GAD

First, if printing with Extruder 1 and I select Extruder 1 for the Support Extruder Cura will not show the option for Support Interface Extruder. If I make the Support Extruder 2 then the option for Support Interface Extruder appears, which is the opposite of how I'd expect it to work (why would I want to make the interface the same as the object being printed?). Ad far as I'm aware this worked fine in 5.4 Beta. Additionally, if I choose Extruder 1 for support the tree starts on the opposite side of the part for no obvious reason. If I choose Extruder 2 for support then it looks much smarter.

I just wanted to bring this back around because six months later after battling many many failed prints (usually with PLA and PVA dual extrusion but also with first layer adhesion) I put the silicon cover back on and noticed an immediate improvement. So, I'm back to using the cover. I've taken to removing the print head from the rods to replace the cover so I can at least get my fingers in there and see what I'm doing, but in my experience the printer works better with the cover intact.

Answering my own question. From here: https://www.matterhackers.com/store/l/ultimaker-silicone-nozzle-covers/sk/MMGF0TPM The function of the silicone nozzle cover is to contain the heat of your 3D printer's hotends so that temperatures remain steady for optimal 3D printing filament flow and smooth 3D print results. Additionally, the silicone nozzle covers contribute to clean prints and minimal maintenance by helping to protect the hotends against any potential filament backflow.

Holy cow - really? What's it's purpose then?

Hey Ultimaker - if you're listening - your silicon nozzle cover in the S5 sucks. Signed, someone who loves his S5 Pro but who wants to throw the entire thing out the window every time that damn cover rips. The video on how to replace it doesn't help, the cover is terrifically difficult to work on, it doesn't seat well 99.99% of the time, and it's just a terrible experience all around. I think i'm at the point where I'm just going to remove the print head every time that stupid cover needs to be replaced. That is all.

Thanks for the reply. I had a similar problem with a different part that I resolved by upping the PVA temp to 190 and using a PVA raft: I find it odd that it only happened on one side. Dunno about that one, but here's the same part with new settings. The only thing I changed was temp and raft: I think what was happening was the PVA layers were not adhering *to each other*. Bed adhesion was fine. A raft just upped the bed adhesion a bit and the slightly higher temp helped the layers to melt together better. The problem with the squashed cylinder in my first part is the same. If you look at the first pic in this post you can see how the entire left side is raised. Well, this was acting as a spring because you can see it was curling up. Every time the nozzle went over that section it pushed the part down so the PLA layers were getting squashed. Once I finish the other parts I'll reprint the one in the OP, but I bet this will solve the problem.

Any time I print with support, be it PVA or PLA, I end up frustrated. The surface over the support is always terrible, and I often get issues like the ones pictured where the round part of the piece is deformed. On larger complex parts I often end up with a spaghetti mess over the support that makes the part unusable. I've tried different print temps, different PVA (Matterhackers PVA pictured because I've grown to absolutely hate Ultimaker PVA), changing support distance, messing with support interface, etc. but it's almost always a problem. Printer is an S5 Pro with firmware 7.1.3.0 Pictured PLA is Ultimaker Silver Metallic and PVA is Matterhackers Build PVA that has been sitting in the material station (where it's theoretically the right humidity) for a couple of months. Cura is 5.2.1 Any tips?

I see now that the metal funnel helps to guide filament through the selector switch mechanism. Speaking of which I dropped the little spring and now it's gone. It's been quite the day.

I got the filament out by removing the printhead completely then disassembling it from the rails. What a freaking PITA, but it's out, and now I've learned how to remove the pint head, so that's a plus. Here's what the filament looked like:

I got the Bowden tube out by removing it from the feeder end, which was a struggle, but once I could see the filament there I snipped it and got the tube off from the back. I then removed the top of the S5 print head and could see a bit better. First, it appears as though the filament got blocked by the print core again even though I'd just cleaned it. Force from the feeder seems to have caused the filament to form a little mushroom-head-looking bulge in-line which is preventing the filament both from feeding any more and from being pulled out: Having been able to remove the other filament properly and having removed the collet from side #1, I notice that they're different in the printhead. Printcore 2 has a metal funnel-looking thing but #1 does not. The ring around the funnel is different than it is on #1 - should there not be this funnel on #1? At any rate, it would appear that the only way to get the filament out is to somehow cut it in the tiny gap from the front of the printhead. I can't get wire cutters in there. Someone suggested an x-acto knife but that seems like a tough battle. I need like an x-acto saw or something.

