New to the S5; Questions Unable to Find Doing a Search

[Shadowman 53]

We received the S5 a little over a week ago and have had it printing a variety of items primarily to get familiar with it and now have a few items that we need some help with and or clarified.

 

So as to be clear; we have performed the manual bed leveling and the xy calibration. 

 

Item 1.

 

Initially we connected via LAN and it was simple and caused no issues; we did a MAC IP assignment so we could monitor the activities off sight.

3 days ago we disconnected the LAN and connected via WiFi as ultimately this is a requirement. Once again we did a MAC IP assignment and all connected and seemed to be fine with us being able to send files via the network and monitor the print when off sight however; when the print completes and the S5 goes into sleep mode the WiFi connection is lost and the control screen on the S5 states; "unknown" network" and the only way we were able to get the S5 back on the WiFi network was to reboot the S5. Initially we thought this was an anomaly however, it does the exact same thing every time. In fact, if we are in Cura we also have to reboot Cura after the S5 is on the network or it only gives us the "Print from USB" option. How do we fix this as the S5 is in a temporary place at the moment but needs to be moved where we do not have reasonable access to LAN. I read others sharing this same situation when the S5 was initially delivered however, I was told not to worry because it was corrected. I also discussed the idea of placing the IP on static as I read of at least one other person having done so with the assistance of Ultimaker. I was told that this can be done and is planned as a menu option in a future FW release but was not given an easy way to do it. I do not know if because the S5 is MAC IP assigned that it is causing an issue when attempting to grab a IP address from the DHCP pool; all I know is that we require a stable and consistent WiFi connection on the same IP address. as such need some help.

 

Item 2.

 

Several times the active bed leveling was not able to be completed stating; "There is a Problem with the Active Level Sensor". The bed was clean and there was no material protruding from the Print Cores. Each time the print was aborted and restarted and both times with no intervention from us the active bed leveling was successfully completed; why?

 

Item 3. 

 

We have printed a few test cubes because we were finding that parts that required being fit together required significant post print work. 

 

Z = 20mm, X = 20.25, Y = 20.22.  In every test print the results are pert near the same with the Z always incrementally shorter; now I understand plastic and thermal differences so I ask; would a tweak with shell horizontal expansion mitigate this or am I chasing the impossible? Furthermore; is the shell horizontal expansion value even the correct place to consider?

 

Item 4.

 

When we swapped from a .25 AA Print Core back to the original .4 AA Print Core and loaded Ultimaker silver PLA it presented an "silver metallic incompatible material warning"; we proceeded to print with it and saw no issue. Why the warning?

 

Item 5.

 

PVA. using the default settings our initial results were less than stellar with the PVA support looking very messy; stringy, spaghetti looking corners, etc.. I spoke with a person at Ultimaker about this and he suggested three things; "always use Prime Tower", use "Grid" pattern for support, and increase "Support Horizontal Expansion to 3mm". We did this and then completed a couple multi day prints and the results were better but still far from crisp. I ask about this because the Ultimaker videos that I have watched show a "much" cleaner PVA support results.

 

Thank you 

[Smithy 1,146]

19 hours ago, Shadowman said:

Item 3. 

 

We have printed a few test cubes because we were finding that parts that required being fit together required significant post print work. 

 

Z = 20mm, X = 20.25, Y = 20.22.  In every test print the results are pert near the same with the Z always incrementally shorter; now I understand plastic and thermal differences so I ask; would a tweak with shell horizontal expansion mitigate this or am I chasing the impossible? Furthermore; is the shell horizontal expansion value even the correct place to consider?

 

Hi and welcome!

 

Thats a normal behavior so don't worry. To get more accurate dimensions, you can print slower and set all speed values in Cura to the same speed (inner wall, infill, outer wall, ...)

 

You will probably get closer to the desired dimensions but still a little off. Then you can correct the difference in the cad file (probably not the best if you use it for future production) or use the horizontal expansion with a negative value, which affects only x and y. But, you have to test this value every time you print, because it will not be consistent over your prints. It depends on the dimensions, the material, even the color of the material, print speed, layer height and so on.

 

And another advise, measure not over the whole cube side, because the corners could be bulged and will give you wrong dimensions. Also the first layer will be wider than it should. Both issues can also be corrected in the slicer, the are called corner bulge and elephant foot.

 

The other questions has to answer someone else, because I am using an UM3 and have not experience with the UM5 specific problems.

[Shadowman 53]

Thank you.

