Filament monitor that actually works?

T3P3Tony

@Adamfilip said in Filament monitor that actually works?:

but it was so trigger happy, couldn't get it to work reliably.

Which version did you try and what limits did you set?

infiniteloop

Ive tried the Duet Magnetic Filament Monitor, but it was so trigger happy, couldn't get it to work reliably.

I remember you had a thread on the MFM in July, but you didn't pursue that up to a solution. @T3P3Tony contributed to the thread, too. In you last post, you announced to print a new housing… and posted a list of errors saying "too little movement" which clearly indicates mechanical (=housing) issues.

Admittedly, fixing the issues with the initial housing design is tricky, it needs some filing and sanding until you achieve proper results, but at least, I got mine to work very reliably. And then came @Lo-Fi with his superior design … Did you ever try that?

dc42

@Adamfilip said in Filament monitor that actually works?:

Ive tried the Duet Magnetic Filament Monitor, but it was so trigger happy, couldn't get it to work reliably.

Assuming that you has a satisfactory AGC value, the usual reason for that is too large a distance between the filament monitor and the extruder drive, so that movement in the filament monitor isn't the same as movement in the extruder drive. You can mitigate it to some extent by selecting a longer sample distance, at the cost of delaying the detection of a problem.

Adamfilip

@dc42 @T3P3Tony I ended up removing the device as it was very frustrating to tune/tweak. Im sure if I invested a considerable amount of time. I would probably be able to get it to work. I am hoping for something more plug and play without modification. I dont recall the last settings i used or Housing. the fact that I needed a user generated Housing to make it operate as intended is disappointing.

RogerPodacter

@Adamfilip i use the magnetic filament sensor. but if you want something simple, just buy a standard endstop click probe, and make a small channel the filament will trigger the click. so its on/off or present/not present.

Adamfilip

@RogerPodacter the reason I wanted a monitor is to notify me if it jams during a print. pausing due to filament outage isnt really an issue I run into and yes a simple microswitch can do this

RogerPodacter

@Adamfilip the method i use is set the magnetic filament sensor to a really wide range: 10% to 190%. this way it monitors gross movement and still pauses if a true stop happens.

alankilian

@RogerPodacter said in Filament monitor that actually works?:

@Adamfilip the method i use is set the magnetic filament sensor to a really wide range: 10% to 190%. this way it monitors gross movement and still pauses if a true stop happens.

That's what I do also.

Except today, the darn think kept triggering while I was trying to print and wouldn't settle down. Sometimes I have to print the first layer VERY VERY close to the bed for a large print because my bed isn't perfectly flat and that causes a nozzle "clog" during part of the first layer so I just allow the monitor to notice the jam, I restart and when it gets to the second layer it's fine.

But today it kept going off even on later layers, so I eventually disabled the darn thing so I could keep printing.

What a pain in the kaboose.

A few hours later I noticed the print wasn't getting any taller and the filament had gotten tangled on the spool and was 100% jammed.

So, the monitor was telling the truth and would have saved me an hour or more if I had actually believed it.

Sorry for doubting you magnetic filament monitor.

soare0

@alankilian Indeed, it happened me the same, to not notice problems wich MFM could have saved.
Otherwise, I used 10%-200%, and 25mm length to make it work, even if most of the times it would work in the range of 60-120%.
Most issues are mechan ical though. After half of the day working perfect, somehow, something went (again) mechanically wrong, so... disabled it.
My sensor is fitted at 7cm in the front of a direct drive extruder, with a tube in between.

It is a pain to fit the filament through, and if the filament has some... distorsions, wich would not affect the print, it may trigger the MFM.

I think that if someone would make such a sensor, wich would pe reliable, they would go in Heavens...

sebkritikel

I've found the MFM works great, and doesn't need much setup or tweaking to work reliably. Tuning should take no more than one minute or so?

The only issues I've faced with it are mechanical, and frankly my own fault (have had the entry and/or exit PTFE tube jammed too far in, causing the filament sense shaft to bind on the tubing).