So this happened today while I was trying to start a print, I noticed the printer trying to fill the tank while there is not resin despising out, I pulled out the cartridge to find it empty, even tho the printer reading show that the cartridge half full, did anybody have similar issue ? and is this something that they are currently working to fix ? or is it something on my part ? Thanks.
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Yes,
I had similar issue - I bought the Form3 printer Dec 2019 with two white resin cartridges and printed big number of identical parts. With the first cartridge I managed to print 40 of the parts before it was empty. After I placed the second cartridge (there was also a lot of resin in the tank) I managed to print only 4 parts and the cartridge was completely empty. It was obviously that the cartridge was semi filled and the Dashboard confirmed this fact.
So I contacted the support and filed a ticket, they accepted my claims and sent me next week a new cartridge (I have to agree that FormLabs support is great).
If you believe you have similar issue you need to contact the support, explain in details what you print and how much resin was estimated for the prints. Dashboard information is a good evidence of what happened, from there they can see the chronology of the prints, resin levels, etc.
After I had this issue, I always measure the new cartridges - they have to be about 1400g
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Ah so it might be that the cartridge wasn’t completely full to being with, it’s good to know that they have to be 1400g that will help catch this early in the future.
I checked around and found that the Form 3 guesses how much left in the cartridge based on how many prints and how much material each print used, but that doesn’t factor in all the uncured resin that is on the surface of the print and if you had to pour in some at the beginning manually, so keep that in mind.
In my case I might not be able to prove it easily since connecting my form 3 to dashboard wasn’t possible in the beginning till they fixed the form 3 connection issue so there are some undocumented prints, I’ll just have to order a new cartridge and make sure to measure it before installing it in the printer.
Sorry for the necro, but yeah, I’ve been having the same issue. One of the original Form 3 line, bought on loyalty as an upgrade from my Form 2.
I had assumed that maybe it measured the weight of the cartridge to gauge how much was left, or something along those lines. I guess it just estimates based on what “should” be in it when full and how much each print uses? That’s unfortunate, because sometimes prints fail, or I use a little resin on a cotton-swab to “weld” pieces together when I have to print them in sections.
Hi @FearlessSon,
My turn to resurrect this post! Sorry for the late reply, but our LevelSense system will estimate how much resin has been dispensed based on how long the bite valve is pushed open by the dispense arm. As you have mentioned, there are some intangibles that cannot be measured (resin welding, resin clung to surfaces of your prints, etc) so there is some variance in the reported amounts.
Hi everybody!
Sorry for the necro, but I faced the same problem. Here are the statistics for five cartridges. The weight of the new cartridge is 1243 g
Hi @kukushkin,
Thank you for getting in touch. If you find that discrepancies in cartridge fill levels persist, please feel free to reach out to Support. In the meantime, a workaround to judge the fullness level is to weigh the cartridges (as you’ve done) or physically pick them up to judge their fullness.