Ultimaker S5: Stuck "Changing Material" "PAUSED"

[eddieparker 4]

I tried to change my material this morning because I have a 9 day print that's 2 days away from being done.  But now it's stuck on 'paused' despite material being in the loading bay.

 

I feel like I need to somehow 'reboot' it to wake it up, but obviously I don't want to mess up the print that's paused.  Is there anything I can do?

[eddieparker 4]

A bit more context in case it helps:

 

The ultimaker S5 says: "Changing material: paused". The ... menu has 'pause' greyed out, abort is available and tune, but I don't want to abort and tune doesn't seem to let me do anything to get me out of my current state.

 

If I go to the material station UI on the printer, it shows an exclamation mark over the material I want to use, clicking on it it says "Material spool is empty".  All the UI buttons are greyed out (which is a shame; I would love a "retry" or something here)

 

If I look at the material station itself, my spool is sitting there with around 1kg of material, and the material is loaded.  There's a blue light on the '1' for where I feed the material into it.  Clicking the button does nothing - it doesn't unload nor try to load further.

 

I'm not sure what to do.  I feel like power cycling the unit would probably fix things, but then I'd lose the previous kilo of material I spent on this thing plus almost two weeks of time.  Please help. :(

[Carbon 28]

First thing I would try. is to cut the material and remove it from the "Bowden" tubing.

 

Cut the material at the material bay inserting point, then I would un-clip the tube from the extruder end and remove the material from the tubes.

 

I would then, put another material of the same type into a different material station bay, load it and make sure the printer identifies it as the correct material (same as data sent by "CURA").

 

Then wait a few minutes to see if the print starts again (give in 10 mins min).

 

If the printer doesn't resume, it may need power down and restarting.

 

I suspect the material has got "stuck" somehow and the printer thinks it's "out of material".

[sj3fk3 22]

18 hours ago, eddieparker said:

I tried to change my material this morning because I have a 9 day print that's 2 days away from being done.  But now it's stuck on 'paused' despite material being in the loading bay.

 

I feel like I need to somehow 'reboot' it to wake it up, but obviously I don't want to mess up the print that's paused.  Is there anything I can do?

 

Can you also tell us, is it Ultimaker material (with NFC) or is it? 3rd party? and what firmware version is the printer running on? I agree with @carbon that changing bays might be the best option for now. Or does that not help? 

[eddieparker 4]

Thanks for the replies!

 

I ended up clipping the material and removing it, and it still thinks the spool is "out".  I've moved the spool to another bay and still nothing, although I've only given it 5 minutes.  I'll try for 10 now.

 

It is non ultimaker material.  The firmware is 6.2.

[eddieparker 4]

In case it helps here's some pictures. Originally the filament was in the empty bay, but I've moved it over to the second from the left and tagged it as CPE (the material I'm trying to use).  You'll note the empty bay is still blue and the screen on the ultimaker is still complaining about bay 3.

[eddieparker 4]

I really wish there was a "soft reboot" or something.  Some way of telling the U5 "Hey, rescan for material please", or a way to manually tell it to choose what bay to use.

[eddieparker 4]

Support told me I had to reset the ultimaker so I did that.  Now it's just blinking lights for the last hour but not booting up. :(

 

Any tips or tricks to get out of this?  I'd like to restart my print if so.

[Carbon 28]

When you press / click on the "Blue button" (touch screen) for bay C, what does it say?

 

 

Edited March 30, 2021 by Carbon

[sj3fk3 22]

15 hours ago, eddieparker said:

I really wish there was a "soft reboot" or something.  Some way of telling the U5 "Hey, rescan for material please", or a way to manually tell it to choose what bay to use.

 

Sometimes that would work, but not in the case when there is material stuck within the Material Station for instance.

[sj3fk3 22]

11 hours ago, eddieparker said:

Support told me I had to reset the ultimaker so I did that.  Now it's just blinking lights for the last hour but not booting up. 😞

 

Any tips or tricks to get out of this?  I'd like to restart my print if so.

 

I am afraid the existing print is lost. I also think it's a good idea to contact support again and send them the logfiles. We need to investigate what's going on here. 

