UM3 Extended - either no network or not slicing - which cura version works?

[asb 7]

Hi,

I got a UM3 Extended last Friday; the installed firmware was dated (3.4.16.20161104). Downloaded more recent firmware from ultimaker.com website and updated the firmware from USB stick to the current 3.6.3.20170406. Updating appears to have worked, at least there were no error messages.

Next, connected the UM to a switch via Ethernet, found out that UM can has no UI to set up networking and gets a bogus "link local" APIPA address (segment 169.254.0.0); switched into "developer mode" and accessed UM via SSH; configured a static IP address, netmask and gateway from the proper segment (192.168.0.0) with "ConnMan"; left "developer mode" and rebooted. Now I can ping the UM. It even remembers the IP address after rebooting.

However, getting Cura to communicate with the UM turned out to be not impossible. I'm running Cura 2.5.0 stable (PPA) from https://launchpad.net/~thopiekar/+archive/ubuntu/cura on Ubuntu 17.04 "Zesty" with Mate desktop. Cura sees the printer and displays even it's IP address, but can not connect to the printer. No webcam image, nothing. But it can slice a file and write Gcode onto an USB stick.

Purged Thopiekar's stable PPA and "updated" to Cura 2.5.99 master (PPA) from https://launchpad.net/~thopiekar/+archive/ubuntu/cura-master. Now Cura can sometimes connect to the printer, at least for a few seconds; it displays the UM's IP address and, if connecting to the printer succeeds, it even shows a webcam image. However, when loading an object, Cura (claims to) start slicing, but shows no progress. It can not slice even the smallest files. Turned off automatic slicing in Cura's preferences, then it says: "Ready to slice" and there is a "Pepare" button. Clicking on "Prepare" starts to slice, but nothing happens - no progress, no finished Gcode.

Purged the master PPA as well, downloaded an "AppImage" from ultimaker.com. That cura version says it's Cura 2.6.0, but it behaves like 2.5 from Thopiekar's stable PPA: No networking, but it slices.

So now I have a 3D printer for 4,500 Euros and I need to choose if I either want networking or slicing. These are not great options, considering the price range of this supposedly "ready to run" 3D printer.

So I chose slicing and went ahead with the the factory default profiles embedded in Cura; let Cura write the Gcode to an USB stick, put the US stick into the UM and kindly asked it to print. Then the UM started throwing errror messages like: "Material expected to be used by PrintCore in head slot 1, but no material loaded. Please load material". That error message was misleading since PLA filament was loaded onto both extruders/PrintCores. So I chose "Ignore". Then UM started active levelling, reported "Heating build plate … Printing" - but only very little or no filament at all came out of the nozzle. Let's call it a severe case over under extrusion (with the factory default profiles).

Aborted the print job, restarted it. Now active levelling failed with the error message: "Difference between detected height of both PrintCores exceeds realistic". Next I tried manual levelling and checked the "manual levelling" setting in the printer menu, but with the next print, the UM started auto-levelling nonetheless. Tried that repeatedly, sometimes auto-levelling works, sometimes it fails. It's totally erratic.

After wasting a lot of time with this UM3 Extended I have two questions:

1) The UM3 Extended is on the market for over half a year. Is it supposed to behave like this, or do I need to consider the possibility of a hardware defect?

2) What is the recommended Cura version to run on Linux together with an UM3 Extended at the moment? Having to choose between either networking or slicing is not very reasonable. Is it possible to get Cura 2.5.99-master to slice an object file, or is that functionality currently broken? Or is it possible to get Cura 2.5.0-stable to connect to the UM via Ethernet?

Thanks,

asb

[asb 7]

Thopiekar's stable PPA has now Cura 2.6.1. Did an update.

Printer is connected to the switch:

Printer is visible in Cura:

Printing via Ethernet results in various errors:

Simply no luck :(

[nallath 1,120]

The PPA is not officially suported. It could well be that there are things there that are not correct. If you want to play it safe, download the appimage (as that configuration of packages is actually tested by our QA team)

Could you give me your logs? That might show a bit more as to what is going wrong.

[asb 7]

Cura writes a logfile? Cool… (searching…)

Is it ~/.local/share/cura/cura.log?

This is what it says regarding networking. 192.168.178.200 is the static IP address I configured with ConnMan. If the UM is on, I can ping this address.

