UM2 making me crazy

[Rotary 1]

OK fellows, here we go...big time!

Some few weeks back I started to have some issues with my ColorFabb PLA, as the feeder was pretty much grinding the filament and not extruding at all, failing my prints.

I also had issues with my std nozzles clogging up, so i had to do atomics like every day I printed.'

I fed up, and ordered the Olsson kit, with the std 0.4 nozzles and a stainless 0.5.

I replaced these items

-The Olsson block kit

-New bowden from 3DSolex, fitted now in full length

-New metal coupler for the nozzle from 3DSolex

-New nylon from 3DSolex

-New Temp sensor from 3Dsolex, as the old ripped, when I tried to remove it.

I got the stuff and installed everything.

Printed my model, that I have printed at least 25 times.

Noticed that there was something wrong as the outer and inner walls looked like they were missing the "outer shell" on some random places and around some of the corners, but not all of them.

I was like what a hell is happening here, as I used the same exact settings etc as before, and the prints were fine.

So the Olsson didn't actually fix anything.

Then I figured, that ok, the feeder/extruder is gone. I adjusted it, and still no luck.

I went on and ordered the Bondtech Kit for UM2, and thought that ok, the feeding problems are dead and gone for life.

I was most likely right there. The feeder seems to grab the PLA filament like nothing else, and as far as I can tell, it's not slipping at all. At least I don't notice it as the filament looks so crisp and nice when it come out of the bowden.

Yesterday, I fitted the Bondtech and everything. I once again leveled the bed as usual, pretty close to the bed, to get that glass like first layer.

I went ahead and printed an Ultimaker Robot in the size it comes std.

It's pretty horrible!

Printed it with the PLA @ 219c, bed at 58 and 45mms with 4.5mm retract.

Layer was 0.1 and initial 0.3. Walls 0.8.

Here is the result. It was printed next to a bigger one, so there is that webbing on the arms, but still:

Can you see that weird scarring on the back of the robot? We'll come to that later.

Here are both of the robots next to each other, the other one was scaled up, to see what happens.

I thought that ok, needs some tuning, but had no time to do anything really.

I came back today, and thought that I'll just print my usual model with the same settings, and see how it goes.

The initial layer is just fine! Maybe on the thin side, as the nozzle is so close to the glass, but i pulled it back a bit.

After a while, I noticed that the infill is not printing 100%, as the lines are not solid. The printer was not extruding well, while doing the infill. there is similar issues with the supports. it seems like it's not feeding the filament enough while doing those areas.¨

Ok, what about the rest. Well the outer and inner wall were mostly fine. The longer side of the print is 85mm long and the shorter is 27mm long. I noticed that every time I printed the same model, the problems appeare roughly on the same areas. The walls were showing light through them and we all weird looking. Like there were spots, where the extrusion is minimal or so. it was like web looking or so.

All i can think of is, that after the printer gets to it's full working speed of 40 or 45mm/s, there is not enough filament coming from the feeder.

It just looks so small amount really, that it's putting through.

here are some photos of the models. I aborted the prints when i noticed the issues, so there are not tall prints.

Also, before I even installed the new extruder, I printed the model two times, about a week back, and the two times I printed the model, the printer started to fail extruding at the very same stage. Approx 20-25mm up the print.

How is it even possible that it fails at the very same layer height twice? Or even almost the same height. Nothing really changes on the model between 20 and 25mm. Just plain wall.

Then today, I printed the stuff that are in pics above, and a cube, that i took from thingverse. I have printed the same cube before to adjust temps etc.

I changed the filament too, to a new one from the box and printed with these settings just an hour ago

nozzle 216c and bed at 58

And here is the result of that nightmare

See the scarring on one of the sides? Same as on the robot!

This was printed on an angle to the printer walls, so when you look at it from the front of the printer, you see one edge, but not the full side. So about 45 degrees rotated,

The UM2 is running the basic firmware from the Bondtech website, and I have tested 15.04.4 Cura, Cura 15.06.03 and the Cura 1.99.0-dev.20151101 and the results keep repeating!

