I need to print using the AMSlite with 4 colours. I also need to stop part way through the print to print a layer of material from the external spool. This could be for a fifth colour or flexible filament. The printer could do this by prompting the user to load the external filament and then coontinue and prompt to unload if the AMS is needed. There is no reason to prevent this from being done which is currently the case because bambu studio blocks out the ability to select both AMS and external spool for the same print.
Why?
You can swap rolls within the AMS for more than 4 colors, although you must be done with one of the colors and assigned it accordingly when slicing.
Or you can get another AMS. Flexible material is available for the AMS, as for abrasives you CAN run them through, however it’s not something I’d do often unless you like changing PTFE tubing. Keep in mind the more brittle it is the harder it will be to avoid a jam.
So you think that Studio is the only reason you can’t run AMS and external together. Do tell how you came to this conclusion. Could there be other reasons you haven’t thought of? I haven’t thought of?
Well, I have a P1S and sometimes I wonder why there is no option to use the external spool AND the AMS.
Yes, I can swap spools on the fly while they are not in use but that’s no the point.
Issues on the P1 is the same as on the A1 I guess - Studio won’t let you use both.
Why would this matter in any way, since you pointed out what can be done ?
Take you own example in the form of glow PLA, which I have to use at times.
I usually print like glow in the dark pictures the lithophane way.
But for obvious reasons I hate running the stuff through the AMS.
With a white backing printed first I would just love being able to set a pause with a switch command to external.
Take the tube out, feed the filament in, press continue…
Like it or not, there is no real reason to block the external spool when the AMS is used, just a mtter of implementation 
Because my customer wants tpu on the bottom layer and colours on the other layers. You can fake changing colours with AMS compatible filaments, but not with ones which are only supported on the external spool. The A1 series does not support a second AMS and that would not solve the problem. Yes, I believe Studio is the main issue because the printer has the ability to do AMS and external spool loading and unloading. The most basic Ender3 printers allows such basic functions as pausing and changing filamants. Even if the printer required an update it is entirely possible to update the firmware. There is no technical reason this could not be supported. When it comees down to making real world prints, limitations like this are like building an automoobile which only turns right and someone says, but its not a problem because 3 rights turns equals a left. In my opinion it is a high value items with next to no cost to implement.
You’re not just pausing and changing filaments though. There’s more to it, or else you’d just have a prettier Ender. You can pause, change filament just like an Ender btw. Poor comparison as that Ender can’t do what the A1 can, else you’d be using the Ender.
The AMS needs to push filament and retract, knowing where the filament is and that the path is clear. While to you it may be sensible easy it may not be in practice. It could be, I’d imagine the Orca team would have explored this if they haven’t.
Go on and fuss about it. I’m sure someone will listen.
I don’t understand why you are aguing for a worse product? What I am asking is not rocket science and is a very useful feature to have. And yes, there are obviously some benefits to the A1 over the ender 3, but in the real world if I can’t do what I need to do with the A1 then it is worth going back to the more basic printer which actually can do what I need. I would not like too do that because the Bambu does how benefits. Maybe a better anology is like buying a car to bring the family to the park and finding out its only a two seater and you have to tell your partner to ride the bus, but they never show up because the bus doesn’t go there.
.postdeletedinprotestofdangerousgoods.
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Who’s arguing.
There are solutions.
Oh, if I have a family wouldn’t buy a 2 seater and would never take public transportation.
Too many weirdos.
I am familiar with the way these things are deesigned. A product manager comes up with a list of requirements which eventually ends up in the engineering group which was probably divided off as the AMSlite team and in the process they lost track of how their customer would use the product and did not integrate their design very well with the printer team. Instead of taking a complete user view they were thinking the ams is a replacment and it may have been, except they messed up the flexible fiilamant design in the ams which pushees the user to the external reel.
I’ve loooked at their ams feeders also, they designed them with blunt edges past the feeder wheels instead of chamfered entries to guide filamants which are not perfectly straight. You experieence this everytime you try to insert the filamants…twist and push until the filament finally get past the obstruction. They assumed all filamants would be rigid. That is another poor design choice which probably could have been done at zero cost. I understand that time pressures influence things, but hopefully someone at Bambu reads this and decides to improve the design. It is, I admit, not a show stopper on feeder, but they made the outside flange all roounded and smooth and forgot the mechanism itself which is only a few millimeters away…
I post the feedback not to be critical, it is for future improvements. It is a very enjoyable system to use for the most part and produces some very nice output.
Good luck doing that without moving anything.