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Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade


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Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

Cura lets you position the prime tower anywhere. would it help to move the prime tower to the front corner where your tool change happens? Or does it still move to the center of the print?

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    And about the printhead moving to the center of the bed before moving to the prime tower. did anyone find a solution for this? It's indeed annoying...

    Hi to all !

    Yes ! it's indeed very very annoying, it kills completely the prime tower interest.

    I tried to apply the Mark2Tweaks.py pluging, it doesn't work for me, may be this could work for someone else ?

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    And about the printhead moving to the center of the bed before moving to the prime tower. did anyone find a solution for this? It's indeed annoying...

    Hi  to all !

    Yes ! it's indeed very very annoying, it kills completely the prime tower interest.

    I tried to apply the Mark2Tweaks.py pluging, it doesn't work for me, may be this could work for someone else ?

    Dear Gudo,

    i just tested S3D 4.0, and there, the head moves as it should. To the ooze shield, not the center of the printbed.

    I also tested Cura (2.7.2 B), and even if i put the prime pillar in the center, and the print at the rear left position, it goes to the print BEFORE it goes to the prime pillar.

    So i assume it is a Cura thing.

    What software version, and what X and Y start positions do you use?

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    And about the printhead moving to the center of the bed before moving to the prime tower. did anyone find a solution for this? It's indeed annoying...

    Hi  to all !

    Yes ! it's indeed very very annoying, it kills completely the prime tower interest.

    I tried to apply the Mark2Tweaks.py pluging, it doesn't work for me, may be this could work for someone else ?

    Dear Gudo,

    i just tested S3D 4.0, and there, the head moves as it should. To the ooze shield, not the center of the printbed.

    I also tested Cura (2.7.2 B), and even if i put the prime pillar in the center, and the print at the rear left position, it goes to the print BEFORE it goes to the prime pillar.

    So i assume it is a Cura thing.

    What software version, and what X and Y start positions do you use?

    Just found out, cura, can't change the x and y start position, the settings is hidden by the active machine and will not be visible???

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    And about the printhead moving to the center of the bed before moving to the prime tower. did anyone find a solution for this? It's indeed annoying...

    Hi  to all !

    Yes ! it's indeed very very annoying, it kills completely the prime tower interest.

    I tried to apply the Mark2Tweaks.py pluging, it doesn't work for me, may be this could work for someone else ?

    Dear Gudo,

    i just tested S3D 4.0, and there, the head moves as it should. To the ooze shield, not the center of the printbed.

    I also tested Cura (2.7.2 B), and even if i put the prime pillar in the center, and the print at the rear left position, it goes to the print BEFORE it goes to the prime pillar.

    So i assume it is a Cura thing.

    What software version, and what X and Y start positions do you use?

    Hi RudydG

    Yes it's a Cura thing !

    It's interesting to know that could works fine with S3D, I use actualy Cura 15.04.6 and 2.6.2.

    With the 15.04.6 version, the head moves directely to the prime pillar despite that this one is not on an ideal location, it's on left back side of the printing part, anyway it works better than with the 2.6.2 version with much less printing time !!

    I use a customized XY start position from the middle front it's adapted to my ZGE direct drive use.

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    Here a printing result of a 2 colors tree frog by nervoussystem, it was sliced by Cura 15.04.6 with prime tower option

    0.4mm layers at 50mm/s print speed, PLA material at 200° print temp

    20170817_000503.thumb.jpg.92f61409efb8c4b8badb3f0d17427cb7.jpg

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    sorry ! I wanted said

    0.4 nozzle, 0.1layers

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    Why are the acceleration and Jerk settings so low on the standard Mark2 profile?

    5a333e59ac885_Screenshot2017-08-15_21-08-49.png.7e77a20da31558274ded8b19475a585c.png

    @foehnsturm

    @Tinkergnome

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    Why are the acceleration and Jerk settings so low on the standard Mark2 profile?

