SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — Filament usage measuring mod

Re: Filament usage measuring mod

null@example.com (adrian) — Sun, 04 Aug 2013 04:42:11 +0000

Heh... SparkFun sell cheap Load Cells... And if you get the dodgy cheap version with only a half-bridge in it (go straight past those overpriced full-bridge versions ), you have reason to have to buy at least two if not four and cram in some extra circuitry

Re: Filament usage measuring mod

null@example.com (IanJohnson) — Sun, 04 Aug 2013 04:35:58 +0000

I think there needs to be a complicated solution with a spool holder that sits on a pressure plate feeding an arduino that will convert the weight to a filament remaining readout on an LCD.

Re: Filament usage measuring mod

null@example.com (adrian) — Sun, 04 Aug 2013 04:27:51 +0000

IanJohnson wrote:

I wouldn't mind even a manual counter to put between the spool and the printer.

You of all people.... I would have thought would of cottoned on to the simplest solution to this if you really desired.... You just need to think OldSkool and look around the dumpster at work

Simply stick a mechanical Tape Counter onto the spool itself geared against the spool holder...

But if you want an accurate measure of filament remaining, its still better to just go by weight I think, since that allows you to account for filament on spools even when they are removed from the printer... you just simply need to tare weight it receipt, tare weight an empty spool, then use the pretty accurate constant of 1.04g/cm2 for ABS and the accepted cross-section of 1.75mm filament... it'll be more than accurate enough for government work anyway lol...

Re: Filament usage measuring mod

null@example.com (Gomisan) — Sun, 04 Aug 2013 03:31:35 +0000

Well Ian, I'm happy to pass on the musing my friends and I have had on the matter, including ideas to repurpose old ball mice for the job

Re: Filament usage measuring mod

null@example.com (IanJohnson) — Sat, 03 Aug 2013 16:19:46 +0000

I wouldn't mind even a manual counter to put between the spool and the printer. I think a measure would be most useful for estimating how much left is on the spool, and would need to keep track of all extrusion and not just what is used during prints.

Re: Filament usage measuring mod

null@example.com (Gomisan) — Sat, 03 Aug 2013 07:51:24 +0000

Thanks. I'm getting a bit ahead of myself I can see. It's probably best for me to just be patient, get my Solidoodle and play with it and see what I need to know then

Re: Filament usage measuring mod

null@example.com (adrian) — Fri, 02 Aug 2013 12:19:45 +0000

Repetier-host provides this summary for you, and not sure what the benefit of knowing this in an externally measured capacity would be ?

Also, once you've calibrated your extruder, 100mm's will be 100mm's ... so theres no need to run with a system with hardware feedback that I can think of...

Filament diameter is a different kettle of fish - and requires an entirely different sensor mechanism and feedback system and can be solved mechanically or optically...

Filament usage measuring mod

null@example.com (Gomisan) — Fri, 02 Aug 2013 03:14:06 +0000

A friend with a lot more technical tinkering ability than myself has offered to build me a small unit to measure filament used. He has suggested that if I have a pin that can listen for a 5v signal and count he can whip something up for me.

Or is this something that the feeder does already?

If it isn't, how useful would such a mod be, and is there a suitable pin on the board and a way to get that data somewhere meaningful?

This relates closely to my question in the software forum.