UM2 doesn't work right out of the box - help!

[zax 0]

Hey Everyone,

Just received my brand new Ultimaker 2 and I am already super frustrated, and pissed.

I started doing the leveling process per the manual and couldn't believe that the printer had problems right a way.

The bed started moving up and stopped more than 2 cm from the head. How am I supposed to move it to 1mm from the head with the screws? (the adjustment with the screws is just few millimeters not 2 cm) Turned it off and back on.

The bed moved down touching the bottom, did a brief stop then moved up about an inch, stopped and moved down again hitting the bottom and trying to continue moving down making horrible noises and it just wouldn't stop. Turned it off then on. The bed moves up an inch then down and doesn't stop, just smashing it to the bottom and making horrible noises. I am very pissed I was waiting for this printer so much and paid $3000 for it.

Checked the Z axis micro-switch. Works good. The Z axis push-rod pushes the switch down and that is when the bed changes direction and goes up for an inch then turns back, pushes the switch and doesn't stop, and continues to move slamming into the bottom.

I updated the firmware through USB with CURA that worked, but nothing changed.

I can't even pass the 3rd welcome screen-page.

I did my research and settled on the UM2 because of the quality, but this is a super bad start. It's a piece of cr*p at the moment. I hope I can change my opinion, but come on, $3000 for this ?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[IRobertI 516]

Don't worry, you'll be taken care of. Right now it's 3:17AM and I'm falling asleep in my chair so I wont be of much use at the moment. But I can help you with the first part. You don't use the physical screws for the first step of the leveling process, you use the wheel next to the screen.

That it keeps trying to go down even when the end stop has been hit sounds strange to say the least. But, my brain is mush and I can't think straight. Someone else will be along soon I'm sure, I just wanted to re-assure you that we'll get it sorted for you. Off to bed I go!

 

[illuminarti 18]

So after upgrading the firmware, where are you at now with the printer? Is the bed still moving up and down, or can you get into the leveling wizard, and follow the steps?

 

[zax 0]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Finally fixed the printer. Now it prints beautifully.

For future references there is a little bug in the firmware. Particularly in the leveling wizard.

This is what happened:

I read the full manual before even touching the printer. I was very impressed that there is an actual printed documentation and it is illustrated well. (In the manual it is missing the part where the new user has to install the glass bed, though, i would add that in the future releases).

The main problem I ran into: When I turned on the printer the bed moved up, and stopped about 2cm from the head. Even though I read the manual in advance, when UM2 was asking to position the bed 1mm to the head, I started turning the "knob on the screw" and I have seen right the way that there is no way to move the bed that close. I checked the manual and my eyes went to the screw turning section and did not notice the note on rotating the "jog-wheel" to position the bed closer.

So I turned off the UM2 and turned on again. That is when the real problem started. Because the bed was still in the up position, it started to move down. It moved down about 3 inches and stopped. Of course I still did not know that I had to rotate the jog-wheel. So I turned the UM2 off and on. The bed again moved down, touching the bottom plate, moved up an inch then moved down again and didn't stop there, it was pushing and pushing, but because there was nowhere to go it was just making loud noise and I felt really bad for my precious UM2.

After few power on and off it was not moving up but 1 inch and then again slammed to the bottom and was pushing and pushing.

I checked the micro-switch on the bottom, looked fine. Updated the firmware 2 times. Nothing helped. That is when I posted the message. When I saw the hint about the jog-wheel rotation I quickly checked the manual and find the mention about the rotation.

I turned on the printer and of course it was again slamming into the bottom I was waiting and waiting. FInally stopped the pushing and I rotated the jog-wheel and did the positioning. When the head was heating and I had to feed the material and the bed moved down, again slammed into the bottom. But at least the wizard was done.

The solution was: I had to go to the maintenance-advanced and reset to factory setting. That completely erased any memory information about the bed positioning and I re-started the leveling from start and this time I used the jog-wheel and everything went perfect.

So I think the bug in the firmware is:

- new UM2, new user starts leveling with the wizard

- if for any reason the user does not finish the leveling wizard and decides to turn off the UM2, next time the UM2 will move the bed to the bottom and will not stop there. And because there is no way to skip or cancel the wizard, the user has to wait until the wizard somehow finishes the bed slamming part and then the factory reset is reachable. When the reset is done, the bed moves to the bottom position and the leveling can be re-started and everything is fine.

Thanks again for the help.

 

[vinay 1]

Here my unboxing hope this helps

 

 

[gr5 2,002]

but because there was nowhere to go it was just making loud noise and I felt really bad for my precious UM2.

 

This thing - where one of the 3 axes hits the end but keeps trying and makes that horrible loud noise - just be aware that the UM1 and UM2 are designed such that nothing will break when this happens.

It certainly looks like you found a firmware bug - sounds like it will be easy to fix.

 

[lennart-bruggink 3]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Finally fixed the printer. Now it prints beautifully.

For future references there is a little bug in the firmware. Particularly in the leveling wizard.

