Feature Request: Option to prevent Material Station from retracting filament after print

[civileng 1]

Dear Ultimaker:

 

I recently bought the pro bundle and I noticed that before every single print, the MS will feed filament all the way through the tubes into the print head and extrude a bunch of plastic to clear the nozzle before making the part. After the print completes, the MS will extrude even more filament (pushing and pulling back and forth) in order to shape the tips of the filament into knobs for easier retraction because apparently thin strings will jam up the mechanisms. Then, after a delay. it fully retracts material 1 completely back into itself and leaves the PVA support spool partially retracted, a few inches above the print head.

 

Why can't we leave both filaments in the print cores after a print so the next job can be started immediately? I am forced to pack more parts into a single job at once because the start and end delays waste too much time and plastic. If anything, the prime/deprime procedure should occur only when the user requests a change in filament; if you intend on sticking to one main variety like PETG there's so much overhead. When reloading filament the material station doesn't ask: "Let me know when the plastic is extruding correctly" like the vanilla S5 does; instead it pushes out plastic on a set timer. I understand that a lot of the design choices were made assuming automation and remote operation, and the machine needs to extrude extra plastic than normal just to be absolutely sure. But a user still needs to be around to swap the glass plate between print jobs anyway so what does it matter? All in all, I think the material station has a serious lack of manual control or customization to fit the user's needs. It acts like an uncontrollable black box that needs to be worked around.

 

I would like to request a new feature at your earliest convenience:

1. Ability to manually change filaments with the MS (where the user can confirm the plastic is extruding correctly)

2. Option to prevent automatic filament retraction at the end of a print

 

I feel as though these two changes would make the material station absolutely perfect for a user like me; a true asset instead of an obstacle to productivity. And it doesn't seem so hard to implement, since it involves skipping an existing process instead of creating something brand new. At the time of this writing (Sept 18), I'm on the latest firmware: 6.5.1. Are any other users having this problem?

 

 

 

[JTMD 13]

Yes, that whole business of extruding off to the side before printing was annoying when I had the material station.

[civileng 1]

Hello Ultimaker: is there any update on the priming issue? We could really use a firmware update that gives users the option to disable material retraction at the end of a print.

 

I think anyone who uses a single main plastic will agree that the constant depriming process is frustrating because the machine thinks it needs to be ready to switch to any kind of material when there is only one. Also the support PVA filament keeps cracking from all the wear and tear of being dragged back and forth.

 

I unplugged my material station from the S5. I can only use it as a filament storage box because all of the errors (and time taken to cool down and reattempt) have a huge detrimental impact on produtivity.