Ultimaker S5 | impressions & opinions

[kmanstudios 1,120]

6 hours ago, asb said:

I guess it will show up after establishing a connection, not before.

 

This is good to know....thanks!! ?

 

[asb 7]

A few quick updates.

 

The second spool (PVA filament) which came with the S5 isn't recognized with NFC, either.

 

Absolutely no progress in getting the S5 onto a network. Contacted vendor support, vendor support forwarded to distributor. Distributor replied: "... the MAC address can be found in the menu item 'Network'. It may be displayed only if the printer is connected to a network. It is currently not possible to configure the printer with a static IP address..." (translated; Original: "...die MAC-Adresse findet sich im Menüpunkt 'Netzwerk'. Es kann sein, dass diese nur angezeigt wird, wenn der Drucker mit einem Netzwerk verbunden ist. Es lässt sich aktuell keine feste IP-Adresse im Drucker selber vergeben...."). This is rubbish!

 

Since the MAC address is an access control mechanism, it's completely idiotic to only disclose it after the device was connected to the network - which is impossible because it is an access control mechanism to prevent rogue devices to access the network. Even the cheapest network devices have a sticker with their MAC address attached on the back (see attached photo), or they clearly list the MAC address in their configuration dialogues (e.g. HP network printers) before the device is connected to a network.

 

As well this as the lack of a possibility to configure a static IP address clearly indicates that the S5 is not truly engineered for a professional environment which usually comes with certain access control restrictions. It's obviously rather a deluxe toy for wealthy hobbyists which might be used in highly permissive commercial environments as well. But not the other way around. This is extremely dissapointing.

 

[Nicolinux 288]

There should be a way around this (if it has not been suggested before). Connect the S5 via a lan cable to your Mac (or pc) and setup a temporary network between the two. Then you can see the mac address. The command "arp -a" would be useful too since it shows all connected devices including their MAC address.

It is a nuisance for sure but until it is fixed, it is a workaround. And I disagree about the point that the S5 is not meant for a proffesional environment. Every IT dept. would be able to apply this simple workaround.

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

4 minutes ago, Nicolinux said:

There should be a way around this (if it has not been suggested before). Connect the S5 via a lan cable to your Mac (or pc) and setup a temporary network between the two. Then you can see the mac address. The command "arp -a" would be useful too since it shows all connected devices including their MAC address.

It is a nuisance for sure but until it is fixed, it is a workaround. And I disagree about the point that the S5 is not meant for a proffesional environment. Every IT dept. would be able to apply this simple workaround.

 

If you connect it with the LAN cable you will see the MAC address of the LAN connection. You still will not know the MAC address of the WiFi module which will be needed for the MAC filter of the WiFi.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

5 minutes ago, Nicolinux said:

Every IT dept. would be able to apply this simple workaround.

Yeahhhhh, but should they? I think that is his point. It really should be more apparent from the beginning. That is why I was happy to see his pic of the lack of MAC address when I found mine. It showed me something outside my experience.

[Nicolinux 288]

12 minutes ago, Dim3nsioneer said:

 

If you connect it with the LAN cable you will see the MAC address of the LAN connection. You still will not know the MAC address of the WiFi module which will be needed for the MAC filter of the WiFi.

 

Same principle applies for wifi. Create a temp wifi network on your computer, connect from the S5, get the MAC address. On the Mac (Apple computer not MAC ? ) you can create a wifi network with two clicks...

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

4 minutes ago, Nicolinux said:

On the Mac (Apple computer not MAC ? ) you can create a wifi network with two clicks...

 

Windows 10 needs 5 clicks for this (mobile hotspot).

 

[Nicolinux 288]

Win... what? How do you spell that? ?

[uncle_bob 21]

Winderz 

[asb 7]

Has anyone actually tried to connect the S5 with a cross cable with a laptop?

 

Here is what happens with mine: Plugging in cross cable into Ethernet port on laptop, the other end goes into the Ethernet port on the back of the S5. No connection LED goes on. Don't know if the S5 even has one. Then trying to toggle the switch in Network setup on Ultimaker. Cog appears and rotates for a couple of seconds, then toggle switches back to deactivated.