    There's no special reason (at least not that i'm aware of). AFAIK this are the standard formulas that Cura uses, if acceleration or jerk control is enabled. You can disable it in Cura, if you want. Mark2 works with the standard values of the printer as well.

    What's the reason of your question? Did you noticed any serious drawbacks related to these values?

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    Here  a printing result of a 2 colors tree frog by nervoussystem, it was sliced by Cura 15.04.6 with prime tower option

    0.4mm layers at 50mm/s print speed, PLA material at 200° print temp

    20170817_000503.thumb.jpg.92f61409efb8c4b8badb3f0d17427cb7.jpg

    Looks like the light blue material was slightly too hot?

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    Here  a printing result of a 2 colors tree frog by nervoussystem, it was sliced by Cura 15.04.6 with prime tower option

    0.4mm layers at 50mm/s print speed, PLA material at 200° print temp

    20170817_000503.thumb.jpg.92f61409efb8c4b8badb3f0d17427cb7.jpg

    Looks like the light blue material was slightly too hot?

    Hi !

    Yes you have a good look, I thought so too!

    200 ° is not so exaggerated for PLA Polymax ?

    it's a old spool that I had in stock for a year, I think it has degraded and in addition, as the tool change sequences are very short, with the slight overshooting during this it oozed very easily.

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    Why are the acceleration and Jerk settings so low on the standard Mark2 profile?

    There's no special reason (at least not that i'm aware of). AFAIK this are the standard formulas that Cura uses, if acceleration or jerk control is enabled. You can disable it in Cura, if you want. Mark2 works with the standard values of the printer as well.

    What's the reason of your question? Did you noticed any serious drawbacks related to these values?

    As you already know, we are building an UMO with Mark2 upgrade but we have a problem.

    The first thing I've checked were the Cura settings... But that's not the problem...

    Any other idea @tinkergnome?

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    From Technolazy

    "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 main board. I cut the wires and soldered some extra 20 cm from another similar cable in between. 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)"

    I have the same issue. Only I do not have any extra wire like this laying around, or know if this question has been answered in terms of affecting the performance if cutting and splicing happens? I payed for the upgrade kit and expansion board with all the wiring ready to go, only to find myself sitting here not able to go any further. Any ideas if I'm doing something wrong? I followed the instructions to a "T". The wire is many inches short for routing through the machine properly, and even if I try to run it DIRECTLY to the board from the motor, it still doesn't reach. Is this because it is the "Extended" plus and nobody thought to add anything for the extra height of the extended machines? That's the only thing I can think of. And if that's the case, where do I go from here? Do I need to go out and spend more money and buy more wire, cut, splice, solder, (which I do not do very well) ? If so, can I use any old speaker wire I have laying around? Does it need to be specific wire type, size?

    Thank you,

    Jason

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    Ah! Extended. Right. well that's probably the problem. Is there an "extended" plus kit that is different than the regular plus kit? You could email support@fbrc8.com and see if maybe you got the wrong plus kit and if they can send you a stepper with proper length cables.

    Well maybe you have a friend who is good at soldering? This is an easy project. Any old speaker cable will do. You want wiring that is the same diameter (metal conductor diameter -not insulation diameter) or larger than current wires. It's best to twist the wiring as that decreases how much radio waves it puts out (you don't want it to interfere with your cell phone reception).

    If you do it yourself consider also getting some heat shrink tubing which shrinks to half it's size when heated with a candle flame. This will make your repair look much more professional and it will be more durable and strong.

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

     Is there an "extended" plus kit that is different than the regular plus kit?  You could email support@fbrc8.com and see if maybe you got the wrong plus kit and if they can send you a stepper with proper length cables.

    I did not see any other kit for the extended version, but I can email them to see for sure. I'm sure they will tell me it should fit fine since the motor doesn't "normally" sit at the top left corner of the back, therefore making it unreachable. I will look for wire similar to this and see what I can do in the meantime.

    Thanks so much for the quick response.

