Dual Extruder, S5, Switch when material runs out

[TylerMatthews 1]

Hello,

 

I am working on some large prints that will require more than one roll of 1kg material. I want to leave this overnight/weekend and will not be able to switch the material manually. Is there a method in Cura (4.4.1) to switch extruders automatically to the other one which would contain a fresh roll of the same stuff?

[Curven 28]

As far as I know unfortunately not... I have allready seen a post about this but it seem's not to be in ultimakers idea rigth now.

This would be great as it would act like a mini material station. For the people who don't have budget for a S5 Pro or allready do have a S3 (with some options a UM3 would be doable) it could be a nice feature.

 

As a workaround you could split your design in two halves and join them like you would do for a multicolor print. But this solution is far less convinient as the one you sugest.

 

Edit: here is the other topic speaking aboit this feature:

 

 

Edited February 19, 2020 by Curven

[TylerMatthews 1]

Thank you for your help! I hope UM has this planned for a future update. I will try the split part!

[IRobertI 521]

You could also try calculating when the spool will run out and add a pause at that point so that you can swap the spools manually and keep going.

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

16 hours ago, IRobertI said:

You could also try calculating when the spool will run out and add a pause at that point so that you can swap the spools manually and keep going.

 

Or you could go even one step further and use a helper volume for the upper part and assign extruder 2 for that volume. It would then automatically switch to the second extruder at the height the helper volume starts.

[Projects 2]

The machine already knows when it runs out and what material is in the other extruder...the code already mostly exists (if not completely) from material station firmware...why not just have the machine auto switch on run out? why complicate with calculating spool run out or use a helper volume?

[TylerMatthews 1]

That's what I'm sayin! I hope they get on that soon.

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

@Projects: Please keep in mind that the procedures @IRobertI and I suggested are work-arounds, not solutions.

 

Ultimaker launched the Material Station with clearly people in mind that want an automatic spool swap when one is empty and maximum productivity in general. So if you have that need you might want to consider the Material Station.

 

Also, there are some logical challenges with an extruder swap solution. Imagine you don't use a material that is separated by color, e.g. generic PLA. You have generic PLA in both extruders, but in fact they don't have the same color. What should the printer do when spool 1 is empty? Swaping to extruder 2 could make sense but also could be the wrong thing to do. With the Material station that challenge does not come up as the printer would never switch from a generic PLA in insert 1 to a generic PLA in insert 2.

Edited February 21, 2020 by Dim3nsioneer

[Curven 28]

There are some challenges yes, but part of this logical stuff can be solved by the user, for example with an option in Cura "Automatically swap material".

If you activate this option it is up to you to check wich materials are loaded in your printer and if they are compatible / meet your personal requirements (quantity, color, etc...)

 

Yes there is a material station to do that, but it is very expensive and not everyone can afford it, and It works only for the S5.

S3 users dont'have these options.

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

5 minutes ago, Curven said:

this logical stuff can be solved by the user, for example with an option in Cura "Automatically swap material".

 

Options have the tendency to be forgotten to be disabled again by the user. We see that with the post-processing scripts in Cura which are sticky. It would have to be a setting with default setting disabled.

[TylerMatthews 1]

It should be off by default and then its up to the user to remember. Especially if they think it will run out of filament

[Projects 2]

On 2/21/2020 at 4:39 AM, Dim3nsioneer said:

@Projects: Please keep in mind that the procedures @IRobertI and I suggested are work-arounds, not solutions.

 

Ultimaker launched the Material Station with clearly people in mind that want an automatic spool swap when one is empty and maximum productivity in general. So if you have that need you might want to consider the Material Station.

 

Also, there are some logical challenges with an extruder swap solution. Imagine you don't use a material that is separated by color, e.g. generic PLA. You have generic PLA in both extruders, but in fact they don't have the same color. What should the printer do when spool 1 is empty? Swaping to extruder 2 could make sense but also could be the wrong thing to do. With the Material station that challenge does not come up as the printer would never switch from a generic PLA in insert 1 to a generic PLA in insert 2.

 

Truth. In regards to generic materials, I think Cura should have a check mark for switching materials on empty. Give the programmer the control. 

 

Another note in regards to material station, it only works with a small group of materials. It will not work on materials I use a lot of like PAHT CF15. If my machine could switch to another spool without the material station, I could run larger prints with such materials much easier.

[Dim3nsioneer 558]

3 hours ago, Projects said:

Another note in regards to material station, it only works with a small group of materials. It will not work on materials I use a lot of like PAHT CF15. If my machine could switch to another spool without the material station, I could run larger prints with such materials much easier.

 

It might be a question of time until that material (the BASF I assume?) is compatible with the Pro Bundle. Various brands are currently updating their profiles for making them compatible with the Material Station.

[Projects 2]

I doubt it will ever work with the material station. It is by BASF. The material is so stiff it already has lots of snapping issues in the feeder. The bowden tubes also can move a lot due to how stiff the material is. I would imagine this could greatly impact the material stations method of feeding. I could be wrong.