Element Release Notes

Element Software Crash

• Bugfixes

• When running multi-color prints, an Element's software crash could occur. The most obvious symptom was Element's screen turning off. This update fixes this issue.

Features

Element Filament Reassigning

• When starting a print on Element, the colors/materials used can now be configured.
• This enables reassigning a required filament to any color filament of the same material type, agnostic to the material profile being used (this means that users no longer need to reslice a project to print with different colors or different material suppliers)

*For example, a project sliced with Green Mosaic PLA can be reassigned to be any other Mosaic PLA color, as well as any Third Party PLA color.

• Remove Unused UI Buttons
• UI elements that did not work correctly or were unused have been removed. This includes:
• Powering off an Element
• Viewing and updating filament usage from both a spool, and the Print Head
• Statistics and Queue buttons from the Element completed print screen

Clearing filament path optimization

• In certain cases when a Material Pod fails to unload during clearing filament path the Element will now continue with the print if other Material Pods contain the required materials

Material Pod LED Status Update

• The Material Pod will set its LED to pulsing yellow while it is updating
• When a Material Pod update succeeds, the Material Pod LED will flash green three times before returning to its idle color
• When a Material Pod update fails, the Material Pod LED will flash red three times before returning to its idle color
• Fixed a bug that would cause an error when writing to a 3rd party tag

• Material Pod LED behavior has been completely reworked to provide more context into the status of the Material Pod.
  • When first connected (Existing Behavior):
    • LED Flashes White until connection is established.
    • Once connection is established, LED Flashes Green for a few seconds before moving to its idle color.
  • Idle Color (New Behavior):
    • If the Element can print with the Material Pod, the LED will be Solid White.
    • If the Element cannot print with the Material Pod, the LED will be Flashing Yellow.
      • Filament not loaded correctly.
      • Material Pod running old firmware.
      • No spool detected.
      • Filament spool empty.
  • Printing Color (New Behavior):
    • The Material Pod actively printing will Pulse Green.
    • Any Material Pod that may be used in the print will be Solid Green.
    • Once a Material Pod is no longer used in a print, it will revert back to its idle color.
• Material Pods must be updated to the latest firmware version in order to be used in a print.
• Unloading errors no longer fail prints if the Material Pod that failed to unload is no longer used in the print.
• Previously, when a Material Pod failed to unload during a print, Element would cancel and fail the print.
• Now, Element will first check if the Material Pod is used later in the print.
  • If the Material Pod is no longer used in the print, the print will continue.
  • If the Material Pod is used again during the print, Element will cancel and fail the print.
• Element now displays open-source licenses for the software used.
• Fixed an issue that resulted in requests to Material Pods in slot one to be more susceptible to failures compared to other slots.
• Fixed an issue where Element would be unable to print a file if the DAF metadata contained a filament ID index that was larger than the number of filaments used in a print.

• Fixed a bug where Element would cancel a print if a Material Pod failed to unload when it is no longer used

• Introduced densifier calibration, accessible through the new ‘Troubleshooting’ menu
  • Provides an option to adjust x positioning for densifier workflows. If Element is unable to reliably produce densifier chips, consider following this procedure
• Adjust the positioning of the Print Head relative to brushes to improve nozzle cleaning consistency
• Improved reliability of ‘clearing filament path’, and refined error messages
• Fixed UI styling inconsistencies

• Display an HT Print Head icon in the top bar if it is installed

• UI improvements for screens relating to the 3rd party material tag writing processes
• Introduced support for printing with untagged filament spools for single color prints
• Fixed a bug where failing to clear the filament path at the end of the print would cause subsequent prints to fail to start
• Fixed a bug where unloading a Material Pod would occasionally retract filament too far
• Fixed a bug where, during the process of installing a chamber module, starting the chamber module test did not turn the fan on
• Fixed a bug where bed and chamber temperature presets are not displayed when no Print Head is installed
• Fixed a bug where a failure to unload a Material Pod while printing would not fail the print
• Improved the filament change logic, reducing the chance of leaving filament blobs on the nozzle after the change is completed

• Handle Material Pod run-out if it occurs while loading material to the Print Head.
• Enable the electronics cooling fan.
• On the print status screen, Others has been renamed to System Settings.
• Improved error messages during the loading extruder portion of printing to be more informative and accurate.
• Fixed an issue that occasionally slowed the internal network speed.
• Installation of a Cooling Module is now optional if the print file requests it.
• Improved overall stability.
• Fixed an issue where a firmware update could cause the firmware to hang in certain hardware configurations.
• Fixed an issue where the print thumbnail would unintentionally be compressed while in the print status screen.
• Adjusted the colors of certain print statuses.
• Fixed an issue where third party filament UIDs were not properly displayed on the Details screen for Material Pods.

