JasonT

Ok guy please don't five me grief. I have a home built machine with Marlin Firmware - been working great for months with previous version of Cura (what ever was the last one 3.3?). It has suddenly started freezing. printer works with Pronterface but then still freezes with cura again. As its a home built machine i'm using USB to connect with the printer. windows 7 64 bit I can load a print, Prepare it, press print via USB, monitor the temperature rising to levels bed and extruder. then nothing - it freezes. Application hasn't as i can still cancel the print if i start the print again - it happens all over again Pc is not on a network and has avoided microsofts constant annoying updates any help would be gratefully appreciated

Thanks nallath, i knew i was holding a rag to a bull, i am actually really impressed with cura and the fact it simply worked with a clone machine straight out of the box. My preference would be to have you guys write software for Airbus at least it would be something bizarre like the toilet lights dimmed when you sat down as apposed to the major flight controls being sabotaged. my main question was regarding the end of print procedure, is the software supposed to sit in printing mode forever. The gcode end command surely indicates the job is done and should free up the application to allow the user to setup another job without having to abort the completed job first. cheers Jason ps. thanks to all you guys for all your hard work.

setup:- latest version of Cura 3.2.1, win 7 64 bit OS, Marlin Firmware home built printer. When a print completes Cura tells me its printing and still shows the option to abort. why does it not go away and free up the application to start another print or do a reprint the only way to get back to preparing a print is to abort the completed print. forgive me if i'm wrong but abort usually is an option to get you out the poop when things go wrong not to return to an application after a successful print. on another note, I'm finding some idiosyncrasies in Cura which would be nice to see addressed in the next version release. 1. no option to manually control extruder temperature 2. no override for extruder and bed temperature whilst printing, just means we have to abort and screw up a print to adjust temperature before reprinting we need to be careful about plastic waste and saving the planet, western governments have already got their eye on the perceived waste we will create. districts in China have already started to make printer owners licence them so they can prevent the manufacture of illicit parts ie. guns etc. They will end up going down the road of the drones. 3. print order, Cura's slicer will never be able to understand why you would prefer to print at certain areas of the bed and not use its quickest route algorithm. I would set large pieces at the front of the bed and as the Y travel increases the large pieces end up away from the print-head and leave the rear of the table clear for further printing. You have to appreciate that many of us started to build machines before Ultimaker was born, we are talking the early reprap using printrun, pronterface etc. the old applications used to make the settings much more accessible, i'm in a bit of a dilemma as I actually like the simplicity of Cura, i'm getting old and really like to moan. I do take the hump when programmers dictate how mechanical machines should be operated, take the Airbus A320 for example - they insist they know more about the operation of an aircraft than a pilot. it all went horribly wrong when a heavily iced aircraft required more thrust on takeoff to clear the runway only to have the aircraft's computer decide it was not appropriate and throttled back every time the flight crew demanded more thrust. You guys at Ultimaker are always going to come up against old gits who cant use settings they used to have and love.

Hi gr5, its after slicing and when printing that the amount in meters is incorrect. As you have mentioned the slicer knows how much it will extrude and it should not matter what size the mineral is. If the 3mm theory is correct then i would be using 0.8m on a print right now which is running for 4 hours ? arguably i could multiply the meters by 2 (for example, 3mm/2 =1.50 rough guesstimate, ok i know its not that simple as its based on area and weight but its like 5% of the total filament needed). i'm going for it being a bug in Cura. I seriously question the the knowledge of programmers being an old school engineer myself, its one of those love hate things between nerds and clankys, but being out in the range of 1/20th do Ultimaker users never use 1.75mm. still sticking to it being a bug. did i mention i love the software though.

Thanks yellowshark and kmanstudios, your replies have been very helpful in confirming what i was thinking. I appreciate you spending the time to reply cheers Jason

Using new 3.2 version of Cura on a marlin based home built printer with win7 64 bit os. the material estimation is pretty damn accurate for duration of print which is not what i have read from other users ? the problem im having is it estimates 0.6m of material when quite obviously the part requires 10x more just by looking at it, i have entered the PLA information into the cost estimator 1.75 at 1kg reel for £10.99 (OK i'm a cheapskate). but the print material estimate is always way out. if i want to use up short lengths and trusted the estimate i would have burnt out the hot end on every occasion. another glitch in Cura is that the time estimate increases for multiple parts but the material usage does not. for this your advice would be invaluable - i did try searching the forum but no luck. On another note, why does my PC keep donging whilst printing, it does a boo bong windows sound several times whilst printing, sounds like a USB device being inserted, If this is the case then its down to one of three devices keyboard, mouse or 3D printer. ummm guess what happens when the printer is not installed. What is it doing - it does not loose communication so i don't think it is RF noise on the signal. I have disabled the auto slice on import as it was annoying me and slowed down the whole import and setup process, I was zooming to check import before printing then slice would start and part disappeared. Now i instigate the slice when i'm ready. The Cura software is otherwise brilliant and worked first time out of the box without having to make too many configuration changes (speed being the major one, both print and travel). my print flow is set at 40%, but i'm sure that's because my extruder setting in firmware is total rubbish in the tune of 5mm = 5cm so i will probably try reducing the flow further. A tool which is missing from Cura is the ability to extrude from the printer monitor to clean/test the extruder. which reminds me i have disabled the reverse extrusion where it isn't needed as when i started a new print the extruder had emptied itself and wouldn't start printing again as what little filament was left in the extruder had burnt and clogged the nozzle. again directly linked to the wrong extruder calibration in Marlin firmware. Let this be a lesson to you guys, when you get your printer working - don't forget what firmware you installed and from where and what machine changes you made in firmware, its so annoying years later when oldtimers has kicked in and you don't have a clue what you did. Oh its on a piece of paper somewhere in the garage, in the filing cabinet full of crap. Did i mention i think its brilliant software, i held on to Pronterface and slicer until the bitter end - unfortunately it became the bitter end for it, ive downloaded every Version of Cura since its inception but never used it until now.