Help: z-axis not coming up when printing from mac

[aad 0]

Hello everyone,

I've just bought my first 3D printer the Ultimaker 2. It's print quality is exceeding my expectations. There is only one problem so far:

When I try to print directly from my computer the z-axis stays at the homing position and the printhead starts printing in the far left corner. When I save the same g-code on the SD card and print it from that everything works just fine.

I'm currently using a macbook air running OSX 10.8.5 and Cura 13.11.

Also I'm unable to see the print button in Cura.

Anyone who has any experience with this problem?

Grtz Aad

 

[gr5 2,167]

Printing from USB is possible but unsupported and not recommended. USB is flaky and if you print a 5 hour print and it fails half way through you will not be happy. However by all means go for it - hopefully someone else will actually be able to answer your question. I think this question was answered on these forums in the last 2 day or so - probably by Daid.

 

[illuminarti 18]

If you want to print over USB, then you have to go into your machine type settings and change the gcode type to 'RepRap (Marlin/Sprinter)'. That includes the preamble gcode necessary to heat things up, home the head, and generally get things ready to print.

When you have the gcode type set to 'UltiGcode', most of those things are missing. The printer adds them automatically, at the start of the print, but only when printing from SD card.

Using the different gcode type shouldn't make a lot of difference to the actual print, although a few things happen differently, under the covers. But even if you change the gcode type, I'm not entirely sure that everything will be flawless with the beginning and ending stuff.

As George said - USB printing isn't supported at this time. I think it will probably become more supported in future, once UM figures out how people use their printers, and what all the complexities are... but for now, you'd be better off just printing from SD card, rather than fighting the system - especially as this is your first printer: there's enough to learn as it is, without added complexity of quirky things that should work, but don't quite.

 

[aad 0]

 

Ok, thank you very much for your answers. I won't spend any time on it anymore and just go for the SD.

Most of the time the SD works fine. Still some problems with centre the object in the middle of the printing platform.

So I have to work out where the G-code messes up.

Here an example.

(or should I start a new thread?)

;Generated with Cura_SteamEngine 13.11

;FLAVOR:UltiGCode

;TIME:4086

;MATERIAL:17717

 

;total_layers=158

;LAYER:-2

;RAFT

G0 F9000 X72.93 Y77.50 Z0.30

;TYPE:SUPPORT

G11

G1 F1200 X-14.16 Y3.07 E0.36822

G1 X-13.69 Y4.76 E0.73728

G1 X-13.01 Y6.37 E1.10384

G1 X-12.15 Y7.89 E1.47116

G1 X-11.11 Y9.30 E1.83871

G1 X-9.91 Y10.57 E2.20683

G1 X-8.57 Y11.69 E2.57220

G1 X-7.09 Y12.64 E2.94251

G1 X-5.51 Y13.40 E3.30881

G1 X-3.86 Y13.97 E3.67532

G1 X-2.14 Y14.33 E4.04436

G1 X-0.41 Y14.48 E4.41098

G1 X1.34 Y14.43 E4.77867

G1 X3.06 Y14.16 E5.14416

G1 X4.76 Y13.69 E5.51475

G1 X6.37 Y13.02 E5.87944

G1 X7.89 Y12.15 E6.24856

G1 X9.30 Y11.11 E6.61627

G1 X10.57 Y9.91 E6.98364

G1 X11.69 Y8.57 E7.34902

G1 X12.64 Y7.09 E7.71914

G1 X13.40 Y5.52 E8.08450

G1 X13.97 Y3.86 E8.45348

G1 X14.33 Y2.15 E8.82124

G1 X14.48 Y0.41 E9.18786

G1 X14.43 Y-1.34 E9.55429

G1 X14.16 Y-3.07 E9.92337

G1 X13.69 Y-4.76 E10.29009

G1 X13.01 Y-6.37 E10.65817

G1 X12.15 Y-7.89 E11.02513

G1 X11.11 Y-9.30 E11.39331

G1 X9.91 Y-10.57 E11.76068

G1 X8.57 Y-11.69 E12.12606

G1 X7.09 Y-12.64 E12.49542

G1 X5.51 Y-13.40 E12.86322

G1 X3.86 Y-13.97 E13.23014

G1 X2.15 Y-14.33 E13.59831

G1 X0.41 Y-14.48 E13.96493

G1 X-1.34 Y-14.43 E14.33115

G1 X-3.07 Y-14.16 E14.69982

G1 X-4.76 Y-13.69 E15.06821

G1 X-6.37 Y-13.02 E15.43478

G1 X-7.89 Y-12.15 E15.80116

G1 X-9.30 Y-11.11 E16.17039

G1 X-10.57 Y-9.91 E16.53746

G1 X-11.69 Y-8.57 E16.90389

G1 X-12.64 Y-7.09 E17.27279

G1 X-13.40 Y-5.52 E17.63956

G1 X-13.97 Y-3.87 E18.00627

G1 X-14.33 Y-2.15 E18.37511

G1 X-14.48 Y-0.41 E18.74195