I am SO proud of you guys.... not that i have anything to do with it, but everyone should be proud of you, for doing the rightest thing you can. open source for personal, but you can still make your company so those of us who can't build one can just BUY one. Its beautiful, its right, its fair, i love it!
This is one of the most interesting 3D printing projects I've learned about this year. And I really hope that the patented open source model works out as planned, because _that_ could kickstart an overhaul of what we currently have.
Jacob is truly doing things right here. He thinks deeply about technical and business decisions without losing sense of what makes reprap special. Going open source with a patent is the best solution for a company. It's perfectly reasonable and shows someone thinking logically on all fronts while gaining a support base.
I am so pumped for this project! I have a Klipper machine and don't like that Bambu and Prusa have closed systems. There's really nothing that great out there. Patent the hell out of open source, and keep up the great work!
For Bambu you couldn't use it on every printer anyways as it would require a printer that can cut off the filament at the extruder. No printer really does this unless you've modded it to. There's the Voron ERCF, the way it works though is that you have to tune the filament being retracted so that it forms the tip correctly. This seems to rely on the same method, but doing more rolls is going to be more expensive. Looks like each one has its own extruder, and a motor to roll the filament back. Then all the tubes from the filament need a Y joiner, so you'd have 8 going into one for example for 8 different filaments. Something like the Voron ERCF uses just 2 motors no matter how many filaments, one to extrude the filament and one to switch between which filament to extrude. What appeals to you about this over the other options you've seen? What are the other options you've seen? This does look interesting but it seems like it will be a pain, as sometimes getting the tips of the filament to form correctly is a pain. With the Voron ERCF you can add a filament cutter on the ERCF to make the tip clean. Doesn't look like you can add a filament cutter on this system, unless it is on the printer head like Bambu which wouldn't work for all printers.
@@markleaf1970 You sound like you have quite a bit more knowledge than me on the feasability of this concept! I am not familiar with many other systems beyond bambu or prusa, other than stripped down versions or clones. I saw a kickstarter that had a rotary head that changes like 25 filaments using nozzle tips but it's not out yet. There's also the 3DBizz project I've started to look into. This market has quite a bit of potential and I'm glad to see folks are starting to try and make alternatives. I appreciat your insights on the topic and welcome any alternative suggestions you have to offer!
I remember seeing Jacob on a video quite some time ago and he really stood out, and I dare say he reminded me of Sanjay with his infectious enthusiasm, bubbly personality and deep knowledge. Highly appropriate to see him at this festival and changing the world, I wish him all the success.
may be the best video from SMRRF. Also glad to see the community moving to accepting the patents and understanding they dont have to be used in a predatory fashion.
Bambu's filament buffer is a copy of Mosaics Pallette+. No need to use a one way bearing. In Pallette+, there is a doughnut ring magnet, that rides on a ptfe tube, and triggers a hall effect sensor(inside aluminum enclosure), when it almost touches the side of enclosure. Also filament cutter in Bambu machines, are an adaptation of the Mosaics Pallette as well. You just heat the filament in an enclosed ptfe, and chop it with a blade with slight displacement, when soft. Doing at hotend heat break, uses the hotend as a filament softener instead. So not sure, why a blade cannot be used without an issue. Just some 💭
On the concern about filament cutting: 3DChameleon released the 3DClippy, a totally open source filament cutter that pairs with the 3DChameleon but could definitely be paired with other MMUs
Full honesty my heavily moded ender 3 is actually still using all of its original v-rollers, from 5 years ago. A very light hand when adjusting the eccentric nut has gone a long way. The bearings for the bed have worn down more than the actual v-rollers have.
It's nice to see new projects for this kind of functionality but what I don't get is why no one ever seems to cover the SMuFF project that predates a good deal of these projects ?
Looks like a good project, but marketing counts. You can have the best, well engineered solution out there but if nobody's heard of it then it's no use. The creator needs to get the name out there if they want it to be heard I guess.
