My Ultimaker 2 just stopped

[gr5 2,178]

Do you have a multimeter to check the resistance of the 5v fan?  Or a friend who has one?

[Torgeir 243]

Come to think about that those type of fans are "brush less" and contain an electronic controller.

So her it might be a very high resistance and only seen in reverse direction.

Might be around 10 M ohm, I'll think, but way vary a little from brand to brand..

 

 

[tojiero 8]

6 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

Come to think about that those type of fans are "brush less" and contain an electronic controller.

So her it might be a very high resistance and only seen in reverse direction.

Might be around 10 M ohm, I'll think, but way vary a little from brand to brand..

 

 

That's right...both fans 'appear' open circuit. At least that means they are not shorted.

I staged the powering up adding the bed heater then the nozzle heater and monitored the temperature of U6. All seemed well with no problems. I ran through the setting up routine until I discovered that the filament feed seems to be reversed! Instead of forwarding the material, it reverses it out of the feeder!

How has that happened and how do I fix it?

[Torgeir 243]

Since your machine is open, the covers is still off, right.

If the fastest way of turning the steppers, might be to just swap pin one and pin two. Actually, this can be done on the connector for the E-stepper motor. If you swap the two wires on one just side (there's four pins in total), the stepper will change direction. Note the colors before you begin, or take a photo.

Here is how to release the pin and lift up the lip, before inserting to new position:

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by Torgeir
Missing text.

[Torgeir 243]

Maybe this happen during production and e-stepper direction then was changed in the firmware.. Just guessing. 🙂

Another good reason for swapping the pins is that, now your stepper is according to default firmware.

Good to hear your printer is up running again.

 

Good luck

Torgeir

 

 

Edited January 27, 2021 by Torgeir
More text.

[tinkergnome 927]

12 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

If the fastest way of turning the steppers, might be to just swap pin one and pin two.

 

I assume, installing the correct firmware for the specific printer model would be a better choice in the long term...

I'm just saying... 🙂

 

These boards are the same for several printer models and each of them needs a different firmware...

Who knows which variant is installed right now?

 

This should "fix" the stepper motor rotation problem (be sure that the correct printer model is activated in Cura):

 

https://support.ultimaker.com/hc/en-us/articles/360011800840-Updating-the-Ultimaker-2-firmware

 

 

[tojiero 8]

46 minutes ago, Torgeir said:

Since your machine is open, the covers is still off, right.

If the fastest way of turning the steppers, might be to just swap pin one and pin two. Actually, this can be done on the connector for the E-stepper motor. If you swap the two wires on one just side (there's four pins in total), the stepper will change direction. Note the colors before you begin, or take a photo.

 

This is the connector E1. The pins are not numbered. Which wires should I swap over?

 

[Torgeir 243]

You can count from either side, (1 and 2) or (3 and 4).

Also; Black and green or red and blue.

Black and green represent one coil, red and blue is the other coil. 

Edited January 27, 2021 by Torgeir
Added text.

[tojiero 8]

so which 2 wires do I swap?

[Torgeir 243]

You just swap the wires on one of the coil, then it is changing direction.

 

[tojiero 8]

Wires on a coil?  Now I'm confused. I thought you said I need to swap 2 wires on the connector....but you can't say which 2 wires?

 

[Torgeir 243]

Just swap black and green..

[Torgeir 243]

Inside the stepper motor there is "two" coils. Each end of thous two coils are connected to the 4 pin connector.

[Torgeir 243]

Hi @tojiero,

 

@tinkergnome is addressing an important issue here. As your printer is an original born UM2+ using 2.1.4, I'd assume that this one have the right firmware with the right setting.

But when you use UM2+ in Cura there might be a surprise for you, as the stepper direction and gearing is different between UM2 and UM2+.

This might happen if the firmware is made for UM2 was installed on the PCB.

There is a gcode command for seeing the gear ratio.

 

 

 

[tojiero 8]

Hooray !!

Thanks for all your help...My printer seems to be up and running again. 😁

I'm still concerned that I don't understand the root cause of the failure.

Are you suggesting that I should update the firmware? Is that easy to do?

[Torgeir 243]

Great..

 

Just look up the firmware version in the printer menu, but this does not tell what printer it is for.

However, if you use a short old known print you have on the sd card, try, if the feeder moves the right way it should be ok I'll think.

 

 

[tojiero 8]

Since I swapped the wires as you suggested, it seems to be printing ok......

so far

ha ha

 

[gr5 2,178]

so the um2 and um2+ have steppers that turn opposite directions.  But also the steps/mm is different.  I recommend you get the correct firmware.  It's easy to update the firmware in cura.

 

First connect a USB cable from your computer to the printer.  Then as shown below - go to PREPARE screen, click on your printer (make sure it's UM2 or UM2+ - the correct type).  Then click "manage printers" and click on the circled button below.

 

 

 

[gr5 2,178]

If you have the wrong firmware then it will over or underextrude severely.

[tojiero 8]

Once the wires were swapped, it ran perfectly well. I printed a new handle for an old saucepan overnight without problem. 

 

 

Thanks everyone for their assistance. I'll check out the firmware update in the near future. I'm just happy to be up and running at the moment.

 

[gr5 2,178]

For others - there was a nice photo of a saucepan with a 3d printed handle above.  I saw it but now the picture has been taken down (unfortunately).

[tojiero 8]

For others - Ha ha This was a test piece. Whatever you do, do not make a saucepan handle out of PLA. It won't even last 5 mins. On the upside, it's easy to scrape off your cooker top when it solidifies again.

😂😂

Edited February 1, 2021 by tojiero