I haven’t used my AMS yet other than the one color on spool holder #1 and am anxious to try a two color print for starters soon. I read somewhere that you can use one of the colors as infill as opposed to either waste or efficiency but don’t really understand how that works. It seems to me that you will use the same amount of filament either way. Also, are there any good links on how to make your own multicolored files as I have never done that before. I may start with a simple coaster.
Thanks
High Voltage (rock reference here)
You can try the MakerLab Keychain Maker for a start:
I often receive the comment that one of my fidget gyros/spinners are people’s first print using their AMS.
Whilst I have far more complicated prints to really test the AMS, the simple swap between one colour to another at a layer position makes a first use of the AMS stress free.
They print laying in their side.
You get the bonus of a fidget spinner at the end.
You can choose between:
- Edges - outer edges are one colour with the middle portion a different colour.
- Triple - three different colours
- Dual - two different colours
- Single - one colour, utterly useless test for your AMS.
Thanks for the pic for the settings. But does using these settings actually save some material? The purge tower will still grow taller so maybe just less poop?
Thanks for the link. That’s pretty cool. And what do you mean I “can’t try” it? (I know it was a typo). Anyhow, Voltage is my German Shepherd and his middle name is “Spike”. And the high voltage reference happens all the time if someone asks what my dogs name is and then they say “hi Voltage”.
That is a really cool design and has a short print time. I will definitely being trying it out and I may use a boost on it as I have one unused one. Thanks for helping out.
Something else you can do.
You can add a model onto a build-plate solely to use it to take the waste material.
The idea is, to choose a complicated print with many colour changes and then add one or more other models you could use that you do not care about how they look. You can make some great-looking models through unplanned colour mixing.
You right-click the models you wish to use as sacrificial lambs select the “Flush Options” and specifically choose “Flush into this object.”
Ideally, but, not required, try to find models with similar heights to those you are primarily printing. The sacrificial models will take the otherwise ejected (pooped) filament.
Now that is a great feature that I will be using a lot. Thanks for letting me know. That will save a lot of wasted filament and I am sure, like you say, it will create a lot of unique prints. Very good info.
Thanks
@MalcTheOracle I think I need more help on this color swapping stuff. I Have a roll of white filament on station #1 and a black spool on station #4 for balance, and I loaded the first wheel fidget spinner for a 2 color print named “edges”. But I figured it would be automatic and show the two colors in the Bambu Slicer when I sliced the model. Apparently I have to assign them to the object, which there are four of, but that doesn’t look like it would do the correct thing. So how do I assign the colors like in the image for the 2 color edges print?
Thanks
edit: Right now I am printing it in all white and didn’t see a purge tower so I figured I missed a step. I am a noob with the AMS right now.
I will assume nothing, do not take this as anything other than thoroughness.
Printer
When you add spools to the AMS lite, you need to tell the printer who the manufacturer is, the type of filament and the colour.
If the supplier is Bambu Lab, all of the settings you need to enter will have been added already for you.
You can check this on the printer’s screen. If you do not see any filaments or an AMS listed then the issue is likely a cable.
Bambu Handy
When you use the Bambu Handy app, select the profile and confirm your printer, you will be shown the model and you choose the colours you wish to use.
The software will attempt to match any colours in the model with your own installed spools. If there is a perfect match or something close, it will be selected automatically for you. Any colours it couldn’t match are left unset.
You can now choose which colours you prefer, accept the detected ones or choose new ones.
You do NOT have to follow the ones from the profile, you can even choose a single spool of yours to be selected no matter the ones in the profile.
In the Edges example, you have two choices in the profile, white and green. You choose which you prefer to use for white, it can be white, you choose which to use for green, it can be green or anything else.
Bambu Studio
When you use Bambu Studio, you have more control, but, more responsibilities as well.
The quickest route until you have learnt more is to open the profile directly in Bambu Studio from the model page after choosing the preferred profile.
When it opens, set your printer (top left of the screen) and the filaments I chose will be displayed.
