UM2E+ Bad Firmware + More

[apokuk 0]

New owner here so please go easy on me - Ive only had the printer a week, i decided to try Verbatim PLA white (fancied a change from the UM Silver Pla that was installed at purchase). Having all sorts of trouble under extrusion etc.. Cura Update to 4.3 Offered Firmware update which i opted to do (hoping this would correct said issues). Ok this is were it gets interesting.

 

Since firmware update i have noticed the following changed:

 

Start print -> Head zero's in back left -> bed rises -> head moves to front left -> 50mm of extrusion fast then it slows down.... 

 

Now here is my issue, previously the head would move towards the print areas and at the same time raise the bed to meet it, thus maneuvering away from the heap of waste PLA.

Not any more - the bed raises and positions the head bang in the pile of PLA and drags it into the the build area. 

 

I also have absolutely no control over the nozzle temp which the machine likes to set at 230c which is making the VERB pla bubble.. (too hot).

 

Is there any way of correcting this or at least giving me some control over these issues - or maybe even being able to restore the old firmware back

 

TIA Paul

[Rygaard 0]

I did the firmware update on September 5th. But after I removed ultimakerCura 4.2.1 and I installed ultimakerCura 4.3 is that I had the same behavior as yours.
Everything you described in your post happened to me, nozzle extrudes a large amount of filament at the edge and quickly nozzle dives into that extruded filament, then nozzle drags some or all of this filament into the print area.
Because I used Brim, it helps me to have a certain barrier, but the nozzle when it goes over makes a noise and the next inner lines of that point get bad. If I didn't use Brim, surely my first layer would be in serious trouble.
When this problem happened to me, I froze, and quickly I was trying to pull this extruded filament mess off the table, the problem is that it hardens very quickly with the heated table, so some residue passed with Nozzle and I couldn't do anything. Fortunately, the impression has not been compromised.
Because I've been through this experience, and I don't know how to fix it, so for me to work it out, every time I make a new impression, just as Nozzle is starting to extrude filament at the beginning of the print, I have a tweezers i try to prevent the extruded filament from curving and sticking in the nozzle, i try to make the extruded filament come out straight and with a piece of paper in the other hand i try to hold all the extruded filament and i pull as much of it as possible extruded filament until Nozzle moves into the print area without dragging extruded filament. But for that you have to be very fast, if you are not fast, a lot of mess will happen in the printing area.

I believe this problem is not related to Firmware, but to the newer version of ultimakerCura 4.3.

 

I hope that in the next version of ultimakerCura this problem has been resolved.

[johnse 31]

If the prime blob is misbehaving, you can turn it off. If not using brim, you can add a few lines of skirt to either catch the blob like a brim would, and/or prime the nozzle and show that your leveling is good by seeing a consistent layer thickness.

[Rygaard 0]

Since I'm not an advanced user, and the flavor of Ultimaker 2+ is Ultimaker 2, so start Gcode is not shown, so I don't have access to the line of code that extrudes the filament.
While turning off filament extrusion would help solve the problem, this could create another by not extruding some material before printing.
Using Skirt could also be a solution to help alleviate the problem of the print area getting a mess. But that wouldn't solve Nozzle's problem being completely dirty and clogged or some other kind of problem and causing the first layer of printing to be affected.
Fortunately I am well leveled. Soon I will have to level again when I clean the glass.

The initial behavior of Ultimaker 2+ Extended during the initial printing process changed completely after I installed Cura4.3.
In Cura4.2.1 the initial printing process on Ultimaker 2+ was normal, with no problems whatsoever.
It may have been some new code or function from Cura4.3, I don't know ... but if anyone is experiencing the same problem using Cura4.3 with Ultimaker 2+ please talk.

I know Firmware wasn't the cause of this, at least with me.
I updated the firmware when I installed Cura4.2.1, so it can only be something in Cura4.3.

