Carla_Birch 116
With a UPS i would always play safe and get one bigger than the power draw, the more over the longer the backup will last before you drain it in a power cut. Spikes in power can make problems with computers what can happen in work place settings where starting a machine or something up could mean the printer does not get the full power needed.
The UPS i have on my S5 is 900VA/540W and it copes fine and i get a good 10-15 min (if you pause the printer when power drops out) I need to look as getting a much bigger one because my S5 is getting a twin on Friday when my second S5 comes to help share some the print load with the first.
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SefPinneyStudio 5
@DrCeeVee
I've ran an Ultimaker 3+ for 3 years now, printing usually once a day (1-6hr prints) , and can't remember a single instance of a Software crash (on the machine,) especially mid-print. Cura itself DOES crash, but that's irrelevant to the sent Gcode. There have been no memorable cases where I've needed to power cycle EXCEPT during setup:
All issues I have typically point back to my operator error, such as
the long-term, weekly and monthly Maintenance that IS critical to quality operation. This is all very well covered on UM Support on the web, but are all totally unnecessary for a brand new machine. My UM3+ machine's test print and ALL my prints for the first 9 months at least were PERFECT, from a machine hardware perspective. Using UM Filament.
Also, I hate the rotary dial, and 4x20 LCD... it sucks as a GUI... So S3/S5 are going the right direction.
Also: @DrCeeVee) There is SO much competition right now in FFF printers, of all sizes, that it's easy to pluck a Cheap-ass, New, open frame printer with a fraction of the features, and worry that it seems flawless out of the box... but we won't sing the same tune 2 years down the road, when we need deep UM support, and a community of Masterful tinkerers to point the way. Granted, they SHOULD whisk those damn buggy printers back to the factory and bend over backwards to fix your issues ASAP. My $6K and your $10k is too much to spend on poorly QC'd or Calibrated machine... and I point to my own 9 mo. of perfect prints as a reasonable expectation at this price point. In this environment of bleeding edge competition, you could spend 50% less for a similar spec'd printer (likely open-frame) , but you likely won't be getting the history and community of sound engineering. Do your research on Cel-Robox, Raise3D, BCN3D... and I personally would still come back to Ultimaker for my first production printer.
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DrCeeVee 19
@SefPinneyStudio: Many thanks for your reply, that's the kind of response I'm after. Hands-on experience and an informed opinion. I'm really glad your experience with your Ultimaker is positive. As you've correctly stated, there's not much else to choose from, when it comes to raw specifications. Perhaps the MakerBot Method X, but that's not so easy to get at the moment, and has yet to prove its worth, and it's a closed system in terms of filament and s/w. OTOH, the Ultimaker S5 is available now and has it all, on paper at least. When it works as intended, it can produce stunning results. I've seen it happening on both S5 machines I've had. Sure, they have issues, major ones, but when they do behave, they really shine. The only thing I want is to be able to rely on them to not freeze mid-print and create blobs of material all over, or crash constantly, with my left hand permanently on the back to turn them off/on all the time.
Your post, as well as Carla's and Bob's, and all those speaking in favour of the machine, kind of reassure me that it is possible to have an S5 that is stable and reliable. I just hope that when it is delivered next week, it's going to be that printer. Earlier today I spoke with the reseller, and he told me that they narrowed it down to a poorly updated firmware, and the printer is currently printing constantly and without problems. Well, I'm not yet willing to accept their word, certainly not before seeing the prints with my own eyes and using the printer myself for some time.
Will update this thread as I have more info on the situation. Hopefully very soon I'll have a fully working S5 in my hands. 💪
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Carla_Birch 116
If the printer freeze mid-print, it could be a power problem. Is your printer linked up to a Back up UPS? Because if you are in a work place set up and people are turning machines, tools off and on it might make a power dip what could crash the printer. So it's good to run a backup UPS, plus if you get a power cut you got a good 5-10 min to pause the printer and hope the power comes back on so you lessen the risk of a lost print.
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uncle_bob 21
Hi
If we are talking about a "several seconds" sort of stall ...... a power outage that long will reboot the computer(s) in the S5. It will be *very* noticeable.
Indeed, a UPS is a very good idea when printing. The biggest trick is to make sure the unit you have will handle the power involved (the bundle system is rated at 500W (??) ). Loosing a print 5 days into the run because the lights blink is *not* any fun.
Since the S5 and Material Station have independent power supplies. There is the weird case where one drops out and the other does not. Without a lot of tearing things down there is no way to know which one would die first. One would *hope* that the Material Station goes second or that the S5 is smart enough to catch the problem ....
Bob
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