The printer will start with White then move to Brown and then to Green.
As it is busy printing Green, I will swap the Brown filament with Cyan.
After it finishes printing Green will move to Red. This is a good moment to swap the Green with Black.
Is it worth babysitting the AMS to print more than 4 colors for one model? For me at this time YES, but if I do this a few more times, I should consider getting a second AMS.
You will be able to print 8, then you will leave primary colours in one and realise you now need a third AMS to give you 12, then you will expand your use of auto refills and realise you now need a fourth AMS to give you 16, then you will decide you need sone exotic filaments always available and with you could have a fifth!
When I started with this I knew that was the kind of slope I’d probably go down anyway. So I just pre-empted it and dialed it up to 4 AMS after I had the first one for a few days.
The worst part is, I’m pretty sure I’ll never print 16 colors in one print. They’re just expensive dry boxes essentially, with the bonus that I’ll almost never need to swap anything out when I want to change filament types, or need support, etc.
I had to rationalize it by doing it for convenience, and because “what if they suddenly become unavailable” or “support takes up a slot too” or “if one breaks I’ll have plenty of spares” or some such. The even worse part is I’d do it again.
@SWElite Remembering that I am the person who wrote the mess above: yep go get the 2nd AMS, you can rationalize it by saying your time is too valuable to babysit a printer.
I think it still will be of benefit for some users.
Sometimes you just need a bit of extra of one or a few jobs and getting a second AMS is not justifiable price wise.
After reading about your ventures I started to wonder though…
If we go in reverse >
The extruder gets the filament from either the external holder or this spring tensioned thingy on the back of the printer.
Wouldn’t it be nice it we could just tell Studio that we want a mix of filament changes and define which ones to come from the AMS ?
After all, the only thing the AMS really does is to pull back and push out the filament.
At one end the AMS detects the ends is clear and the other end the head reports the filament arrived.
How hard could it be to provide an option to assign colours or even materials to come from the outside and with a manual change ???
Oh, I don’t have that in the AMS, let’s pause and let someone know to check or replace what’s on the external input…
Sure, would require another splitter with sensor but that available does not cost much.
All we need is a way to address it and to allow for a manual filament change.
Would also solve the issue of multi-colour prints with filaments that require printing from a dryer…
I think I have to read up… I have been watching YouTube, but being 60 now, it takes a bit to sink in.because i do not know how to do that yet or never will…lol
If you are doing this where you have a maximum of 4 colours on any one layer, you can achieve it simply.
I have answered this any ties before, this is one, it includes many examples, each describing the process.
It is harder to achieve if there are more than 4 colours per layer, but, not impossible as described above. You just need planning, time and a chair in front of the printer and patience, lots of patience.
Thanks for the guide. I had this same problem to solve the other day, and utilised the same solution. However, mid-way through babysitting the AMS, I came across the Bambu 4-in-1 PTFE Adapter.
Definitely cheaper than another AMS. Has anyone used this?
This will not help the specific scenario I replied to above or the original post. As all colour changes in these examples require an AMS, non-AMS sources are not even considered.
PAUSES are added to make sure you don’t miss a change, again this only relates to this scenario.
If you have more than 4 colours in a single layer then you are babysitting the print, no choice, you have to be ready to swap out one colour for another midway through layers. PAUSE doesn’t work during a layer, at least not using the built in PAISE option in Bambu Slicer.
All of this is possible without an AMS, but, not without manual edit to GCODE beyond what Bambu Studio provides in the UI and with far more babysitting combined with many manual unloads and loads.
I don’t really follow how this works, but I’ll study your explanation some more.
I recently had to reduce a six-color badge to four, so this is right on the button!
Thanks!
I’ve been trying to explain this to others, thanks for the writeup and video - I’ll point them to your YT link.
I made my own single-external into a dual and also use the AMS-lite. So I can get 6 colors without a lot of REEL swapping. Used parts from a 2nd arm that had broken and I received a replacement.
I then printed out a designer’s 6-into-1 nozzle top which allowed me to use the printhead without removing tubes, etc.
I have found that BambuStudio is indeed limiting what you can swap out. I tried specifying the colors ahead of time by assigning them to the specific slot in the AMS, and I wanted to swap out support material right after it was no longer needed, but it won’t let me, showing the following error message:
The slicer has no way of knowing you will be trying to cheat and swap materials manually as you go.
Because the slicer will not let you choose a material with incompatible speeds and temperatures because it knows that will cause print defects, it stops you.
You will not be able to use the support material slot for anything that doesn’t have its print properties during actual prints as the quality of the material will likely be compromised.
Does that mean that the slicer assigns profiles to the AMS slot, and does not independently manage it based on your filament specifications? I don’t understand what causes this limitation.