At this point, they have no relationship to your AMS spools.
The quickest way is to ignore them.
Use the Slice Plate button (top right of the screen) and then the Print plate button next to it.
You will now see a window with filament choices listed, in the case of the Edges Profile, it will show white and green. The same matching from above occurs with the same logic.
You can change these choices to whatever is in your AMS lite.
Confirm the Enable AMS is ticked as you are using it.
You can now print based on your choices.
Resync
Once you have worked through the above, you can progress to playing with the AMS matching your filament pool.
I call the group of filament choices (top left of the screen) the filament pool, it likely has a correct name though.
There is a resync option next to the header row, press this to tell Bambu Studio to match the value from your AMS. There is a bug with this right now and this may not work the first time.
See how far that gets you. Ask anything else, I or someone else will jump on it.
Ok thanks for the thorough reply. I have generic brad filament loaded and have them set up in the printer screen and in Bambu Slicer. I will follow your reply above and see if I get it sorted and if not I will post back. I downloaded the stl instead of opening it with Bambu Studio.
Thank you!
Edit: The white one printed perfect and now after following your most excellent instructions, it looks like I am on may way to my first 2 color print. Thanks again!
Working like magic. I checked the slice to see when the transition would start for the color change and it was at layer #8. It swapped the color and is now printing the black section. For some reason I was expecting a purge tower but didn’t get one as it is likely not needed. So when is a purge tower used or enabled?
Thanks
Edit: I found the switch for the “prime tower” but still want to know the rules on when to use it or when you don’t need it.
Good question.
Purge Towers.
It is important to understand that enabling a Purge tower is NOT required by all models.
If you consider the tower’s purpose, it is designed, to reduce the colour bleed and minimise the transfer of filament between changes and within layers.
This works well when changing filaments frequently and more importantly, within layers.
Much of the colour bleed is done during the actual filament swap with the poop being ejected.
When you have a model with colour changes at the start of a layer, there is no need to enable the purge tower as it is wasteful because provides no benefits.
If the model has a few colour changes, you can risk going without it or reducing the physical dimensions.
More complicated designs with many changes should have a purge tower and the size may depend on the complexity.
Take my Minions Fidget Magnet toy.
The first build plate has Bob’s head (upper portion of Bob) printed and I have enabled a purge tower. There are 97 filament changes over 90 layers. There are 3 colours in the print.
For this, I changed the flushing volumes as they were too conservative (a question for a different day) and set the size of the purge tower to 10 by 10 rather than 35 x 45mm.
Experience has taught me the balance often needed, you will gain this experience over time.
I know others who may have forsaken the purge tower altogether, and I may have done so, except, users expect my work to come out flawless which means having an even playing field of various printers with various setups and different degrees of maintenance.
Those users judge me if their printer is 100% vs another user who hasn’t taken care of theirs since purchase.
The rating system doesn’t discriminate between those rating a model with a great setup and those who use it as a dinner table. I need to make sure they get the same experience.
MalcTheOracle, Thanks for another detailed explanation. I understand it and your reasoning on why you do it like you do too. That will get me off to a great start and I will learn more from experience. I appreciate all of your help and detailed replies.
Thanks again!
Major feature request here:
Except you can’t use a purge item with ONLY purge filament.
New feature:
Allow the system to print BY ITEM with purge items where the printer will print the main item as priority and switch back and forth with the purge item only as needed. In this way, it does not finish the main item before starting the purge item - and it doesn’t print layer by layer in tandem either. It would be an optimized hybrid of “by item” and “by layer”.
I have thought of several other sub-options that would greatly minimize waste.
Hey, i have a question: My Bambu Studio is completly up to date and i restartet it multiple time, but the “Enable AMS” check box isnt showing.
It shows the different filaments, but the it will just use the filament, that is loaded at the moment of starting the print.
This usually means your AMS cable isn’t plugged into the printer.
Thanks, and sorry: I created a different topic. I didn´t want to resurrect this thread.