Are you using the Dashboard ? If so you could track the resin type, print volume and layers. That would be very useful I think.
However, I’m betting Formlabs is aware of this, they probably have access to these stats with the dashboard and they know wen the print started and finished as well as what was the time estimate. If they can’t access this informations we should all start logging these.
Data updated
Raf
I see that in PreForm v2.14 they sped up print speeds. They then realized it reduced print quality, and slowed down print speeds in v2.15. I wonder if it’s possible that the estimates are still based off v2.14 speeds, but printing at v2.15 speeds? I don’t remember the time being an issue when we got the printer.
Does anyone know when a fix for the estimated print time will be resolved? It’s playing havoc with my printing schedules.
This is a bit of a “me too” post, but the print time estimates are so way off that they’re a bit of a joke really. I always add 25% to the estimate, and that’s not always sufficient. And this is with a variety of objects being printed and a variety of resins.
My print times are also about 15-25% longer on average. But mine seems to be somewhat more accurate with it’s estimate as it goes thru 75-85% of the print. Then the last 15-25%, as it gets closer to the end, the time remaining estimate get’s much less accurate. So if my print is supposed to last 16 hrs, about the 12 hr mark, it says it’s about 4 hrs remaining, seems about right. Then with 2-3 hours remaining, the accuracy diminishes. So I timed what a Form 2 minute really is at that stage. It was actually about 90 seconds and printed 6 layers in that time. And there was no resin detection, no hiccups of any kind. The printer was cruising fairly quickly it seemed with each layer printing in about 15 seconds from peel to peel. So I have no clue what is contributing to the discrepancy. It’s accurate to a point, then bam! - minutes grow into 90 seconds. Thing is, for me this issue didn’t seem to start until a few months ago. And I’ve had my Form 2 for close to 21 months.
It’s only been an issue since the last couple of firmware updates for me.
My Form2 just did an automatic update this morning. It has been underestimating time by around 20% +/-.
I have a flaky nozzle on one resin cartridge. Sometimes when it’s “sensing resin” it will squeeze that nozzle for 5 or 6 minutes before any resin comes out, really throws off the time from the estimate.
What kind of resin are you using ? If it’s one that is heavily charged with pigments or has sedimentation issues (White, Black, Grey Pro, Rigid from my experience, I also read that Flexible settles quite a lot), it’s not impossible that the bottom of the cartridge is clogged with sedimented resin if you don’t shake it often.
Yeah Black deinitely has settling issues. I just had the exact issues I described (nozzle cloged) on Grey Pro yesterday and black settles quite a bit more.
A new form2 owner here. My print had a calculated print time of 5hrs. And it ended up taking almost 19 hrs. -.-
Feb 19, print time said 14 hours so i started the print to finish at 6am so print was finished when i got up. Its now 10.40am and still 30 minutes to go. If your timing your print to finish at a certain time, makes for a lot of waiting around when the print estimate is so far out. Surely its not that hard for the formlabs people to get better accuracy on this.
ok so still waiting for the 14 hour print to finish, its now 18 hours. Iphone stopwatch vs form 2 time remaining. First go formlab minute = 1,30 stopwatch minutes, sec go formlab minute = 1.40 minutes. 12 minutes to go so thats really maybe 18 minutes to go.
I have Form 3, the current print is 3 parts using full build plate, the time in Preform is approx 14hrs, actual time 17 h 32 min, this is somewhat normal for simulation software however the time on the printer should update to what it actually took not keep the original preform estimate. I would imagine formlabs could use this information to correct preform estimate. It seems this is an ongoing longterm issue and i’m not seeing many formlabs replies addressing this, i don’t understand why that is? for me it is a sunday morning and i organised to call in to work to change over to a new build plate so i could start a new print whilst cleaning finished print in the formwash before putting it in the form cure and going back home. It took nearly 20% longer, what gives?