Significant S5 Pro Bundle Issues

[gpitts 1]

I posted a reply to someone asking about longer-term reliability here. SandervG was kind enough to provide some thoughts on my issues and suggested a new thread if I had further comments or concerns. This is that thread.

 

From my prior reply, I experienced a flood of the print head back in early-March of 2020. The print head was shipped to Ultimaker and they "bent it back into shape" per the Local Tech. I've had issues since that time, but the most recent issues have been communication error with the print cores (ER34), flow sensor issue (ER65), and I2C communication error (ER35). Because of these issues, I've been at a hard-down state for a week now. This is in addition to the estimated two months that my machine had been down for previous issues. My understanding is that Ultimaker is sending a new print head cable to try. Based on this onesy-twosy approach, I fully expect to be down the balance of the Winter.

 

I also explained my experience with my material station being suboptimal. By that, I mean that I get interference between adjacent bays in the station such that I can't put material into adjacent bays - sometimes I need to skip two bays to avoid interference. I learned the trick of locating the spool to the very left-most side of the bay that SandervG suggested after having spools deemed to be unreadable by the S5, but that does not address this issue.

I'm more than a little frustrated that a significant investment I made specifically because of the Ultimaker brand promise of quality and reliability has really been a disappointment. To use the automobile analogy, this printer has been a "lemon" based on the problems I've had in less than one year of ownership.

Edited October 19, 2020 by gpitts
Better phraseology.

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi @gpitts, 

 

thank you for writing a message here outlining your issues. Who is your service partner? Fbrc8 by chance? They are very knowledgable and offer excellent service. @fbrc8-erin even roams this forum occasionally. 

 

Last time you mentioned you were waiting on a new cable and your service partner was working with you on the error messages. If you need any specific help on certain issues, please let us know, like if any error messages remain to occur after installing a new cable. 

 

Thank you, keep us posted. Have a great day! 

 

 

[fbrc8-erin 296]

@gpitts I'm not seeing any direct tickets from you in our system. It does look like we've been in contact with your reseller. If it's easier on the lines of communication, you can always reach out to Support directly if you'd like to put in a ticket.

 

Did you receive the cable you mentioned earlier in the week?

[VerveDesign 2]

On the 19th October while you were writing this I was installing my new S5 Pro bundle.  I'm sitting here waiting a response from my reseller for a raft of issues that means three prints in I'm stopped and the machine just doesn't work.  Seems to hang up at the end of the print and never completes the 'finishing' phase.  No error messages.  Only way to get it to do anything is switch it off and back on again.

 

This is the sequence of actions since installing the machine:

1. New machine purchased and installed  19/10/2020
2. Firmware updated via wifi to 5.8.2.
3. Trial print with Tough PLA.
4. Machine hung up at 'finishing screen' for several hours.
5. Bed and nozzle were cold. Switched off and on again. 
6. Re-opened with 'finished' screen, confirmed removal.
7. Second trial print started. Tough PLA and PVA support. 
8. Printed nicely but same thing hung up on 'finishing screen' at 1:30 am 
9. Switched off and on again at 9:00am.
10. Started new print with new material, TPU.
11. Aborted and restarted print twice for set up 'tuning'
12. Hung up both times at the abort/finishing print screen.
13. Waited till everything was cold (1-2hours) then switch off and on again to reset and restart a new print.
14. Third print went to the end but again hung up at finishing screen.  Waited till all was cold then switched off and on again.
15. Tried to start new print reverting back to Tough PLA/ PVA
16. Print went straight from 'preparing print' to 'finishing print' 
17. Did not even start new print.
18. Did not unload TPU or load PLA.
19. Left machine switched of overnight. 
20. Reset to factory settings.
21. Reloaded firmware via USB.
22. Reconnected to wifi.
23. Switched of machine and unplugged for 30minutes, as you recommended.
24. Started new trial print with PLA, (TPU still loaded)
25. Went straight from 'preparing print' to 'finishing print' within an hour is now hung up at the finishing print screen. 
26. TPU material is still loaded.

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi @VerveDesign, thank you for your message. We would need to see your log files to determine what is causing this bug. Obviously this is not intended behaviour. I would like to ask if you can share your log files with our product experts via this link: https://support.ultimaker.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

 

You can get the log files via Settings > Maintenance > Diagnostics > Save log files to USB. 

 

I have informed our experts and they are waiting for your files. Thanks again and our apologies for the inconvenience of this rocky start! 

