Remove unnecessary restrictions to AMS Auto Refill

Bambu Lab Software Feature Requests
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22

If you don’t care if the current filament due to run out doesn’t match the filament you wish to replace it with, you can wait until it runs out, moans it ran out and tells you to feed it before it cries and then…

Throw any similar filament in the same space the empty one came out of.

As you have already started the job that is your only choice.

When I say similar I mean PLA to PLA, don’t get all experimental and throw PETG after PLA (I know you have not indicated that, it it more for those who might misread this for their needs).

If you wish to achieve the same thing before you start a print so that the AMS will automatically handle it for you, you can do it, provided you don’t use BL filaments.

As those have their own RFID tags, they snitch on you and tell the AMS exactly what it is and you can’t fool it.

If you have four rolls of filament, all PLA, all printable with a generic profile (or identical other profile) and you have red, green, blue and yellow, throw them all in.

Now, tell the printer the Red is Red, Green is Red, Blue is Red and Yellow is Red.

Begin your print and tell it to start with whichever you like. Check the auto refill button to see it shows a first, second and third choice with the slot code shown and an arrow. It tells you there which will be used before the next and so on,

Hit that print button. Your print will now start, if it runs out of filament, it will fully run it out and move to the next faux Red, and the process repeats until you run out of filament or the print completes. If you do run out of filament before your print has finished, don’t worry. You are now responsible for feeding it until the print completes.

Simples.

1 Like
23

thanks. yeah i was hoping i could do that remotely by clearing out the snitching bl rfid filaments, but i can’t. it’s possible if i turn off the “read when loaded” option i can do this, but I have to get to the printer and remove the filaments by hand then reload them so the ams no longer knows what they are.

24

Was a solution ever found? Came looking for it

25

This is basic functionality that should be added to the AMS

2 Likes
26

I am having the exact opposite problem. My X1C just auto refilled and continued to print after it ran out of blue PLA silk and continued printing in purple PETG-CF. How is that possible? how do I turn it off? PLEASE JUST GIVE US ALL CONTROL!!!

27

The only way I know of this happening is that gcode was reran that previously had mapping set up to refill from the slot that had PETG-CF loaded in it.

1 Like
28

+1 on this. It should be a lot easier to choose to complete print with different material if needed. It does not have to be the same material as the one starting the print.

1 Like
29

Welcome to the forum.

Well this is mostly possible already. If you run out of a filament, the print will pause and the printer will prompt you to replace the spool (assuming no backup is setup). The AMS doesn’t check the spool you replace it with, it just carries on with the print. You can replace the empty spool with whatever you want. It’s on you to be sure that the filament is a compatible material and prints at the same temperature.

30

@JonRaymond Another cumbersome workaround. Yes, we all know you can replace a spool. The whole idea behind the auto refill is that you DON’T need to go to the printer and manually swap out filament spools.

So yes, here also a +1 for opening up the auto refill feature.
We are not asking for cumbersome work-arounds, we are already using those!

1 Like
31

Well, not really.
I guess I can clarify a little bit.
Each material has its different properties, and the AMS already has 3 other spools installed. So, what I need is the ability to do one of the following:

  • Before starting the print, inform the printer/AMS somehow with the order of refill that it should follow once the main spool runs out, or
  • After printing pauses due to running out of filament, give me the ability to instruct the printer/AMS (through the app) to continue printing from another installed spool.
    These two approaches gives us the ability to continue the print with different material while having the printer use the correct heating and flow settings for that material. It also does not require someone to be babysitting the printer while printing.
    My specific use case, is that I leave it print overnight or when I am at work. So, in most cases, I am not there to replace the spool.
    The only workaround now, is to “Trick” the printer to think that another spool is of the same material, color, and manufacturer as the current one so it would automatically switch to it. This introduces a few problems (different heat settings between esun an bambu pla for example), and is an unnecessary restriction.
    I hope that makes sense.
32

I am a new BL user and trying to learn myself as well. I have a guess why BL does not want to allow this.
Here it is:

BL printers (actually their slicer) are capable of changing extrusion behavior on the fly for different types of filament but this will be only possible with the change filament command in gcode. As it is impossible to estimate exactly when the filament will finish, slicer can not insert a command. Different filament properties ie; K value, PA, color etc might mess up the print. I assume BL was trying to avoid this kind of messed up prints by filament type restrictions. The best way to guarantee a better print quality is to pause the print, force the user to change the filament manually and resume. This is much safer route for BL to take and they did so.

BUT
Do we care the quality or look of our prototypes? NO. Are we anxious about wasted/unused filament cost? YES

So it seems our only two options are either faking the filament type or let BL pause the print. And neither is convenient for us especially if we are away.

1 Like