Variable extruder tension for different materials by additional stepper motor: The Tensator
Dear Prusa People!
The Prusa is incredible! I like to contribute.
I am working on a solution for the different tensions needed for different materials in MMU printing:
Differrent materials need different tension
So I come up with the Tensator.
Adding a mini stepper motor to controll the extruder tension is possible, without changing the corpus of the extruder.
This is only a crude sketch. There has to be added some slack for the motion of the idler. Also this approach eats some X-Space.
I suppose that the Tensator cannot be controlled via the Einsy rambo board. Is that correct?
So for the first prototype I will go for Octoprint and hijack the Rpi for some GPIOs to steer the Tensator.
Has Octoprint knowledge about filament changes?
Any help appreciated
Cheers Volker
RE: Variable extruder tension for different materials by additional stepper motor: The Tensator
Yes, Octoprint knows about filament changes. It even knows to block Tx commands where x is greater than the number of extruder heads / MMU positions (greater or equal actually since it is zero-based), which is why you tell it about that in the initial configuration.
So that should be hook-in-able reasonably easily. I'd be interested in such a mod, along with a proper filament movement sensor instead of the mechanical IR gate.