I would find it very useful if there was a way for the AMS to monitor filament movement near the printhead. This could be a very simple add-on where a non-intrusive wheel is added to the end of the PTFE tube which relays the movement of the filament to the AMS via the extra accessory port connection on the back of the A1. This data could be received by the AMSlite to monitor soft TPU movement which is fed from the AMS. If movement is detected at the print head end, the AMS feeder could be invooked to help the filamant move along. It would also allow an accurate count of filament usage and could increese the reliability for printing soft filaments. This could be a very inexpensive accessory which would dramatically improve the user experience with this printer.
It sounds good, until you look at the fact the issue with tpu is the floppier versions of it are a stone beast to push through a boden tube. because it is floppy, like trying to push a rope.
So adding a monitoring wheel, with the inherent friction would actually just do the opposite of help. I like the idea, and I imagine that a converted optical mouse eye system might work, the light of course being a lot less prone to cause resistance…
I partly agree. The Bambu printers only support a limited range of TPU hardness. The enhancement I am suggesting is to expand to those limits so I think the really flooppy flexibles would not be an issue. However, the optical mouse idea may work or the odometer can be designed with a very low back pressure.
One odometer on the hot end could even replace the four feeder odometers in the ams because they are only in use on one filament at a time.