Ultimaker 2 "Moving material" issue

[Schwalbe 1]

Hi everyone,

I've bought an Ultimaker 2 one month ago (it's my first 3d printer, so i'm quite unexperieced in this field) and went through several extrusion problems since then. But despite this, I've managed to print without too many issues, reading all the topics avaliable on the internet. However, today my printer had a more serious issue; I wanted to unload the loaded PLA filament using the "moving material" function, but the feeder stopped half way of the bowden tube and the printer's screen showed somehing like:

"ERROR - STOPPED

X or Y switch struck

Contact: support@ultimaker.com"

I did knew that this message would occur because I had this problem quite often, but it wasn't a real struggle since I just had to power it off and then on to get rid of it. So I did like I did every time before: I powered the UM2 off, waited a few seconds, and then powered it on. The printer's head was still in "moving material" position when i powered it on (half way of the X axis, home position of the Y axis). The material was still blocked half way of the bowden tube so I decided to do the operation once again. When I clicked on "moving material", the head (which was still in the position I described previously) began to go to slowly the right hand corner. I let it go thinking that it was a normal pattern, but I quickly noticed that someting was wrong; when the head reached the right hand corner, the motor didn't stopped at all and the head was still willing to go to the right, causing the head to be stongly crushed against the right lateral metal bar and the X motor to slip on his belt making an awfull noise. I powererd the machine off as quickly a I could to prevent any further damage. The head was still in the right hand corner, so I switched on the UM2 and selected "Home Head". The head went in home position fine but I noticed that he motors were hot (60°-70° I guess). I guess that the pinter didn't knew that the head was already in middle position and tried to achieve the same pattern to the right, from the middle position, as it would have done from the home head position.

The rubber belts didn't seems to be damaged and the head still looks the same, but I don't know if it is a major issue

causing to change parts (or event sending the printer back), or just a annoying but harmless problem on this machine.

If some of you already had this problem or know a bit about it, I would be glad to read your answer

(sorry for the mistakes or unappropiate words in this text, english isn't my native language)

Schwalbe

[gr5 2,071]

First of all the printer is tough as hell and even though it makes that horrible sound it should be fine. I think everyone has experienced this at least once.

Also the stepper motors work fine at 60-70C. Even when they aren't moving, if they are powered, they get hot. I've been told that they get equally hot whether they move or not. I'm a little skeptical but I *do* believe they get almost as hot.

What should have "given way" was the stepper itself, but occasionally the belt will skip a tooth. You should check that both sides of the long belts are equally tight. If not it might be a good idea (but doesn't matter that much) to loosen the 2 pulleys for that belt so that the tension can equalize but if you do this make sure both long belts are in the same position such that the metal rods going through the head are perpendicular.

Be aware that if you cut power it's fine to push the print head around manually - in fact a good habit for you to do. Same is true with feeder - you can just pull the filament out when the feeder power is off (which is almost always when not printing). Of course if the filament is in the head and the head is cold it won't come out but if you are half way through a "feed filament" you can pull it out to start over, or push it all the way into the head manually also.

The most troubling thing is your limit switch issue. I would fix that when you get some time. I would hook up pronterface to the UM2 through a USB to a laptop or desktop and play with those switches. See if they are stuck on or stuck off. I would push them dozens of times and see if maybe the cabling is pinched, broken, or shorting out somewhere - particularly near those LED power wires and also particularly sometimes the motor covers (those white metel covers in the corners which can come off by removing only one screw) are pinching the endstop/limit switch wiring and shorting it out.

Or maybe the limit switch is never closing - maybe nothing is reaching it and you simply need to slide one of the smaller rods over a bit or adjust the position of the limit switch by a mm or two.

[Schwalbe 1]

First of all the printer is tough as hell and even though it makes that horrible sound it should be fine.  I think everyone has experienced this at least once.

Also the stepper motors work fine at 60-70C.  Even when they aren't moving, if they are powered, they get hot.  I've been told that they get equally hot whether they move or not.  I'm a little skeptical but I *do* believe they get almost as hot.

What should have "given way" was the stepper itself, but occasionally the belt will skip a tooth.  You should check that both sides of the long belts are equally tight.  If not it might be a good idea (but doesn't matter that much) to loosen the 2 pulleys for that belt so that the tension can equalize but if you do this make sure both long belts are in the same position such that the metal rods going through the head are perpendicular.

Be aware that if you cut power it's fine to push the print head around manually - in fact a good habit for you to do.  Same is true with feeder - you can just pull the filament out when the feeder power is off (which is almost always when not printing).  Of course if the filament is in the head and the head is cold it won't come out but if you are half way through a "feed filament" you can pull it out to start over, or push it all the way into the head manually also.

The most troubling thing is your limit switch issue.  I would fix that when you get some time.  I would hook up pronterface to the UM2 through a USB to a laptop or desktop and play with those switches.  See if they are stuck on or stuck off.  I would push them dozens of times and see if maybe the cabling is pinched, broken, or shorting out somewhere - particularly near those LED power wires and also particularly sometimes the motor covers (those white metel covers in the corners which can come off by removing only one screw) are pinching the endstop/limit switch wiring and shorting it out.

Or maybe the limit switch is never closing - maybe nothing is reaching it and you simply need to slide one of the smaller rods over a bit or adjust the position of the limit switch by a mm or two.

 

Thank gr5 for your fast and detailled answer, you really helped me a lot! I did not dare to print again since the problem occured, awaiting the comunity's opignion. I was thinking that this issue was way more serious (I knew that the printer was strong and well build, but it's an incredibly precise machine, I tought that this incident would have critically affected the mecanism...).

It's good to know that those parts (the feeder and print head) can be moved manually when powered

I will try to find out what's going on with those switches (thanks for telling me the critical places)

All your tips are really helpful (I will check every point you mentionned, but the struggle seems to come from the switches). it's good to see that we're not all alone with this - complex- product