RFID tags not reusable?

I used the sample PLA filament that came with the machine and after I finished it I rerolled a new filament spool onto it, however, the X1 no longer recognizes the RFID tag and ignores it. I know the RFID tag system is working because it sees the Babmu support W just fine. Are the RFID Tags single-use?

3 Likes

Bambu Labs canā€™t answer this question at all?

3 Likes

That is not something i have heard.
But i did hear they are serial numbered. And itā€™s supposed to keep track of how much filament. So maybe once it calculated the filament was done it rejected it.

Idk just a guess. But follow8ng for the answers.

they are not single use , but if they are placed wrong then they wont get read
it is strange it does not read it when you just respool it, unless it got a counter on it to keep track of how much there is left
but then it should be new as i never heard of this problem

i also just tested it out , and it laods it fine
image
the eye shows that it is a RFID tag that got readed

maybe you put the spool in the wrong side, so the tag should be swapped to the other side ?

2 Likes

Yep thats exactly what it was, I never figured the tags are different on each side. For anyone else, the spool logo must face right on the AMS

5 Likes

I used some RFID reader app on my android phone too look up some information about the tag. Apparently it is a NXP mifare classic 1k RFID tag. Iā€™m not really into RFID, but this seems to be a quite generic tag. Bambulab prevents writing to it, but google tells me you can hack it. It would be quite nice to write new information to the tag. I also respooled one, and now it still tells me it is a white colour, but I respooled it with black.
Actually it would be nice that Bambu lab just provides a software solution to just overwrite the current settings, By writing to the tag or just a simple solution build into the desktop software

9 Likes

@vjenne I actually bought some RFID cards and Iā€™m hoping to use the mifare app to rewrite with the BL filament RFID tags. Iā€™m not really sure wth Iā€™m doing though, honestly. :crossed_fingers:

I wonder if there is some sort of master lookup table that BL hosts that says serial number x spool is x material and so on. This is so interesting.

3 Likes

Ow wauw, iā€™m very interested in your findings.

Or is it perhaps something we should ask for a feature request? I can image Bambu labs still want to have this thing as an extra advantage in buying their own brand filament. But unfortunately they do not deliver every kind of filament and at this moment all of their filament is sold outā€¦

1 Like

Iā€™ll be sure to post a topic here if i can actually figure anything out. Honestly, if i were BL, I wouldnā€™t want to make my spool id system open source either but the hacker in me says itā€™d be cool to have the option.

1 Like

I feel / fear that itā€™s not going to be so easy : (i havenā€™t tryed on my side but i read in various places that) other peoples have tried to ā€œhackā€ (read / decode / alter content / rewrite) the NFC payload, but it seems to be encrypted and hence not possible out-of-the-box to do anything around it.

The best would really be for Bambu to ā€œopenā€ that ecosystem :

  • either to provide the exact specifications (and/or tools and mechanizms that would be needed) and for everyone to be able to write by themselves any (valid) content in generic NFC tags (bought on aliexpress, ā€¦)
  • either if they want to keep things private, to just sell tags on their shop, pre-encoded with different colors

Sadly it seems that at this time, none of these solutions are considered (as far as iā€™ve read some weeks ago).

You can check this reddit thread, with also people considering doing some investigations regarding the NFC payload, but no progresses in weeks.

3 Likes

@SR-G thanks for that pointer! This is really interesting. I am in over my head on this. Hopefully, something will be figured out collectively.

1 Like

So I ordered a refill spool of Orange from Amazon ā€œInlandā€ brand filament. The cardboard insert fits right over the Bambu cardboard on the spool and if you put it together correctly, the AMS reads the color tag and you get the little eyeball telling you it sees it. Weā€™ll see how this brand prints compared to the Bambu filament thats always out of stock.

UPDATE: I have modified a users 3d printed spool spacer design for using Inland Brand Filament refills on Bambu Labs spools so it fits around the Bambu Carboard core and has a window for the RFID tag (although not necessary). The Inland refills have a cardboard core that fits right over the Bambul Labs cardboard core and with the spacer installed on the right side it keeps the filament properly bunched once you release it with the paper straps. In this case I put some Blue on the spool with the White support core and it reads it as white support. If I can ever get a spool of Blue from Bambul Labs Iā€™ll move it over where it supposed to be. I have included pictures of the spool with the spacer.
UPDATE: one problem, you canā€™t change the AMS to use the support filament RFID tagā€¦ so Iā€™m having to respool it onto an empty Bambul Spool.


In case some of you are not aware : that project has started to collect the various informations regarding Bambu Lab RFID tags.

And still no official news from Bambu Lab after all this time regarding opening that whole ecosystem and/or selling pre-written tags and/or selling a tag writer and empty tags ā€¦

3 Likes

you think i can use flipper and cards to do the same im assuming yes

Good to know, Thanks for the info.

Have you tried this yet? I am going to see what I can do when I get a few minutes extra spare time but donā€™t want to go down a path if it is a dead end :slight_smile:

1 Like

So Iā€™m reading this 2yrs later with the exact same problem still occuringā€¦ that is, AMS not recognise RF tags on genuine ā€˜refillā€™ roll. The generally accepted and ā€˜Solvedā€™ response I do not think is likely as the cardboard centre is notched to ensure the refill is loaded only 1-way, and the roll obviously feeds over the top into the AMS - IFAIK. My AMS loading seems to be all in order but I still must to enter the refill details manually :frowning: Any updates would be appreciated :crossed_fingers:

Hi all, jumping on this thread now that I have got my AMS.
I was actually wondering, the RFID includes the information also on the colour, so it would not be possible to just reuse any PLA support, for example, because you would get the wrong colour. If there is no way to program an RFID you would need an empty spool for each colour/material, which is not really doable.
Also, with the AMS there were four empty spools (very nice!), which I guess are without tag. It would make sense to be able to add it to them.

I just print off NFC spool clips form maker world and cut out the tags glue them on. They tend to work pretty good.