This thread deserves an update with my most recent experiences. As some have said, the convenience is definitely there. There is less filament carrying for some nozzle configurations, or prints where you don’t need to optimize for print time. For many, this makes a big difference in practice. And I think an important aspect to note is that the FTS doesn’t have a negative impact on print time - it’s a pure upgrade and sometimes it helps.
The concern I had originally was that it only rarely actually saved any time at all. And depending on your nozzle and AMS setup, it often does not offer any extra convenience on the H2C (you could already put all your AMSes on the Vortek side and get full convenience). And we could see that with a little bit of extra hardware it could do so much more, so this feels worth pointing out (hoping for the next generation of AMS/FTS). Lots of good comments about this above. But in any case, some users definitely extract some convenience and sometimes print time wins, so that should be celebrated:) (also, if you are using external spool, that obviously also kills any convenience win, having to uninstall the FTS each time)
There is the common issue of “excessive resistance” though, with AMS failing to feed. If you have even just a few of these, it immediately nullifies any gains and those are the people who get quite unhappy and uninstall it. That was my situation in the beginning. I have since figured out how to completely fix it in my setup, and I have some key things to try:
- Do NOT put your 4-in-1 mergers near the FTS. They must be near the AMS. The printable brackets that put 4-in-1 mergers next to the FTS are a trap.
- Do not put more than one new-style H2C-bundled 4-in-1 merger in each line. They are much higher resistance than the old one. One of my sides has an old merger feeding into a new merger, and that works fine.
- Manage PTFE tubing bend radius carefully, especially close to the FTS. You want minimal resistance the further away from the AMS you are. The FTS itself isn’t that draggy.
- Make sure to print and use the small plastic alignment pieces for the PTFE tubes going into the FTS, and carefully align the FTS with the inlets. I use a side mount bracket so it’s a pretty straight shot.
With these, I was able to make my 4xAMS + 4xHT work without any failures. I’m not uninstalling the FTS. I think it’s neat tech. But I’m really hoping for new AMS models with builtin FTS.