Makerbot 5th Gen Unattended Printing?

[Nate Rush]

I know the manual says not to leave it unattended, and I've seen other posts relating to this with the replicator 2, but does anyone know if it's ok to leave the 5th gen unattended? I just find it strange that they say you shouldn't leave it unattended and they're releasing a mobile app to control it remotely. Anyone know if they added additional safety features in and they're just leaving the unattended clause to cover their own liability?

Thanks

[Dan Newman]

MBI is still working out all the bugs with the units. A number of the
advertised features have yet to even be enabled. If you own one,
consider yourself a beta tester doing field testing for MBI on the bot.
With that in mind, do you want to deliberately ignore their advice
and leave the bot running unattended?

Dan

[Ryan Brodowicz]

Yeah the manual says not to leave it unattended. 

Now that we've read the manual, lets do what we want! My Makerbot 5th Gen has been pretty damn stable (up to the point where I started using some bad black filament). I have been able to have it consistently print up to 17 hours without incident. Basically you want to make sure that you are not 'air printing' from a jam. For some reason the sensor that detects jams in the Smart Extruder is not working right yet. I chalk this up to the new tech. So long story short, if you feel your bot is consistently printing, you are probably ok to let it run for a little while if you need to go do something. I wouldn't leave it to run completely unattended start to finish, but I let mine go when I leave for work after it has started printing and been going for an hour or so.

It is your printer, if you feel that it may fail, I would not leave it running while you are gone. This could waste filament and I suppose eventually introduce the risk of damage to your smart extruder.  

[Dan Newman]

On 14/04/2014, 6:50 PM, Ryan Brodowicz wrote:
> Yeah the manual says not to leave it unattended.

After I responded to you, I received a private message from another
Gen 5 owner in which they detailed how a fellow employee left the
printer printing overnight and unattended. Apparently, they came
back to the office the following morning to a smouldering pile of
burnt plastic

Dan

[Ryan Brodowicz]

Well that sounds like it can get pretty serious. I think using the webcam and app to monitor printing should work pretty well if you need to leave, that way you can at least see if there are any serious issues. But honestly I cant see anything on the built in camera usually, only if there is a tangle of plastic or an in-progress part, which is really all you need to see. 

[Dan Newman]

On 14/04/2014, 6:50 PM, Ryan Brodowicz wrote:

> Yeah the manual says not to leave it unattended.

And sometime last year on the Ultimaker list someone posted
a picture of the Prusa-style printer which had an electrical fire
in their office and had been printing unattended. Cost of the
printer $2K. Cost of cleaning up the smoke damage, $5K.

Dan

[Nate Rush]

Ok, thanks. I guess for the long prints I'll just use the pause feature, or invest in some sort of auto-shutoff system. I find it strange they're releasing something like the Z18 without having some sort of fire fail-safe, every time I put something on the hq print setting it says it'll take 10-20 hours, can only imagine how long they expect you to sit by that thing's side for a max-size print.

[Jetguy]

My record is a 5 day long print on a custom Replicator 1 based machine (125 hours continuous printing, 3each 2KG spools of filament) and yes, obviously it ran unattended but also had more safety controls than a hospital.

[Jetguy]

Longest print thread https://groups.google.com/d/msg/makerbot/SEKe_NCTNhU/VUVwcse77lEJ

[Nate Rush]

What kind of safety mechanisms did you have on it if you don't mind me asking?

[Ryan Carlyle]

The easy way is to install some thermal fuses in the heater lines! But I think the Rep 1 had a "thermal cutoff" feature that would kill the heater power in the event of a fail-to-full glitch in the heater control. Later Mightyboard revs don't have this enabled.

[hjorthmobile]

My 5th gen started smoking when i was repeating the "load" and "attach extruder" options for trouvleshooting. So something in there absolutely can get very hot. So take care...

P

[Gregory Sullivan]

I have a halon setup from a repurposed grill, It also cuts all power if triggered. steel 'bench' steel walls

[Dan Newman]

On 27/04/2014, 12:54 AM, hjorthmobile wrote:
> My 5th gen started smoking when i was repeating the "load" and "attach extruder" options for trouvleshooting.
> So something in there absolutely can get very hot. So take care...

I've received private e-mail from someone else who mentioned that an intern at
their office left their 5th gen printing unattended. The following work day at
the office folks arrived and "found a burnt smoldering pool of melted ABS
where his model was supposed to be". These things happen with pretty much
any of these sub $10K 3D printers. 'tis why running them unattended is not
recommended by the manufacturers.

Dan

[David Kessner]

At my company HQ (not where I am located, unfortunately) we have a Stratasys Fortus 900mc that regularly does prints taking 2+ weeks-- unattended!  It even automagically switches from one spool to another when the spool runs out.  Of course, that's what you'd expect for a printer costing about half a million dollars!

I guess I should look into adding a smoke detector to the chamber that my Rep2 is in...

-David K

[Ryan Carlyle]

Yeah, much of the extra cost of industrial machines goes into user-proofing. They have to self-regulate and operate reliably in ways that hobbyist machines do not.