 

See attached file (MP4 converted to animated GIF). The same happens with a regular network cable. If Ethernet can not even be activated, I doubt that it will broadcast anything to this ad-hoc network.

 

Edited July 17, 2018 by asb

[gr5 2,167]

Try doing "arp -a" while that is connected like that.  I'm not sure but possibly it will show mac address.

 

arp -a should work in windows dos, mac command line, or linux command line.

 

I'm not certain but I think arp -a will show the printer's mac address even if your computer is at say 192.168.1.10 and the printer is at 10.0.0.5.  In other words if they aren't on the same subnet but are on the same ethernet (same crossover cable).  I could be wrong.

 

 

[gr5 2,167]

Another solution is to connect to the linux console.  Olimex sells a serial cable that you can connect to another computer and login to linux through the serial cable.  I also sell it in my store if you are in USA at thegr5store.com.  You login with username root, password ultimaker.

 

Then you can use conman to setup a fixed ip address and/or look at the mac address of your machine.

 

This involves taking the cover off the power supply however which Ultimaker says to never do because they are afraid you will kill yourself with the high voltages in there (mains power).  So unless you are very competent and know how to be very safe with electronics then don't do this.  The only dangerous voltages are in the power supply section but the power supply is open (not covered) once you take the initial cover off.

[Dim3nsioneer 557]

@asb Yes I did. Works fine here. However, on some S5, enabling the LAN requires a bit of patience. I saw cases where it jumps back to disabled as in your video and then after something like 20 seconds to enabled.

Edited July 18, 2018 by Dim3nsioneer

[WesleyE 14]

On 7/16/2018 at 4:06 PM, asb said:

Since the MAC address is an access control mechanism, it's completely idiotic to only disclose it after the device was connected to the network - which is impossible because it is an access control mechanism to prevent rogue devices to access the network.

 

Hi @asb , the ethernet mac address should have been in the 'Network' dialog, however, currently it is not. I've added this to our backlog to be fixed.

 

There is a workaround:

 

The last part of the hostname is the same as the MAC address and does keep on-screen even if a network cable has not been plugged in. For WiFi, this is a bit different because we actually power down the module (security/power reasons) so we can't get the MAC address before you switch it on. Hope this helps you in the meantime.

Edited July 18, 2018 by WesleyE

[BealsStudios 0]

Hello Folks!,

 

I run the studio for creative technologies at the Kansas City Art Institute. We recently purchased Ulti S5 and are working on getting a smooth workflow with it before the semester starts.

 

So far so good -- almost. One issue that is persisting is some pretty intense stringing. Currently we have only tested with the Ultimaker tough pla (black) with the AA 0.4. I have done a series of 12 or so tests so far, with alterations in print settings. I have chosen to do shelled vessels as tests instead of typical spire-stringing-tests because vessels are somewhat common here. I will try to do a quick run-through of what I have tried. Note: there has been little to no noticeable improvement between the tests. 

 

My tests began at the suggested settings of Material: Tough PLA and Profile: Normal -- with retraction enabled of course. I then incrementally increased the retraction speed to 45mm/s and distance to 13mm over 7 or so prints. I have also tried incrementally decreasing the temperature to 205 from the default 225 and lower the printing speed from 55 to 20 (incrementally) to accompany the temp changes. This isn't really acceptable for us, but I did it to just see if there was improvement on the stringing, and there was not.\

 

I am at a bit of a loss. Any help would be much appreciated, hopefully there is just some basic oversight here that I am not seeing!

 

Many thanks,

Nathan Neufeld

 

[gr5 2,167]

I find the default retraction distance is best.  You want to retract just enough so that the filament is genly laying on the inner curve of the bowden at the top.  you don't want it to actually retract out of the head because then air can get in the nozzle causing all kinds of issues (including stringing).

 

The printer doesn't normally retract for inner moves so that last picture - that's normal.

 

I mean the model for this part shows a solid inside, right?  Cura will not retract for moves inside the model - you can look at the part in cura layer view and the darker blue lines are non-retracting moves and the lighter blue lines are retracting moves.

 

You might be able to force retraction on for interior moves if you disable all combing.  Make sure I'm correct in layer view first.

