Our extruders know exactly how much filament they have pulled through, and the RF tags have serial numbers. Why not keep track of the exact amount of filament remaining? Not just the rough guess by timing the RFID chip rotations. Have an option to remove any spool from inventory with les than x grams (or length) remaining, and any spool that hasn’t been seen in x number of days if it is taking up too much memory. Sure there are edge cases that will make the number wrong, but 99% of us could use this 99% of the time without issues. It would also drive more users to buy Bambu filament. The current system is way too vague to be very useful.
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Better yet: measure the weight! maybe some crazy new AMS3 would come or something, and be able to measure the weight of filaments. ik this sounds absurd and might not be worth the extra money, but this might also be able to detect other things! instead of using RFID, it could just have a camera inside, pressure detectors on the motors, and use the weight of the spool to detect what filament is being used. This could be a universal filament detector! it can detect how much pressure it takes to run it through the motors, see how much volume it takes up using the camera, and measure the weight!
(but maybe cost won’t be appealing…)
This is quite hard to do actually, due to the way that the spool loads in the ams.
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A lot of what you are mentioning has already been considered.
Check out the interview with dr Tao about the H2D.
Keeping track of the used filament is impossible if the spool is used on multiple printers, or even on the same printer, but then as external spool.
Weight has also been considered but also that is a very inaccurate method. Moisture absorption and different spool weights influence the measurements also.
Camera’s are a possibility, but that has a price impact, and also the tightness of the windings influence the result.
Simply add a spare spool of the same filament in the AMS to prevent runout.
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There are quite some 3rd party solutions for this. I’ve tried a few and settled on SpoolStock (spoolstock.com). You can manage all your filament stock in there, you just scan the barcode of your filament and it will automatically retrieve all the details of that roll from it’s extensive database. If the filament isn’t known yet, you can simply add it and it will be added to the database for other users too.
Best feature in my view is the automatic deduction of filament used for a print. By adding a small piece of G-code, the amount of filament calculated by the slicer will be deducted from the Spool used.
Check them out!
(I’m neither benefitting nor connected to this company)
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I already saw that interview. I’m not talking about a feature for the pros. Many of us have a single printer. Just subtract what is used from the total. Nothing fancy. Pros could turn it off. It would be much better than the current offering.
I’ll get it a shot. Thanks for the recommendation.
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Where would this information be stored?
I imagine the computer when using Bambu Studio, but what about when you use Bambu Handy or directly using the SD card or even the reprint option from the printer’s display - that will not be stored on the computer.
It could be stored on the printer, but how much storage should be given over to it? I have over 150 currently open filaments, each one used and unique in colour, type, style and manufacturer.
How do you cope with non-BL filaments?
Should this be stored centrally? If so, what about those using LAN mode or connection failures that always seem to know your most important print.
What about environmental differences that affect the weight. What about unknown changes in the supply chain that changes the weight of the filament or the supporting spool, tube and more?
What about manual losses during failures that do not pass through sensors, jams being just one if the many.
What about external spool usage?
The current solution is genius in its simplicity and gets around all of those issues. It is close enough to provide decent information to plan.
Does this provide any stock control, no, nor should it. The slicer is already bloated.
Should we gain additional information we can act on, yes, and that can be determined right now, it just isn’t provided.
Imagine you slice a model and you need 200gm of PLA red. The printer knowns if the loaded filament in the AMS you have more, less or is close.
The slicer could easily say any of these:
- You do not have enough PLA red, consider adding a spare spool on your AMS and the print will finish printing without your intervention.
- You do not have enough PLA red, your model requires all the other slots of your AMS to be occupied, please have a spare PLA red ready during the printing sometime between 30 to 50 minutes into the print job.
- You may not have enough PLA red, consider adding a spare spool on your AMS and the print will finish printing without your intervention.
- You may not have enough PLA red, your model requires all the other slots of your AMS to be occupied, please have a spare PLA red ready during the printing towards the end of the print job.
- You have more than enough of all filaments to complete this print job.
Spool stock management should be solved by external software.
There are too many variables that cannot be addressed to use a better system nor could they given how printers are used in the real world.
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Keep it on the USB. It would take less space than a single Timelapse. Don’t do non-Bambu. Not based on weight, just usage. Jam usage is trivial. Not in the slicer, in the printer. The pros can use software, the rest of us would have something better.
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So, only for the H2 family then.
I can’t see it happening.
Managing filament stock could be possible if the tracking information was associated to the Bambu user account rather than a specific printer. If Bambu User accounts had the ability to manage filament inventory and linked it with Bambu Studio so that every time a print was created the inventory would get updated, that would make it very easy for users to keep track of their filament inventory. It could also be helpful for Bambu to forecast sales inventory requirements if the end user can set up inventory reorder levels.
Something worth considering, given that filament sales makes up a large porting of revenue for the company. Making it easier for people to order it and have it when they need it can only improve sales.
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If you try to automate what this does…
… a small mechanical arm which rests on the spool and lowers as the filament is used. Or some plunger under the spool which springs upwards to make loading/unloading spools easier. It would be the same concept as a gas gauge in a vehicle. A float in the tank lowers an arm and as it lowers the resistance on the tank level wire going back to the car changes.
There’d still be some window of error, but maybe close enough for most needs.
You added a space and hyphen in the mention, it should be @BambuLab if you wish to have a hope they might read it.
Edit your entry to correct it.
Also, do t copy and paste it into more than one place, no one likes to have that in a request as it comes across poorly.
Your other one,
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Genius! This would definitely be the best way to go. You could put in what you wanted to have in stock, and they could track usage over time, and offer you a button to drop any filaments into your cart, where you are projected to run out in a specified period of time. As you pointed out, this makes great business sense for Bambu. Now, how do we get them to read this?
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Problem is that this is a very very rough estimation and doesn’t help when you have a 250g print want to send but the icon looks also 1/4 lefts-ish.
True, so then just add a spare spool, or replace it with a spool that has enough.
If they would give estimates in grams, there will be people printing a 250g job when 260g is being reported as remaining. And afterwards complain it couldn’t finish the job.
Additionally I did see a video where also the required material estimates can be off quite a bit. Specifically for multi color prints.
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Yeah. That’s why I’m quite annoyed that bambu only allow us to connect 4 normal AMS units.
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It isn’t a logistics limitation it is one of power draw.
The existing (and current) design of the AMS units is to draw power from the printer via the bus cables.
The new AMS 2 Pro has its own power, but BL says this is only for the drying function.
If they were externally powered, the limit would likely not be there.
So do I, but I only have a single printer. Does Bambu store the spool serial # and estimated volume in the cloud to be shared with your other printers, or other users sharing the same spool who may have access to it?