Nice! does this require the extruder to cool down? I have been just pushing out 10mm of molten filament, then quickly retracting to cold zone for 6 seconds, then quickly pulls out of gears for unloading. I haven't had it fail in thousands of color changes! since it doesn't cool down the changes happen in around 20 seconds!

So if I am understanding correctly this uses one extruder per filament? I could see how that would be way more reliable and simple.

did you ever make any progress with this? I have been using filament runout sensor built into the toolhead of the K1. I am thinking it might be possible to modify the runout g-code in the printer.cfg file to make it switch to the next extruder. This could probably just push out that little 3cm piece of filament as the new roll is loaded too. This might only work with two spools though, unless there is a way to increment in g-code (current extruder +1).

This is old code and info, I have since completely changed it. I dont tip shap but rather push out the molten filament.

and where is the download of the firmware? been scouring the page for a while and can't find it, even in forum search. Can you PLEASE provide proper documentation? Have a centralized location for all information and files? I am not the only person who is having trouble searching for all the little bits of info in 20 different places. You have an instructions page, why are the upgrade instructions and link not there?

I have been scouring this site and this forum and cannot find even the Firmware files... How does Bill expect us to do this with no instructions?

I think we are going to have to do documentation ourselves, Bill has been made aware many times that the documentation is lacking heavily.

try this code instead of tip shaping: ; MY TIP SHAPING G0 E10 F500 ; push out molten filament G0 E-25 F3000 ; retract quickly to cold zone G4 P10000 ; wait to cool 10s G0 E-70 F3000 ; retract quickly all the way

Hmm can't say I've gotten that error. I have since overhauled my code I need to update this post.

or perhaps this is the reason: G0 E10 F500; push out the molten filament

oh sweet summer's child... I remember that optimism and excitement. I wish you luck!

nice! This is very similar to my code that is working (sometimes) I also have little blobs all over the purge tower, but I haven't had that cause issues yet. I think the placement of the tower can mitigate that somewhat. Maybe some sort of wiping area would help with this. something to knock it off and have it fall off the build plate. I am fully on-board with pushing out the molten filament, it is 5x faster and just makes sense. I think the trick is just making sure it is not soft when getting backed out, that can cause jams for some people using my code

I actually took inspiration from the built-in unload feature on my K1 Max. Mine seems to be way less stringy than that one though. Both could work, but just make you you move the tool head to a good place to extrude that little bit so it doesn't end up in your model. I just use the initial position for the switch press so it's in the corner

I ended up with tip shaping that is completely different and it finally got mine working. Ended up with 20 second color changes and no clogging jams or chewed up filament Instead of cooling and shaping the filament tip I just extrude the molten filament and pull it back. Only the very tip (~1mm) will be molten and it makes a perfect sharp tip as it's pulled back and cools in the time it takes to come out. I found this more quickly by just running the tip shaping code from a console, by itself. Mine ended up like this. Give it a shot, it should be near universal G0 E10 F500; push out the molten filament G0 E-15 F4000; quickly retract G0 E-10 F150; slowly retract G0 E-60 F4000; quickly retract

Decided to make a mini version of my pup :) 432 color changes all executed perfectly! I had one single issue toward the end but it was due to the filament getting caught on something and not the chameleon or tip shaping (see the tail). luckily my new filament sensor paused and beeped at me to let me know it hadn't loaded, so I didn't lose 10 hours of print time! will probably make a post about this Took a little over 12 hours with this tip shaping, using 0.16mm layers. 500 layers total. I'm really feeling more confident in this system now that I am getting my filament to load perfectly next up a big 3 or 4 color print!

The 10mm is being pushed into a little blob tower behind the purge block. So far I haven't noticed it cause any issues, but you are right there is probably a more elegant way to deal with the blobs. Currently it doesnt produce any extra strings or anything, since it is so close to the purge block. Might play around with the blobs placement a bit today

This is PLA+ printed at 210C I'll give PC, ASA and TPU a try after this print finishes

for sure! let me know if you guys come with any improvements!

IDK why but they are uploaded as one STL. You have to download that STL and open it in your slicer and split it. This is usually found by right clicking the model, but might be different depending on the slicer. Once you do that you can pick one and delete the rest, then multiply it 7 times so you have 8 of the same slider. The stock ones are +2.00 tension and -.25 spacing I believe. That's top right in the grid of sliders. Try the top-middle or top-left one. You only have to change this for the filament paths that are having cross-talk, but you could just swap them all out if you want.

if thats the case swap to tension sliders with more of a gap. Also ensure your cam is doing alright and moving to 3,6,9, and 12 o'clock exactly