On the Amazon product page for the Sun S4 drier there is a photo of the drier with the AMS Lite on top. It seems to imply that one could print directly from the drier box, through the AMS Lite, to the A1/A1 Mini. Has anyone actually tried that yet or is that just propaganda that is misleading? (in the photo the filament comes out of the drier and into the AMS Lite feeder assembly, no spools attached)
Fifth image down on this product page:
https://a.co/d/iEWYoVd
have you a link or photo please
I don’t think it will work. The spool holders in the S4 are not motorized. Therefore filament can not be loaded and unloaded automatically. You can only use printing from spools in the S4 dryer like you use an external spool.
I couldn’t find a picture but there’s a video of an A1 using the Sunlu S4 as an external spool. Click on the Amazon link then click the last video.
I have two of the Creality Space PI Filament driers and prefer them to the S4 or any multi-spool dryer. I can dry two different filament types at the same time.
See edited message for the link to the product page. It’s the 5th image down.
I was thinking about that. I don’t believe the spools on the AMS Lite are powered. The gray and orange pieces in the middle seem to be where it is driven. I am making this conclusion based on several factors. First when you load filament you can feel it start pulling it away from you once it is recognized by the AMSL. Second if the spools were driven there would be now way to keep them from going all over the place instead of up the tube. Third if the spool was driven then it would have to adjust its feed rate based on the diameter of the spool which changes as the spool has less filament on it. Now perhaps this was already obvious, but given that I’m certain I am correct, then it doesn’t matter if the S4 is driven as long as it doesn’t add so much friction that the AMSL has trouble drawing in the filament. Based on the image it seems reasonable that it might be able to do it. The original intent of the post was to see if anyone actually had done it.
The spool holders in the AMS Lite are not motorized either. Just a spring. So, it’s possible that it might work.
In the pic,if the filament was fed that way…it would give you extrusion issues or just break.
Yeah, it can’t work like that. Especially because there are no Teflon tubes at the exit either. But I’m sure with a little effort, some CAD design, and Teflon tubes at the entry and exit, it can be made to work.
I print from the Sunlu S4 using my A1 Mini and this mod for the Sunlu/AMS Lite (sorry I am unable to directly post the link): SUNBU LAB AMS LITE 1.0 by Mr.X3D
It was a pretty big project to print the entire model on my A1 Mini but it works great and I’m very happy with the end result. It retains all of the functionality of the AMS Lite while essentially acting as a dry box and providing the ability to print while drying.
Yes, it works fine for my A1. I’ve actually had better luck feeding spools out of the box into the AMS as it keeps the filament warm and more pliable. Along with it actually being easier to deal with filament getting stuck.
I have had it for about 3 months now and zero issues.
Would recommend it.
Yes, essentially doing it now.
The Sunbu setup seems pretty nice, but I just wasn’t into investing that kinda time, and until recently there was not a pre-cut A1mini version anyways, so for the last 5 months 'm using a Sunlu S4, A1 mini with the AMS lite taken apart and attached to the printer itself. Two options depending on where you want to place the Sunlu in relation to your printer.
As mentioned the AMS lite has springs in the spool spindles so when the filament retracts (this occurs at the print head) that spring has been given tension feeding the filament into the printer and then the nudge of the filament moving backwards allows it to help wind the filament back onto the spool. With the S4 you will not have this which has on occasion caused a problem. On a full spool, the filament pushes back into the S4 and ends up going on the outisde of the spool rather than in the middle and will eventually get caught and cause a tangle. After it’s happened to you a few times it becomes second nature to check the filament at the end of a print job to be sure the filament didn’t go overboard.
Can’t work, rdf tags are in the spools. That’s how it knows the filament. Though it will if you don’t mind losing the feature.
Thank-you – indeed, you are required to set all filament from the device tab manually.
I’m so used to setting all my filaments manually at this point I kinda forgot about the RFID feature for Bambu filament.
It seems that no one has an actual answer to this and no one has tried it, since I was curious myself I went ahead and bought a Sunlu S4 and tried it myself, here is the result:
The definitive answer is that yes, it does work, I had to raise up my A1 a bit because the PTFE tubes were at the limit of their length, ideally i’ll have to raise it a bit more, but i’m able to print perfectly as it is in the picture.
Included with the S4 are two lengths of PTFE tubing which I cut in half so I could feed the filament up to the AMS, as you can notice they are a bit long and loop a bit on themselves, but since the filament coming out of the S4 is pretty pliable, the risk of breaking is pretty low. Still, I’ll probably shorten the tubes a bit eventually.
There you go.
Edit: I forgot to mention, the only downside is that since the power cable for the S4 comes out of the side, the only way for my setup to work is by having the S4 screen facing the printer. Minor annoyance IMHO, but important to mention all the same.
There are one or two mods on MakerWorld to do just this.
etc, etc.
Glad you found something though.
I’d prefer a dry box like that where I can remove the AMS Lite Stand, and then place the entire AMS Lite unit inside the drybox…
Yes, but the original poster asked if it’s possible to make it work with the AMS lite standing on the box.
