[PVA Strings between a print job and a prime tower]

2 minutes ago, Brulti said:

 

You're very right, I didn't check what profile I was looking at when checking the temperature for PVA.

 

Prime towers can be useful but, at least in the case of printing PVA and PLA together, they're not really needed as the settings in CURA are very good and you get very little troubles when using those two materials together. I've recently printed a nice sculpture for a customer, a fantasy character that required quite a lot of support with 0.06 layer to keep the looks and make the curves as best looking as possible, and I didn't use a prime tower.

 

Printing lasted about two days, the print came out beautifully and with very little surface defects, nothing that couldn't be fixed by a bit of cleaning.

 

Nice, now I will defo go with no prime tower for the next print! Thanks! 

[PVA Strings between a print job and a prime tower]

1 hour ago, Smithy said:

 

I haven't tried it myself, but a few days ago there was another thread and @kmanstudios mentioned there that he doesn't use a prime tower anymore for all his PVA prints and get a perfect result.

 

The problem with the prime tower is that it the object is higher, the chance that the tower will fall off and probably ruins the print is very high. And if the result is also good without a prime tower, you don't waste your material. So I would give it a try.

 

Thanks for your comments. I will try to do some prints without a prime tower. As for a prime tower that can ruin a print job: yes, I read the same on the other posts but also read that this had been improved a lot in Cura 3.5.1 and there're some nice settings for a primer tower to choose from that make it more stable. 

[PVA Strings between a print job and a prime tower]

13 hours ago, Smithy said:

Or print without a prime tower, should also work as I have learned on another thread.

 

I read that using prime tower is advisable when using two print cores and when you want to avoid printing quality issues. So I always use  a prime tower when a print job goes with PVA and PLA. Do you think I go over a top with this? What's your opinion on using prime tower? 

[PVA Strings between a print job and a prime tower]

15 hours ago, tinkergnome said:

mmmh, and why is the prime tower so far away?
I guess it would be better to place the tower closer to the printed object, this would avoid such long travel paths.

 

Well, I'm a newbie and haven't toyed with object placement yet, thanks, I will give it a go now. 

[PVA Strings between a print job and a prime tower]

17 hours ago, Brulti said:

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

hi there, I used recommended temperature for PVA. At least in Cura that I have: 225C : PVA Fast Profile,  220C: PVA Normal Profile, 215C PVA Fine Profile. 

 

So I have been using Fast profile since the beginning. Next time I will lower the temperature to see if this helps. Thanks. 

[UMB OUT port: what is it for?]

2 hours ago, Smithy said:

It is a bus system for future addons. We will see what will come in the future to extend the possibilities....

 

 

Many thanks for a quick response. So at this moment there's nothing we can do with this port? It's there just in case some future firmware updates will allow to use it in some way or another? 

[UMB OUT port: what is it for?]

hi there, a newbie here. I can't find any information about UMB OUT port at the back of S5 printer. I checked the manual and there's no information. Anyone know what is it for? 

 

Many thanks! 

[PVA Strings between a print job and a prime tower]

Hi there, a complete newbie here. I am getting some very thin PVA strings between the print and the prime tower, as can be seen the attached picture. 

 

 

 

The material is Ultimaker PVA that comes with the box. I have been doing some investigation and found out that this can be caused by temperature that is set too high or/and print speed. Currently PVA print temperature is  set to 225 C. Print speed is 35 mm/s. First I am planning to lower the temperature (to 215 C), but would like to ask the community first just in case I'm tottally wrong. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Cura connect: webcam view broken]

It seems that webcam link is not OK. When I click to see the webcam view it just shows me a broken link. It does that on each browser. If I run the default network monitor that comes with Chrome it points to 127.0.0.1, and I guess the IP should be something in the range of the LAN the printer is connected to. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So if I browse directly to 192.168.0.1:8080/?action=stream I can see webcam view. 

 

The software version is Ultimaker Cura 3.5.1 

[Gyro: some rare effect on a side]

9 hours ago, Smithy said:

Ok, with dual extrusion it could happen that you get some strings without a prime tower also with PLA. 

 

 

For very small items this a very good idea. It should also help to increase the min layer time in Cura, but never tried it myself.

Hello, so this is a print with strings that I mentioned before. It's PLA with PVA and no primer tower was used. Is this amount of strings can be considered normal? For the reference, the red line is 40 mm long. 

 

 

[Gyro: some rare effect on a side]

9 minutes ago, Smithy said:

The default profiles in Cura are a very good start point, for PLA I never changed the material settings and just print with that profile. 

 

If you are printing with just one extruder, you don't need the prime tower.

 

Yup, the print that ended up with lots of PLA strings was send using Recommended options. The print required 2 extrudes. Although not sure if I am just panicking about number of PLA hair/strings, will upload a photo tomorrow for your opinion on this. Many thanks for your time and support!  

[False alarm: Filament run out, put a new one on]

4 minutes ago, Smithy said:

Normally in programming languages the first object is 0 and the second is 1. So I assume that this is the reason for hotend_nr and display_hotend_nr, because they will just add 1 to the hotend_nr to show hotend 1 or hotend 2 to the user, because it is more practical than 0 and 1.

 

So left side (AA) is hotend_nr 0 and display_hotend_nr 1

Right side (BB) is hotend_nr 1 and display_hotend_nr 2

 

But it is just an interpretation of mine how I understood those values.

