it might help that this tread is also active now on google groups..
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/ultimaker/29O7CR6-r5k
Im not saying move over to google groups from the forum... god no.... but if anyone is interested is seeing what other people have for ideas !
Ian :-)
Refering to greengecko's post at the google-group, from my point of view the most important features are listed there.
Nevertheles in short, my personal favorites are:
- heated bed upgrade for UM1 with a single PSU
- "Joris" implementation in Cura
- "half layer hight" implementation in Cura
On the other hand, thinking a bit outside the box, I would think about an laser cutting head upgrade, print post processing guidelines/tools or UM furniture (I´m currently working on a stackable drawer unit...)
Hi Daid,
my congratulations to all of you - your company has come a long way without losing its soul.
My own thoughts for the future go along these lines:
FASTER
MORE PRECISION
No deformation of finished prints
How far can the pla printing process go? what speeds can be reached?
How accurate could the prints become? How can holes and openings be improved?
The first two items are contradictory of course. The faster you go the more errors will come up.
Can there be a way to get unwarped prints with a COLD print bed? I don't like the power consumption of a heated bed too much. I want to experiment with prints on glass plates or other substrates.
Finally: What else can be done with the same basic mechanism? would love to be able to cut small parts from plywood with a laser process. Or could the same xyz mechanism be used for scanning? Many of us would like to have these functionalities, but we all have limited workshop space. So adding some kind of multi-functionality to one and the same machine would be cool indeed.
All the best
Albert
Hi Daid
Congratulations to all of you at Ultimaker. Bringing a new product to life isn't easy and it doesn't get easier if it's the second one. Especially not if it's not for the same group of clients.
A lot of people already mentioned what you should do in future, but you also asked what you should not do. As I see it, you have limited man-power for R&D. Use them wise. Don't start something too big like creating your own CAD software or similar. This is not your core business I guess.
From this point I think R&D should take two directions in hardware for the two products. Try whatever you think is cool for the original Ultimaker; continue the revolution. Not for the Ultimaker2; there, start now with evolution. One example: Focussing on arbitrary, technically not-experienced clients, safety of the product is a must. I don't know, if the Ultimaker2 already complies with the standard IEC 60335. If it doesn't, this must be your next step (I know safety standards are a pain, but you have to go through this...).
There are also some health concerns regarding 3D printers at home coming up recently. Please take them seriously and give a strong answer to them with the Ultimaker2.
You've done a great job with Cura so far. Compared to other slicing software it is very handsome. Still there are some things left to do which will certainly please both the Original Ultimaker and the Ultimaker2 users:
- Slic3r offers some cool settings like printing the outermost layer slower than the rest wich results in a great optical quality of the print. Certainly something to copy in Cura...
- Cura plugins work only as post-processors today, right? On the plugin website it is mentioned to have UI-plugins, i.e. plugins which run while processing. Changing the layer height during print is one of the most frequently mentioned desire. What about implementing it in a way that Cura selects the layer height itself?
- There are a lot of things which can be implemented for the Dual extruder setup, e.g. switching off heating of the unused hotend, the cleaning tower issue,...
- I personally would really like to have a correct print time estimation. So far I managed to write a plugin which does it quite well but having it directly in Cura would really be nice... :-)
And thank you for asking! ;-)
Stefan
Hi Daid,
thanks for the open-mindedness in the first place! Looking forward to see the progress.
My ideas are:
Cura (software) related:
Support needs some attention which it got in Cura 13.10.
Bringing the print time down while remaining a nice outer skin can be done by
Hardware wise:
No further comments needed here I think
Youmagine wise (great platform so far!)
Youmagine is a good-looking platform but it definately needs some time. Many things are already noticed so no need to do that again.
Material wise:
I like the idea of printing more materials, Nylon in particular. Not so high on my priority list though.
Safety wise:
With the heated bed, ABS printing is now possible (hopefully :wink:). The fumes of ABS are 'funny'. Perhaps some extra side planes and a carbon filter will do the trick. I'd highly recommend this for the UM2 since I think this will be the 'for the masses' printer who expect something more health friendly.
Future projects:
By pushing the printed part off the platform and start another print it's possible to print automatically. I've seen a video of this on the UM Original but tape and force were things to overcome. Perhaps the heated build platform is the solution for this.
With the heated platform you can 'blow the print away' (or something like that). Knock it off with the print head and go on printing. I've already seen this on the UM Original but there the tape and force required were too critical to make it work. Maybe the HBP can do the trick.
A 3D scanner needs no further comments.
A ready to use acetone vapor bath will give printed ABS parts an awesome look!
