I hope I didn’t oversee something.
What do you think about connecting 2 FTS to the X2D. With this config you would have the total freedom to share each filament to each nozzle. The only restriction would be, both filaments must come from different AMS.
I don’t know how much friction an additional Y splitter would add to the system, but I think it should be feasible. Just a bit software from BambuLab.
By putting a 4 into 1 splitter on each of the FTS inputs, you can pretty much already do exactly this.
I can’t really see an advantage of having two discrete FTS modules beyond that.
There is one big difference: Assume AMS 1 and 2 are connected to the first input and AMS 3 and 4 are connected to the second input. As soon as you want to print one filament from AMS 1 with the main nozzle and another filament from AMS 2 with the aux nozzle, the printer still has to cut, retract and purge at every filament swap. When you print with only two filaments, you want to keep both filaments loaded in the nozzle.
I have only 2x AMS 2 and 1x AMS HT and still don’t find a satisfactory way to connect them even with the FTS. however i do it, there is always a scenario that isn’t optimal.
I think, for me, a manual switch like this The „Four In Two“ PTFE Adapter - Free 3D Print Model - MakerWorld is more useful than the FTS, because it allows me to assign the 3 AMS to the nozzles in any combination. I only loose the ability to print two filaments from the same AMS with both nozzles. But that probably is a very rare usecase for me. I think, I would swap filaments around anyway to avoid the retraction and purging even with the FTS.
You’re right. I mapped out both system arrangement, yes a 2nd FTS reduces the number of scenarios that require full retracts by 50%.
That said, I think it increases control complexity a bit much, I expect we’ll likely be seeing a second generation that handles multiple inputs and outputs at some point instead.