 

Nice, I like your way of thinking, just to share my way of thinking was this

 

hotend_nr 0: this refers to the 1st "catridge" that includes 2 print cores: AA and BB

 

So: 

left side (AA) is hotend_nr 0 and display_hotend_nr 1

Right side (BB) is hotend_nr 0 and display_hotend_nr 2

 

Then,in next Ultimaker printer generation we could add another "catridge" with 2 print cores and they'd be called hotend_nr 1:

 

So 2nd, imaginary, hotend would be:

left side (AA) is hotend_nr 1 and display_hotend_nr 1

Right side (BB) is hotend_nr 1 and display_hotend_nr 2

 

Anyway, I prefer your explanation

 

 

[Gyro: some rare effect on a side]

7 minutes ago, Smithy said:

No, PLA is not so fluid as PVA, someone here said its like honey and yoghurt. And the AA print core has another internal shape which helps also that the material will not drip. So normally you will have no strings and if you have strings they are like hairs and you can easily remove them. 

 

If you have massive stringing then you print too hot and decreasing the temperature in steps of 5° can help to avoid these stringing. But it depends also which material you use. PETG for example has more stringing than PLA, and it is more less normal.

 

Some strings can also occur in the infill of an object, because Cura thinks it doesn't matter if there are strings inside the object and do no retract when printing infill pattern. So this is also "normal" or works as designed / slice.

 

If you have something to remove in post processing, then yes sand it carefully or cut it with a blade. Be careful when sanding, because PLA has a low glass temperature and you can get crumbles very quick if the surface gets too hot due sanding.

 

One of my 1st prints had PLA strings on the edge, quite similiar to the PVA ones from the Gyro's photo I attached earlier. However, for this print I didn't use prime tower, simply forget to set it up. I will try to submit a photo tomorrow, I guess I will need to follow your advice and try to lower temperature to see if this helps. Many thanks! 

[False alarm: Filament run out, put a new one on]

4 hours ago, Smithy said:

 

Here you find the corresponding entries:

 

So it seems that the sensor detected problems with the flow of the filament. Maybe it was a real alert and not a false one. I assume you have the PVA on the right side of your head, but when I understood the log correctly, the problem reported was from the left print core, so your PLA and not PVA caused the problem.

data='{'hotend_nr': 0, 'display_hotend_nr': 1}'

 

 

 

 

Many thanks for taking your time, the alert was right there, not sure why I missed it. I am just little confused about: data='{'hotend_nr': 0, 'display_hotend_nr': 1}' 

 

When I look at my S5´s print core I see this (standing right in front of the printer):

 

ºººººººººººººººººººººººººººººº

| AA (PLA) | BB (PVA)  |

ºººººººººººººººººººººººººººººº

 

Therefore: 'hotend_nr': 0, 'display_hotend_nr': 1 refers to the first print core AA (PLA), and 'hotend_nr': 0, 'display_hotend_nr': 2 would refer to BB (PVA), is this correct?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Gyro: some rare effect on a side]

4 hours ago, Smithy said:

I will try to explain the behavior we can see here.

First, PVA and the BB print core with its different inner shape, tends to drip more than PLA and the AA print core.

And when one layer has finished and the head moves to the prime tower a retract happens. But a retract don't mean that the nozzle stops immediately to extrude material. So the filament will be pulled back, but there is still some melted material in the nozzle and this material drips out, resulting in those strings.

 

Thanks, I think I get it. However, what if the PLA noozle is the one that retracts and then goes to the prime tower. In this case we end up with PLA strings on the edge. Is this correct? How do we get rid of them? Using sand paper? 

[False alarm: Filament run out, put a new one on]

@Smithy: just a quick favor, could you have a quick look at the previously attached log file to see if you can find the false alert it returned to me? I cannot find it and not sure if this type of alerts are being registered in there. 

[Gyro: some rare effect on a side]

Hi everyone, a complete newbie here so sorry if this is a silly question. I am doing a Gyro print and wondering what're those PVA "hair" doing at one of the sides, right opposite to a prime tower; marked with red arrows on an attached photo. I know this doesn't really matter as this is just a support but would like to know if this is something to do with prime tower or seam option that are in Cura custom settings. Is this a starting point of each layer?  In other world I would just run another print job to test it but seeing the print cost I prefer save some euros by asking the community.

 

Many thanks!  

 

 

[False alarm: Filament run out, put a new one on]

Thanks @Smithy! Nicely explained! Many thanks 

[False alarm: Filament run out, put a new one on]

Hi everyone, a complete newbie here. So yesterday we run one of the 1st prints ever, total time of the job was 20 hrs. When I came back next day to see how is it going the LCD panel showed "!" > alert sign and the warning was something like "Filament run out, put a new one on". The thing was that it didn't run out of it at all (there's still more than a half on both PVA and PLA "cartridges"). There's a retry button so I clicked on it and it started to print again. Wondering why the printer thought there's no filament if obviously this wasn't the case. Is there a problem with a sensor? The printer is relatively new and has only 30 hours of printing done so far. 

 

Attached is the log file if you'd like to have a look, although they don't seem to help me at all. The log file was copied from web access. 

 

Cheers 

Logs Ultimaker.log