When will UM3 auto bed leveling work again?

[Patronus 3]

Probably the best feature of my two UM3 printers is auto bed leveling which enables me to swap print cores in and out and for that reason I have bought quite a collection of print cores over the last year or two. It worked like a charm and I was about to get another few UM3s but thank goodness I didn't. After that disastrous firmware upgrade a few months ago. I am now reduced to manual auto bed leveling which I manage OK with print core 1 but just never get quite right with print core 2 and by the way the process is designed for a double jointed contortionist. And why should I do it anyway? I paid extra for a so-called premium brand with printers that do this automatically but these days after auto bed levelling my nozzles just scrape the absolute hell out of my build plate and I have to do it manually. I am on the latest firmware. When will another upgrade come which will make my UM3 printers usable again?

[Smithy 1,146]

Can you elaborate a bit more, what exactly is your problem with the auto leveling? 

I am also on the latest firmware and auto leveling works fine as it should without any issues.

 

So if it is not working for you, then I guess you have maybe a hardware issue or something like that. I don't think it is a firmware issue, because then all other users will have the same problems. 

[Patronus 3]

The printers perform the auto-leveling procedure but when I try to print directly afterwards, the nozzles are right on top of the print bed preventing material from coming out. If I press slightly on the print bed while they try to print you can see the backed up material squirting out. It's not as bad as it was with the previous firmware where it pressed the nozzle so deep into the glass I thought it was going to break it (well documented problem on this forum) but that improved with the latest version which is also a few months old. I checked, there's no new update.

So in summary, the printers both perform the auto leveling procedure but somehow both end up with the wrong result rendering the feature useless so I have to do it manually.

 

If I only had one UM3 then maybe I can accept it's a hardware issue. But both my printers developed the issue the moment I upgraded my firmware a few months ago (see my posts at the time) and both got a bit better after the last update and I was hoping that a new update will completely correct the problem. Incidentally my one printer has a new auto leveling sensor and PC board so that's certainly not the issue.

[Smithy 1,146]

Strangely, if you say both printers have the same problem, then I wouldn't think of a hardware problem either. On the other hand, many other UM3 printers run without problems with the current firmware.

 

Have you already contacted your reseller about the problem?

 

What else comes to mind, did you check if the distance between between the bottom of the heated bed and base plate is 14mm? I don't think that's the problem, because if it doesn't fit, there will be an error while leveling, but that's all I can think of.

 

Did you change anything else on the glass plate? BuildTak or something similar mounted or everything original? The glass itself is also an original or has at least the same thickness?

[Patronus 3]

Smithy, I checked the distance between the base plate & heated bed is 14mm on both machines. I'm sure many other UM3s run fine, I'm not sure why mine never really recovered after the firmware update. I checked again, both are on the latest version.

 

The glass plates are original and in good condition and clean.

 

I initially though about speaking to the distributor but when I saw on this forum that so many people had the same problem after the firmware upgrade I decided to wait for a fix, which quickly came and solved some of the issues but in my case not all of them. Keep in mind before that my printers were a joy to use. But by the time the fix came I had lost so much print time that I decided to invest in other less finicky machines. In the background I'm waiting for UM to release firmware that fixes my problem since it clearly started with a firmware upgrade which sadly is not reversible. If not then I'll simply use them on the same basis as my ultra cheap Dremel for simple 0.4mm jobs and more demanding requirements go to my other printers where I'm focusing my time and money now. It worked well but this weekend I made the mistake of changing the printcores on my one UM3 and as always I can get printcore 1 dialled in nicely but somehow I struggle with printcore 2. Hence my frustration.

 

Just as that fatal firmware upgrade rendered some UM3s completely useless, others were somewhat affected and others not at all, so I believe that their fix also had varying effects. Don't ask my how that is possible but it seems to be the case.

 

I do appreciate your interest though.

[Smithy 1,146]

I can fully understand your frustration.

 

One more idea, do you use the Z-Height plugin in Cura? There was a problem with that plugin and the new firmware.

 

But anyway, you should contact your reseller about your issue. It is not normal and even if they have no fix, they can report the issue back to Ultimaker.

[CarloK 205]

@Patronus  I'm sorry to hear about your problems. Similar problems have been reported by a few people but we need more info to investigate this. A month ago I asked two people to email me the log files from an Active Leveling procedure but I'm still waiting their reply.

