Ultimaker S5 Preparing to Print Takes a Long Time and Wastes Material

[AdamMarciniak2 1]

I've noticed with new materials our printer hasn't printed before, while preparing to print, it extrudes a bunch of strands of material off of the build plate a bunch of times. Is this for some sort of calibration? It doesn't seem to happen a second time with the same material.

 

 

[Programify 3]

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Edited December 29, 2020 by Programify

[Smithy 1,145]

2 hours ago, Programify said:

How do I report a bug?

Best is to contact your reseller, because this is something with the firmware, not Cura in my opinion. 

I guess it has something to do with he new material station which affects also stand alone S5 printers.

 

Your reseller can also tell you how to step back to the previous firmware 5.2.11 which is working fine.

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

I can see a little bit of the material station in the second image. The repeated priming is default behavior with firmware 5.4.27 for S5 Pro Bundles. Revert to 5.2.11 is not a good idea in this case as that version does not have support for the Material Station.

Improvements of that procedure are currently worked on afaik.

[Programify 3]

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Edited December 29, 2020 by Programify

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

Ultimaker does not announce their firmware updates in advance. When a new version passes the testing procedures currently in place it is usually published something like a day later. If it does not pass the testing procedures we will never know of that version.

Ultimaker is looking into the topic of unnecessary priming in the Pro Bundle. Please keep in mind some priming is necessary to ensure that the printcore is emptied from old material and properly primed with the new material. The amount necessary is logically a bit larger than what you would extrude in a standard S5 in order to be on the safe side in terms of color and material mixing. But if the same material is loaded as was in that printcore during the previous print job one could skip the extensive priming and just make sure the printcore is primed at all. This is what is being looked into atm afaik.

[Programify 3]

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Edited December 29, 2020 by Programify

[NBull 14]

On 1/20/2020 at 1:29 PM, Dim3nsioneer said:

Please keep in mind some priming is necessary to ensure that the printcore is emptied from old material and properly primed with the new material.

 

Yes priming is necessary, and I personally don't mind the waste material. But just unloading into the chamber is a really bad idea. Every time it unloads one of these long strings there's a big chance it will get caught by the z-screw.

Edited January 28, 2020 by NBull

[elescs 2]

I'm having the same issue with S5 and material station but I already have a newer firmware 5.5.12. Same phenomenon - several repeated extrusions of 25-30cm strings before and after every print. Can't really see any benefit of it just waste of material and time. I'm not aware of any feature to adjust or switch it off. For repetitive prints it would be nice to have an option not to unload & reload the filament from the material station.

 

Edited April 13, 2020 by elescs

[wyojustin 1]

I'm having the same issue with the S5 Pro Bundle.

[chapeshiel 0]

I have about a gram of material waste every print cycle from the start and at the end. If a firmware update came out allowing the option to choose whether the print core should be primed or not that would be most welcome. I am in manufacturing and the time added in addition to material waste is something I wish could be avoided...