Another blog type set of posts I am afraid…
I seem to be building up a few AMS’s and printers, plus also quite a lot of filament, so have been looking for solutions to better manage the whole lot.
The ideal solution would be a bank of low cost AMS’s - enough for all filament, which can then be dynamically connected to whoever print needs the filament.
I have got quite a few ideas - my initial focus is on sharing AMS’s between printers.
AMS’s don’t seem to mind hot switching between printers - but it is a bit of a pain unplugging the PTFEs and even more of a pain unplugging the Molex 3mm plugs.
So my first prototype is a manual 2 way switcher, that switches the PTFE’s and electrical connections of an AMS between 2 x X1Cs.
I initially thought I could get away with only switching 4 or the 6 connections using a readily available 4 pole 2 way switch - however this didn’t seem to work - so decided to use 2 x 4 pole switches in parallel.
Next problem is switching PTFE’s - I think I have come up with a design that doesn’t add too much friction - with the PTFE’s switcher being supported and correctly positioned by the parallel electrical switches.
Next stage is for some testing
Have also been working on the issue of making it easier to manually swap filaments reels between AMS’s - by creating a better magnetic filament clip (than the one I currently use - see me Makerworld profile) - that also acts as a label when the filament is stored and in the AMS.
I think it can be improved - but making the clip springy - so that it can be clipped in BL spools means only the end of the filament needs to be clamped - which saves a fair bit of time. Made good use of fuzzy skin on the ends of this too - to help with adhesion.
Will release these on Makerworld in a few weeks once I have checked reliability and practicality.
Other ideas I have are:
- Adding extra switchable first stage feeders and rollers into AMS’s - to give more channels at a lower cost than buying full AMS’s
- Adding some sort of auto selector in front of the AMS - which can automatically load and unload different reels of filament. The biggest issue with this is somehow getting the filament roller driving force out of the AMS into an external roller.