Auto level failure

[markus_oswald 0]

Hi,

i get an failure with the auto leveling after updating the firmware.

What can i do?

Markus

Edited January 5, 2017 by Guest

[Swissengineer 25]

I have got the same error multiple times, with no real solution. Restart the printer and restart your print.

I've tried recalibrating the Z axis and it did not change anything.

I think it is a bug.

[markus_oswald 0]

Hi,

well I tried it for 10 times now without an result.... any other ideas?

Markus

Edited January 5, 2017 by Guest

[tomnagel 126]

It may be caused by the glass plate already hitting the nozzle at the start of the probing. Please have a look closely on what happens in your printer during the probes. During probing you hear the z-motor humming, and the bed slowly goes up. there should be at least 1 second/0.5mm between the start of this humming sound and the glass hitting the nozzle.

The new firmware starts the probing process higher. This makes it faster, but the drawback is that if the glass is set too high, this error pops up.

Use the 3 screws below your bed to lower the glass if it hits the nozzle too soon. 1mm should be enough.

[mgammal 0]

Hi, I just had my UM3 extended a few hours now, and I had the same issue. What I did was using the screws to lower the bed a bit, and I used a digital scale to try and make it as level as possible manually, but the most important thing is that I moved it down away from the nozzles. then I tried the active leveling and it worked.

[fabreax 15]

Try to clean the build plate, clean the nozzles and do a manual bed leveling.

I sometimes have this error when the nozzles are not clean.

Edited January 13, 2017 by Guest

[norbauer 1]

I have the same problem. Nozzles are clean, filament is loaded in both. Before the sensing cycle begins, the nozzle is already in contact with the plate. I've tried it many times, including several times with manual leveling right before auto.

Maybe you guys need to revert this change that was pushed in the latest firmware, or make it a bit smarter? The auto-leving was working fine for me a few days ago when I set up the printer, but I think this problem was introduced when I updated the firmware.

I'll try the solution provided by @mgammal, but it's a bit of an inelegant hack that we really shouldn't have to do.

Edited January 20, 2017 by Guest

[norbauer 1]

Update: I found that by adjusting the plate with the screws to a distance of 25mm between top of glass plate and bottom of the aluminum build platform, I was able to use manual leveling and then auto-leveling. However, this is a much shorter distance than how how the plate comes from the factory, which is why you get the nozzle crash during auto-leveling if you haven't tightened up the plate screws significantly.

[strat_elorenz 0]

I've had the printer for about a month and have gotten pretty good use out of it. Today, however, I'm getting the error message that everybody on the thread is mentioning. Unless the UM3 updates the firmware on its own, mine either came with the current version or was updated upon initial setup.

I took a look at the AA print nozzle and it doesn't come to a sharp point the way it did when it was new. New, the point seems to be about 1mm in diameter; mine is about 2mm - 2.5mm. The hole from which the filament extrudes does not appear to be affected. Do these things have a severely limited life or is this just normal wear and tear (and will the print nozzle continue to work)?

The overwhelming majority of my printing has been with the AA core; very little use of the BB core. I suppose it's possible that the unbalanced use of the AA versus BB core could result in an offset that the printer might see as excessive but, if that's the case, that's a major design flaw. I would hope that the expectation isn't to replace nozzles monthly at a cost of $115/each.

[gr5 2,173]

If your nozzle "shoulder" has gotten wider @strat_elorenz that is bad news. Normal PLA will not do that but abrasive filament like brass fill, glowfill and especially CF filaments (and others) can rapidly destroy a nozzle.

That wide shoulder will give you pretty terrible quality prints.

I recommend you upgrade your core at my store here such that you can switch nozzles cheaply the next time this happens. Plus I sell steel nozzles for the hardcore: thegr5store.com

[exforma23 12]

I just got my UM3E last week. I was getting the same error message even after manually leveling the bed.

Active leveling would raise the platform at jam against both nozzles and twist the whole platform a LOT.

After talking with fbrc8 support and some troubleshooting they sent out a new set of springs.