[johnse 31]

I don’t have a UM2, so this may not apply, but I think this part should be the same. The Prime blob is a checkbox under bed adhesion, IIRC (not at the computer right now.) Perhaps it’s hidden at the moment and needs to be selected in the settings for what parameters to show?

 

That is to what I was referring saying you can turn it off...it’s not in the printer definition.

 

if you do turn it off, you can achieve a controlled prime by adding lines to a skirt. Even if the first line or two is uneven, it should be well primed by the time it finishes the skirt.

[Smithy 1,144]

There are some things I don't understand, so I want to make sure we talk about the same:

 

1. Prime Blob is disabled for the UM2 or UM2+, it is enabled for UM3 or S5, so this is basically ok you don't see this option in Cura. You are also not able to activate the prime blob for the UM2 machines.
   The difference is that the "prime blob" is really a small blob in the corner and the priming procedure of the UM2 extrudes some mm of the filament which curls up in the left front corner.
2. I don't think Cura 4.3 causes the issue. You said you use the flavor Ultimaker, so the whole priming at the beginning of your print comes from the printer firmware. No Gcode is used for this procedure.
3. There has not been a firmware update for the UM2 for a long time, so this can't be the reason.

 

I believe you have a problem, please don't misunderstand, I just don't understand how this is possible.

 

A good test would be to switch from flavour Ultimaker to Marlin in Cura and use the following Start and End Gcode. This is the one I use on my UM2+ Extended and Um2Go.

 

; UM2Ext Start GCode
M42 S255 ;turn led on
G21 ;metric values
G90 ;absolute positioning
M82 ;set extruder to absolute mode
M107 ;start with the fan off
G28 Z0 ;move Z to bottom endstops
G28 X0 Y0 ;move X/Y to endstops
G1 X10 Y10 F4000 ;move X/Y to front of printer
G1 Z40.0 F9000 ;move the platform to 40mm
G92 E0 ;zero the extruded length
G1 E20 F200 ; purge nozzle quickly
G1 E50 F60 ; purge nozzle slowly
G92 E0 ;zero the extruded length again
G1 F9000
;Put printing message on LCD screen
M117 Printing...

; UM2Ext End GCode
M104 S0 ;extruder heater off
M140 S0 ;heated bed heater off
G91 ;relative positioning
G1 E-1 F300  ;retract the filament a bit before lifting the nozzle, to release some of the pressure
G1 Z+0.5 E-19 X-20 Y-20 F9000 ;move Z up a bit and retract filament even more
G28 Z0
G28 X0 Y0 ;move X/Y to min endstops, so the head is out of the way
M84 ;steppers off
G90 ;absolute positioning
M42 S0 ; turn led off
;Version _2.6 of the firmware can abort the print too early if the file ends
;too soon. However if the file hasn't ended yet because there are comments at
;the end of the file, it won't abort yet. Therefore we have to put at least 512
;bytes at the end of the g-code so that the file is not yet finished by the
;time that the motion planner gets flushed. With firmware version _3.3 this
;should be fixed, so this comment wouldn't be necessary any more. Now we have
;to pad this text to make precisely 512 bytes.

 

[Smithy 1,144]

21 hours ago, apokuk said:

I also have absolutely no control over the nozzle temp which the machine likes to set at 230c which is making the VERB pla bubble.. (too hot).

 

The temperature is used from the printer's material settings when using flavor Ultimaker. So check if you have selected PLA on the printer during loading. I think you can also change it later during the Material menu.

 

Only when using flavor Marlin you can use the material settings like temperature in Cura.

[apokuk 0]

Ok - Been away for a while guys but thanks for all the info - After some trial and error i finally got the problem sorted - once i reverted back to 4.2.1 the problem with the nozzle diving into the waste pile has disappeared and is now behaving as it should. As for the issue of temperature - i have now created a custom profile on the printer to accept the temp i set - so all good.

 

And for any ones information the Verbatim PLA is amazing.. very good clean prints and at a great price to