[Jman15x 4]

I also have the ultimaker s5 pro bundle and I can attest that the G.U.I. is simply atrocious. 5.8.2 has been especially bad for me and unfortunately reverting to the previous firmware didn't help either. The issue with the infinite "finishing" phase has also occurred on my machine as well as when I've tried to abort a print. More often than not the progress indicators seem to freeze indefinitely and then you have no idea what is actually going on. The alternative to the frozen progress meter is the unclearable error. You would think with how frequently these pop up there would be a reset button but that is not the case on the vast majority of the error codes. Occasionally you will get one that you can simply acknowledge and then proceed to retry or diagnose the problem but 98% of them require you to completely power off the device. The amount of times I have hard reset this machine in the 2 months since its purchase is certainly unhealthy. 

 

I have already submitted a support ticket and have replacement parts being shipped out, but with the the 8.5.2 firmware update I have gotten way too many errors that I never encountered before. Namely, ER45 - Capacitive sensor low performance, ER29 - Print core min temp, ER28 - Print core max temp, ER31 - Print core heater error, ER37 - Print head sensor error, ER38 - Active leveling correction failed, nozzle offset probe failed error, and difference between detected height of both Print  Cores exceeds realistic values. Print core BB 0.4 would also start heating to max temperature as soon as the machine powered up. 

 

Are there really this many issues with a machine that is only 2 months old? The replacement parts being sent are a new capacitive sensor board and a BB print core because the machine is still under warranty but why would those parts have gone bad already after such little use? I appreciate the "free" replacements but I would much rather not have to do the repairs at all and have a fully functioning 3D printer right out of the box. Hopefully these replacements will solve all these issues but it seems if it is only one part that is bad the error message should be the same every time. At the very least it would be less confusing that way and therefore easier to troubleshoot. 

[VerveDesign 2]

4 hours ago, SandervG said:

Hi @VerveDesign, thank you for your message. We would need to see your log files to determine what is causing this bug. Obviously this is not intended behaviour. I would like to ask if you can share your log files with our product experts via this link: https://support.ultimaker.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

 

You can get the log files via Settings > Maintenance > Diagnostics > Save log files to USB. 

 

I have informed our experts and they are waiting for your files. Thanks again and our apologies for the inconvenience of this rocky start! 

Hi @SandervG,

 

Just forwarded the log files as requested.

 

Fingers crossed, but @Jman15x has me even more worried!

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi @Jman15x,

 

Thank you for your message and putting the effort to collect all error messages and the links to the articles. I'm sorry to hear about the difficulties you are having with your Ultimaker S5 Pro Bundle. When updating to a new firmware version triggers more error messages, it is not necessarily that the firmware is faulty. Sometimes error detection becomes more refined, which detects 'errors' that previously went undetected. Not to say that it renders your product immediately as broken, but it should help to pinpoint which areas might be performing sub-optimal. 

2 hours ago, Jman15x said:

The issue with the infinite "finishing" phase has also occurred on my machine as well as when I've tried to abort a print.

If this would ever happen again, I would like to ask if you can also share your log files with us so we can have a look. 

 

2 hours ago, Jman15x said:

More often than not the progress indicators seem to freeze indefinitely and then you have no idea what is actually going on.

Do they freeze, or perhaps not display accurately what it is that is actually happening on the background? We have done some improvements in making information more transparant, and we can probably improve upon it some more. But it is important to realise that sometimes a process may take longer than you expect, but it is not frozen. 

 

It is quite a list of error messages that you are receiving, and I would agree with you that that is not healthy. I hope and trust that when the support channel assisted you, that these parts should play a major role in resolving most of these error messages. 

Obviously it is not normal for a 2 months old device, and while we do thorough quality control it is possible that a part included in your device didn't work as it should. Like the capacitive sensor board. Please let us know when you have received them if your errors have indeed gone away, or if you need further assistance. 

 

2 hours ago, Jman15x said:

but I would much rather not have to do the repairs at all and have a fully functioning 3D printer right out of the box.

 

That makes absolute sense, and I would feel the same as you. Hopefully your issues will be resolved soon and you can continue you 3D printing journey knowing that if anything ever happens, you can count on Ultimaker and our support systems to help you out and get you up and running. 

[SandervG 1,521]

Just now, VerveDesign said:

Hi @SandervG,

 

Just forwarded the log files as requested.

 

Fingers crossed, but @Jman15x has me even more worried!

 

Thank you for sending those over! Let's not loose our sanity and look at each individually. Besides Jman15x there are also other users who have issues, but luckily there are plenty more users who have 0 issues and couldn't be happier. I rather focus on that, and help you join that side as soon as possible! 🙂

[VerveDesign 2]

Understood.  I'm keeping the faith for now as I know only too well the issues introducing and supporting new products.

