Laser filament monitor
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I've just had notification that the prototype PCBs for the laser filament sensor are on their way to me from HK! I only ordered them last Sunday.
Great news!
Is there still space on the Beta List? -
Sorry to jump in but what is the advantage of this compared to a simple micro switch?
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Sorry to jump in but what is the advantage of this compared to a simple micro switch?
These monitors track the amount of filament passing through the system. You can use that to tell if the extruder drive is slipping, not just if there is filament present.
David has raised the possibility of auto-calibration of e-steps using the system, which would be very neat if it works.
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Ah I see, very clever!
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When will either sensor be available. I'm definitely adding a filament sensor to the printer I am building now and rather buy from the makers of the duet than some no-name AliExpress company.
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I'm sorry, we can't give a date yet. I expect to have a few prototype laser filament sensors by the end of this week, which should put us on track to decide which version to manufacture at the end of this month.
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First Laser Filament Monitor prototype.
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I'd buy one. Is there already an estimate for the price?
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Would love to betatest one
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looks promising
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Would look better in Blue.
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The production boards will be blue, these are prototypes so I accepted the default PCB options for fastest turnaround and lowest cost.
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Laser filament monitor assembled:
Installed and working on delta printer:
During a test print using black filament (probably one of the worst cases), the average detected motion was 7% low, and the tolerance was quite wide at +44% - 32%. I know from earlier tests that the optical sensor has difficulty tracking fast moves when using black filament. To improve accuracy, we may need to compare actual vs. commanded motion only during printing moves, not during retraction and re-prime moves. Would this be acceptable?
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Is there an LED illuminating the filament for the sensor?
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Hi David, I'd say yes it would be acceptable to just monitor extrusion, it's a lack of (or excess of) extrusion that counts. This also simplifies which presumably improves accuracy.
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Yeah I would agree
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Oh, interesting. Is there a possibility that focus or intensity needs to be adjusted? Perhaps even for each different filament colour?
Perhaps the laser monitor could read a pattern on the circumference of a hobbed wheel that is idling against the filament – or perhaps even just the grain of the metal of the hobbed wheel would track better than the surface of filament.
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I tried a similar print with retraction disabled, although I still had pressure advance set at 0.2 so I could still see frequent backward movement of the filament. The calibration tolerance reduced to +27 -26%. That's much more manageable, not only lower but more symmetrical too.
If the sensor works at least as well with all other filament colours and materials including transparent, and ignoring retractions and re-prime movements works is feasible and works, I think we will be able to go ahead with this design.
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@bot:
Oh, interesting. Is there a possibility that focus or intensity needs to be adjusted? Perhaps even for each different filament colour?
There is no focus or power adjustment, although the reflected intensity can be read. We might be able to use that to increase the tolerance automatically when the reflected intensity is low.
@bot:
Perhaps the laser monitor could read a pattern on the circumference of a hobbed wheel that is idling against the filament – or perhaps even just the grain of the metal of the hobbed wheel would track better than the surface of filament.
If we did that, we would lose the benefit of mechanical simplicity of this design over the previous rotating magnet design.