You may also consider developing an SLA printer or make a smaller/ (even) bigger print volume printer.
My priority top 3:
Hope this was inspirational :wink: Thanks for your attention anyway!
Hi Daid,
I am dreaming of printig circuit boards for electronic components. This could be realized i.e. with a second extruder that draws the tracks with something like the conductive silver which is use to repair connections on circuit boards. I believe there would be a great demand for the first afforable printer with the feature.
Tom
I am a relatively new user but interested in expanding the use of Ultimakers within a business either as prototyping or small scale production. Some things that would help make that possible include.
Printer
Software
Service
Looking forward to the heated print bed when available and I appreciate the outreach for feedback. Thanks!!
-Daniel
Hi Daid,
thanks for the opportunity to participate in the development of Ultimaker Hard- and software by submitting our ideas about it.
At the moment I am waiting for 2 UM2's and a dual extruder upgrade for my UM1.
I would like to test those before coming up with some ideas but I will definitely come back to you about this.
One thing I think is worthwhile to offer is an Ultimaker that can produce objects maybe twice or three times the current hight. Probably an easy thing to realize to.
On the Cura side I already mentioned to you the visibility of the file-name it is going to use to save the current model and maybe also the used profile and machine type.
Being able to set the default paths for input and output would also be a nice feature. (I don't think it always remembers the last one used or does it?)
Talk to you later, kind regards, Guy
(I don't think it always remembers the last one used or does it?)
It does. Which is good. But when I do a crazy experiment like see what happens with nozzle at 2mm I sometimes forget to set it back and my next print is a mess. lol.
...
What do you think that we should concentrate our time on?
...
1) Improve your customer support.
I am very inexperienced with 3D printers, but I like the scanner and laser cutter ideas best.
A laser cutter is another toy I would like to have. How about a new laser head for the UM2? My concern with this is the "small" operating area of the machine compared to existing laser cutters. If you have to continuously swap in small squares of cardboard, or wood the laser would need to operate pretty fast to be able the have a decent sized finished project. It would be very labor intensive. I'm not sure I would have the patience.
As always, bigger, better, faster seems good too. Oh, and cheaper. I read an article recently where the author said "Our children are going to laugh at the speed of our 3D printers."
1) Improve your customer support.
I think they just did that this week - I think they increased staff by 50%. 50%! Hopefully the new people (person) will get trained quickly. 
1) Improve your customer support.
Yes. Ultimaker should, and is working hard to add the best people possible to the support team. But that's not the job of "Ultimaker R&D", we concentrate on Research & Development.
A few things.
"UM1 heated-bed upgrade with single PSU" most likely ain't going to happen. The UM1 electronics have a design flaw which makes it unneeded complex, and a single PSU solution would add significantly more cost then a dual PSU solution due to the price of high current PSUs (next to that you would throw away the money for the PSU you already have). This does not rule out a heated bed upgrade, but don't expect one with just 1 PSU.
There are lots of software suggestions that I spot. I hope to announce soon that we have a 2nd software developer. But that ain't 100% certain until he has signed his contract.
Now, about the roadmap process. For the past few days, we've been writing down all ideas on a few big sheets of paper in our office. Lots of suggestions from here have made it on there. (And a few more, like a gigantic robotic spider)
On monday we'll have our first meeting about the roadmap. At this meeting we'll select the ideas from the list that we think are important and doable for R&D with our current team. Both short and long term goals.
However, R&D does not have the full say in this, so after that (unsure on the date), another meeting is held with the heads of the company, to set the final roadmap and plans for R&D.
I'll do my best to keep you informed, but realistically I cannot share everything we are doing. As there will be things that we want to keep secret.
Hi Daid,
if it is not too late - here are my thoughts (in random order):
[*]Built-in web cam and remote management.
Also a mobile app for remote monitoring would be very nice. 3D printing is an emerging technology right? Like playing with the future. I don't see myself running around swapping sdcards in the future...
[*]Easier system for changing filament.
[*]Cusioned feet for the Ultimaker.
[*]A robotics pack.
[*]Better gcode visualization.
[*]Smaller addons for the Ultimaker.
[*]Color coded led's indicating the printer status.
[*]Expand YouMagine to allow people who own printers to print objects for others.
[*]New materials.
[*]Bundle merchandise with the Ultimaker.
[*]3D scanner.
[*]Create a version for schools.
[*]Add a pair of pliers to every Ultimaker.
[*]Create something like an Ultimaker University.
[*]Create the infrequent Ultimaker 3D design challenges.
[*]Approach the concept of hardware evangelists.