2017-06-27 18:41:39,172 - DEBUG - UM3NetworkPrinting.NetworkPrinterOutputDevice._onFinished [940]: A reply from http://192.168.178.200/api/v1/auth/verify did not have status code.
2017-06-27 18:41:39,172 - DEBUG - UM3NetworkPrinting.NetworkPrinterOutputDevice._onFinished [940]: A reply from http://192.168.178.200/api/v1/printer did not have status code.
2017-06-27 18:41:39,172 - DEBUG - UM3NetworkPrinting.NetworkPrinterOutputDevice._onFinished [940]: A reply from http://192.168.178.200/api/v1/print_job did not have status code.
2017-06-27 18:41:41,212 - DEBUG - UM3NetworkPrinting.NetworkPrinterOutputDevice._onFinished [940]: A reply from http://192.168.178.200/api/v1/auth/verify did not have status code.
2017-06-27 18:41:41,213 - DEBUG - UM3NetworkPrinting.NetworkPrinterOutputDevice._onFinished [940]: A reply from http://192.168.178.200/api/v1/printer did not have status code.
2017-06-27 18:41:41,213 - DEBUG - UM3NetworkPrinting.NetworkPrinterOutputDevice._onFinished [940]: A reply from http://192.168.178.200/api/v1/print_job did not have status code.
2017-06-27 18:41:43,175 - DEBUG - UM3NetworkPrinting.NetworkPrinterOutputDevice._onFinished [940]: A reply from http://192.168.178.200/api/v1/auth/verify did not have status code.
2017-06-27 18:41:43,175 - DEBUG - UM3NetworkPrinting.NetworkPrinterOutputDevice._onFinished [940]: A reply from http://192.168.178.200/api/v1/printer did not have status code.
2017-06-27 18:41:43,175 - DEBUG - UM3NetworkPrinting.NetworkPrinterOutputDevice._onFinished [940]: A reply from http://192.168.178.200/api/v1/print_job did not have status code.
2017-06-27 18:41:45,171 - DEBUG - UM3NetworkPrinting.NetworkPrinterOutputDevice._update [457]: We did not receive a response for 10.1 seconds, so it seems the printer is no longer accessible.
2017-06-27 18:41:45,172 - WARNING - UM.OutputDevice.OutputDeviceManager.removeOutputDevice [125]: Could not find output device with id ultimakersystem-ccbdd3000d1b._ultimaker._tcp.local. to remove

Thanks,

asb

[nallath 1,120]

Well, it seems that for some reason the printer isn't accessible. Cura tries to ping the printer every 2 seconds. If it didn't get a reply for 10 seconds on any of those (5) requests, it assumes the printer is unavailable.

It could be that your network is spotty or there is a lot of package loss.

[asb 7]

Hi,

for some unknown reason, the printer yesterday asked me for authorization when trying to access it with Cura. It has only done this once before - when I switched to developer mode and accessed it through SSH.

After allowing myself access to the printer on the UM display, I got a (stable) Ethernet connection and a webcam stream. Today I had to put the printer in a different room without Ethernet, so I don't know if it will remember the access grants. I will report back.

I'd suggest to take a look at how Cura triggers this authorization request. It is definitely erratic as I tried to access it numerous times before without getting the authorization question on the UM display.

However, I now do know the Ultimaker 3 Extended  in combination with Cura 2.6.1 (PPA) can connect via Ethernet and a static IP address. I have seen it with my own eyes, at least once in two weeks ;-)

Btw, another suggestion would be to seriously consider to give Thopiekar some support or even hire him as a freelancer to offer an official repository. At least for me, Thopiekar's repository was the decisive reason to buy another Ultimaker. Otherwise I would have chosen an Atom 2.5 EX, an Lulzbot TAZ 3 or an RepRap X350.

Though, with auto print bed levelling and PLA I'm currently getting nice prints, so so far no buyer's remorse.

asb

Edited July 6, 2017 by Guest

[nallath 1,120]

After allowing myself access to the printer on the UM display, I got a (stable) Ethernet connection and a webcam stream. Today I had to put the printer in a different room without Ethernet, so I don't know if it will remember the access grants. I will report back.

It should

I'd suggest to take a look at how Cura triggers this authorization request. It is definitely erratic as I tried to access it numerous times before without getting the authorization question on the UM display.

I made some fixes for this problem in 2.6.1. You're the first to encounter something like it again. I was kinda hoping to have it fixed :(

Btw, another suggestion would be to seriously consider to give Thopiekar some support or even hire him as a freelancer to offer an official repository. At least for me, Thopiekar's repository was the decisive reason to buy another Ultimaker.

Thopiekar is hired as a freelancer (and intern). So no worries We tend to send job offers to most people that live in the area and help out with software. We're always short on good engineers

But the PPA isn't tested by our QA team. So in most cases it will probably work, we can't promise that it will. This is why i'm constantly saying we don't support it (even though we kinda do), but I want to prevent any confusing as to what should work and what might work.