@@hyperspeed1313 ERCF did a good job of piggybacking on the Voron name even though it has no actual affiliation with Voron Design, I think that's the primary difference really. There's a nice big pool of very engaged fans of Voron looking for a solution, and there it is, following the Voron design language and everything...
A blade at the nozzle might not be practical for all, but at the filament changer definitely. As a quick/temporary solution the filament could be retracted at just the right temperature during cooling post print or do a cold pull during pre-heating and then cut the warped tip while ejecting it at the cutter like a spent bullet casing using solenoids and maybe a little bit of retract/detraction action. The MSLA market is honestly in shambles due to open-source code being walled off behind proprietary obfuscation much like apple does. Although a slippery slope it might be the way forward.
Really awesome passion project. Hope this comes to full fruition! The ability to hopefully add one spool unit at a time as you need them would also be awesome.
There you have it! Linear rails wear more quickly than v-slot wheels! I've always liked the v-slot wheels zo much, the only downside is that it's bulky. People who say the wheels wear down leaving residu on the extrusions just have them tightened too much, once you carefully set them up it's bullet proof really. (Oh, and the cheapest chinese v-slot wheels might be of less quality, beware)
I uhh have major doubts on those claims. I have experience with both systems and the v-slot wheels wear out constantly, and are incorrectly installed more often. Machines with v-slot wheels I have experience with have 3-4times more downtime than the ones with rails, but I also don't mess with useless CF filament.
Now this is awesome...this is very much like what i had envisioned for a filament changer but never would have the resources to properly design it. I've been waiting for the TradRack from annex engineering which should be released to open beta soon. But long term, this seems like the ideal filament changer. Something like ERCF or TradRack would be less expensive though.
I would love for this to work, but was immediately made skeptical when I heard they are relying on retraction alone for filament extraction, with not cutting. There is a reason why all the truly successful AMS systems use blades. I hope it works!
Should be able to work by simply heating some filament, extruding a bit, then quickly retracting. Essentially a hot pull of the filament. Like they said, may take some tuning, but should work. Otherwise they can always come up with some sort of in line filament cutter that can be installed atop any extruder.
@@802Garage the problem with an automated hot pull is that reinsertion is a bitch. You will need to cut the pulled filament before it is reincerted which you might as well do on the extruder itself and not do the hotpull at all.
@@richiedeadsix Right well I think that's why they have to dial it in. As long as you can do it with proper force and timing it should stretch the filament slightly thinner and make it easier to reinsert. I def see the issue at hand though.
i like the idea of have a single filament type AMS for when you just run one filament. Need the feed, flow detect, retract features for a single filament. Bambu's only issue I have on the X1 is Single filament roll gets stuck and air printing happens because I don't have an am detecting filament flow or load.
8:00 Patent holders are *REQUIRED* to disclose how their invention works as part of the public patent application. So "releasing" information about how the mechanism works isn't altruism, it's a requirement of the patent process. So whether or not this is truly opensource will come down to the licensing terms for the patent. If the licensing requires payment to the patent owner, then it's not really opensource.
Very cool! Thanks for sharing, Joseph. Jacob mentioned the relative performance (durability) between carbon fiber and linear rails and v-wheels. I have always been curious why no one has tried (perhaps they have and found them to be equivalent to linear rails in this area) linear stepper rails for the X-Axis (as the name suggests, a stepper motor opened to be the length of the X-Axis and the extruder is mounted to the carriage which is essentially the "rotor"). I priced one out years (many) ago, for a manufacturing solution (solar cell handler), and found the full end-to-end cycles/day I needed was too high. Cheers
In the beginning there were black and white monitors. Then, four color CGA, then EGA and VGA. It seems that printers are following the same trend. I'm waiting for the VGA-style printer.
I am excited but curious as to why it took sooooo long for multifilament systems to get mainstream. It seems so obviously useful like... Why haven't we seen more?
