This is a feature request for BBL
Comments from the user community are welcome. We can all help make the printer easier to use.
I just finished answering another question about filament run-out on the P1P. The current process is very confusing to users. When filament runs out, Bambu Studio shows this warning.
This has several problems.
- “Load new filament in Temperature/axis” is confusing
- “tap resume” does not make sense as there is no “resume” on either the printer or in Bambu Studio.
- “confirm” just clears the warning and does nothing
Then when the user goes to the printer the printer screen does not help.
- It will usually be on the home screen.
- it does not even show that filament ran out. Instead it just shows “paused” in front of the file name.
Often the user, remembering what they saw in the Studio message, just feeds new filament into the tube until it stops and hits play.
Problem this just starts printing air, because they have loaded the filament into the printer, but not started feeding it.
In addition, if they do use the load screen and proceed to load the filament normally, they are left wondering where the resume button is. Resuming actually requires navigating to the home page and then to the play button and then selecting it.
Proposal
Remembering that many BBL printer customers are new to 3D printing and everything about the printer has been designed to make it “just work” for them, the filament load and filament run-out process is still not obvious for most of them. I think it can be vastly improved.
Filament Run-out
First I want to provide a possible solution for filament run-out that would make the process easier and obvious to non-technical users. (This is for non-AMS users. The AMS might use a different procedure that allows continuing from a different spool, etc.)
- filament run-out is detected by the printer
- printer posts notification (already happening) and Bambu Studio opens a message box with a warning, but with a different wording. Ex: Filament has run out. Go to the printer and follow the instructions on the screen. (The message box does not need a button.)
- The printer changes automatically to the loading filament state with the hot end at temp waiting for the user to insert the filament. The following message is on the screen. "Filament has run out. Insert new filament into the PTFE tube until the extruder starts feeding.
- The user sees the message on the screen and installs a new spool on the holder and inserts the filament, pushing it into the tube until the filament starts moving by itself.
- When the printer filament run-out detector senses the filament the extruder starts turning and grabs the filament and starts feeding.
- The filament extrudes into the chute until a sufficient length has been extruded to purge the old filament from the print head and enough of the new filament has been extruded to make sure it is flowing well. Note: This removes the part asking the user if the filament is extruding before starting the purge. The message telling the user to insert the filament should make it clear that it should be pushed until it moves by itself.
- When the purge process is complete, the printer should display a message "If the filament is extruding correctly press OKAY to resume printing. Otherwise press retry and attempt to insert the filament farther into the tube.
- The printer resumes printing and updates its status which clears the message in Bambu Studio.
This process walks the user through the steps necessary with the minimum amount of prompts and pauses so that they can resume printing quickly with minimal effort. It does not require reading documentation or understanding the extrusion process.
Normal Filament Loading
Again, I believe that a similar process can be used to make loading and unloading filament simple and obvious for non-technical users. The process is much like the above, but not started by filament run-out detection.
- Put the load/unload button on the home screen. Only one button is required because the filament detector knows if filament is loaded and can change the button to the appropriate command.
- The user selects load or unload.
- The display shows a message about waiting for the hot end to heat up.
- when at temp, if the user selected load then jump to step 6
- the user selected unload so display the message to the user to remove the filament
- automatically start the load process. This is the same regardless whether the user selected load or just finished unloading. At this point the hot end is at temp from step 4. Note: automatically starting the load process after unloading is what the user will be doing almost all the time.
- The printer is waiting to detect filament with the run-out detector. It displays a message to the user to insert filament until it starts moving by itself.
- The user sees the message on the screen and installs a new spool on the holder and inserts the filament, pushing it into the tube until the filament starts moving by itself.
- When the printer filament run-out detector senses the filament the extruder starts turning and grabs the filament and starts feeding.
- The filament extrudes into the chute until a sufficient length has been extruded to purge the old filament from the print head and enough of the new filament has been extruded to make sure it is flowing well. Note: This removes the part asking the user if the filament is extruding before starting the purge. The message telling the user to insert the filament should make it clear that it should be pushed until it moves by itself.
- Because the filament has been loaded in a non-printing state, the messages to confirm that the new filament is extruding correctly will be slightly different from the run-out case. The printer should return to the home screen in the ready state after the user confirms the purge was successful.
Simple
Although my detailed description looks long, the process is extremely simple and should be easy to code. It will make novice 3D printer users much happier.