Ultimaker firmware. Help us test!

[SandervG 1,521]

Cura has always been a popular topic of conversation and we always get a lot of feedback when sharing news, beta, and stable versions. Everyone loves Cura!

A little bit less often we talk about the firmware we write for our Ultimaker machines. While it is also very interesting and holds a lot of features.

Approximately every 2 weeks we make a testing version available and we would like to see these test versions be more widely adopted by our community. With your feedback we can make our firmware better which will make everyone’s experience better.

The testing versions are always based on the latest stable, with some new added functionalities.

Before you start testing, we would like to warn you this is a testing version, so it may contain bugs. If you are working on an important or time sensitive project we recommend you continue to use the stable version.

Moving on, these are the release notes for test version TESTING 3.7.98.20170928 since STABLE 3.7.720170627.

 

New features

 

API

 

• New endpoint to get the printer's uptime
  
• New endpoint to check the gcode header
  
• New endpoint to be able to show a message on the display
  
• New endpoint to set and get the printer system time
  
• New endpoint(s) to manage physical/mechanical maintenance events
  

 

 

UI / UX

 

• If the printer restarts it 'knows' if it needs to be cleaned
  
• A web page (with useful links) will be showed when connecting to the printers IP using a browser
  
• Active Leveling now comes with a cancel button
  
• Latest added gcode file now as a separate menu item in the list for printing from USB
  
• The color of material is brought back so it's easier to distinguish the used materials
  
• When a print is aborted (by user, due to a problem), the option to reprint is shown
  
• When authentication is requested, the printer will be glowing
  

 

 

Platform

 

• Increased speed of updating firmware significantly
  
• Motor direction can be set
  
• Material profiles updated for 0.8 Print Cores
  
• When a critical error occurs, the log files and information is written directly to the USB (if one is available)
  
• Material change made more efficient by heating up the Print Core as soon as possible
  
• A correction is made for the right nozzle temperature to improve printing quality
  

 

 

Bug fixes

 

UI / UX

 

• Possible fix for the glitch sometimes causing the display to become hassled
  
• Removed the menu item to manually level the Z offset for the 2nd Print Core. This can be done during a manual bed leveling.
  
• The initial beep has found its way back
  

 

 

Platform

 

• Fixed the plastic blob sometimes left after pausing a print job
  
• Some material / Print Core combinations were incorrectly identified as incompatible instead of not recommended
  
• A failed firmware update will now be showing a message.
  
• Pausing the print job will now lower the build plate too
  
• Motor power settings will be set to default after print job has finished
  
• PrintCore temperatures now saved and restored on pause and resume of print respectively
  
• No more waiting for PrintCore cooling down before starting a print job
  
• Post-print procedure improved to prevent Print Core from dipping into the printed object when printing (nearly) full height
  
• Setting up network problems due to a missing MAC address fixed
  
• To prevent issues with material detection and selection, duplicated core material profiles uploaded will now be ignored.
  

 

 

Other

There are some other minor bugfixes and improvements, but these are the most important ones.

Ready to start testing? The testing firmware version is available for download through the menu on your Ultimaker 3 / Ultimaker 3 Extended. Go to ‘System’ => ‘Maintenance’ => ‘update firmware’ and select ‘Testing version’. You can also use it to go back to the latest stable version at any time!

Edited September 29, 2017 by Guest

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

So if you screw the z offset calibration up you have to do the whole manual bed leveling in future as a punishment, do I get this right?

edit: I would rather suggest to drop the z offset at the manual bed levelling wizard and add an input request at the z calibration if the user wants to do a manual bed leveling before the z offset calibration (continue-skip-selection). To me it sounds not logical to have the xy offset calibration in the calibration menu and the z offset as part of the manual bed leveling procedure in the build plate menu.

edit2: I hope one of the minor bugfixes is removing those stress tests from the diagnosis menu which are imho something that is not needed in an end user firmware. It's ok to have them in test versions of course.

Edited September 29, 2017 by Guest

[Marco_TvM 34]

Yes, it seems like that.

However, I'd like to point out the following:

Q: When would you be abble to screw up the Z offset calibration?

A: As far as I know only during the manual bed leveling. Oh, and when using the option to do a manual Z offset calibration when it was still available.

Q: Is there another way to correct the Z offset calibration?

A: Yes, run the automated bed leveling (once).

If you think it's can be screwed up when using a different Print Core (or combination), then I'd say that only doing the manual Z offset calibration is probably not enough (either do a manual bed leveling or an automated bed leveling).

[Marco_TvM 34]

Diagnosis will stay in, even in release until further notice. It helps with analyzing problems more quickly. Maybe it's an idea to have it enabled only when Developer mode is switched on?

That would make more sense to me, similar with Android - flip a switch and you can debug and diagnose more.

Edited September 29, 2017 by Guest

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

It's quite easy to my experience to rotate the wheel a bit while pushing at and to screw it up like that. Maybe I'm just more clumsy than average.

May I ask what the need is to remove it? Does it bother there?

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

Diagnosis will stay in, even in release until further notice. It helps with analyzing problems more quickly. Maybe it's an idea to have it enabled only when Developer mode is switched on?

That would make more sense to me, similar with Android - flip a switch and you can debug and diagnose more.

Fully support that idea!

edit: to be more precise, things like the nfc reader test are useful to the standard user as well while the stress tests are usually not needed. So not the whole diagnosis menu would have to disappear in non-dev mode.

Edited September 29, 2017 by Guest

[Marco_TvM 34]

It's quite easy to my experience to rotate the wheel a bit while pushing at and to screw it up like that. Maybe I'm just more clumsy than average.

May I ask what the need is to remove it? Does it bother there?

Mostly wrong use and remarks about it not working (as expected).

If there is no bed leveling data, then the manual Z-offset function can not work properly. Hence you always need to be sure a manual bed levelling has been executed before.

I do feel your pain with the wheel though. Have experienced it myself to that instead of turning I accidentally clicked. It's very sensitive

I just replaced the wheel with a https://www.youmagine.com/designs/ultimaker-2-knob--2

[rebekah_harper 60]

Hiya,

unfortunately I don't have a spare printer to do testing although I'd love to.

however, I have use the seperate Z-offset on it's own when I changed extruder no 2 followed by xy calibration. it cuts out manual bed levelling from the process as No 1 extruder is already level.

unless the function takes up space I don't think there is a need to remove it. Maybe reorganise the menu tree but other than that not sure what the need is to remove it.

the following:

"A correction is made for the right nozzle temperature to improve printing quality"

considering that the right slot is for PVA, what is the impact of this. is there a stability issue?

other than that it looks good, will look forward to what else comes out for improvement.

Bex

[CarloK 204]

"A correction is made for the right nozzle temperature to improve printing quality"

considering that the right slot is for PVA, what is the impact of this.  is there a stability issue?

No stability problems. In testing we discovered the right nozzle to be a tiny bit colder than the set temperature, about 4 degrees Celcius too cold at 200C. Since our printing profiles should give the same results on both nozzles we changed the firmware to heat the right nozzle a little bit more so its closer to the intended temperature.

[mailtojoao 0]

Downloaded it, installed and it starts but don't launch. Windows 64b

[CarloK 204]

Downloaded it, installed and it starts but don't launch. Windows 64b

I guess you mean the Cura software? This thread is about the software that runs on the printer internally, also known as firmware.

Cura software problems can be reported in the Cura thread.

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi Guys, we just announced a new stable firmware version. Check out this link to read more about it!

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi All,

I wanted to update you about a new test version which is available now. Follow this link to read more about it