• Various cosmetic enhancements and bug fixes for the user interface
• Fixed a bug where temperature isn't set properly for multi-material prints that use different printing temperatures

• Introduced initial support when Material Pods run out of filament
  • Element will try to use a new Material Pod (with the same color and material type) if the current material runs out
  • Run-out will only be handled when printing with long pieces, where run-out occurs after the Print Head is loaded
  • If there are no suitable Material Pods to use after running out, the print will be cancelled
• Improved the consistency of how Element pauses, resumes, and cancels prints
• Allow the option of selecting the chamber module that is installed (Chamber Heater, Cooling Module, or empty)
• Fixed an issue where certain offline Elements would freeze during the update process

• Improved UI for multi-color printing
• Improved UI for single color printing
• Added advanced network information, accessible through Element screen
• Improved firmware error logging
• Improved handling of errors during printing
• Fixed issue where filament was oozing from Print Head when pausing print
• Improved pausing / resuming process, fixing issues where print quality was affected
• Fixed issue where Print Head stops on top of the print resulting in poor print quality

• Element now supports individual Material Pod updates outside of the normal updater flow.
• Material Pods can be independently updated via Home > Materials > Details.
• A maximum of 2 simultaneous Material Pod updates are currently supported.
• Home screen layout has been readjusted to provide a more intuitive user flow by swapping the Materials and Settings icons.
• Fixed a UI bug where the temperature screen icons would shift on the page as the temperature changed.
• Fixed a bug that prevented 3rd Party Tag Initialization from working properly.
• Fixed various UI bugs on the print screen.

Common Changes

• Multi-Color Beta Feature Release
• Multi-Color support has now been enabled on all Array and Element devices.
• The UI while printing will shift between printing, pausing, and preparing screens while filament change is occurring; this is normal and will be polished in a future release.
• Note: Recommendation is to start with 2 colors and less than 100 transitions.
• Filament production length has now been tuned to waste less filament while printing a long piece of filament.
• This should reduce the amount of time densifying at the end of a print and result in less filament wasted.
• Clearing Filament Path and Cutting control screens have now changed to more clearly indicate when the job has completed.
• Changes have also been made to prevent a user from accidentally performing the same action again while the current actions is still being performed.
• Fixed a bug that prevented prints from starting due to an error while attempting to clear the filament path.
• Improved UI reliablility on device startup.

Element

• Fixed a bug that formatted error messages incorrectly, resulting in large text font for body text.
• Text should now be in proper font size and should be scrollable when the text body exceeds the size of the screen.
• Fixed a bug that caused the progress bar during a print to be incorrectly colored in various states.

Common Changes

• Updated the design of binary toggles

Element

• Fixed a bug where Element would occasionally display Material Pod's as 0-indexed
• Removed Restart button, and only support Power Off
• Added Printhead cooling fan control

Common Changes

• Added errors when attempting to print with an unsupported DAF version
• Fixed a bug where Offline users would see out of date files in the file viewer

Element

• Improved the UI for unloading a Material Pod
• Display advanced Material Pod details across all Material Pod screens
• Added more granular progress to Firmware Updating
• Improved error messages when Element is unable to automatically clear the filament path
• Display an error when an active Material Pod is disconnected during a print
• Improved Material Pod feeding reliability while printing

Element

• Improved microcontroller firmware reliability with green/blue firmware binaries
• Improved how the chamber is preheated before starting prints, removed Marlin's bed timeout of 20 minutes
• Fixed the reliability of Material Pod RFID reading for 1st and 3rd Party Spools
• Element Desktop now uses the power button
• Fixed a bug where offline Elements would allow the user to attempt an OTA firmware update
• Fixed a bug where Element would fail to start a print if the sensor values of the material pod were undefined

General Changes

• Improved the reliability of HostService dependency installation to be fully offline

General Changes

• Fixed a bug with network reporting where the IP address would also contain mac address information

Element

• Fixed a bug where Element would not accurately display its network status
• Updated the Wi-Fi connection flow to properly display connection errors, and fixed a bug where the connect button would be partially off the screen
• Updated the Print Head icon in the top bar
• Display 3rd party filament information in the materials portion of the expanded top bar
• Moved the ethernet and Wi-Fi information status icons when expanded
• Reduced the time it takes for Element to shut down
• Fixed a bug where Element would crash with invalid gcode commands

General Changes

• Sort files by date modified (most recent) when displaying them to the user

Element

• Fixed a bug where Element would not show the second updating screen, if the update was started through onboarding
• Fixed a bug in the uninstall printhead workflow, where uninstalling the printhead before the device expected would put it in a frozen state
• Unloading a material pod now drives forward after retracting, to ensure the outgoing filament switch is triggered. A material pod now requires both filament switches to be triggered to be considered ‘loaded’
• Fixed a bug where element would show a black screen when it failed to update firmware
• Display 3rd part filament icons when viewing the material pods in ‘list view’

General Changes

• Changed how firmware bundles are downloaded to use file streams
• Improved how old firmware bundles are purged using docker prune

Element

• Added support for setting the Element type in eeprom during device provisioning
• Fixed a bug where Element backend would crash if a Material Pod was unplugged during a Material Pod firmware update
• Added third party material support

• Fixed a bug where Element would hang trying to clear the filament path
• Fixed a bug where Element would crash if a print was cancelled while paused
• Use new Marlin acceleration values for O1 Elements
• Fixed a bug where Element would fail to load the extruder, even if it made the correct amount of filament
• Fixed a bug where the feed rate was hardcoded, and didn’t use the specified densifier parameter while purging