What on earth is happening here now?

[Labern 774]

Slice it using Cura 15.04.4 as its a bit more proven to make sure there is no funny setting screwing it up.

[Rotary 1]

I tried it, but with custom settings.

I was wondering now, that could it be that the extruder ain't pushing enough filament to the nozzle, or that there is some kind of feeding command issue in the firmware.

This happened with the old feeder too tho, and with it's firmware.

It's just weird, that the base layer and prepping of the nozzle is like perfect! I can even use the "move material" command and feed the whole reel of filament to the build plate without issues.

[yellowshark 153]

On your Robot model print you are running too hot. At .100 and 45mm/s I would be inclined to start at 190c (assuming this is normal PLA or PLA/PHA) . make sure you have a minimum layer time of at least 10secs and have the fans at 100%. It is a pretty small piece, I personally would print it slower starting with 30mm/s.

[Rotary 1]

Installed the Tinker firmware today and had a couple of test runs with it.

Everything looks pretty horrible....

I made a simple 20x20x20 cube in Fusion 360, so I know, that it's 100% solid when i export it to Cura and throw infill to it.

Here's a video of the beginning of the print. As you can see, the brim and the base are pretty darn neat, but the disaster strikes, when the cube is starting to rise from the plate.

The print is now finished, and I will upload a couple of photos too for you guys later on.

At this stage, I can tell you, that the top aint solid. There was just too little material coming from the nozzle to fill the gaps. Also, the infill grid has areas, where the cross members are not joined. The printer just didn't print the infill as it should.

[Labern 774]

Your speeds can cause heaps of problems. Make them all the same. This way the temp can be controlled properly.

[Rotary 1]

[dlavanway 0]

Looks like textbook underextrusion to me. Might be traveling too fast while it is doing that infill for the nozzle to keep up with providing filament.

[Rotary 1]

I wonder why it's doing that, because the filament on the pics and video is ColorFabb PLA that i have used several spools. The nozzle is brand spanking new. The problems started eith the old nozzle and the oem feeder. The next step is to go 30mms and that sounds pretty stupid to me.

[eldrick 65]

Check the firmware version on the machine to make sure the BondTech stuff installed successfully?

[johank 7]

Does lowering the speed help with the problem? It could be that the E-steps isn't setup right. Best way to actually test is to connect the printer to your computer using Pronterface (or similar) and tell it to feed 10cm and measure. When installing a custom firmware you sometimes need to do a factory reset for the default settings to actually get loaded.

Some other culprits could be the Olsson block touching the fan bracket or the hot-end cooling fan (middle) not blowing enough.

Edited February 20, 2016 by Guest

[eldrick 65]

When installing a custom firmware you sometimes need to do a factory reset for the default settings to actually get loaded.

The machine restarts and loads the new firmware after Cura loads it. You don't need a reset.

[johank 7]

When Marlin starts it checks EEPROM_VERSION of the current firmware versus a string stored in the EEPROM, if they match Marlin loads the stored settings from the EEPROM. If you have saved your settings to EEPROM and rebuilds Marlin with different motion parameters but with the same EEPROM_VERSION the saved settings will override the defaults on load until you manually restore the defaults. Factory reset is one way of reseting the defaults.

Cura could connect to the printer after the firmware has been installed and reset the settings to default, but I don't think it does.

[Rotary 1]

Ok a little update!

I installed the Tinker firmware and the estep file from Bindtech.

Leveled the bed and ran a simple ellipse print to calibrate the buildplate.

Also toon away that white PLA and replaced it with the ColorFabb XT-CF20 carbon.

I downloaded a Marvin keychain model and set the printer to print 30mms on the whole model with 15% infill.

UM2 set at 255c, buildplate at 65. Flow 100%

Olsson 0.4mm std nozzle.

This is the result;

.