 

I appreciate you taking the time to read my post and replying as you did.

 

As I stated; because the S5 is new to us we are establishing a baseline while getting to know the printer. 

 

I understand and accept your position while also agreeing that our making offset adjustments within our cad file is not the direction we wish to go. In the case of these test we used Tough-PLA whereas is using PLA or ? I suspect the measurements to be different.

 

I think my greatest question was if the horizontal x/y measurement is consistently larger (albeit incremental)  than the z measurement should we alter a Cura print value such as Shell Horizontal Expansion.

 

Takes care and; thank you again.

[Smithy 1,146]

1 hour ago, Shadowman said:

I think my greatest question was if the horizontal x/y measurement is consistently larger (albeit incremental)  than the z measurement should we alter a Cura print value such as Shell Horizontal Expansion.

 

Normally it is, but could also be smaller, maybe depends on the printer and/or material (ABS for example tends to shrink more than PLA) But you can anyway correct it with the Shell Horizontal Expansion, just add some microns if too small or use a negative number if too large.

 

Best practice will print a test part with the settings and material you want to use, then measure the object and make only the adjustment for the expansion setting. Then you should get a quite accuracy result.

 

[Shadowman 53]

Perfect.

 

On those pieces where having the dimensional accuracy as close as a feasibly possible is desired we will run a small test cube before proceeding.

 

In the meantime, we will run a couple sample prints using the Shell Horizontal Expansion variable to see how the printer responds with Tough-PLA and PLA.

 

Your input on this is appreciated.

 

Now hopefully, we can get some insight on the other 4 items from other members and or the Ultimaker team.

 

Takes care.

[Shadowman 53]

So; no insight regarding issues 

 

1.

 

2.

 

4.

 

5.

 

Thank you 

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi @Shadowman,

 

1: I'll have to get back with you on this one. I'm not an expert on this field either, and I know we were working on some improvements on this regard so I have to check where we stand on that. 

 

2: Can you give some more information about the steps before this happened? Are you saying when you aborted your print, you got this message?

 

4: Sounds like a false warning, perhaps the system was confused for a second. I think it didn't happen again?

 

5: Is the print not looking nice after you have removed the PVA, or is the PVA support itself not looking nice?

 

Thank you! 

[Shadowman 53]

Hi Sander

 

Thank you for reading the post.

 

1. I read where at least one other was assisted getting the printer online with a static IP and ultimately this is where we want to be too. I appreciate you looking into this.

 

2. I am sorry for the confusion; when the active bed leveling fails it aborts automatically and then during the automatic retry (meaning we don’t cancel the print) it has always succeeded. I was instructed by Spencer i.e. tech support to check the wires at the printhead, perform manual bed leveling, and confirm the latest firmware; all of this has been done and it still happens randomly; most recent; yesterday.

 

4. Agree; we have not seen it repeat.

 

5. The prints once the PVA is dissolved are nice “except” when the PVA gets intermixed with the PLA during the printing process. We have completed a few prints and the recent prints have looked much better since using the prime tower; just a lot of extra print time but if this is the cure then all good. Also; it appears that the disheveled PVA is most prominent at sharp corners and as the structure gets taller; short PVA support as in 25mm and shorter seem fine; in fact nice and crisp however, as the PVA support gets taller the issues are more apparent.

 

Thank you again 

[P3D 46]

Most of my problems with the active leveling have been because of the nozzles not being clean on the outside, try cleaning the nozzles periodically (you can manually heat the nozzles for easier cleaning).

@SandervG: Is there any recommendation by Ultimaker on how to clean the nozzles on the outside, e.g. using a soft brass wire brush or something like that?

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi @Shadowman, just like @P3D I was thinking perhaps this can have something to do with the outside surface of your nozzles. Do you keep the clean, or do you ever check if there is any residue? It could be that there is a little blob of filament which is in the way, and the second time it is either softer due to heat or flattened due to the first pressure. 

 

4 & 5 seem to be solved then it seems? Re 5; just use the wipe tower ? Due to the inner geometry of the print core BB PVA oozes more. So a wipe tower for PVA would be a good idea. 

 

Re cleaning your nozzles, I always just used a regular paper towel when the nozzle was warm. This works when you don't let it carbonize for too long and it can be relatively easily be wiped off. (watch your fingers though when the nozzle is hot). 

[Shadowman 53]

We have been using a prime tower and are diligent about keeping the tips clean; we will pay more attention as a dirty tip with material hanging is always possible.

 

Thank you