*Feature request*
I was printing leftovers and the spool was tangled somewhere in the middle of the print. Ofcourse, this isn’t the printers fault but since there are so many sensors everywhere, I believe it could be detected after which the printer could stop printing before the print fails?
Since the printer has sensorless homing, I believe it is possible to detect the amount of current the stepper motors pull. Why not use it for the extruder as well? It is powerfull enough to lift a spool up in the air. This amount of torque isn’t required while printing so you could just say if the torque exceeds some limit, spool is tangled, stop print
After the detection, just go to the same procedure as switching filament mid print and done! Print saved!
Assumes they designed in that capability for the extruder stepper. Just because current sensing is used for the positioning steppers doesn’t mean they threw it in as a feature for the extruder. Features add cost. Designers generally don’t put them in unless the product will make use of them. So if the feature was present, my guess is it’d already be in use for this…
I think the only place where the printer can “sense” if filament is still moving is the filament buffer and the AMS.
I think this is already implemented and has worked several times for me. When my spool gets tangled it stops the print and gives me an error. I untangle the spool and press resume and the print continues. This is on an X1C so maybe it’s not available to other models?
I started a print with a fresh roll of filament I had inadvertently tangled. Got a dozen or so layers done before the spool couldn’t feed anymore. Printer kept right on trying to print. Didn’t notice at all. And it was through an AMS.
I have had crappy PLA filament break on me between the extruder sensor and the extruder wheels/gears. In that case it still “sees” filament at the extruder input and continues to print nothing in the air with no errors. Happened 3 times in a row even after a long drying session so I threw the spool away.
Quit using PLA for that reason is tought… Perhaps you should say “quit using that BRAND PLA” and try others :? Or may be your climate makes tough to print PLA?
Yes i only use polymaker products. But what i should have said was that i wont use PLA in the AMS system anymore. I still use PLA on my CR10S. But even at that i rarely use the big printer.
My understanding is that it requires current-sensing hardware in the stepper driver. It’s possible that it’s present and unused, but I doubt it.
It’s possible that current detection won’t work for filament jams due to the wide range of torque needed to extrude different filaments. Possible evidence I’ve seen supporting this is the Lulzbot Taz Pro. It uses sensorless homing for X and Y, but has a dedicated hall effect sensor for filament issues. I’m not certain this really proves it won’t work, it could simply be that they wanted to be able to detect other issues like snapped filament.
To be clear, I still print plenty of PLA (especially PLA-CF) from Bambu, Overture, IEMAI and Polymaker with excellent results. The spools I threw away had come with my Ender 3 many years ago and were terrible quality. No amount of drying helped to make them less brittle. Sometimes you just need to cut your losses and move on. I’ve been trying 3rd party PLA-CF since Bambu has been out of stock for months and all have printed just as well as the Bambu branded.
To be clear, I still print plenty of PLA (especially PLA-CF) from Bambu, Overture, IEMAI and Polymaker with excellent results. The spools I threw away had come with my Ender 3 many years ago and were terrible quality. No amount of drying helped to make them less brittle. Sometimes you just need to cut your losses and move on. I’ve been trying 3rd party PLA-CF since Bambu has been out of stock for months and all have printed just as well as the Bambu branded.
Creality filament is just as horrible as their printers
