Filament Monitor Beta Overview
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Thanks David. I am printing a modified sensor body that has more plastic to insert (and CA glue) a short piece of PTFE in to.
Does CA glue bond PTFE?
Yes (but no in fact)
I scar the outside of the tube to make it "grip"
Edit : sorry DC I've clicked "report" instead of "quote" for this answer
my bad -
Beta Test
We are sending out beta boards to beta testers and will have some left over, I will start another thread about how to get involved in the beta test.
wink wink ;D
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Not that this particularly interests me as I'd need 5 of them and I really don't see how I'd get another another 15 cables through my cable chain. Oh and all my end stops on the main board are populated. But I'd guess this wouldn't work with a mixing hot end where filaments can be used or unused throughout a print depending on the colour of the part/section that is being printed. Am I correct?
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Not that this particularly interests me as I'd need 5 of them and I really don't see how I'd get another another 15 cables through my cable chain. Oh and all my end stops on the main board are populated. But I'd guess this wouldn't work with a mixing hot end where filaments can be used or unused throughout a print depending on the colour of the part/section that is being printed. Am I correct?
Yes it should work with a mixing hot end, because each extruder drive is tracked separately. You can connect filament sensors to the 5 endstop connectors on the Duet and to the 2 on the CONN_LCD connector, and you can choose which endstop connector is used for each extruder. If you have endstop switches for XYZ then you have only 4 suitable endstop connectors left, leaving you 1 short.
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Ah OK. And it could cope with me doing the crazy things I do like varying the mixing ratio on every layer? And a mixing ratio that might be as low as 1% for a particular extruder?
I use end stop switches for the X and Y. The Z homing is a switch but uses the Z probe connector because of its in built LED. Another end stop is connected to switches that are wired in series to the axes maxima and another is connected to an emergency stop button. I guess I could move all these to the Duex5, thus freeing them up on the Duet for the filament sensors? If I read correctly I can't use the end stops on the Duex5 for filament sensors.
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Currently you can't shift the endstops for the axes. But you can connect a filament sensor to your unused Z endstop input.
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Currently you can't shift the endstops for the axes. But you can connect a filament sensor to your unused Z endstop input.
Varying mixing ratios and using small mixing proportions shouldn't stop the sensor working.
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OK. As I said before, it's not something that particularly interests me at this time, and the big deal would be trying to get another 15 wires through my cable chain which already carries the wires for the 5 extruder motors as well as all the hot end gubbins, fans, end stop switches, lights etc. Good to know that it's possibly doable though.
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@David - re CA for teflon, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6mU4excEE8. Turn your audio off though, it is annoying.
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I printed a small piece to lock in to the groove in the brass Bowden termination:
That allowed me to cable-tie it more securely to the filament monitor block:
EDIT: changed photo to a better one
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I'm building my first Delta printer and am very keen to add filament monitoring so have been following this thread with great interest. I've looked all over for the separate thread about becoming a beta tester but can't find it - are there still boards available and, if so, how do I get involved, please?
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Why does the sensor only work on the Duet, not the Duex? Is it because you re-configure inputs as analog, which is not possible on Duex?
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It's because the pins on the DueX have too much latency, because they are read via a I2C I/O expander.
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I see.
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Looks great.
But a Filament Diameter Sensor for 1.75mm and 2.85mm/3mm would be awesome.
I know this type of Sensor is (i belive) easyer to get in to everything.
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I cannot see why this sensor can't-do 3mm, surely its just a case of reorientating the idler so that it sits on the other side of the elastic cam pieces supporting it, so there is enough space for 3mm filament to be inserted.
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I cannot see why this sensor can't-do 3mm, surely its just a case of reorientating the idler so that it sits on the other side of the elastic cam pieces supporting it, so there is enough space for 3mm filament to be inserted.
Yes I have tested the current enclosure with 3mm as well as 1.75mm filament. the elastic springs can be rotated so there is a larger gap.
A filament diameter sensor is a whole different issue though. Just thinking about the elasticity in the system and the delay makes my head hurt.
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It's a hard nut to crack, but a genuinely auto-calibrating extruder would give even the Prusa team pause for thought.
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Is this only intended for run out and stall detection or could I monitor the actual vs commanded extrusion ratio.
Im printing often at the upper limits of what the extruder is willing to push through, so a tool that could confirm and compensate this:
http://www.extrudable.me/2013/04/18/exploring-extrusion-variability-and-limits/ would be great. -
The firmware detects the difference between the commanded extrusion and the amount filament moves (taking into account retraction) any then raises an error and pauses the print if that difference grows out of tolerance.
