New UM3 user -- some issues and feedback

[Kr4m4 0]

Hello, this is my first post -- I'm new to the world of 3D printing and the Ultimaker 3 is my first 3D printer. I really like it and have been learning all I can about it, but, I'm running into a few things I hope someone can help out with. I'm using Cura 2.5 and Ultimaker PLA and PVA material in dual extrusion.

1) In order to make prints easier to remove, I'm starting to use a PVA raft -- it works really well. The problem is that it when a raft is selected, the print no longer includes the initial material "priming blob" at the start of the print for the PLA after the PVA raft is placed. The result is that initial placement of PLA is lost and the print is ruined. This doesn't happen on brim. Is this a known issue or am I setting something up incorrectly?

2) I've noticed since I started using raft rather than brim, the print heads look to be frequently be off in Z where they will scrape the top layer of the print as they travel to different parts of the build plate. I've never seen it do that when not using raft.

3) As a result of #2, I have PLA residue coated all over my PVA extruder nozzle. Is there a way to clean that off since its sometime causing auto-build plate levelling failures since the build up on the nozzle throws off the reading.

4) There appears to be a problem with the firmware in how it displays remaining time. For example, it will say "2hr 1min", "2h 0min", "1hr 0min", and then "1hr 59min". It looks like the hour display is updated before it should be when compared to the minute display. It will display that wrong time for what looks like a minute.

5) This is a little annoyance but still I feel should be addressed -- at the start of prints when the print head puts down that small "priming blob", it will put it right in front of the internal camera which blocks a good amount of view of the build plate. Can it be moved somewhere else?

Thanks for any help anyone can provide on these questions.

[Kr4m4 0]

I've included pictures of the issues I described. I went with the high price of Ultimaker precisely to avoid issues like this. It would be great to understand what needs to be done to fix these issues.

Dual Extruder Priming Failure when using a Raft:

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Dual Extruder Z Scraping Failure when using a Raft:

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[bagel-orb 61]

Thanks for your elaborate feedback!

1. Known issue. This is fixed in the next 2.6 beta or the 2.6 final.

2. Do you mean the nozzle isn't avoiding printed parts when traveling to a different part in a layer? Sometimes PVA needs to be extruded right next to PLA, so it's unavoidable in some cases. Moreover, if it were doing Z hops over PLA all the time you would get Z ringing because the bed would start to vibrate. Nonetheless the print head should avoid printed parts. Please look at the layer view and enable viewing travel paths.

3. You can clean your nozzle by heating it up manually from the printer menu and then wipe it off with a cloth or something. There's probably better ways to do it, but that's how I do it. Watch out for the heat, though.

4. Yeah I noticed as well. It's in the top 30 issues, so hopefully it will be solved soon.

5. I don't recall why we made the setting for the prime blob location hidden for users, but you can simply undo that change. Navigate to Cura/resources/definitions/fdmprinter.def.json and edit the "enabled" property to true, for the settings extruder_prime_pos_x and extruder_prime_pos_y

[bagel-orb 61]

Please attach gcode of the z scraping issue.

It would be best if you would make a new issue at https://github.com/Ultimaker/CuraEngine/issues

[Kr4m4 0]

Thank you so much for the help and reply!

I'll be sure to note the next time I see this scraping happen and export the gcode for it and file a bug as you suggest.

For the first issue I mentioned, is that fix in the current released 2.6 Beta? Or, in an upcoming refresh of it?

Thanks again!

[CarloK 205]

A problem with the second extruder not priming in combination with a raft was fixed on June 1 (CURA-3848 for reference). Looking at the generated layer view it seems this fixes your issue as well.

Since it was only fixed yesterday it will be in an upcoming 2.6 release (not sure if that is going to be another beta or the final).

Issue #4 was fixed today but since we are in the process of releasing firmware v3.7 it will most likely go in the next release. Since the next release isn't planned yet I can't indicate when it will be available.

Update June-8: Issue #4 will be in the v3.7 firmware release.

Edited June 8, 2017 by Guest