Questions about Ultimaker 3

[ClausJ 5]

New model seems to have nice features but I have a few questions:

• What is the reason for the reduced print area?

• Can I use the same size spools as with UM2?

• Can I use the same material (same color) in each printhead and if one runs out the other takes over?

• Will the printer know it's out of material and pause to let me reload?

• How soon after launch will other nozzles be available? I use 0.8 mm a lot.

• How long will I have to soak a model before the support dissolves?

• Is the overall printing speed the same as Ultimaker 2?

Thanks in advance

Claus

[nallath 1,120]

Can I use the same material (same color) in each printhead and if one runs out the other takes over?

 

Not at the moment. It could be possible to do this in the future.

 

Can I use the same size spools as with UM2?

Yes

 

Will the printer know it's out of material and pause to let me reload?

 

Not at the moment.

 

Is the overall printing speed the same as Ultimaker 2?

Yep

[DidierKlein 729]

• What is the reason for the reduced print area?

The print area is the same as the Ultimaker 2 but if you use both cores (nozzles) it's reduced because the right core can't access the whole plate on the left and the left core can't access the whole plate on the right

• Can I use the same size spools as with UM2?

Yes!

• Can I use the same material (same color) in each printhead and if one runs out the other takes over?

Not automatically

• Will the printer know it's out of material and pause to let me reload?

No

• How soon after launch will other nozzles be available? I use 0.8 mm a lot.

I heard Q1 2017 for the .8mm nozzle (don't quote me on this )

• How long will I have to soak a model before the support dissolves?

Depends on the density, in cold water it takes around 10 - 12 hours

Add heat and movement and it can be reduced to less than 2 hours (even more)

• Is the overall printing speed the same as Ultimaker 2?

Yes but dual extrusion takes more time because of the switching and even more if you use a wipe tower

[ClausJ 5]

Wow, thanks guys for the fast reply. Playing with Cura 2.3 I get a build area of 171 x 171 mm when using two materials and 191 x 191 mm when using only one (btw how to select "none" for print core 2?). How can I achieve the advertised build area of 215 x 215 mm?

Thanks

[peggyb 170]

check how much 'brim' is activated and if 'skirt' does something.

[ClausJ 5]

There is really no way to completely deselect skirt/brim (unless in simple mode) but I set everything to zero and the maximum build area available is 187 x 191 mm. Again I'm not sure how to deactivate the second nozzle alltogether in the software, maybe that's the problem. Anyway going from a build area of 225 x 225 to 190 x 190 is quite a step down.

I wonder why no one made a hack to make the machine pause when material runs out. Should be easy enough, you thread the filament through a dongle connected to the motherboard, when no filament is present a pause command is sent. Anyway that would have been a useful feature for the new machine.

[cdde 0]

Will the UM3 turn itself off after a print is finished?

[LePaul 321]

Is it me or are the spools we see on the Ultimaker 3 demos smaller than the spools we usually buy? Maybe less capacity? Or just an optical illusion.

[terryparadise 3]

I think Claus should be hired as a consultant on the UM4. Great questions and suggestions Claus.

[eldrick 65]

Wow, thanks guys for the fast reply. Playing with Cura 2.3 I get a build area of 171 x 171 mm when using two materials and 191 x 191 mm when using only one (btw how to select "none" for print core 2?). How can I achieve the advertised build area of 215 x 215 mm?

 

That 35mm difference is the spacing between the nozzles.

As to actually filling the advertised build area? You can't, just as on the Ultimaker 2.

[Labern 774]

The materials in demo are the 350gram rolls that you can see in the materials section.

[drayson 75]

 

Wow, thanks guys for the fast reply. Playing with Cura 2.3 I get a build area of 171 x 171 mm when using two materials and 191 x 191 mm when using only one (btw how to select "none" for print core 2?). How can I achieve the advertised build area of 215 x 215 mm?

 

That 35mm difference is the spacing between the nozzles.

As to actually filling the advertised build area? You can't, just as on the Ultimaker 2.

 

Aahhh... 35mm - so a little bit more than the space at UMO or UM2. So assume the whole head is also bigger... Thanks for the hint.

[nallath 1,120]

Will the UM3 turn itself off after a print is finished?

 

No. Shouldn't be that hard to add that though.

