Feature: Warning if not enough Filament left to print

[macio 0]

Hi,

 

as far as I know The Ultimaker filament has a NFC tag with information such as the type and the amount of filament on the spool.

 

Can't we get a message in Cura when there is not enough filament left on the spool to print the model? 

[robinmdh 99]

We almost had this in the print queue (aka Cura connect) but since we have no flow sensor in the UM3 the tracking of filament position is not as exact as we'd like. For instance your printer starts grinding during a 3 day print over the weekend, after the print has failed and you  come back: your roll of filament could be more than 75% full in reality but we'd be able to read close to 0% left. conversely we've had reports of  the printer being empty when you have a good 1.5 meters of material left. Should we then display a warning before you send the next print? The danger is that it becomes more annoying then useful.

 

The idea is to add it as an experimental feature. but fair warning there are about 40ish issues ahead of that one.

The UM3 was always meant to have a flow sensor to augment this but due to technical difficulties it was left out :( which is why accuracy is not as great as we'd want.

[Digital-Ed 0]

Is that why there is an unused connector in the Bowden?

[kmanstudios 1,120]

While using the NFC as a way to integrate the idea of a filament sensor, it does not take into account use of other materials and also positioning of materials in a way that does not allow for the reading of the  NFC chip. This setup that I use would be an example of not being able to read any NFC information.

 

My filament is fed from underneath the printers which allows for them to be closer to the wall and not take up so much room. Also, when I dangled the sensor as close as possible to the drybox setup, it could not pick up any NFC information when using UM filaments. I would say this would apply to any drybox situation no matter make or position to feed from.

[robinmdh 99]

13 hours ago, Digital-Ed said:

Is that why there is an unused connector in the Bowden?

if you mean the connector going to the feeder that's not connected, then yes.

 

13 hours ago, kmanstudios said:

While using the NFC as a way to integrate the idea of a filament sensor, it does not take into account use of other materials and also positioning of materials in a way that does not allow for the reading of the  NFC chip. This setup that I use would be an example of not being able to read any NFC information.

 

My filament is fed from underneath the printers which allows for them to be closer to the wall and not take up so much room. Also, when I dangled the sensor as close as possible to the drybox setup, it could not pick up any NFC information when using UM filaments. I would say this would apply to any drybox situation no matter make or position to feed from.

Inside the spool holder is a small PCB and it only works if it is in between the 2 spools (approximately), does that help?

you know most NFC is only e few centimeters of detection. Extending the cable might not be the greatest idea, while it may work there was an issue about noise on that line if I recall correctly.

[kmanstudios 1,120]

2 hours ago, robinmdh said:

Inside the spool holder is a small PCB and it only works if it is in between the 2 spools (approximately), does that help?

you know most NFC is only e few centimeters of detection. Extending the cable might not be the greatest idea, while it may work there was an issue about noise on that line if I recall correctly.

I did not realize the specifics of the NFC reader. But I was drawing a comparison about using the NFC chip as a guide for how much filament is left not ragging on the system. For instance, I chose to not use the NFC system in favor of very dry filament as I am sure many others do as well.

 

It was a novel suggestion made by @macio and all I wanted to point out was that it would not solve issues for many people.