@@johnbrooks7350 All the old Titan class machines had similar loading bays. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZsKypIdjKAc.htmlsi=E9GusAM5erY1bI0Y
Sent in my “interest form” for the filament changer. Went to the github, all I saw was a step file. Is this project suspended/cancelled? If not, is there a BOM and build information? Really really dig this project and I’d like to move forward with it. Any information would be helpful. Thank you.
Awesome design! I'm curious about the winding solution - after looking at the step file I'm not quite sure how a one-way bearing would work in this situation? The required free-wheel movement of the bearing is in the same direction as you would want to rotate the motor in to wind the filament. Does anyone have an idea of how they made that work?
The motor rewinds the filament so the spool freewheels forward, as the extruder pulls the filament. This would allow you to run the retraction motor a fixed length, like 30 seconds, regardless of how long that color has been printing. Also seems like when the filament is fully rewound, the motor would just free spin in reverse until it timed out.
I wish I could remember, which maker (teaching tech, makers muse, cnc kitchen) did a test on this. Sure many others have but those three are my goto sources considering the level of engineering they reach in their efforts. Anyway, the studies I saw showed zero improvement in print quality. That said, and I can’t remember if they covered, and warning this is largely my opinion? Wheels wear out much quicker than linear rails. I’d think if you keep the rails/carriage properly lubed / cleaned through a regular maintenance schedule you’ll get many more hours out them? Keep in mind I have a Sovol SV05 downstairs that has wheels and I’ve not done ANYTHING to it in the last two years printing. It still prints beautifully but I’m thinking soon I should do an overhaul before any issues arise….
Well... Patents don't apply to private persons anyway. They are only for protecting commercial use. In fact the whole point of a patent is for it to be public for anyone to use, in exchange for a commercial exclusive protection.
This is some of the most important research in the bridging use-cases between prosumer and full pro/small engineering offices. I don't need any more printer reviews and slapstick idiotic builds no one wants .... I NEED research and validated test results. Printing dusty CF with linear rails is exactly what I have been trying to suss out and in 2024 just like the mandate of auto bed leveling ( which is frankly present everywhere and in most cases implemented poorly).... AL modern printers should be sold with filament drying....period .... full stop. Can't wait to see more from Construct3D.... and YES... patent things !!!!....it's 2024... the cycle needs to swing towards IP protection again to ensure money is put where the most promising research is being done.... in another decade or two we can open things back up again and race-to-the-bottom of cheap junk... but I can't afford any more R&D failures called "features" shoveled out the door. I'm saving for one of these... not another X1, or Raise, or XL
E3D's Hemera wasnt always called the Hemera, It was called Hermes, unfortunately, Hermes (the fashion company, not the shipping company) decided to bully E3D to change the name. FCUK the clothing brand is also famous for doing the same behaviour.
Everything he said about motion systems was patently false except in a sea water / aqueous / galvanic-prone environment. I am confused. He didn't even look like a sweaty dude so I have no idea where they are pulling that rail / CF marketing nonsense from. If his rails wear out faster than v-wheels then he needs to seriously look at his rail suppliers, because they are garbage.
Yeah I have no idea what he is talking about. My guess is that they don’t actually know how to install linear rails correctly and are not getting them parrellel on y or their tool head is apply high cantilever forces on the x rail causing them to wear quickly. He also mentions aluminum rails which makes no sense and would be a very poor choice compared to steel
My assumption is they are managing to get a bunch of CF grit in between the balls and the rail and that causes it excess wear? But I would say you have different problems at that point... like actually dealing with airborne particulate.
Open source is dead. Patent your ideas and letting the community use it is the way to go. Prusa is suing Bambu labs for patenting code that was built off of Prusa Slicer.
Do you have any source on that statement? Because Bambu Studio is 100% open source and following all the rules, Prusa has even borrowed features back from Bambu. It was Anycubic who re-skinned Prusa Slicer and used it while claiming it was 100% their own developed slicer.