Hi, I have been thinking about adding a filament sensor. Found a few ideas/options.

3D Printing
,
1

Hi,

I have been thinking about adding a filament sensor. Found a few ideas/options. Started with just looking for one to pause the print then found one that measures it. Anyone using one they would suggest or have feedback on these?

Couple other cheaper options I found too, but didn’t save those links down.

Thanks

2

Does it make a difference if the filament is round or oval in diameter with these sensor devices to get a precise measure.

3

Hm. In the description it says it has ±.02mm accuracy. If you’re using 1.75mm filament that means it can’t detect changes between 1.73 - 1.77 reliable. For most of the filaments I got the width only differs around .02mm. So how does this sensor handle these small changes?

4

Even if you can reliably detect variations in filament diameter, it seems you need code to delay that information, adjust the flow rate to compensate when it reaches the nozzle. And pause if you get a blob or segment too big for the feed path, which I think I’ve seen happen.

5

@Mark_Heywood doesn’t seem to on the tunnell version, but I imagine it would on the owi sensor since it says it determines size based on the shadow produced.

6

@Ross_Bagley agreed. I assumed you could add an additional parameter to the owi sensor to send a p code if the value goes lower than a certain amount. Thus have it act like the tunnell version too. I also did have some ideas around making my own “out of filament sensor” or merging the two, which is why I was asking others of they used anything different. Thanks for the feedback.

7

@Kai_Laborenz I was thinking the same thing. On the videos I found it looked like it could be a bit more responsive. I tried to find a better light sensor than what was used and they all look the same or are too expensive.

8

@Jeff_DeMaagd agreed. I wasn’t quite should how that was managed in the code. I haven’t looked that far. A video for the owi sensor does show the feed rate changing based on the filament size. Thanks

9

Ultimately, I figured the owi version would prevent the need to measure filament at all manually. I assume a pause option can be added to it. As for its ability to compensate for diameter during prints, it’s just a bonus. I would still buy quality filament and depend on that to be accurate. Some filament I have on my desk right now says it’s variance is +.05, so presumably +.02 would help improve it. I guess no one else has tried one out?