wouldnt it be possible to send any of the 16 colors to any of 4 rinters this way? With a software update. 4 ams units each going to an ams hub. Then run the outlet sides of each hub to another set of 4 hubs that all go to a printer. I live in oregon and its late so this may be way off lol. I guess im wondering how the hub works internally. That would tell me if the hubs could technically work on both directions.
As I understand it, the hub does not select the filament at all - it’s just 4 tubes in, 1 tube out and some sensors to report the tension of the spring for the output tube (that way, it can tell the AMS when to feed more filament and the “pressure” of available filament is regulated).
The selection instead just happens by telling (via the Bus cable) one AMS to feed filament – and because of the 4-in-1-out shape of the hub, the filament will always reach the printer. So unfortunately, the AMS Hub can’t work backwards (and the electrical cabling also wouldn’t work with more than one printer, as the printers don’t have an “in” port for the Bus cable).
@hho Makes sense. Hopefully they create some sort of switcher in the future.
Each AMS would require a 4 way switcher to connect it to the right printer - with the 4 switchers then going into a hub connected to each printer.
One problem would be that what happens if two printers require the same filament colour at the same time (or one of the 4 in a particular AMS at the same time) - which is likely to be pretty common.
So I think ultimately you would require a few more than 4 AMS’s to handle 16 colours across 4 printers.
Ive been doing a fair bit of printing the last few weeks using two printers and 4 x AMSs- 3 on one and 1 on the other. I’ve found I’ve had to half re-spool a few colours so that both printers can have access to them in their relevant AMS’s at the same time.
For colours not used that often or not for very long the AMS’s seem to be fairly happy with you borrowing filament out of them mid print to place in the AMS of the other printer for a while - as long as you put it back when they need it. You just need to make sure that you have the right colours in place at the start of each print.
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