Material Station end of spool behavior

[CTotten 16]

One of the features that drove me to purchase the Material Station was the automatic change over of material mid-print, when a spool runs out.  But so far, I have been tentative to just let the system do its thing.  I am concerned about how it deals with the end of the spool, the part that is bent over on the spool. 

Does this work as expected?  Maybe I am paranoid, but I have been clipping the ends off when it gets near the end, since I am afraid it either won't release from the spool, or the bent over part will be hung up before the material sensor see's the end of the spool, causing a failed print.

What is your experience?  If there are problems, what workarounds work for you?

[Kelson 1]

 

I am glad to report; that I have success with PLA an number of times.   Some of the spools that I have had success with were "re-spooled" because the original spool did not fit.  When I did this I made certain not to have a kink at the end.   I made sure it would be able to release.  

 

Now saying that.  I had a print last night have one spool jam or stop.  I think it locked at the spool.  I was great surprised that it recognized this situation and then removed this material and move to another similar spool.    Upon inspection of the initial spool you could see it was worn and was being held up.  

 

I cannot be certain I have tested any with a bend at the end of the spool which you commonly see of purchased spools.

 

Once again zero success with CF NYlon.   Can anyone tell me if they have any success with a depriming or material change with CF Nylon.  I think they will just fix this in the next firmware update.

 

[CTotten 16]

6 hours ago, Kelson said:

 

Some of the spools that I have had success with were "re-spooled" because the original spool did not fit. 

 

So are these not Ultimaker brand spools of filament?  I was particular interested in the performance of Ultimaker brand filaments, since of any brand, this should work.

 

Also, I did notice the last batch of filament I got had a new design for the packaging.  I have not opened one yet, but did UM "tweak" the spooling???

[Kelson 1]

Yes had success with both Ultimaker and alternative tough PLA.  I have not have any problems or issues with the Ultimaker brands do anything so far. 

 

Not certain about the spooling question.  It would be in their best interest to have a easy release not bend end.  

 

 

 

[Elfonerio 5]

I use generic ABS and ultimaker TPU and it works like a charm, It has probably done a switchover at least a dozen or more times.  The ends have had bends and there was no Ill effect. 

[SandervG 1,485]

Happy to hear these positive responses! When the last part of the filament is attached to the spool, the decoupler should detect this, unload the filament and select the next similar spool if you've loaded one. So even when you have deactivated your flow sensor this should still work. So I would suggest you give this feature a try to prove itself 🙂 Good luck, and let us know how it went if you decide to do so. 

[CTotten 16]

12 minutes ago, SandervG said:

Happy to hear these positive responses! When the last part of the filament is attached to the spool, the decoupler should detect this, unload the filament and select the next similar spool if you've loaded one. So even when you have deactivated your flow sensor this should still work. So I would suggest you give this feature a try to prove itself 🙂 Good luck, and let us know how it went if you decide to do so. 

Thanks for the information.  I was assuming it was only a flow sensor in the Material Station, like on the S5 by itself.  When I cut the end of the spool off, the material does go all the way inside the feed port before it says it is out of filament, and starts the change process.  So I had concerns that if the material didn't release from the spool, or if it did release but the bent over portion would get hung up trying to get into the feed port, then the Material Station would not catch this.

I will give it a try once I get the Material Station working again (had a ER63 then ER61 early this week, so Bay D continuously tries to unload material that is not there).  Working with NA Support to resolve this.