 

Could you please perform an Active Leveling procedure and mail me the log files? 

You can create the log files by performing an Active Leveling procedure and then use the maintenance menu option for 'Dump log files to USB'.

Send these files to me using the mailing function of this forum (hover over my name next to this post and in the pop-up is a 'message' symbol). Please include all dumped files, that's including the probe reports.

 

Without the log files I can't convince our management to put the probem high on the actions list.

[erind 0]

Hi @CarloK,

 

I am having a similar issue to @Patronus. Two printers updated at the same time now both not levelling. My print head pushes right into the bed.

 

Log files sent via message.

 

Thanks.

[Patronus 3]

@CarloK I have uploaded the log file. Before the active leveling the z-offset was perfect (manual leveling) but now after the active leveling the nozzle is pushing into the glass.

Thanks for your help in advance, this is a huge issue to me.

[David Stewart 0]

I just started having the same problem with my UM3 Extended.  I active level before each print, as it did properly this morning and this afternoon it started to push up into the heads during the procedure.  Also staying connected is another issue on WiFi.  

[CarloK 205]

Let's keep this thread related to 1 topic: Active bed leveling on the UM3. Wifi related problems should go in another thread.

 

@Patronus reported a bed leveling problem where the procedure seems to run fine, but then when printing both nozzles are pressed too hard into the build plate. I'm looking into this using the provided log files.

 

@erind and @David Stewart, you both are reporting a problem where the bed leveling procedure fails with an error message. The print cores are pushed into the bed during active leveling. This shouldn't happen, the print cores should be just touching the build plate. For printers where this happens, first perform the following checks:

1) The screws for manual leveling the build plate should have some moving distance. When tightened all the way, the bed leveling will fail. Some procedures describe a bed height of 14mm but as a guide line the aluminum build plate should be level with the aluminum front plate (not sure how to describe this better).

2) If bed leveling still fails after correcting step 1), then run the 'bed level sensor test' that was added to the diagnostic menu. 

[johnse 31]

2 hours ago, CarloK said:

This shouldn't happen, the print cores should be just touching the build plate.

 

My UM3 has not had any problems leveling, but I'm not sure my experience bears this statement out. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding.

 

On mine the bed raises until the print core touches, but then goes a little further. You can see the bed deflect slightly as it does this. IIRC the description written by @Daid mentions this in that they look for the inflection point in the distance sensed by the capacitive sensor where the reported distance stops changing.

 

I've never manually leveled my bed 🙂 so the screws are as they came from the distributor.

 

[David Stewart 0]

To CarloK -

Tks for the advice. I ran the diagnostics and the capacitive sensor was not reading properly.

Soldered the red wire back on and bed leveling tested just fine.  I noticed the black wire was very tenuous

and seemed to be hanging on by only one of the strands of the multi stranded wire. 

I did not touch it yet as everything seemed to be ok.  Kinda tight in there, but having a high reliability soldering in the 70's, it wasn't too bad.  Stripping the wire was fun....

 

[CarloK 205]

@David Stewart Thanks for the feedback and I'm glad to have been able to help someone.

[Olgluk 1]

Same problem here since 5.2.11 update auto bel levelling fail i have to do it manually. It's now a known issue among users, but it seems there is no progress. Previous firmware had no problems at all.

 

I start wondering if Ultimaker is not working anymore on the UM3 since there is now the S3 ... grr

 

EDIT : i know Ultimaker don't think this way but it still "makes me feel" like Ultimaker is not a lot interested in UM3 anymore 

Edited October 2, 2019 by Olgluk

[Curven 28]

18 hours ago, Olgluk said:

EDIT : i know Ultimaker don't think this way but it still "makes me feel" like Ultimaker is not a lot interested in UM3 anymore 

 

I think a little bit like you, Ultimaker isn't doing much for UMO (+) anymore (not on their product's page anymore), at work we do have a Ultimaker 2 (+) and there as well there is not much happening any more, and the same will probabliy happen with UM3 soon...

 

My english is not perfect, just to make it clear. I am not blaming Ultimaker's choice to orientate their product's to the professional's market. It's their strategy and it's not up to me to say if it's good or not. But I would appreciate if the hobbyists market would be a little more dynamic.

An UM 2 ++ would really be nice to have with some firmware updates, filament sensor (even just an easy one, note the flow sensor) bed levelling and so on... By now there are plenty of printers with these features who are less expensive than an ultimaker 2+.

