Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

[technolazy 9]

I haven't tried yet: I must have messed up something with the serial connection while trying to thinker around the issue via the Arduino IDE (I wanted to see what happens exactly code-side); anyways, I just noticed something: there seems to be a contact between the two pins on the expansion board:

My multimeter, set to continuity mode, says that there is contact between the two pins. Which would explain why the firmware sees a very low value for the temperature.. (from what I can see in the firmware code, this error is thrown when the temp it reads is too low) am I seeing it right?

[foehnsturm 966]

Whoops, this seems to be the first assemling error we ever had with the Mark2 board. Can you remove the shortcut on you own?

[technolazy 9]

Can you remove the shortcut on you own?

Yep, just did it (could not have wait for a replacement board to arrive anyways ;-) ).

Problem solved, I could upload the firmware and I got no errors so far! thanks!

[technolazy 9]

Mmmm.... does anybody know when the #2 printhead fan is supposed to come online? Is it supposed to be turning when printing the calibration gcode? The voltage out of the mark2 extension board reads 0... wondering if (what) I'm doing wrong here...

edit: is there a gcode or a way to force it on, to check wheter it is a physical or a logical problem?

Edited July 5, 2017 by Guest

[foehnsturm 966]

During calibration I think no. Usually during the first few layers fans are completely turned off.

Thereafter the 2nd fan should run when the respective head is printing.

[technolazy 9]

During calibration I think no. Usually during the first few layers fans are completely turned off.

Do you mean, also the one in the middle, that is normally always on in the printhead #1? I'm  printing a dual extrusion test right now, currently at layer 4; all 3 fans on printhead #1 are spinning, but on printhead  #2 they are still off..

Edited July 5, 2017 by Guest

[RudydG 48]

During calibration I think no. Usually during the first few layers fans are completely turned off.

Do you mean, also the one in the middle, that is normally always on in the printhead #1? I'm  printing a dual extrusion test right now, currently at layer 4; all 3 fans on printhead #1 are spinning, but on printhead  #2 they are still off..

With the Mark 2 board, the middle fan of head 2 comes on at about +70 degrees, and the 2 product cooling fans are controlled thrue the settings in your slicer.

[technolazy 9]

Findings:

- with firmware Mark2-dual-17.02.2.hex, the head fan #2 never comes online.

- with firmware Tinker-Mark2-expansion-board-17.02.2.hex, it comes online above 40°C.

Is the former firmware not suitable for my particular setup (um2(+) with expansion board)? I can stick with the tinker firmware. But perhaps it could be interesting for others to know if the first firmware (non-tinker) is suitable for folks who have the expansion board. If it is supposed to work, maybe I can try to fix it.

Another odd think I just noticed with both firmwares: Cura 2.6.1 (configured with the provided Mark2 printer profile), does not read any temp value for head #2. But via the UM display, the temp is displayed correctly. Is this a known issue?

[foehnsturm 966]

With the expansion board installed you need firmware with the "expansion-board" suffix.

Never used Cura to monitor the printer so far, so the temp reading might be an issue.

[technolazy 9]

Sooo,

I just finished my first successful print! Even if there is still room for improvement in my settings, now my kids too have a cool traffic cone to play with (scaled down by 50%) :

I’m deeply thankful to the incredible people that made this possible. My four years old printer is born again, once again (after the olsson block, a new feeder, and some other mods of my own). I’m still surprised and delighted by the power and the good of open source hardware.

Now, to come down to some more mundane considerations, here are the caveats I encountered and how they were solved, in the hope that this can be useful to others. I stand to be corrected if any of the information below is not accurate.

1. got a temperature error 01 as soon as the printer started. There was a short on the mark 2 expansion board, therefore the firmware was reading an extremely low value for the #2 temp sensor. => check the expansion board visually and if necessary with a multimeter, for shorts.

2. was not sure which one of the firmware binaries from github I should chose. I used what I thought to be the most conservative choice initially (Mark2-dual-17.02.2.hex), but the fans on the printhead #2 were not working at all. This firmware does not work with the expansion board. With the thinkergnome flavor of the firmware it worked perfecly. This was confusing at first: when something does not work, one never knows exactly why, and it took me a while – and some unmounting and inspections of the cables & hardware – to understand that the problem was the firmware.

3. I had occasional weird errors like « x/y limit switch error » while trying to perform manual homing. I guess this was caused by me switching between firmwares, performing factory resets and other calibrations. I calmed down, and this issue seems to be gone...

4. I had the same problem as  MarcoUbtz with the printhead crashing into the front left corner upon tool change, and the solution by foehnsturm (set layer start at X{100} Y{50} in travel menu ) worked for me as well.

5. I’m not the smartest guy on heart, but I did not realize immediately that the three options in the Cura plugin need to be activated (at least in 2.6.1).

