RE: Connector type filament sensors

It looks like they are MOLEX CLICK-mate connectors: 

https://www.digikey.com/en/product-highlight/m/molex-connector/clik-mate-wire-board-connectors

Time to begin inventorying what pin counts are required for the various sockets. 

RE: Connector type filament sensors

OK I've been a little busy but we're finally sitting down to order some clik-mate items. Please note that there are 1.25mm pitch, 1.5mm pitch and 2mm pitch clik-mate connectors, we only want 1.5mm for everything we order!

Here's what I'm grabbing:

Browse all:
https://www.mouser.com/c/?q=clickmate%201.5&pg=2

4 Connector 1.5 mm pitch: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/molex/5025780400/2819000

5 connector 1.5mm pitch: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/molex/5025780500/2819001

6 connector 1.5mm pitch: https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/molex/5025780600/2819002

Pins - remember you need 4,5 or 6 pins per connector! : https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/molex/2130291100/14122124

Crimp Tool: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078WPT5M1/

I saw a youtube video saying it was ok, and they tested the crimper at 4 pounds of force to strip the cable. They also noted that using 28 gauge wire would probably crimp better than 26: 

You're on your own for ordering the right wire, but maybe this will save other people some time! I will reply back once I have crimped new extended cables for my filament sensors and relocated those so expect more details here once the parts come in. Maybe don't buy anything yourself until I test it!

RE: Connector type filament sensors

Thanks for sharing the info. Where are you relocating them to? Is there a specific reason? I feel there is a lot of drag in the long boden tubes as standard. It may also impact retractions as the extruder has to push the filament back in to that tubing.

RE: Connector type filament sensors

@guyh  I am most likely mounting the spools directly above the printer, I do not like them hanging off either side of it, it makes it harder to tell at a glance what is loaded, how much filament is left on each spool, and it takes up space on either side of the printer. 

RE: Connector type filament sensors

Hi Tony, thanks. I happen to agree with you. I don't have a place to mount mine above unfortunately. 

Posted by: @tony

@guyh  I am most likely mounting the spools directly above the printer, I do not like them hanging off either side of it, it makes it harder to tell at a glance what is loaded, how much filament is left on each spool, and it takes up space on either side of the printer. 

RE: Connector type filament sensors

Why not splice the wires?

RE: Connector type filament sensors

splicing is an option but it wont be as clean and it introduces another point of failure. it also means permanently altering an original printer part, if you screw up or want to go back to stock then you need to order replacements. Making a new cable the exact length I need once I have all the spools hung above the printer will be the cleanest option. 

RE: Connector type filament sensors

I'd love to see your finished set up once you've moved the spools to the top.

RE: Connector type filament sensors

All the connectors came in today and I can verify the 5pin 1.5mm pitch clik-mate fit the physical connector on the filament sensors. No idea yet if the pins and crimper work well, I am waiting on 28 AWG 6pin wire to use for making the cables and that should be here tomorrow. I spent all day preparing my workbench for the modifications:

This should give you an idea of where the spools are going and why I need to make some longer filament sensor cables in the first place. Still a lot of work to go setting up the work bench for the XL but tonight I am having several drinks after the ordeal of installing the black pipe frame. 

RE: Connector type filament sensors

I keep my filament on a shelf above as well, and was wondering about options... Great info, thanks for posting 

RE:

i ordered these someone posted in different  section

and odered these pins from amazon   you will need the tool that can crimp them

(20 Pair) Molex 18-24 AWG Gauge Pins 0.062" Male and Female Pins Connector, Crimp Style pin, 1561-(P901) L

sorry for the  cut and paste and dont post often but thought this might help some one  Digikey  is site where i got connectors

RE:

Well... life got in the way for a bit and I haven't had a chance to post updates. Apparently I decided to buy a Prusa XL 5 Tool right before the company I worked for exploded, so great timing there 🤣. I have an R&D budget again so we've been able to resume work on this. 

I thought that overhead spool storage would be the way to go. I ended up designing, printing, testing and trashing the overhead spool solution because it just made managing spools more difficult and feeding into the filament sensor required a ladder. I designed a 5 spool modular caddy  to sit near the printer instead. 

Before I could cut and crimp any wire I needed to know exactly where the filament sensors would be located. I used a 2020 Aluminum Extrusion Frame so that I could play around with different sensor positions to quickly pass / fail the path filament would take:

I really do not like the design of these filament sensors for a few reasons and I need to completely redesign them:

1. They don't feed TPU, the springs that hold the magnet and ball bearing in place are too stiff
2. They are too close together, they need to be spaced with the spools, as you can see from the above picture
3. The way the PCB is designed, you could modify the left and right sensors but not the middle as the socket for the cable connection is in the way. 
4. There is no way to adjust the tension on the spring

I will have to redesign the PCB so there are 5 independent sensors instead of being grouped in 3s, but that's for a later project. The sensor itself is just a single magnetic sensor labeled 304 and a capacitor of unknown spec, but I'm smart, I can figure out what components to buy there. Then I can design 5 daughterboards with just the capacitor and 304 magnetic sensor, route them all to a single master board that has 2 molex clik-mate 5 pin female headers and the other IC on prusa's design, and from there feed into the printer. 

For now I purchased some new springs:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XNQ6QVK/
I then ripped the old ones out - 3mm OD x 8mm x 0.3mm Wire Diameter - 
Then cut the 10mm long springs shorter and shorter until it was easier to feed filament past them.
I recalibrated the filament sensors to be sure that they worked after reducing the spring length.

This is NOT an ideal solution, it is only a stopgap. I was still not able to reliably feed TPU past the sensors but the insane amount of force required to push that ball bearing aside has been reduced greatly.  

I settled on the below location for the filament sensors. It lets me re-order the spool sequence to be 1-5 while keeping the path for each filament tube as consistent as possible. 

After confirming the length, I crimped 2 cables, labeled the ends so I know which side is which - Blue is left side, Red is Right side - and then added a protective sheath. Use the smallest slot on the crimping tool I linked above, and use a pair of tweezers to help push the wire into the molex clik-mate. 

I was careful to confirm that there were no surprises in the wiring of these cables, they are 1-1 on each end, Pin 1 - Pin 5 should be exactly the same on each connector, no mirroring or crossover:

I was able to do some multi tool testing to confirm everything works properly:

(its not embedding the video for some reason, here's the link)
https://storage.googleapis.com/prusa3d-content-prod-14e8-wordpress-forum-prod/2023/12/fd23f584-vid_20231217_003459555.mp4

I will publish all files for the modular caddy on printables.com once I have a moment. It has orange divider plates which can be removed to allow for larger 2 and 3kg spools and the filament feeders just move on tslot nuts so they can be easily repositioned. Prusa hasn't actually shipped my 2kg PETG Orange spool yet so I can't confirm that or the Polymaker 3KG spools work well just yet. 

RE: Connector type filament sensors

Carefully with those long PTFE runs. I had a issue with some filament binding. I switched from the stock tubing to 3mm ID x 4mm OD. This has worked out well.

RE: Connector type filament sensors

Posted by: @mme

Carefully with those long PTFE runs. I had a issue with some filament binding. I switched from the stock tubing to 3mm ID x 4mm OD. This has worked out well.

Yeah I made sure to buy 2.5mm ID 4mm OD tubing off ebay, and believe it or not the distance is actually almost identical to the stock XL, because I am not routing the tubing down through the base of the printer as stock. It is only held to the printer by the orange petg clips. 

RE: Connector type filament sensors

As promised, I have published all information required to build your own!

https://www.printables.com/model/687932-xl-modular-filament-caddy

Happy Holidays.