[UltiCoen 3]

@VerveDesign We are currently looking into the issue you posted, regarding the endless wait after a print has finished. I have a quick question, if this is a possibility for you to do at the moment, or maybe you've already tried this, please try this:

1. unload and remove materials from the material station.
2. reboot (fully disconnect from the power source)
3. load the desired materials in the material station again.

After doing this and starting a print, do you still suffer from the endless wait?

 

On a different note: if you are able to remember, could you provide any more information what you've done with the printer before you started suffering from the endless waiting? We're particularly curious if you've installed a firmware update with material loaded in the bowden-tube?

 

We'd like to thank you for your input, we've managed to track down a few possible causes and are working on fixing this. We hope we've (dis)covered the one you're currently experiencing.

 

[VerveDesign 2]

On 10/26/2020 at 5:24 PM, VerveDesign said:

Understood.  I'm keeping the faith for now as I know only too well the issues introducing and supporting new products.

Pretty well lost all faith now

 

One month in and:

 

Machine still continues to be a rubbish, and that's as polite as I can go right now.

Error after error.

Connecting to the network seems major source of the problems.

Disconnected from the network, errors are more intermittent but there is always one. Never done more than two consecutive prints without an error of some sort.

Continues to fail at finishing screen.  Requiring switching off and on again.

End of spool material change took three goes to get it to work. Not at all confident that's going to work next time the issue comes up.

The latest is going to a new print today switched to PVA support, which was already loaded, got an ER52 error. Went through the procedure and managed to upgrade to an ER62. Bay E is now redundant.

Despite working with the reseller ( who, to be fair, have been very responsive) and posting requests on the service page I've not had one solution to any of the myriad problems offered that has made any difference.  Endless exercises switching of and on are not doing any thing but wasting my time even more.

 

sensor_data.log airmanager_data.log dmesg.log flow_EVE.log misp_data.log process_data.log

[asj955 0]

On 10/26/2020 at 10:41 AM, VerveDesign said:

On the 19th October while you were writing this I was installing my new S5 Pro bundle.  I'm sitting here waiting a response from my reseller for a raft of issues that means three prints in I'm stopped and the machine just doesn't work.  Seems to hang up at the end of the print and never completes the 'finishing' phase.  No error messages.  Only way to get it to do anything is switch it off and back on again.

 

This is the sequence of actions since installing the machine:

1. New machine purchased and installed  19/10/2020
2. Firmware updated via wifi to 5.8.2.
3. Trial print with Tough PLA.
4. Machine hung up at 'finishing screen' for several hours.
5. Bed and nozzle were cold. Switched off and on again. 
6. Re-opened with 'finished' screen, confirmed removal.
7. Second trial print started. Tough PLA and PVA support. 
8. Printed nicely but same thing hung up on 'finishing screen' at 1:30 am 
9. Switched off and on again at 9:00am.
10. Started new print with new material, TPU.
11. Aborted and restarted print twice for set up 'tuning'
12. Hung up both times at the abort/finishing print screen.
13. Waited till everything was cold (1-2hours) then switch off and on again to reset and restart a new print.
14. Third print went to the end but again hung up at finishing screen.  Waited till all was cold then switched off and on again.
15. Tried to start new print reverting back to Tough PLA/ PVA
16. Print went straight from 'preparing print' to 'finishing print' 
17. Did not even start new print.
18. Did not unload TPU or load PLA.
19. Left machine switched of overnight. 
20. Reset to factory settings.
21. Reloaded firmware via USB.
22. Reconnected to wifi.
23. Switched of machine and unplugged for 30minutes, as you recommended.
24. Started new trial print with PLA, (TPU still loaded)
25. Went straight from 'preparing print' to 'finishing print' within an hour is now hung up at the finishing print screen. 
26. TPU material is still loaded.

I am facing similar issues since I have purchased the machine.

[SandervG 1,521]

Hi @VerveDesign and @asj955,

 

Thank you for your message, and sharing the previous logs. One log seems to be missing, which is the 'ultimakersystem(...).log.gz' file. It should be among the other logs you get when you save them on your USB via the Ultimaker S5. And given the range of issues you are having, I would like to recommend to get in touch with our support team and share those files with them too. You can reach our support team via this link. 

 

(User UltiCoen (R&D) also had some suggestions that might be beneficial for your experience and shine some more light on your issue. Perhaps worth a look in parallel to my recommendation to contact support). 

[Treigman 0]

Ultimaker S5 Pro, approx. one month old. Also notice frequent errors, including the eternal "Finishing" state.