Filament chips?

I was wondering if there's a diy way to add chips to the filament so the printer knows what material it is (obviously have to spool it yourself) like the robox?

putting an rfid on the spool?

What would you do with the information? One of the things that bugs me about 3d printing is that the filament characteristics get spread across all the configuration parameters of the slicer - retraction settings are part of the printer config for the extruder, speeds, bridging settings, widths are all part of "print settings" and then temperature and cooling is under filament. Everything has to be changed when switching filaments, unless you only print a single filament type. I guess in that case you could use smart spools to adjust the flow rate to compensate for different diameters.

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JamesK
What would you do with the information? One of the things that bugs me about 3d printing is that the filament characteristics get spread across all the configuration parameters of the slicer - retraction settings are part of the printer config for the extruder, speeds, bridging settings, widths are all part of "print settings" and then temperature and cooling is under filament. Everything has to be changed when switching filaments, unless you only print a single filament type. I guess in that case you could use smart spools to adjust the flow rate to compensate for different diameters.

It changes everything. At least that's what the CEL Robox does. You attach it and it makes the software aware of what filament it is and changes all the settings accordingly. You can also manually change the spools if you want to wind them again.

I was wondering if there's a guide or anything implementing this in a REPRAP.

Changes everything how? Most of the filament specific settings are burned into the g-code during slicing. Things might get interesting when we have enough processing power to do slicing in the printer, but until then it seems the possibilities are pretty limited.

If you're trying to turn this process basically into taking a Polaroid I can see the simplicity argument, but you're talking about handing off the slicing and g-code generation either to the printer or to a heavily-integrated host software with slicing capability.

Personally, the printer should print and the host software should host. I like that I can fully prepare the gcode for the next job while a job is running and without running any risk of interfering with the printer or host software, regardless of whether that job will use different filaments or wildly different settings. If I want the same widget in different materials, I usually also want to tweak something about the other settings that isn't necessarily directly driven by the material selection.

I think there might be some confusion here. What I mean is a system that recognizes the filament and automatically changes the settings in the slicer. That's it. I don't mean it changing g-code or anything. For example, when you put an ABS spool on there, the chip let's the system know it has ABS. It isn't really something that can't happen because I know it works with the CEL Robox. Now, I'm sure the software has to integrate with this feature quite well, but I was just curious if this was out there in simplify 3d etc and could be added to the filament spools.

Essentially, I was thinking of it like putting a chip in a filament spools and when you put it to a certain part of the printer, it changes the settings in the slicer automatically to that filaments needs.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2016 11:25PM by fatesalign.

You don't have the whole picture of the workflow, which is understandable if all your exposure has been to the pre-packaged all-in-one solutions.

Gcode is the sequence of instructions for the printer to execute to do a print (or anything else, for that matter). Move the nozzle to this point, then move it to this other point while extruding this much filament, then retract this far, lift the nozzle by this much, etc., etc., etc.... The output of the slicer is expressed in gcode. If you change the model OR the slicer settings, you are changing the gcode.

Depending on the slicer you're using and the size and complexity of the model, the slicing can be time-consuming and processor-intensive. It is not necessary or necessarily desirable to run the slicer at the time of the print. You can prepare your gcode files in advance and just run them when the time comes.

rfid on the spool, rfid reader on the printer. Develop some rfid admin software to setup a relation between rfid number and printer&slicer settings. Then write an plugin for the 3d printer control software so It can connect to the rfid reader and rfid admin.database. Let that plugin then take the appropriate actions.

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fatesalign
I think there might be some confusion here. What I mean is a system that recognizes the filament and automatically changes the settings in the slicer. That's it. I don't mean it changing g-code or anything. For example, when you put an ABS spool on there, the chip let's the system know it has ABS. It isn't really something that can't happen because I know it works with the CEL Robox. Now, I'm sure the software has to integrate with this feature quite well, but I was just curious if this was out there in simplify 3d etc and could be added to the filament spools.

Essentially, I was thinking of it like putting a chip in a filament spools and when you put it to a certain part of the printer, it changes the settings in the slicer automatically to that filaments needs.

Ah, I see. I wasn't understanding at first because I don't normally have the pc running the slicer connected to the printer at the time I do the slicing. I typically slice a few models, write them to an sd card and then take the sd card downstairs to the printer. Then pick one of the (too many) spools of filament out of dry storage and mount it on the printer. So my workflow is rather backwards to what would be needed for a filament sensing printer to be useful - but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be useful to other people who work differently. For sure what you're suggesting could be done, but I don't think anything like it exists in the reprap community yet. It would need a slightly higher level of integration between the firmware, the host software and the slicers - Repetier would be well placed to implement it as they have both host and firmware, and the host is already fairly competent at controlling the slicer.

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IMBoring25
You don't have the whole picture of the workflow, which is understandable if all your exposure has been to the pre-packaged all-in-one solutions.

Gcode is the sequence of instructions for the printer to execute to do a print (or anything else, for that matter). Move the nozzle to this point, then move it to this other point while extruding this much filament, then retract this far, lift the nozzle by this much, etc., etc., etc.... The output of the slicer is expressed in gcode. If you change the model OR the slicer settings, you are changing the gcode.

Depending on the slicer you're using and the size and complexity of the model, the slicing can be time-consuming and processor-intensive. It is not necessary or necessarily desirable to run the slicer at the time of the print. You can prepare your gcode files in advance and just run them when the time comes.

I don't mean slice the settings as your printing. I more meant that it changes the settings before slicing as if you personally went in and changed all the settings.

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JamesK

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fatesalign
I think there might be some confusion here. What I mean is a system that recognizes the filament and automatically changes the settings in the slicer. That's it. I don't mean it changing g-code or anything. For example, when you put an ABS spool on there, the chip let's the system know it has ABS. It isn't really something that can't happen because I know it works with the CEL Robox. Now, I'm sure the software has to integrate with this feature quite well, but I was just curious if this was out there in simplify 3d etc and could be added to the filament spools.

Essentially, I was thinking of it like putting a chip in a filament spools and when you put it to a certain part of the printer, it changes the settings in the slicer automatically to that filaments needs.

Ah, I see. I wasn't understanding at first because I don't normally have the pc running the slicer connected to the printer at the time I do the slicing. I typically slice a few models, write them to an sd card and then take the sd card downstairs to the printer. Then pick one of the (too many) spools of filament out of dry storage and mount it on the printer. So my workflow is rather backwards to what would be needed for a filament sensing printer to be useful - but that doesn't mean it wouldn't be useful to other people who work differently. For sure what you're suggesting could be done, but I don't think anything like it exists in the reprap community yet. It would need a slightly higher level of integration between the firmware, the host software and the slicers - Repetier would be well placed to implement it as they have both host and firmware, and the host is already fairly competent at controlling the slicer.

Oookay I see why there was confusion. Yes, I have a laptop dedicated to my printer. I guess it could even work for the duet and WiFi based printing. But okay thanks. I may look into implementing this eventually.

How about a more generic approach: run a .sh script whenever a RFID tag is detected? This .sh changes lines in cura profile directly and then in Octoprint you should just click "slice".