Beware of the new Makerbot Makerware 2.3!
vanmunch
Posts: 568
sorry, look out for the rant, but this might help you if you're thinking about buying a 3D printer
/Unhappy face
I have a love/hate relationship with my Replicator 1 duel and I just don't understand the people at Makerbot. I've had my printer for a few years and it works well enough most of the time for me. I've learned how it needs to be treated. The problem is that MakerBot keeps trying to get people to use their in-house slicer which is awful with forced software upgrades. The prints don't stick together and are very brittle. The good thing is that you could always use Skeinforge by selecting the "high quality" setting. The software upgrades are forced because they turn off functionality, such as rafts, supports, or just the ability to actually slice your object.
This brings me to the new software Makerware 2.3 that was release a few weeks ago. They've helped the world by completely removing Skeinforge and killing Makerware 2.2x by removing rafts and support so now I have a large brick on my bench. I tried the using their software and it is AWFUL, completely USELESS. Thank you Makerbot, I really enjoy spending my night trying to print something.
I've sent in a support ticket, but from everything that I've read, I'm out of luck...
By the way, what was I getting ready for you might ask? I'm going to be doing a demo for a school science fair in two days and had spent the day recreating their logo and was going to be printing it for the kids.
/end rant
/eating cake
/Happy face
/Unhappy face
I have a love/hate relationship with my Replicator 1 duel and I just don't understand the people at Makerbot. I've had my printer for a few years and it works well enough most of the time for me. I've learned how it needs to be treated. The problem is that MakerBot keeps trying to get people to use their in-house slicer which is awful with forced software upgrades. The prints don't stick together and are very brittle. The good thing is that you could always use Skeinforge by selecting the "high quality" setting. The software upgrades are forced because they turn off functionality, such as rafts, supports, or just the ability to actually slice your object.
This brings me to the new software Makerware 2.3 that was release a few weeks ago. They've helped the world by completely removing Skeinforge and killing Makerware 2.2x by removing rafts and support so now I have a large brick on my bench. I tried the using their software and it is AWFUL, completely USELESS. Thank you Makerbot, I really enjoy spending my night trying to print something.
I've sent in a support ticket, but from everything that I've read, I'm out of luck...
By the way, what was I getting ready for you might ask? I'm going to be doing a demo for a school science fair in two days and had spent the day recreating their logo and was going to be printing it for the kids.
/end rant
/eating cake
/Happy face
Comments
The only thing I don't like about the software is the services that it installs which are always running in the background even when they are not required :-(
So I have them on manual startup now which is a pain but better for me in the long run.
As far as settings go, I just use the default settings, I haven't changed any parameters ;-)
One thing I do though is I always export to SD card, I've had it connected directly on USB but I found that a little problematic, SD works fine though.
Regards,
Coley
I have had it since August. I use the default settings, mostly only adjust the infill ratio and select the quality level - usually standard. It works well enough that I don't really give it any thought. In fact it is so consistent that I don't even watch the prints. I stick the SD card in, start it and leave. I do make sure to clean the build platform if it hasn't been used in a few days. The only real problem that I have had is a pulley coming loose from the X axis stepper.
Background: I'm printing with both extrudes and using a raft. I watched the print and it looks the the key to the problem is that the printer is putting too much space between the top of the raft and the first layer of the the object causing the first layer of the object to not stick to the raft. Any clue on how to adjust that? I've had my duel since March 2012 and "old" files from a month ago print fine.
Do you have pictures to post of the problem?
Here are three pictures. The first one is of an aborted print once I saw how mucked up it was. The second two pictures are of the same object where I decided to just let it print all the way through and see is anything could be saved.
The first one shows the raft and the first couple of layers. You can see how the object's filament is not sticking to the raft and thus the poor results. Notice how well the raft printed. I also printed the tree frog today using an old (1 month ago) file and it printed perfect, toes, eyes and all.
The second two pictures are of the same object the bottom and the top. You can see on the bottom side the filament did not stick to the raft and the same poor result. The top looks much better than the bottom, but not as good as before using Skeinforge and it "smears" the colors more than before.
The thing that really bugs me is that they won't let you keep using the old software that's only a few weeks "out of date". Why?
Eliminating old software eliminates the nightmare of supporting different versions of software.
Any software organization will "purge" any old software if possible to lower their support costs.
FWIW...just because you changed software doesn't mean it can't be the hardware that is the problem.
I assume that this is a printer that uses a heating element...can you measure the temperature of the element?
I have had heating elements "partially fail"...it will not reach the temperature it needs to in the time it is needed.
FWIW...any wire coil device can partially fail...my first exposure to this problem was a solenoid in a dishwasher many years ago. Because of a partially shorted coil, it would not fully open..it "kind of worked"...enough so that it wasted many hours of my time that it took to finally find it.