It does not have motors to pull back the filament, it only goes back enough to get it out of the AMS hub on the A1 mini and A1. It is not possible unless you added motors to the AMS Lite. It would be more effort than just figuring out how to use the regular AMS System on it.
Assassin you are incorrect here. The AMS Lite uses motors to both feed and retract the filament. All the spring on the spools does is keep the filament more neat when the motors pull the filament out of the extruder and down the ptfe tube.
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Feeding the material through a hub doesnât seem like it would be a problem seeing how mt ams feed the filaments from the input port all the way to the extruder which is over a foot. Much further than the few cm others are saying is the limit.
I donât think motor resistance is the way to go but if they were to make a ams v2 they could probably fit some scales or other sensors in there to estimate how much is left or even sell a seperate filament scale
people seem to be a bit confused here.
when people are talking about the lack of a motor they are not talking about the first stage feeder.
they are talking about the spool reels.
if you need to retract a significant amount to get past a hub that is mounted in a decent place. (so not dangling above the print head). then the retraction distance to get past the hub can cause an issue where the filament gets tangled on the spool.
the thing is though.
in reality on a full spool. the print can retract about 140mm (the motor does the retracting. but the spring keeps it tight on the spool)
on a nearly empty spool this is obviously going to be less. (about 70-80mm) but i do think it is possible to put a hub in there. or even something like a Y splitter on each of the 4 ams lite hub connections.
basicly the spring on the spoolholder will rewind the spool about 80 to 90 degreeâs of rotation.
with a radius of 85mm on a fresh refill spool. that is 133mm of retraction thatâs possible. (and a little more up to 140 allowing the fillament to dangle a bit)
with a radius of 50-55 on an empty spool this will be 70-80mm of retraction.
with an empty spool. this is only enoegh to just barely clear the standard 4 slot hub that comes with the A1. so for new spools it wouldnât be a problem. but for nearly empty spools we would just need an 8 tube hub in place of the 4 tube hub.
so yes it is 100% mechanicly possible with the current ams lite systems to have 2 ams lites on the A1 series.
the only thing holding it back is firmware support or at the verry least. someone trying and confirming that they do not detect a second ams lite.
other than that question. can you hook up a normal ams to the A1 series? if so then you can just use a hub and use multiple normal ams systems on the A1 series aswel. (as long as the firmware hasnât locked it out)
so i think it IS possible. to hook up more than 1 ams lite to your A1 series. or even to hook up 2 normal AMS systems. BUT!!!
you are going to have to void your warrenty and install custom firmware.
You make a very good point, in that there is a filament sensor in both the print head and also in each AMS Lite filament station in order to handle this right now if someone were to design an 8-to-1 merge hub similar to the current 4-to-1 hub, and then place that hub on the side or back of the printer. Since the printer currently pulls any of the 4 filaments out just enough to clear the 4-filament hub on the print head, adding a hub that mixes filaments from 2 AMS Lites would require the AMS motors to pull their filaments back to a greater distance to clear both hubs (adding a little to the print time), and then you could have a 8-to-1 hub mounted where the manual filament spool entrance is, with a single bowden tube going from there to the print head. Like the X1C with AMS, the filaments would get pulled back further away from the print head, a standard distance to clear the filament past the hub merge point. Of course, this would require a firmware upgrade (or knowing the secret code to unlock it if itâs already in the current firmware as a hidden feature).
the problem is that you need to replace the 4 hub with an 8 hub. because the ams lite physicly cannot retract further than just past the 4 hub.
(the motor can pull back the entire ptfe tube worth of filament. but the spool behind it cannot stay tight that way and the fillament will jump off the side of the spool and get tangled)
i have also contacted support and they currently just do not intend to make the A series support multiple ams lite systems.
it doesnât even support a single regular ams system.
the hardware is perfectly capable of doing both types of amsâs but the firmware does not support it.
and the reason is because they donât want us to. they are saying âif you want more than 4 colors. get an x or p series printerâ
at wich point i told them that i am never buying another piece of hardware from them ever again.
i do not have any ounce of respect for those kind of tactics.
so in short. (edit. hahaha didnât turn out that short at all XD)
if you want 2 ams liteâs or even a single normal ams on your bambu labs A1 or A1 mini.
then you need to void your warrenty.
and modify the ams lite so itâs physicly capable of retracting far enoegh.
AND remove their firmware and put new firmware on the machine. wich i doubt you can even do. so the only option you have left is to replace the motherboard. at wich point you no longer have a way to communicate with the amsâs
itâs basicly unmodifyable.
if you have an A1 and you want more than 4 colors. then get a refund and buy a prusa or anything else that is not bambu because do not even dare give them the money and buy an X or P series.
the ONLY way to do more than 4 colors with an A1 or A1 mini. is to remove the ams lite all together. and play the role of the ams yourself with planned pauses for each color switch. (youâd basicly be stepping back to 2015 and pretend itâs a creality printer or some â â â â like that.)