Here you go: Flow Blocker - H2D/H2C | Bambu Lab US Store
Please explain.
The only FTS in existence only have two inlets, hence Panda63 would like one with 4 inlets to be available so that fewer AMS units have to share the same FTS inlet resulting in less full retractions when switching filament during a multi-material print.
If you on the other hand are talking about manual track switchers (and if you are not, ignore the rest of my post):
Manual track switchers are just a fancy way to move PTFE tubes between filament inlets.
The filament track switch (FTS) is automatically managed by the printer and supported in the Bambu studio slicer, meaning you always have the possibility to send filament from any connected AMS to either print head during the same print without any manual intervention. All filament swaps are setup during slicing.
How ever much you want to believe that manually moving ptfe tubes between inputs is the same as the FTS, its not.
OK, but that isn’t really a hardware limitation, it’s a software optimization problem.
The FTS uses an inlet filament sensor to know when filament is present, it may be currently retracting all the way back to the AMS but really it only needs to retract 10cm further than that point. That’s a negligible time difference and doesn’t justify a new FTS on it’s own.
It should also be recognized that for most situations the current FTS design and operation can have zero to very minimal impact on overall print time, and Bambu Studio even suggests the optimal AMS location for each filament. It’s only for prints with many colors or when users aren’t willing to move filaments to different AMS slots that a 4-inlet FTS would even be beneficial - and then there’s inevitably going to be people saying they want even more inputs…
In my view, this really doesn’t justify a new FTS.
Now, if Bambu did a Filament Nexus, as I’ve suggested previously…that would be a much more useful way to spend their development resources.
For me I want a full feature Maintenance logs and reminders including data on all detected failures including jobs that were stopped manually. Every single HMS message logged with a snapshot of the bed, video of the print that I can pause scrub through in order to see the point where it failed along with all telemetry data and links to an automated. Basically, everything I would need to know in order to diagnose and resolve an issue. A QR code that doesn’t pull up my actual issue is kind of useless (Talking to you print quality guide. You need to up your game).
Pie in the sky request - all that plus a device that checks filament moisture level when I start a print so that everyone can stop telling people to dry their bed and clean their filament.
Yes, I agree with you on everything in this post. But your original statement we replied to was:
What if I told you that you could have a 8-input Filament Track Switch today?
This is incorrect (or simply confusing as to what you are implying), there exist only one FTS supported by Bambu printer firmware and software today, and it has two inlets.
Its the outlets that matter.
Bambu does not sell a printer with more than 2 extruders.
Uh,.. okay?..
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Well, how quickly things change. So long Snapmaker U1. I put in my KS pledge for the Sovol M1D, the machine I was hoping that BL would create.