Anyone running their Form 2 with the newest firmware and Preform upgrades?
I ask as I’ve had major issues with both in the past and had to revert to older versions in order to get good prints.
I am. What kind of issues are you seeing? Roughly what firmware do you think they began appearing after?
It just seemed to screw up the files. Every time I did the upgrade I had issues and had to roll back the software.
The problems start immediately and clear up on rollback. Strange but it happens on two machines.
I felt that Preform was geared more towards the Form 3 and that was the reason for the issues.
What kind of “issues?” I haven’t had a print fail in ages, then the only print I’ve done recently was after the upgrade and it failed…floated in the tank. I haven’t printed since then. I’m on a Form 2.
I know the most recent upgrade added Castable Wax 40, which I haven’t printed yet. My recent fail was with gray. The model was supported well, and has printed successfully in the past. I’ll try another print this evening.
By “screw up the files” do you mean that you had trouble opening .form files saved in older versions? I haven’t had any problem like that.
I did notice a big change a while back to the auto-orient feature - it doesn’t suggest as many orientations, and the ones it does are typically flat against the build platform - which I interpret as geared toward decreasing print time on the Form 3. But I haven’t experienced any major Form 2 centric chronic issues on more recent firmwares.
It’s been awhile so I really don’t remember exactly what was going on. I think it was causing partial builds of parts.
Only whey to find out is update and see what happens. If it happens again the I have to go through rolling back both the firmware and Preform not an exciting activity but the older versions run without issues.
It was only after the Form 3 came out that I started having those issues with the printers when I’d do the updates.
I recently had issues with part warpage but that ended up i needed to clean the galvo mirrors and mirror glass. That started after the recent firmware and preform upgrades. Since i cleaned everything it’s been spot on.
It sucks to take the machine half apart to do this but it really makes a difference. My laser power returned to 100% after doing so.
Well, I just cleaned the Galvo mirror for the third time.
Really starting to question the resin. I’m using ALW Grey and haven’t had any issues until the last 4 months. They claim the formula hasn’t been changed. I may order a liter of FL Grey and run that to see if the problem is still there.
Yes, one pain in the butt to have to keep cleaning the galvo, main mirror and the glass. We did find that using a couple of drops of Ajax dish soap in a small container of water and use that to glean the glass. It really gets it clean and no streaks. I wouldn’t use it on the mirror as that’s silver faced and could damage it.
I still see there is a very slight issue with the standard resin’s though. Although i seen a vast improvement with both the standard grey and black after cleaning there is still a small warp to it. But again i regress since it’s so minor i can live with that. I have found that the Grey Pro has preformed much better than the standard when it comes to being straight as an arrow. BUT it also comes out dimensionally off in some cases.
I take it that you’re talking about FormLabs resin. It performed for me when I used it with no issues. My problem is cost. I manufacture and sell into the hobby industry both retail and wholesale. There’s a lot of competition out there so doubling the cost of the resin would increase my prices quite a bit and I’d loose sales.
What’s interesting is that as long as I space the items well apart I have NO issues with the prints. But because I need to do volume many times that adds time. But I guess I’m spending a lot of down time constantly cleaning, running and getting bad parts so the distancing is the solution for now. Never use to be a problem.
I understand. I too am looking into producing for the hobby industry but only on a limited basis at the moment. I’m a cg artist but am converting to fully 3d printing. I actually own a Napa Auto Parts store so this isn’t my primary work. Mostly a fill in hobby but i get the cost issue.
My end game would be to produce some for the auto industry for classic vehicles that you cannot get replacement pieces for any longer. We will see how it goes.
Everyone’s getting into the game. 
I’ve been at it since 2004. I use to have a large laser cutter and designed and made kits for model railroading. Did a lot of other laser products, I mainly did resin casting as well as white metal spin casting but that all got too much and the company grew too large. Sold off 2/3rd a few years back and went totally 3D printing with the Formlabs printers. We ship all over the World. Just the wife and I and our mfg facilities are what should be our living and dining rooms. At 78 & 75 we aren’t doing too bad. [laugh]
I had issues with middle printing adhesion on the build platform ever since I updated to the latest preform software and the printers firmware. Prints fail to stick and would end up on the resin tray. Are these latest updates are more geared towards Form3 feature ?/
I’m now running the latest of Preform and Firmware on my Form 2 printers and they are doing real good.
One thing that’s important is to sand the build plate. Not heavy but with 200 grit sandpaper over the entire surface. Then clean it real well. This helps parts stick to the build plate.
Also, I wash the build plate with each print wash. After it come out of the wash and still a bit wet I use a scouring pad to go over the build plate wet surface good then dry it. Very seldom have parts not stick. The scouring pads are ones I buy at the Dollar Store. Plastic but they do clean the plate real good.
I’ve even tried the adaptive layer height with the latest Preform update. Man it prints fast especially while using tough 1500. But on the 2nd print my form2 froze with 10 hours to go. I had Formlabs send the latest versions of the firmware and Preform and now it prints great!
I have not had an issue with adhesion on my build plate. Hope you get that resolved!
Thank you for the suggestion, I will give it a try. !