Can we get ASA support in UM3 Firmware?

[le_avion 1]

It will be very helpful if Ultimaker will add support for ASA material in the firmware rather than requiring us to keep selecting another material and then modifying it with the ASA information.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

As the UM team develops materials, they get added to the profiles in both software and firmware. For instance, I upgraded my firmware once and figured out they were releasing the breakaway material because it popped on the firmware before the software.

 

But, trying to create a plethora of profiles that they do not manufacture for could create a lot of issues such as creating a base for one brand and then it not work for another brand and then most everybody is not happy because preferences are that varied.

 

But by developing their materials and supporting them, it turns out that their RnD does a decent job of getting the materials close for most any brand and color.

 

Edit: Be aware that this is an observation from many years of product development in several industries and does not speak directly for Ultimaker. In short, my best guess...... Take it as it is.

Edited January 28, 2018 by kmanstudios

[tinkergnome 927]

3 hours ago, kmanstudios said:

As the UM team develops materials, they get added to the profiles in both software and firmware.

 

That's right, but as far i know this is not limited to Ultimaker materials.

 

Every material manufacturer is called to take the efforts and to contribute material profiles for the UM3 and Cura (or even RFID tags), if he wants to make his material directly supported.

 

It's a task of the particular manufacturer, that's the whole idea behind it. It's an open system after all.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

7 minutes ago, tinkergnome said:

 

That's right, but as far i know this is not limited to Ultimaker materials.

 

Every material manufacturer is called to take the efforts and to contribute material profiles for the UM3 and Cura (or even RFID tags), if he wants to make his material directly supported.

 

It's a task of the particular manufacturer, that's the whole idea behind it. It's an open system after all.

I have not seen any manufacturers do this. Are you aware of any?

[tinkergnome 927]

7 hours ago, kmanstudios said:

I have not seen any manufacturers do this. Are you aware of any?

 

Nope. It's a pity, i guess it will only happen, if enough customers ask for it.

The world is full of unused opportunities...

[kmanstudios 1,120]

That is what is funny. People complain that Ultimaker does not make everything under the sun already input, but do not know that the makers of these materials fail to do so themselves. And, oddly, it would not hurt to state something like "Approved Compatibility with UM Products."

[cjs 34]

11 hours ago, tinkergnome said:

Every material manufacturer is called to take the efforts and to contribute material profiles for the UM3 and Cura (or even RFID tags), if he wants to make his material directly supported.

 

Great news! Did Ultimaker approach the manufacturers individually or did I miss some company update? 

 

I actually think the reasons why manufacturers haven't picked it up is the problem that adding materials to the machine is quite hard. 

@Daid said a year ago that adding materials to the UM3 is quite a pain. (UM3 material settings)He wanted to fix it, but we haven't heared back.

If you know a simple way to add material profiles to the UM3 please share how 

 

Edited January 28, 2018 by cjs

[Marco_TvM 34]

Check out the WEB API to add materials: http://<printer-ip>/docs/api/#/Materials

This will allow you to add material profiles (files)  you have created, outside of Cura.

Edited January 29, 2018 by Marco_TvM

[cjs 34]

3 hours ago, Marco_TvM said:

Check out the WEB API to add materials: http://<printer-ip>/docs/api/#/Materials

This will allow you to add material profiles (files)  you have created, outside of Cura.

Thanks @Marco_TvM. I hope you don't mind me asking a few more questions 

May it be possible for you to share a xml- file which we can use as a reference edit? 

Do you mind making the material specification sheet public? 

## MaterialProfile
# This class can load and return data from material files according to the material profile specification at:
# https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BYSACfFfGQ3i_ajf70FWtIkoEtLW30AMFuj3FKzt7iY

Do we need a signature_file ? 

 

I was trying to fetch a material via guid, but fetching 6a2573e6-c8ee-4c66-8029-3ebb3d5adc5b (Ultimaker TPU)  only returned 404. What may have gone wrong? 

 

Whats gonna happen to the custom materials after a firmware update? Will they be deleted or stay on the machines? 

 

Can we submit materials profiles to Ultimaker to be shipped with the firmware? 

[CarloK 203]

The printer uses only a small sub-set of all parameters in the profile, like which nozzles are allowed with what material and a default printing temperature. What you really want is to have the profile being used by Cura for most optimal gcode.

I don't know the official way for adding a new profile, but a pull request on github is a good starting point.

Here is the repository and all current known profiles: https://github.com/Ultimaker/fdm_materials

 

Please note that currently there are 47 Ultimaker profiles, 20 generic profiles and then about 20 profiles from about 10 other filament manufacturers.

[Marco_TvM 34]

@cjs : I think @Indy31 summed it up quite nicely. 

 

Custom materials should stay on the printer after a firmware update. However, a factory reset will remove them.

 

As for the latter, about submitting material profiles to be shipped with the firmware, the firmware only uses the fdm_materials repo. Cura is more in control because they use the profile to create better gcode. 

 

Hence, I'll put this request forward to the Cura PO.

 

Edited January 30, 2018 by Marco_TvM