I have an S5 Pro that I've had for about three years. I've learned a lot about it in those three years, but this is a new one on me. About a week ago I started having problems where after the first layer or three it would just stop extruding. I cleaned the print cores and it worked better but then did the same thing. I replaced all the Bowden tubes except for the very short ones coming out of the material station because I can't figure out how to get to those, and while I was at it I replaced the feeders because Ultimaker sent me the fine-toothed replacements some time back and I never got around to putting them in. While I was working on it I did all the normal maintenance like greasing, checking tolerances, cleaning out fans, etc. I also swapped out print core #1 and cleaned the alternate as well. I have a lot of print cores so I figured being able to isolate a major component out of the mix was a good test. Yesterday I went to print and it started off great - Print Core 2 is working fine, but #1 failed again after a couple of layers. This time, though, I cannot get the Bowden tube out of the print head. I'm well aware of how the collets work but it will not budge even when holding down the collet with needle nose pliers and seriously pulling on the tube. If I look inside the print head I can see the filament move when I pull on the Bowden tube which tells me that the filament is not stuck in the print core, but I cannot get that tube out. I ran through the "filament is stuck" wizard, the "remove the print core" wizard, and nothing helps. I've not seen anything like this before. Any suggestions?

I am not surprised one bit. I look forward to 5.2 because 5.1 just quits on me with complex slicing. At least there's hope! Thanks all!

I have a 24-core Mac Pro and watching Cura slice complex models painfully slowly while one CPU gets pegged at 100% is maddening. Why is Cura single-threaded?

Anything in the next iteration of print-head design that improves this would be a welcome change.

The problem, whatever it may have been, seems to have been transient. I've not had another problem since. Thanks for your efforts!

Wondering if a workable solution might be having a switchable option for "Print via Local Network" and "Print via Cloud" because Printing via the cloud works flawless for me, And that from a guy that hates "the cloud" almost universally! 🙂

Not looking good. Printed this last night and let Cura sit for probably 14 hours until today. This is how it's behaving this morning:

OK - reinstalled (I love Macs!) and zeroconf updated: gad@unifi zeroconf % pwd /Applications/Ultimaker Cura.app/Contents/Resources/lib/zeroconf gad@unifi zeroconf % grep __version __init__.py __version__ = '0.37.0' "__version__", Cura is started and all is well for now. I'm going to bed. It's 2am. 🙂

Hmm, now Cura won't start: Dec 8 01:51:56 Mac-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: Coalition Cache Hit: app<application.nl.ultimaker.cura.61889478.61889485(501)> [220067] Dec 8 01:51:56 Mac-Pro com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (application.nl.ultimaker.cura.61889478.61889485[34555]): Service exited with abnormal code: 1 Gonna reinstall and start over.

Steps taken: gad@Mac-Pro lib % pwd /Applications/Ultimaker Cura.app/Contents/Resources/lib gad@Mac-Pro lib % ls -al | grep zero drwxr-xr-x@ 7 gad admin 224 Nov 18 07:46 zeroconf gad@Mac-Pro lib % mv zeroconf/ /Users/gad/Cura-Temp gad@Mac-Pro lib % cp -rf /Users/gad/Downloads/python-zeroconf-0.37.0/zeroconf . gad@Mac-Pro lib % ls -al | grep zeroconf drwxr-xr-x@ 17 gad admin 544 Dec 8 01:39 zeroconf Uncommented the code in LocalClusterOutputDeviceManager.py: 53 def start(self) -> None: 54 """Start the network discovery.""" 55 self._zero_conf_client.start() 56 for address in self._getStoredManualAddresses(): 57 self.addManualDevice(address) I have then killed and restarted Cura. Also, it's too late. I now have expectations and you need to meet them. 🙂 Thanks - I'll definitely update over the next couple of days.

Thanks for that test! I truly appreciate it. I just upgraded to 7.0.0 yesterday. I've been pretty up to date on firmware so I imagine it was the last one before 7. I also just happened to fire off one of the parts that did this in the past, so hopefully I'll know tomorrow if it's still doing it since it's a 12h print.

It's been days now without the need to restart Cura. So now that we've proven where the problem lies, is there any chance/hope of a cure? BTW thanks for your help! It's rare to be able to actually help and see where the problem lies. In fact I'd say the last time I was able to do that was with Secure CRT for the Mac back in 2010 or so. It is much appreciated and really helps cement Ultimaker as a good brand IMO.

Just an update that I think this might be object related and coincidental to the upgrade since the last few objects printed did not exhibit this behavior. One of the objects that did do this (the one in the vid) is attached. If this is object related, could you explain how Cura could end up allowing this to happen? Thanks! Small_clasp.stl

A good 24 hours now with no issues, so I think that's the problem.

I get that. 🙂 I just thought it was neat that it worked that way. BTW. Cura's been running for eight hours with no perceivable problem, so so-far so good. Will update tomorrow.