Is there something good in the UM5 ?

[bonelli 4]

Hello,

 

I'm sharing my confusion here, to be honest I'm not sure if anyone can help but if this post can dissuade future buyers from buying an ultimaker, I would have saved the readers time and money.

 

We bought the UM5 as a pro-bundle in 2020 (complete kit with air manager and material station). After that, we had continuous and recurrent problems with all firmware versions.

 

We spent a lot of time rebooting the machine because at the slightest bug, we have to reboot everything, and the f*ing tiny linux takes 5 minutes to boot. We also spent a lot of time, miles of reels. I kept everything: we have several tens of empty reels(750g per reels). When I see the few parts made with them, I think we have a problem. Where did the material go? In the garbage.

 

Common issues are connection problems with the air station (because yes, a fan can make you lose 3 days looking for it), the material station (various ER), the nozzles, the wire that gets stuck everywhere (which combined with an ER that requires a reboot, can make an infinite loop of reboots), the leveling of the plate, the head that moves out of the machine... the list is long. Before, I sometimes felt like hammering it. Now, I feel like tilting the piece of furniture.

 

Right now, I have a piece I've been trying to print since March (it's late July - obviously, I haven't been able to print anything else in that time). I had systematic errors (travel outside the printing area). I just updated with the last fw (7.0.3, after 7.0.2, after 6.5.4), yes it's a beta, like all the others no ?) and the last cura (5.1), you never know... Result, it's worse.

- 1st attempt : ER problem Z axis or limit sensor

- 2nd and 3rd attempt, ER XY axis or limit sensor

 

However, all the mechanics seems ok and the homing works (via the maintenance menu). Another bug introduced by the new firmware, which will be solved (or not) in the next fw, in exchange of a new bug which will arrive sneakily in the middle of a print. I tried to extract the logs (via the maintenance menu). A screen "operation in progress, please wait" appeared, then the machine crashed.

 

After the purchase, I had published a post on the English forum not less than 10 bugs found in a record time: 

 

https://community.ultimaker.com/topic/32865-s5-pro-bundle-10-critical-bugs-in-3-hours/#comment-265804

 

The answers from the tech support were non-existent, inappropriate or inefficient.

 

I also tried to make the warranty work: 3 days after the deadline, the seller explains me that it's too late and that my numerous posts on this forum (which is the official forum, to which the support answers) are not enough to prove that the problem is prior to the warranty deadline. Meanwhile, ultimaker continues to develop absolutely useless stuff (driving a fleet of machines remotely, useless when 9 prints out of 10 require to be present to reboot 3 times and clean the plate).

 

We can also talk about Ultimaker's commercial lies, for example with this scam about PVA: supposed to dissolve in 15 minutes in a tank with water at room temperature. Really? After 48 hours, I still have a gelatinous thing stuck to my parts. Searching on chemists' websites, we find another information to dissolve PVA: what you need is an ultrasonic machine and water at 80-95°C. Complicated with ABS/PA/PLA parts that soften at 40°C! Today, UM sells you the PVA Removal Station. So there was a problem.

 

[Smithy 1,136]

On 7/26/2022 at 3:44 PM, bonelli said:

that my numerous posts on this forum (which is the official forum, to which the support answers)

 

Not really, the forum is a community forum and often Ultimaker employees are answering some posts, but it is not an official support forum.

 

Best would be to contact Ultimaker support directly:

https://support.ultimaker.com/hc/en-us/requests/new

 

[LePaul 312]

Wow, your machine/system certainly has some issues.  

I'm sure someone from Ultimaker will reach out about this, such as @SandervG to help you.

You made a big investment and you certainly need someone to help you through these error messages.

[kayakbabe 11]

I've had almost zero problems with my machine that were caused by my machine and the Ultimaker S5 is my recommendation for everyone who asks me about 3D printing. I also bought mine in late 2020. I've been super happy with it. I'm surprised by your experience with your machine.

 

To answer your question, "Is there something good in the UM5 ?", Yes everything is good about it!

 

I read your posts and think that alot are probably a machine problem, probably a loose connection in shipping. You mentioned that, but I suspect you may have more or the one that came loose is still not seated quite right. Could be the connector to the board is messed up.maybe a cracked solder joint on the board that doesn't cause problems until the board gets warmed up. I had a PC like that once. 

 

I suspect you also may need to put your machine on an UPS with AVR (uninterruptible power supply with automatic voltage regulator). some of you issues sound like they could be power related. I had a lot of "ghost in the machine" problems with both my PC and my S5 at first.  When I plugged them into a high quality UPS instead of a cheap surge protector 99% of all my problems disappeared. I spent so much money on the PC and S5, it seemed like nothing to get a $300 UPS to protect them. All my weird PC freezes and glitches (thought I had a virus, but it was bad power instead) went away. 

 

Also a Community forum is not the same as contacting Ultimaker Support. We all try to help each other as much as we can. But for real support and warranty issues, it is always best to actually contact the company directly. Ultimaker makes it very easy to contact them. You can't be mad at them when they don't see a post on a community board. It isn't a support ticket system.

Edited August 10, 2022 by kayakbabe