dorlik

Covers911: I did not print in TPU. Your model is an STL so...no settings for the printer? I appreciate what Smithy is saying. He's clearly more knowledgeable than I am. I can only tell you about my experience. When I got my S5, I got the one material empty error message constantly and the machine would not print. I disabled the the sensor in the settings but that didn't help. Then I put the S5 filament on the spool holders and started printing from another spool and I haven't had any problems since. I have printed in TPU Perhaps Smithy is correct and the filament sensor in the feeder righted itself.

Covers911: I printed your little part on my S5 in PLA. It printed just fine. Nothing wrong with your file. When I first got my S5 machine (I have 5 Ultimaker 2+ machines), I experienced the "One material appears to be empty" error message frequently. (So aggravating!) I solved the problem by putting 2 spools of the S5 filament on the spool holder. This seems to satisfy the printer's need to sense its own filament. I print (using whatever PLA I get from MatterHacker) from a separate spool holder. I haven't had that error message since. I hope I've been of some help.

Ryan5829, Here's a follow-up on my investigation of that overhang problem that's so annoying. I saw a CNC Kitchen youtube video about poor adhesion in layers and the fellow mentioned that the fan cools the filament rapidly which can adversely affect layer adhesion. So, I slowed the fan down to 50% and look! very little canopy in my latest prints! (That white filament has been especially bad.) . I'm running 5 Ultimaker 2+ machines at the same time and I got the best prints out of them that I have ever gotten on the shield headband. I'm sure you can fix the file to slow the fan at the right place but I just did it manually on the machine. You have to wait until after the adhesion layer (brim) is complete because the fan is at zero for that, but as soon as you get to the next layer, you can turn the fan down to 50% and leave it that way for the rest of the print. Oh! And I put the speed back up to 100%. Faster and better. Good luck! Let us know how it goes.

I was having this "material empty" issue, too. I turned off the flow sensor but the print got so filled with webs that I had to turn it back on. I am printing with ordinary PLA from MatterHackers on a spool in back of the machine on a roller mechanism. In my desperation to deal with the material empty problem, I decided that the S5 wanted the spool to hang from the back. I took off the Ultimaker "tough PLA" spool and set it directly in back of the machine (for no reason other than I was too busy to put it away) and put the MatterHacker PLA hanging off the spool holder. Since then, I haven't gotten the error message. (It's been about a week.) Is there a sensor in the Ultimaker spool? I have no idea. But no error message is good enough for me. (Fingers crossed that I haven't jinxed the whole thing now.) Of course, that spool of tough PLA is going to go bad from just sitting around there...

The big mistake I was making (and the reason my prints were so horrible) was that I was printing from the BB nozzle. Once I switched to the AA nozzle, my prints came out beautifully. (Note to self: Read the manual.) I have 5 Ultimaker 2+ machines running full time making the stacks of 4 Prusa file. This typically leaves some filament at the end of the spool that I was afraid I would have to waste. However, the S5 is fine with printing from relatively short pieces of filament. I've made some UCLA-colors headbands, some USC-colors headbands and this morning I made some Los Angeles Lakers headbands. The nurses and doctors report that the bright, fun colors are great! They are especially popular with the younger patients. Ryan5829--I had the same problem with the 2+ machines where they don't make it all the way around the curve, resulting in that canopy of filament look. It happens at the break in between the headbands. I solved the problem by slowing the print to 85% when it gets to that break. I have one 2+ that doesn't have the canopy problem so I'm wondering if the set screw on the X axis of the other machines need tightening.

I have been printing the Prusa shield file for weeks on my Ultimaker 2+ (5 of them) and they are going great. (We have donated over 1000 shields.) I bought an S5 last week and have not been able to get one decent print out of it. I'm using PLA that works great on the 2+. I have the overhang on the curve problem (dark pink) and this odd overprint ring problem (light pink). I've attached my gcode file for the S5. Can anyone help me get this file correct? I can't use your file because I am not printing the bottom part of the face shield. 3mmlayer_headband_rc3_1.gcode 4x_covid19_headband_rc3_1_0.25mm_PLA_MK3S_13h18m.gcode

I'm having the same overhang problem with the Prusa file. 3mmlayer_headband_rc3_1.gcode