 

[gr5 2,167]

In general though, printing slower and making sure ALL printing speeds are the same value (and non printing speeds are as fast as possible - at least 150mm/sec if not 300mm/sec).  If you have changing printing speeds then the pressure in the nozzle doesn't match the speed right after a speed change and you can get too much pressure and leaking nozzle when it shouldn't be leaking.

[lrodriguez 32]

Hello, Nathan! Looks like I need to come visit! This is a Spiralize Outer Contour (Special mode) print? I'd be happy to try printing the model for comparison on my S5.

[BealsStudios 0]

20 minutes ago, gr5 said:

I find the default retraction distance is best.  You want to retract just enough so that the filament is genly laying on the inner curve of the bowden at the top.  you don't want it to actually retract out of the head because then air can get in the nozzle causing all kinds of issues (including stringing).

 

The printer doesn't normally retract for inner moves so that last picture - that's normal.

 

I mean the model for this part shows a solid inside, right?  Cura will not retract for moves inside the model - you can look at the part in cura layer view and the darker blue lines are non-retracting moves and the lighter blue lines are retracting moves.

 

You might be able to force retraction on for interior moves if you disable all combing.  Make sure I'm correct in layer view first.

 

 

Ah, I see -- often when printing shelled forms we are looking for for a 2+ layer wall thickness, with bottom, but without top. Thank you for the tip about the darker/lighter lines. I will look into ways to get it to force retraction for interior moves. Thank you!

 

 

 

15 minutes ago, lrodriguez said:

Hello, Nathan! Looks like I need to come visit! This is a Spiralize Outer Contour (Special mode) print? I'd be happy to try printing the model for comparison on my S5.

 

Definitely!, We would love a visit. Spiralization works great -- Oftentimes we are looking for more than one layer of wall thickness though. I'll email you the file!

 

[gr5 2,167]

1 hour ago, BealsStudios said:

I will look into ways to get it to force retraction for interior moves.

I think you want to set "combing mode" to "off"

[BealsStudios 0]

1 minute ago, gr5 said:

I think you want to set "combing mode" to "off"

Haven't actually printed it yet but this looks like the solution. Simulation looks good.

 

Thank you!

[lrodriguez 32]

Actually it looks like Combing All and Combing Off seem the same? I think Maybe Combing Not in Skin might work? I'll try it. I'm in the same town as Nathan. ? 

I'm printing one now in Spiralize because it looks perfect for this. Especially with a .8 core. I'll try Combing Not in Skin to test your intended result.

 

Combing Not in Skin

 

Combing All

 

Combing Off

Edited July 20, 2018 by lrodriguez
Added labels and bolded text for emphasis

[Marco_TvM 34]

On ‎7‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 4:46 PM, asb said:

I guess it will show up after establishing a connection, not before.

 

@WesleyE beat me to it, but the hostname part does indeed contain the MAC address.

In your case it is CC:BD:D3:00:5F:24

 

[lrodriguez 32]

8 hours ago, lrodriguez said:

Actually it looks like Combing All and Combing Off seem the same? I think Maybe Combing Not in Skin might work? I'll try it. I'm in the same town as Nathan. ? 

I'm printing one now in Spiralize because it looks perfect for this. Especially with a .8 core. I'll try Combing Not in Skin to test your intended result.

 

Combing Not in Skin

 

Combing All

 

Combing Off

 

 

Yep, that worked great! Combing Not in Skin, this is Fast Mode, BTW.

 

 

Edited July 20, 2018 by lrodriguez
Edited text

[asb 7]

Hi,

 

again some quick updates after the first week with the S5.

 

1) Networking. No real progress here. It's interesting that the Ethernet MAC address is part of the device name and workarounds like this should definitely be listed in a FAQ or troubleshooting guide. However, I needed the Wifi MAC address since the Ethernet port won't activate on my S5, so I tried another workaround by setting up a rogue WLAN AP, connecting the S5 to this volatile network, and then writing down the MAC address on paper.

Please note that this is a really bad workaround. Depending on your company security policy, if restrictions are strictly enforced, and if you get cought, setting up rogue networks can get you into severe trouble. So this approach is not recommended to imitate.

With the MAC address I still have no networking support as the S5 does not support to configure static IP addresses. You probably need additional things in your environment which are neither listed in the system requirements or the user manual. So without these requirements which I can only guess, it uses an APIPA address; in my case it was 169.254.85.135. APIPA addresses are special IP addresses like 127.0.0.1 (locahost), and they are volatile (= they change).

