UM3 Auto Levelling Not Working

[randyinla 14]

Pro Ultimaker Tip:

When printing in white material, don't assume some of it got caught in the front fan because you see a little bit in there when you open the cover.  It MIGHT just be the white wire going to the fan!  I didn't realize what I had cut out until it was too late.  🥴  Don't forget to wear your reading glasses!

 

My cover had popped open during printing, got caught on part of the print and caused the steppers to skip, ruining the print.  When I aborted, everything stopped but it didn't go through the normal abort procedure.  The head just stayed there melting my print.  So I turned it off/on.  I had to bend the cover a bit to get the magnets to properly align with the two long screws.  In doing so, or when the cover slammed into my print, the sensor wire must've come a bit loose.  I got the dreaded, "There is a problem with the active level sensor." message.  Thanks @leliep for the images.  It really helped me tear everything down and thread it all back together again.  I got lucky re-soldering a tiny wire to the trace on the front-facing fan's circuit board! Both Active Leveling & the front fan are operational again! 😃

Edited April 29, 2020 by randyinla

[PCampos 0]

HI,

I have 2 units Ultimaker 3 Ext exactly with same problem, been leveleng them manually for some time already, both have wire broken with little use. This is a serious design fault !

 

I must say that 1 unit long time ago went to reseller (and after many days without it impacting our production)...returned exactly as it was sent.... they told s that there it was working fine... but here continued to to level automatically, only manual.

very sad !

[3dprntz 4]

On 3/30/2018 at 11:56 AM, leliep said:

Thank you, SanderG, for your kind recommendation, I respect your opinion.

 

Anyway I just repaired it, my UM3 ist printing again. Wasn't so difficult, please see my photos and the description.

 

Both of the wires connecting the capacitive leveling sensor are plugged into contact springs on the sensor, and the other side is plugged into a print head PCB connector. Obviously there is a design problem which leads over time to breaking wires at the sensor side, due to bending the wires when opening the print core cover for changing the print cores.

 

If you want to repair the broken leveling sensor wires, you got to unscrew the four screws holding the bottom part of the print head.

 

The bottom part then is only held by the level sensor cable and the front fan cable (the two middle connectors of the four ones).

 

Disconnect both of them, be careful to not damage the wires while freeing them.

 

Now that you have the printhead bottom part separated from the printhead, you can disconnect the wires (or remove the broken part of the wires) from the contact springs by carefully opening the inner part of the spring until the wire can be pulled out. Don't use too much force, the contact spring is very delicate! If you bent it away from the middle you gotta bend it back. You might wish to use a magnifier and a pointed tool like a needle for this part of the action.

 

Un-isolate the ends of the wires and solder them, then plug them back into the contact springs, take care not to reverse them (see pictures). Check that they are tightly stuck in there, otherwise you need to bend the spring somewhat more.

 

After re-assembly of the printhead (careful with the side fans and their cables) and inserting one or both of the print cores you can start the auto-leveling procedure and hopefully start printing again.

 

Good luck!

 

 

Did you have to unwind the wire? I think mine might not have enough strain. Would you suggest crimping instead of tinning the ends of the wire for better support? and does anyone know where to just purchase the wires? Like this: Ultimaker Capacitive Sensor Cable UM3/S5 (igo3d.com) in the USA

Edited September 1, 2021 by 3dprntz

[leliep 28]

On 9/1/2021 at 7:13 PM, 3dprntz said:

Did you have to unwind the wire? I think mine might not have enough strain. Would you suggest crimping instead of tinning the ends of the wire for better support? and does anyone know where to just purchase the wires? Like this: Ultimaker Capacitive Sensor Cable UM3/S5 (igo3d.com) in the USA

Sorry to be too late for you, but anyway: I pulled the wire a little bit, but did not need to replace it for the repair. Maybe the next time it breaks I have to buy replacement…

[Terraustria 1]

I just registered to say thank you. I have this issue and the print nozzle slams into the glasbed. It is exactly as it is seen on the pictures, the two wires are completely cut off.

 

Big design flaw

Edited February 5 by Terraustria