[Jman15x 4]

Wow that really sucks that you just lost hundreds of dollars of material and and 7 days of print time due to ultimaker's sh***y UI. I'm angry just reading this thread. Why they haven't added a simple error clear function or refresh button is beyond me. Power cycling should never be relied on as a feature. It is baffling to me for a machine with a $10k price tag. 

[eddieparker 4]

On 3/30/2021 at 2:32 AM, sj3fk3 said:

 

I am afraid the existing print is lost. I also think it's a good idea to contact support again and send them the logfiles. We need to investigate what's going on here. 

Thanks.  Unfortunately I've lost the logs since I flashed the firmware since.  It did one successfuly print after I flashed it, then it gave me an error code as some filament got wrapped around the Z axis threaded rod, I removed it but it didn't quit complaining so I power cycled it, and then it bricked again. :(

 

I'm just finishing flashing it again.  

 

Unrelated note: are there any micro SD card extensions I can use with the Ultimaker S5?  Having to tear apart the station to turn it upside to flash it is a bit scary given how big of a unit it is - I'd rather if I could have the micro SD more accessible, especially if flashing is going to be more common. :(

[sj3fk3 22]

5 hours ago, eddieparker said:

Thanks.  Unfortunately I've lost the logs since I flashed the firmware since.  It did one successfuly print after I flashed it, then it gave me an error code as some filament got wrapped around the Z axis threaded rod, I removed it but it didn't quit complaining so I power cycled it, and then it bricked again. 😞

 

I'm just finishing flashing it again.  

 

Unrelated note: are there any micro SD card extensions I can use with the Ultimaker S5?  Having to tear apart the station to turn it upside to flash it is a bit scary given how big of a unit it is - I'd rather if I could have the micro SD more accessible, especially if flashing is going to be more common. 😞

 

Ah, yes I think some of our debug setups have these extensions on the SD card. However it is far from normal to have to use them. When you say "bricked" what exactly do you mean? Because a black display or a stuck boot (with the Ultimaker logo) does not mean it is bricked perse. Also it might be a good idea to turn on dev-mode and ssh. That way you can get "into" the machine if you think something is fishy and you might be able to type something like "reboot" and have the system restart itself.

 

I'll ask one of the engineers to comment on what the use to extend the SD reader as I haven't done it myself.  

[eddieparker 4]

On 4/2/2021 at 3:04 AM, sj3fk3 said:

 

Ah, yes I think some of our debug setups have these extensions on the SD card. However it is far from normal to have to use them. When you say "bricked" what exactly do you mean? Because a black display or a stuck boot (with the Ultimaker logo) does not mean it is bricked perse. Also it might be a good idea to turn on dev-mode and ssh. That way you can get "into" the machine if you think something is fishy and you might be able to type something like "reboot" and have the system restart itself.

 

I'll ask one of the engineers to comment on what the use to extend the SD reader as I haven't done it myself.  

Oh; I'm sorry, I thought I replied to this.

 

I suppose I'm using 'bricked' incorrectly.  It just gets stuck at the 'Ultimaker S5' with no progress.  I've left it for a few days and it doesn't come back.

 

I've since flashed it and it seemed to be working -- although I just came back to this post to ask about the SD card extension as it *just* happened again where the material got stuck, I got an ER65 or whatever, and then on powercycling it it just never came back to life.  I'm trying my darndest to avoid flipping the titanic beast over, so if you could get back to me with the product to buy to flash it so I only have to flip it one more time, that'd be great: I'd like to avoid more chances of breaking the hardware by trying to fix it!

[sj3fk3 22]

6 hours ago, eddieparker said:

I've since flashed it and it seemed to be working -- although I just came back to this post to ask about the SD card extension as it *just* happened again where the material got stuck, I got an ER65 or whatever, and then on powercycling it it just never came back to life.  I'm trying my darndest to avoid flipping the titanic beast over, so if you could get back to me with the product to buy to flash it so I only have to flip it one more time, that'd be great: I'd like to avoid more chances of breaking the hardware by trying to fix it!

 

I honestly don't think you need to do a complete restore then this happens. Have you tried to reboot the printer (again)? It could be that you maybe need to do it again. One other (maybe more safe) option is to enable the developer mode. Because maybe it's only the screen that is stuck and not the whole system. In that case you could log-in to the printer and just type reboot.

