What Would You Like To See In An Ultimaker 3?

[valentt 0]

More competitive price and a better feed, I'm a simple man  :-P

 

Agreed, release UM3 and lover the price of UM2+ with E3D full metal hotend for 50% lover price and you will kill the enthusiast market.

For the price of UM2 you can get much more capable 3D printers like BCN3D Sigma with dual heads and all metal hotend...

Edited August 30, 2016 by Guest

[meduza 191]

But why would you want a E3D Full metal hotend (unless you only want to print ABS), i have only bad experiences with all-metal hotends when it comes to printing PLA reliably... the UM2 hotend is miles better in that respect!

[valentt 0]

But why would you want a E3D Full metal hotend (unless you only want to print ABS), i have only bad experiences with all-metal hotends when it comes to printing PLA reliably... the UM2 hotend is miles better in that respect!

 

I need durable outdoor objects, and I use all different materials, most of them are printed at 250-280°C, which original UM2 hotend can handle but only for short time before PTFE burns out. If UM2 could handle 24/7 printing @280°C I would have no need for other heat end.

I have zero issue with E3D V6 and PLA, it prints perfectly! I had prints for over 30 hours without any problems. What kind of issues did you have? Did you use original E3D head or cheap knock-offs ?

Edited August 30, 2016 by Guest

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

I need durable outdoor objects, and I use all different materials, most of them are printed at 250-280°C, which original UM2 hotend can handle but only for short time before PTFE burns out. If UM2 could handle 24/7 printing @280°C I would have no need for other heat end.

 

Ever tried the TF2K coupler from 3dSolex with your UM2? It allows continuous printing at 300°C.

[gr5 2,230]

If you never print PLA then an all metal hot end is great. If you do try to print PLA though it you will find the PLA often gets stuck against the metal and hardens and creates clogs high up inside the cooler portion of the hot end.

[meduza 191]

What kind of issues did you have? Did you use original E3D head or cheap knock-offs ?

 

I have used both E3D original and self-made ones (no cheap knock-off shit), and i know that i am not alone on having problems with all-metal hotends, they are 1.) super sensitive to retraction distance, wich is problematic with bowden-setups if you also do not want crazy amounts of stringing and 2.) really sensitive to ambient temperature, so if you close up the front of your printer, the air rising from the heated bed might be too hot to cool the heat sink.

Both of these problems (too long retraction or too hot air) inevitably causes filament jams with PLA because of the extremely high friction between soft PLA and the metal walls.

Compared to the all metal hotends i have tried, the UM2+ hotend is way better and comparatively foolproof as long as we are talking about PLA. (also, if you still are using the old PTFE, do yourself a favor and get a TFM and a rigid spacer... it holds up sooo much better)

Edited August 30, 2016 by Guest

[lance-greene 7]

ya I think top priority is price, the UM2 is monstrously expensive ($3250 + tax up here in canada) The UM3 NEEDS to be under $3000 CAD. I payed $1800 for a BigBox from E3D, the UM3 should be able to compete on price with that.

[valentt 0]

ya I think top priority is price, the UM2 is monstrously expensive ($3250 + tax up here in canada) The UM3 NEEDS to be under $3000 CAD. I payed $1800 for a BigBox from E3D, the UM3 should be able to compete on price with that.

 

Yes, if UM3 isn't priced competitively they will price them selves out of the market.

Can you please compare UM2 and BigBox regarding print quality, print speed, material selection, temperature ranges for hotend and heatbed...

Edited August 31, 2016 by Guest

[meduza 191]

I do not really agree in your analysis that price is so important, i believe we will see more market segmentation along with the 3d printer market is getting more mature, and i believe Ultimaker will and should be aiming for the segment of desktop 3d printers in professional and educational environments where the most important factors are reliability, user friendliness, print quality, and customer support, rather than pricing (it is way more expensive than 1000€ to have a professional to fiddle around with a printer for a bunch of hours more than needed).

 

If you read this interview: https://all3dp.com/ultimaker-interview/, you will see that Jos (Ultimaker CEO) defined the Ultimaker segment as "printers between 2000 and 3500 Euros" and "specifically in industrial and educational environments"

Edited August 31, 2016 by Guest

[prb4 6]

2 colour printing to allow the use of dis-solvable support material, even from support I modeled as part of the item.

For me this would take the Ultimaker 2+ from excellent to amazing.

It would save me a lot of time (and therefore money) if I didn't have to manually remove support.

[meduza 191]

Yeah, that would take Ultimaker to the next level, since it would enable printing things not designed for 3D Printing. Also dual material printing with for example TPE and PLA in the same print would be really interesting.

[flowalistik 181]

As someone who lives in a very small appartment in Paris, the feature I'd like the most is a silent printer.