This is what happened:

I read the full manual before even touching the printer. I was very impressed that there is an actual printed documentation and it is illustrated well. (In the manual it is missing the part where the new user has to install the glass bed, though, i would add that in the future releases).

The main problem I ran into: When I turned on the printer the bed moved up, and stopped about 2cm from the head. Even though I read the manual in advance, when UM2 was asking to position the bed 1mm to the head, I started turning the "knob on the screw" and I have seen right the way that there is no way to move the bed that close. I checked the manual and my eyes went to the screw turning section and did not notice the note on rotating the "jog-wheel" to position the bed closer.

So I turned off the UM2 and turned on again. That is when the real problem started. Because the bed was still in the up position, it started to move down. It moved down about 3 inches and stopped. Of course I still did not know that I had to rotate the jog-wheel. So I turned the UM2 off and on. The bed again moved down, touching the bottom plate, moved up an inch then moved down again and didn't stop there, it was pushing and pushing, but because there was nowhere to go it was just making loud noise and I felt really bad for my precious UM2.

After few power on and off it was not moving up but 1 inch and then again slammed to the bottom and was pushing and pushing.

I checked the micro-switch on the bottom, looked fine. Updated the firmware 2 times. Nothing helped. That is when I posted the message. When I saw the hint about the jog-wheel rotation I quickly checked the manual and find the mention about the rotation.

I turned on the printer and of course it was again slamming into the bottom I was waiting and waiting. FInally stopped the pushing and I rotated the jog-wheel and did the positioning. When the head was heating and I had to feed the material and the bed moved down, again slammed into the bottom. But at least the wizard was done.

The solution was: I had to go to the maintenance-advanced and reset to factory setting. That completely erased any memory information about the bed positioning and I re-started the leveling from start and this time I used the jog-wheel and everything went perfect.

So I think the bug in the firmware is:

- new UM2, new user starts leveling with the wizard

- if for any reason the user does not finish the leveling wizard and decides to turn off the UM2, next time the UM2 will move the bed to the bottom and will not stop there. And because there is no way to skip or cancel the wizard, the user has to wait until the wizard somehow finishes the bed slamming part and then the factory reset is reachable. When the reset is done, the bed moves to the bottom position and the leveling can be re-started and everything is fine.

Thanks again for the help.

 

Hey Zax,

here's my 2 cents on what could have happened:

My Ultimaker2 did roughly the same, but with the x axis instead of y.

I found that my problem was fixed then i adjusted the "clicker", which resets the position so the printer knows what the 0- position is.

Long story short, I believe that during transport, the clicker got loosened/ deformed just enough to let the zero-ing mechanism ( in my case moving the printhead to the left) disfunction.

After deforming a bit and adding some tape ( see one of my other posts) the zero-ing went well and printer was functioning properly!

I think that is what happened with your printer, but then at the z-axis.

However, This problem could indeed originate from firmware, since my guess is that it is designed to start to go down in the first attempt to reach the "zero- clicker".

again, just my idea. Listen to the mods

 

[zax 0]

Thanks gr5 and Lennart,

All is good with the UM2. Prints super beautifully. I am happy. I printed all weekend, different speeds and bed temp. Created some test objects in Maya and the workflow to the UM2 (Maya-Obj-Cura-gcode-UM2-print) is just so easy and seamless.

Thanks again for all the help.

 

[gr5 2,002]

That clicker is called a "limit switch". It detects when you have "hit the limit".

I think Zax correctly identified the problem (but I'm not certain) - it appears to be a bug in the firmware if you cut power during homing. Hopefully Daid will fix this some day.

 

[zax 0]

 

Lennart, Thanks for the tip. I was watching the "Photographs and Films (What have you MADE ?)" folder for a year now. That was one of the main R&D place for me to make the decision for my UM2 purchase. The prints I have seen there just amazing quality. And since UM2 came out the quality of posted prints just getting higher and higher. It's the best testing tool for me to see what is possible.

I work in the video game business and we do a lot of QA playtesting, so I understand how important is catching and identifying bugs. Sometimes bugs do not come for months, then a special combination of user interaction happens and the bug shows itself. Something like this happened here. I turned off the device before finishing up the leveling wizard and the bug happened. I wonder if I turn off the device while it is starting the print (when the bed is moving up to a starting position), would it zero the bed to a correct position next time I turn on the UM2 or it would get mixed up with positions. I think not, I think the bug is in the leveling wizard.

But again, thanks for all the help, there is a great community here.

 

 

 

 

[lennart-bruggink 3]

I work in the video game business ...

 

 

Awesome!

What studios are you working at?

A Nephew of mine works at Guerilla games studios, I think thats really awesome. I believe he's Head of the lighting team.

I wish I could do something similar however, first just do some rough designing with Rhino/zbrush etc to see what I can make that can also be used to print!

Also, You are forgiven the rant at the start of your post, I agree , My UM2 was also not directly working out of the box, but the problem was quickly fixed and like you, love the quality of printing!

Cheers!

Lennart