 3D printing... In the Fall of 2017 we printed around 50kg and Spring 2018 we printed closer to 80kg. We mostly print in PLA or PLA blends with the occasional co-polyester or composite blend in there. We get a lot of our filament from a supplier down the street from us, Essentium Materials. They've been a fantastic partner to work with! We use an in-house built queue (the "Dashboard") and 3DPrinterOS internally to manage the 18 UM3s and we're waiting for the S5s to be integrated into their software. Students bring us their STL files that they modeled in Revit, Rhino (most popular), or SketchUp. Then we do a little consultation to make sure their 3D print will come out like they want it and then we queue them up. Most of the time, models fit on the UM3. But last semester (spring 2018) we found that we had a line out the (virtual) door for prints on the Fusion3 printers. Next thing I knew, the S5 was announced and I knew we'd be expanding this summer, so I pitched it. The addition of the six Ultimaker S5 3D printers not only gives us more printers to run more jobs on, but we also have an increased capacity for larger jobs that would normally have to queue for the Fusion3. We've had the S5s for around 3 weeks now and they've certainly impressed me. Here's some thoughts about a few things... "What's in the box": The packaging for the S5s was pretty nice, but I think the UM3 did it better with zip tying the linear rods together to prevent shifting that happened to two of the S5s I recieved. I had to realign linear rods on my last two machines which turns out is not that difficult but I still had to do it. The Aluminum plate is not included yet which is fine by me as we primarily print in PLA that only needs some purple glue stick on glass to print well. The Tough PLA that comes with the printer is really easy to print with and comes off the bed nicely. I printed several large things (around 18 hour prints) with no supports to begin testing how well it does for long prints and the material looks great. And it also comes with a 750g spool of PVA. I prefer the 350g spools as we live in central Texas and currently the humidity inside is 47%. (PVA (and PLA for that matter) does not like high-humidity environments.) It regularly goes above 50% and it's just lovely. ? On that note, I store filament in dry-boxes with a bunch of loose silica beads in the bottom which gets down below 15% RH. I don't know specifically how low it goes as the sensors I got on Amazon only go down to 15%! Ha. I also have a PrintDry system which I use to dry out filament that's left out for a few days. Print quality: I have seen and expect these to print very similarly to the UM3 on every front and every combination of materials (PLA/PVA/Breakaway/etc). We typically print at 0.2mm layers for speed but go down to 0.1mm layers as needed by the models. The Form2s print at 0.1mm regularly and go down to 0.025mm as needed. About 50% of the architectural models we print are massings printed at 0.2mm layers and around 80mm/s that the students print in white PLA and sometimes go sand/finish in their studios. We have had a small number of failed prints on the S5 so far, several of which were because of the bug in 5.0.13 firmware that caused some false-positives in the flow sensor. I have not had any clogged nozzles yet nor "spaghetti" parts. I do not consider these printers to be "fast" by any means. The Fusion3's default speed in Simplify3D is 100mm/s and I turned up the speed in Cura for the S5 to 70-80mm/s both at 0.2mm layers and turn up the temperature +10-15C. It makes a big difference. I haven't tested how fast they could print if I turned both speed and temp. up a lot, though. The students need consistency and I found that changing a few things in the "Fast" profile and basically renaming it "Super Fast" cuts off a lot of time and some material usage. Saves money and material! Features: Better bed leveling means the nozzles touch about 12 points on the build plate to get a better "picture" of the levelness of the beds. It does take a lot longer than the UM3. I have not had to manually level them yet, but I also didn't level the UM3s when I got them for several weeks. I anticipate the same for these guys. Filament flow detection and the new feeder mech. is super awesome so far. It's saved several prints from the end of spools. It's so easy to insert material into the new feeder compared to the UM3! No more hurt fingers due to super-strong springs! Just lift the little lever and slide the filament in. Love it. The Touchscreen and new menus are beautiful. It's like using a smartphone. The new menus have pictures of actions to take during, for example, changing filament and that's fantastic. Also I love the "Printer tasks" alert. But... we didn't necessarily buy these for any of these features. One of the main reasons we bought them is to keep our process as close to the same to save on time and effort. It is a lot more effort to switch to Simplify3D when we need to print something on the Fusion3 and change materials on it etc etc than to change machines in Cura. Sure we could easily set up Cura to run the Fusion3s but then each student worker will have to make sure we're using the same version of Cura with the same start/stop gcode, and other similar settings to ensure the jobs getting done consistently. It's much easier to not do that and have the "Simplify3D computer" to slice models for the Fusion3s. Irks... I've had a few strange things happen that were easily solved. Linear rods not aligned when 2/6 printers were delivered. This was solved by contacting support and them sending me a link to Ultimaker NA Support's articles (thanks @fbrc8-erin!). I used a set of calipers to align the rods with the frame. Firmware update bug. The 5.0.19 firmware update just happened and 3/6 of the printers hung on the update process. It had the screen that said "installing update" but stayed there for hours. I was told that this happens sometimes due to a bug and after about 10 minutes of being on that screen to turn off the printer and turn it back on then do the update again. I can confirm this worked and we're all good. Banding on the Z axis. This is probably due to the location of the printers and the materials being used, but I'm still going to mention it. We printed some really tall buildings with 0% infill and no top layers to save on material when I noticed how much the layer lines were showing. It's probably due to vibrations in the structure and I'm going to add some foam padding underneath the printers to solve this. Also, white PLA is really bad at showing these lines and that's what we mainly print in! Whew. That said, please let me know if you have questions about the MakerPlace or the Ultimaker S5 or something else in the post or anything that I missed. ?️