[ultiarjan 1,223]

 

@nicolinux would be a nice feature for the app also...

[Nicolinux 288]

 

@ultiarjan: To turn off the printer via the app? If it is technically possible, then yes you are right - this is a nice feature indeed.

[ultiarjan 1,223]

@ultiarjan: To turn off the printer via the app? If it is technically possible, then yes you are right - this is a nice feature indeed.

 

maybe "stand by mode" would be better wording, as you will never be able to completely shut down power, but at least bring it in lowest possible power consumption mode...

[tinkergnome 927]

Aahhh... 35mm - so a little bit more than the space at UMO or UM2. So assume the whole head is also bigger... Thanks for the hint.

 

Nope. The distance between the nozzles is 18mm (*) and the whole printhead is 100mm wide. Both exactly the same as at the UM2.

(*) you can verify it, just take a look at the definition files of Cura 2.3

[drayson 75]

thanks for clarification!

[Morandir 3]

I'm so excited to see UM3!!! Just came to upgrade Cura and was surprised with the news!

Question time: Can we remove/replace the nozzles in a similar fashion to the Olsson block?

Yes we may be able to change cartridges to alternate sizes in the future, but those are much more expensive (10x!) than swapping out a $10 nozzle.

Also, any additional details on how the spring dual nozzle lift mechanism? (Found my own answer:

)

Now I just need to convince the department to budget for another printer...

Keep up the great work!

[meduza 191]

Question time: Can we remove/replace the nozzles in a similar fashion to the Olsson block?

 

You can not. the construction of the print core makes it pretty hard to do without damaging the print core and getting it assembled right, also it does not use E3D-style nozzles like the Olsson block, but a longer nozzle with finer threads that go all the way trough the block and ends in a stainless heatbreak.

[ultiarjan 1,223]

 

Question time: Can we remove/replace the nozzles in a similar fashion to the Olsson block?

 

You can not. the construction of the print core makes it pretty hard to do without damaging the print core and getting it assembled right, also it does not use E3D-style nozzles like the Olsson block, but a longer nozzle with finer threads that go all the way trough the block and ends in a stainless heatbreak.

 

Ok, you can not now, and it's not very easy, but it's doable if you're very carefull.

ATM there are no 3th party nozzles afaik but my guess is given time there will be.

I would also be surprised if no 3th party would step in to offer a refurb service, seems doable to me at 120,- euro (incl tax).

[frederiekpascal 193]

Not much information about the camera.

What are the features of the stream?

- Can you record movies, possible to make timelapse movies?

- I've read the stream is located in Cura. Is there a way to watch the stream with VLC of with any webbrowser?

Also, the UM3 is a wifi hotspot correct? Is there a way to send commands to the printer with a webbrowser or Cura? I mean like octoprint, you can change the temperature, speed, etc etc with a webbrowser. I mean, is there any other use of the wifi feature besides sending a stl to printer to print?

[neotko 1,417]

Well you can't send a stl to print, unless you mod the firmware and inatall cura on the new board and add some extra memory using the sata connection and make that new ssd as temporal memory....

Anyhow

You can send a print from cura to the printer

There's an app in progress and it allows also to send gcode to the printer (but is beta so more o that other day).

You can access a http address where mpeg is streamed

You could make a script (is been a week so probably some day will) to record that stream into a timelapse.

Wifihotspot is made only when setting up the printer to the local net. It also can work on ethernet

Camera is 800x600 afaik

You could change temp/anything but isn't implemented atm, you would need to make your scripts to do so, Daid posted some info about all that.

You can (so far by gcode or making a script) the rgb leds of the printer, you could add a gcode so the color changes... omg I need to add that to my s3d profile !... afk going to do so

[tinkergnome 927]

@neotko: OMG... calm down - Tomorrow will be time enough.

One small addition:

VLC media player can display (and record) the camera stream as well.

...and the stream is not directly to be seen in Cura (a.t.m.?), it takes only a snapshot every two seconds (probably to conserve resources?)

[neotko 1,417]

Yeah Cura snapshots speed can be speedup for better fps but as soon you do that you use around 40-50% of the cpu, but if you only use mmpeg you only use 5%. So makes perfect sense that cura fps is slower since they leave stream open.

Nice to know about vlc!