UM2 Extrusion Upgrade Firmware Update

[engingre 0]

Hi,

So I've upgraded my UM2 with the UM extrusion upgrade kit making it a UM2+. The final step of the install manual states you must update firmware or risk permanent damage to the machine. The problem I have is the printer connects to Cura 2.6.1 (COM3) but I'm not able to complete a firmware update.

The manual states "install default firmware" however this option does not exist in Cura 2.6.1 so I'm instead navigating to Preferences -> Printers -> Ultimaker 2+ -> Upgrade Firmware. Upon doing so the printer power cycles before displaying the following message:

"Firmware update failed due to an communication error."

I've tried this numerous times, sometimes getting further through the process before the same error message appears.

I've recently switched to windows 10 but recall on 7 having intermittent connection issues as well, though I was able to update firmware without problems.

I located an Ultimaker troubleshooting guide that suggested windows 10 installs the incorrect arduino driver however I'm not able to follow those instructions or select a new driver.

Any tips would be appreciated.

[IRobertI 521]

I thought I was the only one. I have the same issue on my work laptop. I resorted to using the older 2.5 and that works fine for some reason. I never dug into the problem because I hadn't heard of many people having the issue and figured it was just something weird on my end.

I guess it's time to dig into the logs and see if there are any clues in there.

[engingre 0]

I thought I was the only one. I have the same issue on my work laptop. I resorted to using the older 2.5 and that works fine for some reason. I never dug into the problem because I hadn't heard of many people having the issue and figured it was just something weird on my end.

I guess it's time to dig into the logs and see if there are any clues in there.

 

Thhankyou! I followed you advice and downloaded an earlier Cura version. Also used an older pc running Windows 7. After a few errors (different message this time) the firmware update finally completed. Phew.

Really happy with the improvement in print quality the plus kit has brought.

[navigator 24]

I thought I was the only one. I have the same issue on my work laptop. I resorted to using the older 2.5 and that works fine for some reason. I never dug into the problem because I hadn't heard of many people having the issue and figured it was just something weird on my end.

I guess it's time to dig into the logs and see if there are any clues in there.

 

Thank you for your information - It helped me stop pulling my hair out, and upgrade to the latest firmware.

[IRobertI 521]

I successfully managed to (almost) brick a printer yesterday due to this bug. After unsuccessfully trying to update a machine many times with both 2.6 and 2.5 I restarted the printer. This time, it didn't even boot up, just a black screen. Trying to update via cura now just resulted in cura waiting for a connection endlessely.

Connecting via Printrun just produced garbage no matter which baudrate I chose. I figured I'd try burning the Arduino bootloader and see if that would get it to spring back to life. No go, wouldn't burn the bootloader (it just gave the very helpful error message of "Error burning bootloader" or something along those lines). Looking at the serial output it just kept spitting out the same row of garbage over and over like it was stuck in a boot loop or something (I tried every pre-set baudrate available).

Finally I went all the way back to good ol 15.06 and bam, updated just fine. Next time I'll try to get the logs, I didn't really have time to mess around with that yesterday since the customer needed the printer quickly.

[jobrienum 0]

Problem: "Firmware update failed due to an communication error."

Ultimaker 2 and UM2 Extended firmware update process after "Plus" hardware upgrade when receiving USB COM error.

Solution:

1. Install both Cura 15.04 and Cura 2.6.x/2.7.

2. Use Cura 15.04 to install updated "plus" firmware from Cura 2.6 folder

- Run Cura 15.04, select Menu\Machine\Install Custom Firmware

- Select OK

- Browse to Cura 2.6 folder C:\Program Files\Cura 2.6\resources\firmware

- Select either

MarlinUltimaker2plus.hex or

MarlinUltimaker2extended-plus.hex

- firmware installation begins

- OK to finish.

3. Complete "first startup" process on UM2.