I am sorry if this post is not entierly on topic. I hope it helps anyway.
Stefan
I had another "great" idea that I think would be very easy. Use a magnetic switch to monitor rotation of the feed spool. Embed magnets into the spools or make an attachment on the spool holder. When the program detects no rotation for a certain time it assumes the roll is empty. The print will pause and maybe the head moves away. Then you can splice in new filament and continue printing.
As I said previously, I don't have a printer of my own yet. I only think I know how they operate. Maybe there is a common fix for this, but I think it would really suck to run out of filament mid-print.
This also requires a commercially available filament splicer which I have not seen yet.
Great idea, poor solution.
It precludes spoolless supplies such as faberdashery. And I'd hate to have to persuade every filament supplier to embed magnets into their spools, it won't happen.
The way to do this is in software. Just have cura keep track of filament use an warn if there is not enough for the job.
And the problem with a pure software solution is that you have to know exactly how long your filament is from the start of the print. There's no way of telling how long the filament is on a spool short of unspooling it all and measuring it.
Personally I'd go for a KISS solution by having a microswitch with a contact wheel. Place it just under the feeder and let the wheel push against the filament, as soon as the filament runs out the switch opens and sends a signal to the control board which the firmware can act upon.
And the problem with a pure software solution is that you have to know exactly how long your filament is from the start of the print. There's no way of telling how long the filament is on a spool short of unspooling it all and measuring it.
Cura can keep track of it - that's the point. Just tell Cura when you load a new spool of, say 1kg, 5mtrs,100mtrs, whatever, and it knows how much is left. If you change spools before they are used just read off Cura and write it on the spool.
Cura can keep track of it - that's the point. Just tell Cura when you load a new spool of, say 1kg, 5mtrs,100mtrs, whatever, and it knows how much is left. If you change spools before they are used just read off Cura and write it on the spool.
Would be better to keep track of this in the machine instead of Cura.
My point was that you can never know how much is on the spool EXACTLY. It can differ from the factory. If you remove the filament and have to snip off a little bit at the end you need to keep track of that. What if the filament breaks? (has happened to me in the past). So many things that can mess up the measurement. By having a physical sensor that knows for sure that no more filament is going into the machine you avoid that.
Now, a combination of both, then we're talking. That way you know the machine wont keep printing if it runs out of plastic and you'll know roughly how much filament is left on your spools so you can pick one that should have enough material for the print.
Another idea would be to measure the weight on the spool holder. Then you'd only need to enter the weight of an empty spool and the rest can be calculated. If the manufacturer specifies the weight of an empty spool (and that's not much trouble as I am sure he has more than a few empty spools laying around), all the better.
Yes, a combination is good.
uSw + software, I like that.
@Daid, Yes I said Cura but wherever it works best is fine.
I'm guessing from your suggestion that you think its doable?
Keeping track in software would only give you accuracy to a few meters or so. I think you want accuracy down to a few centimeters maybe. Same with weight. I switch filaments often and don't want to have to tell Marlin everytime I switch. Plus I often turn the extruder wheel by hand as do most UM original owners.
But it would be a nice feature to run the filament through a cotton tube to clean dust off the filament to prevent clogs. This tube could also be attached to a switch to detect when you run out of filament. Very simple!
MariMakes posted a topic in UltiMaker Cura,
ArunC posted a topic in UltiMaker 3D printers,
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Hello,
You open our door to give a beautiful avenues of research .
Many spoke of the double extrusion. Personally, this is not my priority.
I could see a small improvement in Cura , if you will . I noticed that the print was long , sometimes , that's why I take your application idea to share with you a possible improvement to be made.
It would be nice to be able afterwards , following a failure to give a slice of printing, to re scan the SD card in cura and transfer layers have been made . It would intervene in the Gcode course but it would be safer and responsive. View topic on saving impressions. http://umforum.ultimaker.com/index.php?/topic/2289-petite-astuce-pour-sauver-un-print/
Another nice thing would be to allow printing to cut 2/3 phases hours. Thus, if a print should be 8h , for example, it would be good to g-code 3 . One for the first two hours , followed by about 4h, followed by about 2am. This is an example!
Another thing hardware. The UM2 , there was a question about a possible closure of the print area . I think it would be a nice upgrade. But it will certainly involve concerns for the mechanics no longer be cool like that.
I think now have to give my opening remarks , hoping she can give other ideas. Even if they would not find themselves in Cura or machine , I would have participated in my way .
For you to meet me or just put your ideas .
Very happy will be people with the UM2 quickly. Is pending , I wish you all stayed patient, the future will be better than the present day.
Cordially.
Geeks .
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