I set the front two to the recommended 14mm (from bottom of heated plate to top of 3mm alu. platform) and the rear one ends up about 16mm when level.

After the new springs, active leveling is working fine.

However, I prefer just to use manual leveling. It seams more precise and I can tweak the thumb screws on the fly for slight adjustment to the first layer if something looks a little out of level.

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi @exforma23,

I also like manual leveling. When done well and you don't move your Ultimaker around too much, or have to take out your glass plate every other print it should be good for months. It also only takes a few moments.

However, with the connectivity and starting printjobs from a distance, sometimes you can not know or take the risk in hoping it is leveled correctly. In those cased, the active leveling can be of great help. Happy to hear your springs did the job, and you can continue to 3D print!

[tmostad 5]

I have experienced the crashing of the second nozzle a couple of times. I cycle the power on the printer and the problem goes away. I believe it is a firmware bug in the active leveling procedure. I know that they are working on a process that will sample more points on the bed and hopefully it will solve this problem as well as make the result of active leveling more accurate across the whole bed.

[Gigi 43]

Manual leveling only one time.

Because print cores are heated up before autoleveling, sometimes small pieces of filament are dropping out of nozzle causing that error.

I have Ultimaker 3 Cura 2.4

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

I recently had a few problems myself with the active levelling feature of the UM3. It told me it had failed.

As I had removed the glass plate just before, I decided to clean the glass plate on the lower side and the print bed pcb. And indeed I found a tiny piece of PVA between them.

After cleaning the active levelling worked flawlessly. So: if you get a failed active levelling: clean your print bed (between glass and pcb).

[sntinel 0]

I recently had this happen to me over the weekend and coincidentally right after I updated the firmware too. Fortunately, after I try to print the part again the 2nd time, it works fine and successfully completes it. I may just reset the printer back to Factory defaults and try to manually level it and see what happens. Then after a few prints, I'll have it autolevel again and try printing again to see if the error appears.

[fvdl 0]

Hi,

I had the same problem with a brand new UM3. After contacting UM and Trideus the problem could be solved..

At first i heated the cores for cleaning, then cool down.

In manual leveling when the build-plate is in the high position, tightly fasten the three knurled nuts, leave the one in the back somewhat higher. Follow the procedure.

After that run the auto-leveling and it worked fine for me.

The glass plate has to be in the lowest position as possible.

Why, i don't know because there is a capacitive sensor in the printhead.. Perhaps it can be solved in a future firmware update

[tomnagel 126]

A small addition here: the glass must be *low enough*, but does not have to be in the lowest position.

Before leveling, the glass moves upwards at high speed. When it starts the probing process, it switches to the low speed (with a humming sound). At the start of this, there should be at least 0.5mm between the glass and the nozzle. So you could aim at 1mm or so.

The drawback of a lower position is that active leveling takes longer, ans does not increase reliability or accuracy.

For the highest reliability and accuracy: clean the nozzle, and clean the glass plate. Please note that at the probing points on your glass plate, small amounts of plastic may accumulate, which ruins the accuracy of the probes.

[fabreax 15]

From my point of view, auto level is a waste of time. Manual level avoid errors.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

From my point of view, auto level is a waste of time. Manual level avoid errors.

 

I dunno...I switch my plates out all the time after prints and while I am doing one thing (Cleaning other plate, transferring files via USB, etc), it is leveling for another run.

I will manually level for a special instance such as using the T-Glase because they suggest it to create a round thread and not a squished oval one.

[tomnagel 126]

From my point of view, auto level is a waste of time. Manual level avoid errors.

 

Please be aware that Active Leveling also measures the Z-offset between nozzle 1 and 2. It does so more accurately than most users can.

[fabreax 15]

 

From my point of view, auto level is a waste of time. Manual level avoid errors.

 

Please be aware that Active Leveling also measures the Z-offset between nozzle 1 and 2. It does so more accurately than most users can.

 

Yes, only if nozzles has been cleaned ... manually