6. The cable of the feeder stepper motor that came with my UM2+ extrusion upgrade kit was just too short to route it properly to the mainboard. I cut the wires and soldered some extra 20 cm from another similar cable inbetween. Perhaps it would be nice to include an extension cable for the stepper in the mark 2 kit. (as a side note: could soldering the stepper cable and/or adding an extension cable cause electromagnetic issues? just wondering)

The  instructions  on http://magnetic-tool-changer.com/ are outstanding for such a community project. I also found the cheatsheet posted by chiz on May 24th very useful. A link to it in the instructions pages would be very useful.

As a side note, I used colorfabb XT white for the printed parts. And cyanilacrylate glue for fixing the magnets.

Edited July 7, 2017 by Guest

[foehnsturm 966]

The  instructions  on http://magnetic-tool-changer.com/ are outstanding for such a community project. I also found the cheatsheet posted by chiz on May 24th very useful. A link to it in the instructions pages would be very useful.

Cheat sheet link added (Step 6).

[rajilpahuja 37]

Hi,

I am facing a peculiar problem, i am using the second head for pva support, i have kept the stanby temperature at 200 print is at 215, its ultimaker pva, but i notice after 20 seconds or so the temprature goes down to about 110 cause the support part is small, and the layer part is bigger, and then the second nozzle comes and waits to attain 204 and starts printing at that doesnt wait till 215, and this results in bad supports, anyways to correct this, in the firmware or cura, for the head to hold the temp or atleast come to print temprature of 215, if there is a way please let me know, thanks in advance

Rajil Pahuja

[foehnsturm 966]

In Cura you can control virtually all these temperature settings. Goto Preferences - Settings and activate "Initial Printing Temperature"

[qwerty8224 15]

New Firmware 17.6

Thank you tinkergnome

[gr5 1,350]

Someone is asking me about the Mark2 kit but I've never built it myself so I'll ask here: he is having trouble getting the "fix magnets to the parts". He says super glue doesn't work because the magnets are too strong. Any ideas? These are the magnets here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/75-MAGNETS-6mm-X-3-cylinder-disk-STRONG-N45-rare-Earth-Neodymium-US-SELLER/122403885907?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649

[foehnsturm 966]

All Neodymium magnets of this size share the same holding force of approx 900 gr.

My first guess: he's using some filament which is not easy to glue. Second, he doesn't wait long enough for the glue to settle. Even with this kind of glue (German "Sekundenkleber") this can take a few minutes if the glueing layer is a little thicker.

[SandervG 1,257]

Where is this person asking? Perhaps easier to send him to the forums if he is not on there already?

[navigator 22]

I've built 3 of the heads now and used N45 and N52 magnets with no problems using either superglue or UV activated glue (bit easier to use as you can clear away any excess before activating with the UV light).

[gr5 1,350]

He sent me an email. I told him to come to this topic and sent him a link.

Before applying the glue, are the magnets typically loose or tight?

[navigator 22]

He sent me an email.  I told him to come to this topic and sent him a link.  

Before applying the glue, are the magnets typically loose or tight?

Tight, but can be moved in/out for example on the head adaptor mount.

[Siebet 27]

We have something very interesting

We've made the UM2 firmware compatible with the UMO with RepRap Discount LCD.

So It would be possible to do the Mark2 upgrade on the UMO with the TinkerGnome firmware!

More info coming soon!

A big thanks to LowiekVDS for rewriting the firmware.

[PittsburghMan 0]

Hi Mark 2 team,

I have installed Mark 2 board for wiring. Now I am working on step 6 calibration. The issue is 'nozzle 2' doesn't shows up in 'dual extrusion' mode. It seems my printer Ultimaker 2+ failed to recognize second extruder. I am new to electronic assembly. AWG 18 PTFE wire was cut into two pieces and connect between Mark 2 board and main board. Is it correct?  Is there any other possible reason? Additionally, for feeding motor wire, how to connect it? I just used extra spot but I am not sure if this is correct.

Edited July 25, 2017 by Guest

[gr5 1,350]

Read in the instructions the part about updating the firmware. The machine doesn't auto detect - you have to install the firmware that expects the second head.

[PittsburghMan 0]

Read in the instructions the part about updating the firmware.  The machine doesn't auto detect - you have to install the firmware that expects the second head.

Thanks for your reply. I installed it and am working on step 6 calibration.

How to check if Mark 2 board works?

[conny_g 250]

I have had my head(s) crashing into the chassis at X=0 Y=0 after upgrading to Cura 2.6.2 now.

Browsed through this thread as I remembers to have read about it.

I think it's this Travel > Layer Start X/Y parameter that need to be set to X=100 Y=45 (or something there). Just reprinting to test.

If this is an issue for everyone and if that is the fix we should include that into the Mark 2 documentation. Will report.

YES! It survived the 4th layer now when it usually happened.

Edited July 25, 2017 by Guest