My printer ran flawlessly till the latest preform and firmware updates arrived and my prints started to fail. I was asked to do the optics test and here are the results. I was told my optics have degraded. I have had less than 50 prints with my printer since I bought it and the optics have degraded. I have never used the printer in open mode or tried doing any modifications. Anyone else having this issue? What could be the reason? How come I had problems only after upgrading preform and firmware? Optics degrading within 50 prints is too bad. Is form 2 really realiable? (My printer is not under warranty. More than 1 year old)
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Always save your old versions of firmware and preform. The first thing I do when I have a problem is to roll back both and see if that’s the issue. If it’s not the new firmware you’ll need a support ticket.
You may also want to try reinstalling the latest firmware and preform just in case it’s an install issue.
I raised the support ticket and they asked me to run optics test. After seeing the results of optics test they told that its the problem with optics. But I dont understand how I never faced problem with older version. Even now I am printing with older preform and firmware and its fine.
I would make sure to let the support team know that the problem goes away when you use an older Prefrom and firmware version.
Chris
I did let them know. They say optics has degraded. But if optics is degraded how am I getting failed prints with newer version and successful prints with older version? But they don’t seem to have answer for it.
I was also told I have degraded optics today. I can print Black V3 with 0 issues, Grey V4 now fails. I was also told they cannot show me my own logs for some reason. 10 months ago I was told my galvos were bad and were being replaced, today I was told it was actually the laser that was replaced. Hard to tell what is really going on. It is like the Wizard of Oz, ignore the facts behind the curtain!
And really strange this behavior of Formlabs I have my F2 to a year and a half already used 6 liters of resin so far everything is ok I had problems with the new update and I went back I’m using the resin V3 gray.
It seems many people are having problems with new update so its the software that needs to be changed and not printer parts.
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HI,
I can’t remember about the firmware update, but i have the same kind of printing results since 2 weeks, can’t get a single successful print.
Have you raised a ticket? I am trying to tell the support team that its the issue with their new software and not printer but they told me they haven’t received any complaints so they don’t agree with me but I have seen many people complaining about failed prints recently. Wonder why support team is ignoring the fact.
I dont understand why they are asking everyone having failed prints to get their printers repaired given that the failed prints are limited only to newer version and not older versions. They dont want to acknowledge the fact that its the issue with preform.
I did, this morning, awaiting for a reply.
I’ll update my post asap.
if your old ver of software works and prints great. don’t upgrade. why fix what is not broken. its a case of is the new juice worth the squeeze
Yes, I am using the older version currently, but it doesn’t have support for newer material which could be problematic when I order new resin.
FWIW, we currently have a ticket open because of the same. The last answer from Form Labs is, and I quote:
Thanks for that Information. I can see that the printer was purchased more than 2 years ago. In this case, the repair will cost 850euro.
No details on what is wrong with the printer, not even a hint. This is a deal breaker for us. So we are letting Form Labs know that if that is their final word, we will take our business elsewhere.
They asked me too to send the printer for repairing. Is this some sort of scam? Because I ran optics test again after increasing my z tuning and the results were similar to expected results sent by formlabs. Attaching pic below.
I think,
The optics unit in older form 2s are faulty ones which they dont want to admit and hence they have come up with
update of sort which would cause failures of print in older form 2s and then they could blame our optics and ask us to send printer for repair. Because they didn’t have explanations for my number of queries like:
- If optics is bad how does it print perfectly on older version.
- I am having issue only with dental sg resin on newer versions and not other resins. Why?
- Even if I have got near perfect results with optics test run again after increasing the z-tuning, they still say it is not perfect. (I have compared my results with the picture of expected result provided by formlabs and they almost match).
- Many people have complained about print failures on newer preform version but formlabs is reluctant in acknowledging this fact since they told me they haven’t received any such complaints whereas I can see 3-4 people complaining about it in this thread itself.
My entire surgical guide and clear aligner business is dependent on form 2 and I was planning to have a form cell but if this is the kind of service I am receiving I would not mind shifting to some other company.
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Upgraded to use rigid resin, since then supports not building properly leading to many failures. Formlabs say my optics have degraded but now printing ‘tough’ resin in well used tank with none of the support / failure problems; in fact looking a very crisp build. There’s a rabbit off here! Either ‘rigid’ is super-sensitive to variations in setup, it is a compromised resin for the process, or the new material build profile in the firmware/software is faulty.
I am facing the same issue of print failure at supports with newer preform version. Told the same to support but they are blaming my optics. I am surprised with the fact that formlabs support is asking everyone to repair their optics rather than improving the preform. How can so many people have degraded optics?
I´m facing the same problem i think
Changed the optical window and i still have the same problem, some prints come out great others come like this. New resin tank, resins expire in September
I have the same problem I had to return the program for the first version of the gray resin V3 I had improvements in the printing I am having to print in a free way so as not to have any changes in the measurements of the parts I made an order of the resin V4 I will have to do the update and we are going to see what will happen, I am realizing many problems related to printing failures, I am thinking that it must be the resins because it has new printers giving the same problem.