cjryker06

Does anyone know of any safety features that engage on UM printers if they detect a problem? In my situation I believe it to be the X / Y stepper motors overheating. The problem: printer stops printing after about 30 minutes,lights go off, all heaters shutoff, display shows no issue for several minutes then shows X / Y motors stuck or switch broke (ER17) with the print head in the middle of the bed A little insight to my situation: 1. problem didn't exist prior to today when I updated firmware (does firmware have a way of knowing motor temps?) 2. stepper motors are getting hot enough to the tough that it is very uncomfortable to keep your hand on them (too much voltage?) 3. takes roughly the same amount of time for the shutdown to occur when trying to print the same part twice (time for motors to overheat?) 4. UM3E roughly 6 months old My first thoughts are safety shutdown. I don't feel it would be an improper voltage setting from the factory that took almost 6 months to appear, nor a thermal runaway issue considering it indicates a movement problem. Any help would be great.

PLA shouldn't bond to the glass enough to take chunks out. Typically co-polyesters like PETG and nGen will.

If you're printing directly on glass, it will never stick. Adhesion sheets or Buildtak are needed.

After about half a day of tinkering, it ended up being a combination of things. *I lowered the bed about 1/8th of an inch, I didn't realize that being up too high can allow the cores to both touch and throw everything off. *Re-enabled active leveling and did a pre-print active level. *Took one turn off feeder tension. *Raised temp 10C. *Bumped flow from 1.00 to 1.01 (101%). Results were much better, not only on top layers, but mostly got rid of my random first layer dragging issue.

Thanks for the very detailed reply! I realized I've not yet checked the knurled/hobbed gear for filament clogging. I assumed since the filament had bites in it, that it wasn't needed. -To answer your question about extrusion width, I just apply the general rule that you can go between 90-120% nozzle diameter as with other printers. -Maybe I was over confident it the print core's melting efficiency. I'm used to an E3D hotend keeping up with .48 width by 1.5 height layers at 35mm/s @215C on the Robo I had. I have much adapting to do.

Thanks for your reply as well. I have attached images of my S3D settings and in addition, I have tried temps between 200 and 220C with up to 115% extrusion and the same result. It's not any better with Cura or using 90% infill. I've not seen anything like it with any other printer I have.

Thanks for the reply! I usually use 4-5 top layers which is plenty and worked when I originally started using the printer. I changed print cores to a new one to address that angle. I've had the same result with 3 brands of PLA. Printed between 200C and 220C.

Hello all, initially I had no problems with my UM3E. After about a month I started having issues with the too solid layers I attributed to active leveling. After disabling this and leveling my bed manually, the problem continued. I've changed print cores, materials, temps and extrusion multiplier to no avail. Below is the latest example of the final layers. Typically, they are slightly better, but never complete. I'm at a loss and seek the help of the UM gods.

PC is technically stronger than any form of co-polyester like CPE/+. Nylon has good strength and more give if that is needed. Co-polyesters tend to be more rigid.

I'd give the Micro-Swiss a try. They are plated brass so it gives a nice balance and they are great in terms of quality. E3D are standard with exception to their A2 or plated brass nozzles which are a bit above standard. P3-D also makes higher end nozzles from aluminum to A2 tool steel. Significantly more expensive plated nozzles, but technically a $25 Hercules nozzle should last though about anything. The aluminum is a rapid heating nozzle so it can move a bit quicker.

Are you speaking for UM 2 or 3?

I have this too using Cura. Went back to S3D and prints with default settings put Cura to shame. I haven't had time to compare the settings back and forth yet.

Thanks for the info. I have the tamper proof door and custom cut PEI sheet coming for my printer so those will help mitigate many adhesion/temp differential issues. I was hopeful that I could use PVA with PC. After being told PVA wouldn't work with PC or PET based materials due to printing temp differences. I was a bit disappointed since I got Polymaker Poly Plus cheap for Black Friday and would love to use nGen as a general purpose material. Supports would be great. I do agree that geometry will have a lot to do with it. Your prints have a lot of surface contact. Flats will also likely be fine. It's going to be the more intricate things PC isn't exactly supposed to be used for that will be the true test.

Seems more a lack of research prior to buying things to be honest. All printing filament is going to be either hygrophilic and hygrophobic. Locking lid bin + damp rid + hygrometer = forget about humidity for storage

A lot of resellers are doing that. They have said they aren't allowed to discount UM filament except the old stock (no NFC) spools. So this is something UM would have to approve.

A PC is a PC honestly in terms of hardware, assuming both machines are running equal items. Apple just tries to make it seem like some foreign computing device. Any slow loading and processing would be either due to the operating system, how cluttered the available disk space is and the program being run itself. I've just started using Cura instead S3D for my new printer (UM3 Ext) hoping for a smooth process with good results. So far it is slow to load, slow to load models, slow to slice and I find it odd that "fast" in Cura is basically too fast for the machine which lead to some fun looking prints. It seems to be mostly in the software engineering that the quality comes out in S3D, which is just a few guys vs. a major company with high profit margins.

You were able to get PVA supports to work well with PC? I was wondering if more were possible than the materials chart implies. I just got some Polymaker Poly-Max to try out. I kind of question the CPE vs. CPE+ as well considering PVA support from E3D states it works with Colorfabb nGen which is also a PET based co-polymer like CPE/CPE+