Ok, so we have AMS, AMS Lite, but we don’t have AMS Pro for (let’s say) proffesionals. What AMS Pro should have? Just one thing additional comparing to common AMS - built in dryer. That’s it.
I really can not understand why AMS does not have this function since all the spools are lock-in plastic box already. And It doesn’t look difficult to add such a feature to AMS.
I’m printing mostly with CHT nozzle which are sensitive to wet filament and such AMS pro with built-in dryer would be very helpfull.
The Pro version wouldn’t need a heated dryer, but it would be a 6 spool (24 spools total) for the Y1M that uses bluetooth instead of CAM header cables and the same designed toolhead that the A1 uses with both a light system and LIDAR completely closed loop
My idea of an AMS pro setup would entail a toolhead like the A1 which has multiple feed tubes and an independent AMS hub (or buffer) attached to each feed tube. Then you could have one or more AMS units attached to each hub. The result of this is that while one filament is printing via one tube to the toolhead another AMS hub can be staging the next filament to be used and available right away.
So the hardware could be pretty close to the pieces that are available now.
The slicer would have to add optimizations such that it tries to order the filaments needed so that the next filament is fed from the non-active AMS hub so that the staging can happen while printing is happening. When that’s not possible it would work pretty much as it does now - the print would have to pause for the filament retract/reload. Also note that if the part of the layer in the active color takes less time to print than the standby AMS needs to swap colors (this would only happen when the print requires more than 2 colors) there might also be a wait but a smaller one.
I currently have 2 AMS units plugged into one hub. The new setup would just add a second hub and one AMS would be plugged into each. If the setup used 4 feed tubes to the toolhead, one from each AMS buffer I could still have up to 4 AMS units in total (16 colors). If I had up to 4 AMS hubs instead of buffers with a feed tube per hub I could have up to 16 AMS units and 64 colors!
Some kind of supplemental power scheme might be required since you’ve got one active AMS printing while another is unloading/loading, but that shouldn’t be horrible to come up with.