[Nazdravi 1]

The update to 5.2.11.20190503 here also broke bed leveling and thus printing with support material at all. This is an UM3. Just as described initially in this post.

As a lot of UM3-appliances got this problem suddenly by firmware update: is there some hope to get this repaired in the near future or is there still no clue to solve this?

[Olgluk 1]

Still no news ... any update from Ultimaker team would be appreciated

[bsaygan 1]

Hi all,

 

I am one who is supposed to provide some dump files - so my bad I should do that.  I did/do have issues with active leveling, but I can get it to work.  I apologize if you guys have already done this, but these are the 3 things I needed to do to get active leveling working.  Point 2 being the most important.

 

1) I did do a manual level once (to make parts of it easier I did print a 1mm thick piece of plastic and the 14mm jig that someone else has to help with the initial parts of leveling).

 

2) I need to have my active leveling set to always, so it has to level prior to the print starting.  You can't active level then send a print job - it WILL press into the glass plate like @patronus has described.

 

3) For some reason when I would install Cura, there was some legacy settings leftover from some mystery time.  So if I went to my printer and went to machine settings, there would be some extra starting and ending G-code that I have to delete everytime I update Cura or anything.  It's sort of a weird quirk, I don't know maybe I didn't uninstall completely before but that G-code keeps coming back so I keep deleting it.

 

Anyway, I will get my machine logs to the UM support team to help our case, I am one of the ones affected by this as well, but again, I have it working at least to a point that I can print normally albeit that annoyance of having to active level each time.

 

Bobby

 

Edited November 27, 2019 by bsaygan

[steve1423 0]

@CarloK I am having the same issues described here with a UM3E. Both nozzles press into the build plate glass when printing after active leveling. No issues printing after manual leveling. I had active leveling set to occur weekly, but in all failure cases I had triggered active leveling from the menu after changing things on the printer (print cores, build plate, etc). I am using the latest 5.2.xx firmware current as of 10 January 2020.

 

I have tried one print with active leveling set to "always" following a manual leveling per @bsaygan's post above. I observed the printer execute the active level procedure prior to printing and it worked perfectly. More runs are needed to confirm this result is consistent.

[Olgluk 1]

Sadly, setting the active levelling to "always" here didn't solved anything 😞

[Patronus 3]

I tried the advice of @steve1423 and changed active levelling to "always" and performed a levelling procedure. It still pushed the nozzle into the glass afterwards on both machines, so clearly not a good result. HOWEVER with the setting on "always" the auto-levelling procedure (before the print starts) miraculously works. Which is probably what @steve1423 meant. It's almost as if the algorithm for on-demand active-levelling is broken but the "always" one (before a print) works. I still need to do further tests but after this change all my prints have a perfect first layer on both my UM3s. I'll do some printcore swaps and see if it still works, in which case I may actually get some use out of my machines again.

@CarloK

 

[Olgluk 1]

OK i've found on another topic that some people had a wire problem on the sensor that disabled active bed levelling and ... that's it, two wires are disconnected to the sensor. I'll try to fix it.

 

EDIT : this fixed my problem 😀

 

Here is the link to the post about the sensor issue

 

Edited January 20, 2020 by Olgluk

[jcaputo 0]

Has there been an update to this issue?  I've been having the same issue.  If I use auto leveling it will push the nozzle into the print bed and every time it levels I need to manually adjust all the set screws by at least a quarter turn.  If I say to never use auto leveling the prints will start 4 or 5 mm above the print bed even after doing a manual level using the card to measure the distance to the build plate.  My plate is original and in good condition.  Anytime I change a core or at least once a week I have to manually adjust all the screws after it does an auto level.  I'm using the most current firmware as of Feb 25 2020.  

 

Really need to resolve this issue and I'd like more info.  I can send log files if that would help.

[gr5 2,265]

As far as I know the firmware is fine.

 

Did you do the things mentioned above?  Including:

1) Did you check those 2 wires?

2) Did you set spacing to 14mm (or looser - you need the bed springs looser than the core springs)?  Some core's have a stronger spring than others.  Strong is good.

3) Did you watch to see how far the core nozzle moves up during active leveling?  It should just be maybe 0.3mm (or less).

4) Did you run the sensor test?

 

I forget what else was mentioned above.