MMU2 request to Prusa engineers
For what it is worth, I'm throwing this out there in hopes to get a response from the prusa people. Every since the last MK3 firmware update, my filament sensor has been working perfectly. No false readings and has worked as expected. Following the home brew MMU2 threads, a key to his success has been by adding a active filament sensor at the hot end, thus eliminating the need to perfect ptfe length cals.
My request, is that you allow the mk3 filament sensor to be activated and communicate with the mmu2. This way people that are confident in their sensor can use it if they want, and can disable it and go back to how it is now if they don't.
Also please allow us to use the cutter that was advertised at the beginning. surely this would eliminate the "not proper tip" problems. The cutter and the filament sensor would solve tons of issues. even if they introduced others, surely the success rate would increase over what it is now.
Thank you for your time.
Casey
Re: MMU2 request to Prusa engineers
I agree with you, I never had problems with the filament sensor, I use mostly PLA.
I understand that they don't want to offer a solution that won't be effective for everybody (like the MMU2) but it seems that it could make a lot of systems more reliables with a few things
Re: MMU2 request to Prusa engineers
I totaly agree, I started another thread that talked about how the two filament sensors need to communicate better. This would reduce skipped layers because the filament got jammed while loading. On a filament load, the system should detect filament loading in the MMU2, then hold off from printing the layer until the sensore in the extruder is activated. If it never gets activated, pause the print and wait for you to fix the jam, then continue to print current layer. But instead, the filament activates the MMU2 sensor, then it counts feed motor steps as the filament travels to the extruder. If the filament gets stuck, but the filament feed motor continues (as it always does while chewing up the filament), the bontech gears activate when the programmed number of steps in the feed motor are reached, and the printer starts printing that layer, even though the filament is still stuck in the PTFE tube. I'm not a programmer, but it seems to me this should be an easy fix in the firmware, just check both sensors before the extruder starts printing in thin air. Not sure why this wasn't implemented since day one? Maybe it was because the optical filament sensor wasn't reliable? I don't know, but I think it is better than nothing, so frustrating when you go to bed while your printer is working on a 30+ hour print, just to find skipped layers in the morning.
Would also be nice if Prusa came out with a guide to getting good filament tips, I have no idea what half the settings do. I get strings, ok, what do I need to adjust, more cooling passes? Ram settings? unload speeds? I've given up for now, went back to printing single color prints until Prusa comes out with new firmware and some sort of guide.
I've spent weeks experimenting with Slic3r settings, and actually got some good tips, with a couple of completed prints, but for some reason all my tips have gone to shit again, even though I'm still using the same settings when I was getting good tips.
Re: MMU2 request to Prusa engineers
Some users are working on it, see this thread:
https://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/general-discussion-announcements-and-releases-f53/improvements-to-the-mmu-2-0-controller-firmware-t25189.html
And if you look at the prusa3d firmware repo on github, they just posted a bunch of commits getting ready for a 3.5 release. It looks like filament sensor is one of the areas they focused on. So maybe this is getting the filament sensor more reliable in preparation for using it with the MMU in the future.
IMHO the sensor has always been reliable enough to autoload every filament I've tried. The issues were mostly with false positives detecting runouts during a print, when the filament is moving slowly. But that wouldn't be a problem for this use case.
Re: MMU2 request to Prusa engineers
Some users are working on it, see this thread:
https://shop.prusa3d.com/forum/general-discussion-announcements-and-releases-f53/improvements-to-the-mmu-2-0-controller-firmware-t25189.html
And if you look at the prusa3d firmware repo on github, they just posted a bunch of commits getting ready for a 3.5 release. It looks like filament sensor is one of the areas they focused on. So maybe this is getting the filament sensor more reliable in preparation for using it with the MMU in the future.
IMHO the sensor has always been reliable enough to autoload every filament I've tried. The issues were mostly with false positives detecting runouts during a print, when the filament is moving slowly. But that wouldn't be a problem for this use case.
I would love to help with feed back as right now the mmu is just eye candy on the printer at home, but I'm kind of green with this method of custom firware loading is there area of how to's or can it be updated using the built in one in Slic3r?