    - Jason

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    Ah. I see. It would probably reach fine for the right side (facing the back of the machine) but not the left side where the added extruder is. You are probably one of the few doing the mark2 upgrade on the extended. fbrc8 probably won't help. You should reach out to friends and find one who loves to solder.

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    Why are the acceleration and Jerk settings so low on the standard Mark2 profile?

    5a333e59ac885_Screenshot2017-08-15_21-08-49.png.7e77a20da31558274ded8b19475a585c.png

    I found that, if I enable all the acceleration and Jerk control in Cura, sometime the tool change retract by Mark2 firmware will be ignore. Especially when printing some small object. Seems the do not have that speed to finish the jerk and acceleration command and then simple ignore the retract command. One I disable the Jerk and Acceleration control in Cura, everything just resume to normal.

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    Posted (edited) · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    I did not see any other kit for the extended version, but I can email them to see for sure. I'm sure they will tell me it should fit fine since the motor doesn't "normally" sit at the top left corner of the back, therefore making it unreachable. I will look for wire similar to this and see what I can do in the meantime.

    Thanks so much for the quick response.

    - Jason

    You can buy at many shops online (even amazon if I recall correctly) a cable extender. JST-XH 3

    The twisting of the pairs is optional but recommendable.

    Like this

    Edited by Guest
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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    And about the printhead moving to the center of the bed before moving to the prime tower. did anyone find a solution for this? It's indeed annoying...

    Hi  to all !

    Yes ! it's indeed very very annoying, it kills completely the prime tower interest.

    I tried to apply the Mark2Tweaks.py pluging, it doesn't work for me, may be this could work for someone else ?

    I tried to use the post processing scripts, it works and it can eliminate the random move after tool change. I check the scripts and g-code, it remove the random move after tool change with some logic. But I also found that, if I enable the tool change retract feature in Cura, Cura will add some retract command right after tool change command, which will cause the script fail to work.

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    You can buy at many shops online (even amazon if I recall correctly) a cable extender. JST-XH 3

    The twisting of the pairs is optional but recommendable.

    Like this

    Thank you!

    - Jason

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

     

     Is there an "extended" plus kit that is different than the regular plus kit?  You could email support@fbrc8.com and see if maybe you got the wrong plus kit and if they can send you a stepper with proper length cables.

     

    I did not see any other kit for the extended version, but I can email them to see for sure. I'm sure they will tell me it should fit fine since the motor doesn't "normally" sit at the top left corner of the back, therefore making it unreachable. I will look for wire similar to this and see what I can do in the meantime.

    Thanks so much for the quick response.

    - Jason

     

    There is only 1 size for the upgrade kit. The UM2X+ and UM2+ use the same length feeder motor. Sounds like it's just not quite long enough to reach the other feeder location.

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    I make my own cables it is not that much hassle. and parts are readily available.

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    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%) :

    cone.thumb.png.6c46ff79796fc6c8a46b9f713b68d7a1.png

    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.

    Hello technolazy,

    I also had to extend the second feeder motor cable. I am getting x/y limit errors as you mentioned in issue 3. The tricky thing is I don't get the error when using the firmware "Mark2-dual-ext-17.06.hex" but do when using "Tinker-Mark2-extended-expansion-board-17.06.hex". I took a video of homing the head with the different firmwares. it is here:

    Are you able to run the firmware "Tinker-Mark2-extended-expansion-board-17.06.hex" successfully?

    Thanks,

    Matt

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    Posted · Ultimaker Mark2 - The Smart Dual-Extrusion Upgrade

    Sorry, for some reason I was not notified of your message.

    Are you able to run the firmware "Tinker-Mark2-extended-expansion-board-17.06.hex" successfully?

    I have not tried and I couldn't try, because my machine is an UM2 not-extended, and I would like to avoid crashing the z-axis into the nozzle. This "x/y limit switch error" occurred for unexplained reasons then disappeared before I could identify a reason of even just a pattern.

    If you still encounter this issue, maybe you could ask the author of the firmware if he has any idea. Sorry that I can't help more.

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