I already have an UMO+ and an UM2+. The noise level difference between those two printers is very big as the UMO+'s plywood frame amplifies the noise, but I think there is still room for improvement in terms of making the printer a little bit more quiet. A top and front cover would help a lot, but I'd go for the motor drivers/mechanical parts upgrade, as that's the only way to improve that.

But, however, I don't think this is a priority. Better printing quality (dual extrusion for PVA support) and reliability are the most important things at this moment, and I guess Ultimaker is ulti-focused on those two things.

[valentt 0]

As someone who lives in a very small appartment in Paris, the feature I'd like the most is a silent printer.

I already have an UMO+ and an UM2+. The noise level difference between those two printers is very big as the UMO+'s plywood frame amplifies the noise, but I think there is still room for improvement in terms of making the printer a little bit more quiet. A top and front cover would help a lot, but I'd go for the motor drivers/mechanical parts upgrade, as that's the only way to improve that.

But, however, I don't think this is a priority. Better printing quality (dual extrusion for PVA support) and reliability are the most important things at this moment, and I guess Ultimaker is ulti-focused on those two things.

I completely agree, I have a friend who built UM2 clone, and made it MUCH more silent. I'm very jealous that his UM2 clone is quieter than mine which I payed 3x as much...

The trick is in using different drivers... he used same motors. So if one guy on his own can make it more silent I would hope that Ultimaker R&D team can also figure it out...

Edited September 2, 2016 by Guest

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

An important part of making an Ultimaker Original more quiet are indeed the stepper drivers. On the the old Ultiboard 1.5.x one could easily exchange them. The current Ultiboard 2.x doesn't offer this possibility. Maybe reintroducing those sockets could be something for electronics R&D to make Ultimaker machines 'future proof'?

Edited September 3, 2016 by Guest

[meduza 191]

Returning the socketed "stepstick" style drivers would require going back to active cooling, the problem is that these stepper driver chips are designed to let the heat be removed by the copper in the PCB, and with the small plug-in modules there is simply not enough PCB area to suck away the heat passively, which makes active cooling a requirement.

Edited September 3, 2016 by Guest

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

There is nothing wrong with active cooling. Doesn't have to be the old UMO radial fan. A clever air guidance design would allow for using silent fans with less power and still getting a nice air stream over the stepper drivers.

[flowalistik 181]

I'd go for silent motor drivers in the future, not exchangeable, but in the UM2 board. That could have been a cool thing to implement in the UM2+, although the upgrade kit's price would have been much higher.

[valentt 0]

Just saw 14h video marathon from Thomas, and decided not to wait for UM3 and just go with Prusa i3 MK2... UM3 will have to be really mind blowing machine in order to win be back over...

 

Edited September 3, 2016 by Guest

[LePaul 331]

The Prusa is a impressive printer...I'd love to build one

Since the new Cura beta has Dual Extrusion showing...and you can't make it go away...my money says the UM3 has it.

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

Since the new Cura beta has Dual Extrusion showing...and you can't make it go away...my money says the UM3 has it.

 

Bringing dual extrusion with Cura 2.3 means keeping a promise made by Ultimaker to UMO users back when the new Cura was introduced with single extrusion only.

Edited September 4, 2016 by Guest

[LePaul 331]

...if it works! But we will see!

I know the Raise3D and others have dual extruders.

The trend is towards larger print volume. Several of my friends have looked at Ultimaker printers but opted for larger volume offerings.

And support material that can dissolve away would be great!

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

 

@LePaul: I was talking about software (Cura) - I have the impression you are talking about hardware.

Edited September 4, 2016 by Guest

[Labern 775]

Yes there are other printers like Raise3d But the overall quality of the printers are no way near the UM.

Its easy to wack dual extruders on a printer but its hard to make it work well and this is why UM stopped development on the UM2 because they wanted to keep the same print quality as a single extruder machine.

Bigger print volume would be nice though.

[flowalistik 181]

Yes there are other printers like Raise3d But the overall quality of the printers are no way near the UM.

Its easy to wack dual extruders on a printer but its hard to make it work well and this is why UM stopped development on the UM2 because they wanted to keep the same print quality as a single extruder machine.

Bigger print volume would be nice though.

 

I really like what BCN3D and BQ have done with their printers, using a standard A4 size as a printing bed surface. I understand that creating an Ultimaker 2 Extended was easier if they added some more cm in the Z axis, but I'd have like it if it was in the X axis.

[lance-greene 7]

the ability to easily use 1.75 or 2.85mm filament. the fact that there is more than 1 filament size and machines cant easily change between them for user preference bothers me to no end. a next gen printer should be able to easily switch between using either of those 2 filament sizes. considering the crazy price of UM machines, they should come with the couple small pieces you need to switch your machine to 1.75.