With the APIPA address, Cura 3.3.1-PPA could connect to the S5 and send print jobs to the device.

That only works temporary; as I already mentioned, the APIPA address will change, at the latest with the next restart of the S5. However, it worked for about a day. Even with the little webcam and print progress monitoring. Very nice, if it works. With emphasis on if.

After about a day, the S5 lost it's networking connection. I guess the APIPA address is similarily handled like a lease in DHCP, the address might have a limited life span, then might get discarded. I don't know for sure and have not further investigated as it's the normal behaviour of APIPA addresses which makes them unsuitable for regular operations.

After the networking connection was lost, Cura could not reestablish a networking connection. The "Connect" button in Cura has no effect, likewise "Update" or "Add" (new printer). After a restart of Cura, it lists a different APIPA address (169.254.188.109) which it can not connect to, either.

Again, this is why a static IP address is crucial. If you try to work productively with APIPA addresses, everything gets totally borked after a couple of days. This is well-known behaviour since the UM3 and not a new bug in the S5, it's just how APIPA works. So the next challenge will be to resolve the static networking issue.

There might be a showstopper involved. According to the distributor, the S5 does not support static IP addresses. I double checked this, and it was confirmed. This information is partially accurate as neither the UM3 nor the S5 provide a configuration method for end users. Enabling the developer mode might have side effects for factory warranty. I need to check this as well before risking the warranty for a 6,533 Euro investment.

 

2) Printing with ToughPLA, (vanilla) PLA and PVA. These materials print relatively smoothly, as long as you don't ventilate the room where the S5 is located (half-open build space, so build platform adhesion weakens if there is a draft). Keeping this in mind, most prints up to ~12 hrs come out fine. I encountered only one issue with PVA support structures and PLA brim.

What I really like is that there is no need to glue or other messy stuff. It just prints fine directly on glass.

What did not work for me is the flow sensor. As far as I understand this new feature, it is supposed to recognize if a filament spool is empty. In my case in only recognized that the spool was empty when I could not load a replacement anymore. So this print failed and I don't think that I will rely on the flow sensor again.

The workaround I'm using since UM3 times is to (visually) look at the filament spool, and to pause the print when it gets empty. Then unload the old spool, load a new spool and resume. For me, that works reliably; though it's quite annoying to keep looking at the back of the printer to see if the spool is getting empty, but it is good enough to not waste too much material.

Another issue I mentioned before is that the prints coming out of the S5 are not precise. On X-, Y- and Z-axis they are up to about 1% off from the intended size, on some axis smaller, on other axis bigger (checked by printing a measured calibration object with Ultimaker Tough PLA). The nonsense distributor reply was that material has shrinkage. Yeah right, that's why the parts gets bigger on some axis. Anyway, the calibration is another open issue to resolve. Similar to configuring a static IP address, the distributor claims that the X-/Y-/Z axis can not be calibrated (probably same reason as there is no end user method available, so calibration is unsupported or has the same ramifications as enabling developer mode). So there is no easy fix for getting precise prints.

After a longer uptime I ran into another problem. Suddenly everything I tried to print failed, build platform adhesion became inexistant, probably because auto bed leveling failed. After a couple of retries I got an error message in the printer: "An unspecified error has occured. Restart the printer or go to ultimaker.com/ER27". The explanation there says that an unspecified error has occured and I should update the firmware. Not very helpful. Anyway, after switching off, letting it cool down and switching back on after a while, normal operations could be resumed. I have absolutely no idea what this error is supposed to indicate. Maybe the S5 should not run for a couple of days? Don't know…

Addendum: On the USB stick I found a a large number of (276) logfiles.They are labeled like so: "cap_Ultimaker-005f24_1970-01-01_00.09.10_N1_X46.5Y33.5_sensor_reset.log" (size: 0 Bytes) or "cap_Ultimaker-005f24_1970-01-01_00.09.10_N1_X46.5Y33.5Z7.79745.log" (size: 26 Bytes; content: "7.79745 // ok N202 P14 *B941", all dated January 1st, 1980.

Edited July 22, 2018 by asb