 

Also, we would really like to have your log files as there is clearly something going on there. Could you contact support and coordinate with them to give us the logfiles?

 

p.s.

ER65 is a flowsensor warning. One should be able to continue from it. Are you sure it wasn't a break fail wizard? And if so, did you actually go through with the wizard? I've made the mistake once of ignoring it and then you do end up in a mess.

[eddieparker 4]

On 4/19/2021 at 1:53 AM, sj3fk3 said:

 

I honestly don't think you need to do a complete restore then this happens. Have you tried to reboot the printer (again)? It could be that you maybe need to do it again. One other (maybe more safe) option is to enable the developer mode. Because maybe it's only the screen that is stuck and not the whole system. In that case you could log-in to the printer and just type reboot.

 

Also, we would really like to have your log files as there is clearly something going on there. Could you contact support and coordinate with them to give us the logfiles?

 

p.s.

ER65 is a flowsensor warning. One should be able to continue from it. Are you sure it wasn't a break fail wizard? And if so, did you actually go through with the wizard? I've made the mistake once of ignoring it and then you do end up in a mess.

 

Thanks sj3fk3.  So it looks like my machine gets hung if I leave the material station plugged in when an error happens.  I currently work around it by unplugging the material station, then plugging that power cord into the ultimaker, letting it error there, unplugging then plugging in the material station again and it starts working.  

 

If it happens again I'll get logs to you folks.  It's definitely not ideal.  I'm thinking of getting a power strip inbetween the material station and the wall so it's easier to do this manoeuvre with at least.

[sj3fk3 22]

On 4/29/2021 at 7:44 AM, eddieparker said:

 

Thanks sj3fk3.  So it looks like my machine gets hung if I leave the material station plugged in when an error happens.  I currently work around it by unplugging the material station, then plugging that power cord into the ultimaker, letting it error there, unplugging then plugging in the material station again and it starts working.  

 

If it happens again I'll get logs to you folks.  It's definitely not ideal.  I'm thinking of getting a power strip inbetween the material station and the wall so it's easier to do this manoeuvre with at least.

 

When you say "error" can you be more specific? What kind of error? Maybe even take a quick photo of the screen (while you are at it, also take a photo of the printhead that shows where the filament is).

 

I think there are better ways to get out of the situation, but we really need a little bit more information to help guide you out of it.  

[arj3090 2]

I am in this same situation after the 3rd time trying to complete a 26 hour print. This 3rd time it made it 14 hours and decided it was out of material when it wasn't. The prior day I loaded a second bay with the same material just in case it wanted to switch during the night. It seems the switching of material bays is not automatic because when I came in it was sitting with a message of Material Empty. I unloaded the second bay of material and reloaded it. It fed the material up to the  print core as if it was going to proceed, but then hung at Changing Material. This is costing me a lot of expensive material. I don't know what else to do besides cycle power which then fails my print requiring me to start again.

 

The material is Jabil 4535CF. Firmware is 7.0.2

[StevenD90s 3]

Hello All,

i think i found a solution to the stuck at "changing filament" problem. I'm a year late but i hope this helps.

 

This issue has come up several times usually at the end of a build when the printer tries to retract filament and park the filament a few centimeters above the hot end for the next print.

 

This time is happened mid print due to an actual break in the filament. As I unloaded the filament bay in error the material station rolls back the filament but the S5 thinks there is still a piece stuck in the hot-end which leads to the eternal "changing filament" screen. The S5 tries to walk you through a process to remove what it thinks is stuck in the hot-end. I did this and the "changing material" screen persisted.

 

I didn't want to lose a 6 hr print so i looked for answer here but came up empty. However it was mentioned that the browser interface of the S5 may be of help. So I clicked the "manage in browser" link in Cura and here's what I found.

 

If you click the 3 dots on the top right of the current job go there is an option to resume print! I clicked that and the printer tried resuming where it left off. Only problem was that no filament was loaded. So I paused the print again right away. I manually loaded the filament past the decoupler. If  you go too far the stepper motor will push back against you. You need to depress the decoupler switch by pushing down on the topside "strain adjuster" (IDK what to call that) and the S5 will feed the filament all the way to the hot-end. But you must unclamp the feed motor before doing this last step. Once you have the filament to the hot-end reclamp the feeder and you are good to go. Resume print and voila!