Some issues with first print

[kitwashere 1]

I finally got my Ultimaker fully built yesterday. Got RepG installed and all, and everything seems to jog fine in the control panel there. But sometimes the Z motor will not move the stage. Sounds like it is trying but nothing turns. The clamping screws are very tight, and the motor does work about half the time, but the other half if just doesn't no matter what speed or distance I set it to.

When the Z motor was working semi consistently, I attempted to print the 20mm test box. After I press build only the X and Y axis are doing their job, Z motor is not even trying and the extruder is not turning. I have gotten the extruder to heat up and spit out melted plastic in the control panel, so I know that it is functional. Seems like I'm doing something wrong with the program. All of this was done on the stock firmware (5D)

Any help appreciated.

-Mike

[Daid 306]

The Z motor problems could be an overheating stepper driver, see:

http://wiki.ultimaker.com/Electronics_b ... or_drivers

The extruder not turning is most likely the "dimension" module turned off.

It you are running windows, Cura solves most, if not all, software issues:

https://github.com/daid/Cura/wiki

 

[kitwashere 1]

I gave Cura a shot and all seemed to be going well with the First Run Wizard, but when I got to the part where it has me extrude 100mm of filament the extruder never turns. When I click finish it just closes everything out. Also during the endstop tests, all went through fine except for the last one, bottom Z stop. The stop seemed to work in the control panel section of ReplicatorG.

Any help appreciated, I still have not gotten any prints with my machine.

Thank in advance.

-Mike

[Daid 306]

The extrusion calibration is bugged. Just skip it for now, you should be able to print fine without it.

The endstop test is odd, but the bottom Z endstop is almost never hit, so it's up to yourself to decide if you want to investigate that more.

[alaris2 1]

I found those bugs too..

python throws exceptions because on first time install Cura puts 0 in the first box and nothing in the second box. as a result it throws some error about 'startswith'..

anyway the work around is to type 100 in the first box and 850 in the next box. then hit save, then hit the extrude button. measure the extrusion and enter the real value and it will re-calculate E for you.

moral is to watch the dos box and see what errors are being thrown up there..

best of luck, nik

[kitwashere 1]

I did as Nik said and just put 850 in the "Steps per E" box, saved, and hit extrude. In the dos box it says:

"Connecting to: COM3 250000"

And then nothing happens, the buttons on the wizard "ungrey-out" and that's it. I tried it again and it says the same thing in the dos box, just:

"Connecting to: COM3 250000"

No error codes or anything. When I hit finish the wizard and the dos box just close out. Something does come up in the dos box but it goes away to fast to read it.

When I tried to skip all the tests and just get through the First Run Wizard, same story. Once I hit finish on the "Extrude 100mm" page, everything just closes.

[Daid 306]

The RC1 installer doesn't setup the correct permissions, that's why it closes down after the first run wizard (fails to write a file)

You could install beta4, or setup the python.exe to run as administrator.

[bersandro 0]

Hello, i'm a new owner of an Ultimaker. I bought used/like new from a guy that drive it in windows xp. I have windows 7 installed, so a lot of problems rised. The machine is one of the latest version v 1.5 (5d firmware) 2 month old. I'm using Replicator 0024 and i've installed Python 2.7.2. I'm not sure, but other firmware like Marlin and last Replicator versions, don't work. Opening Replicator 0024, i'm able to move the xyz axes, extrusor motor and nozzle heating. When i click on "generate gcode", Skeinforge opens and from here i choose a profile ex: cupkake-mk5-ABS (i'm using PLA anyway 210°C). The program generates a file for the printer that's ready to start, so after clicking on the start button the plexiglas base goes down about 5 mm. and the machine stop showing an error as shown in the screen shot below. Somebody could help me please? It's about a week i'm trying and retrying, checking dozen of time the same things. I also bought Netfabb, but it doesn't connect to the printer at all. Somebody could help me step by step with pictures, to setup the printer with newer firmware and software, on windows 7 please? Thanks for any suggestion.

[Daid 306]

Hi bersandro,

With ReplicatorG and the 5D firmware, you are using very old software. I highly recommend Cura, which solves a lot of software issues for beginners.

https://github.com/daid/Cura/wiki

You are running windows, so running Cura should be no problem at all.

[bersandro 0]

Hello Daid, thanks for your reply, i've installed Cura and upgraded to Marlin firmware. After the Wizard the program asks to move the extruder and the other axes for checking, but i didn't find any way to do it. I tryied with arrows from the keyboard, but it doesn't moves. Also the heating of the extruder i've setted to 200°C, but it remain cold. Attached you find a screen shot, maybe you can understand what's wrong, for me all these things are very new. Thanks for your help.

[bersandro 0]

Hello Daid,

thanks for your reply, i've installed Cura and upgraded to Marlin firmware. During the Wizard the program asks to move the extruder and the other axes for checking, but i didn't find any way to do it. I tryied with arrows from the keyboard and by clicking to xyz home as shown on the left of the screenshot, but it doesn't moves. Also the heating of the extruder i've setted to 200°C, but it remain cold. Attached you find a screen shot, maybe you can understand what's wrong, for me all these things are very new. Thanks for your help.

Sorry, i forget the screenshot.

[Daid 306]

During the first run wizard you are asked to move the head to the centre of the machine. This can be done by hand at that point (motors are powered off).

Then you are asked to push the end switches, this needs to be done by hand. This is to check if the end switched are wired up correctly and in the correct place.

Finally it tries to heat up for 20 seconds to see if your heater and temperature sensor work.

You don't need to use PrintRun at these steps. (And you don't need to use PrintRun at all, some people just prefer PrintRun over Cura's simplistic printing interface)