The 3DChameleon is a universal kit and will work on almost any FDM printer that uses 1.75mm filament and can use open source software to drive it, like PrusaSlicer or it's various forks.

Yes, that's a requirement of our original design... the PTFE tubes must be pushed all the way into the pockets and the black rings pulled all the way out so that there is no play at all in them. Bad things happen if you don't follow those guidelines. (That's noted in all of our assembly videos.) Bill

No, the selector can't move... otherwise it will cause jamming issues... that's why it is always locked. When the filament is not needed, it always moves to another color that isn't being used.

The code I provided actually takes care of that... the 4 run out sensors go to our electronics... and one of our I/O pins ties to the printer's electronics. It then feeds it the signal we need... so for example, one runs out, we tell the printer... the printer (Klipper/Octoprint) then triggers the macro... once the macro runs, we reset the I/O to the printer... which "sees" the filament... and we continue on until the next one runs out. Our electronics act as a middle man (smart 4 to 1 sensor) if you will. Bill

When you load the new filament, it will just push out any remaining filament during your normal purge. All you need to do is load the filament into the extruder's drive gears... that's the reason we back out filament before cutting it... that gives you the space that you use to load the new filament... then in your purging, you purge enough to allow the color to transition in the purge tower. All of our profiles already do that when they involve the cutter. Bill

Correct... we leave the selector locked at all times. We only turn on the extruder when the motor needs to move. (Notice the selector is always low... but you can set it High if you're using a servo cutter without external power... which is never recommended at all, but does allow that stepper to give up it's power in favor of the servo.) Bill

That's awesome!!!

The original thread where I announced this has that. The CNC shield is a 100% direct replacement (with the needed firmware pin mapping changes) for our old electronics. As for the DIO pin, you can easily do that the same way with these new ones, but I'd recommend you simply add another board as another MCU to Klipper... it's much easier that way. (Connect both to your pi via USB, for example.) Bill

Why not use the recommended Arduino CNC Shield (or Nano Shield) instead? The firmware is trivial to update to the new pin mapping. Bill

You can simply use an Arduino CNC shield or Nano Shield. The firmware we've published can easily be updated to point to the appropriate pins for your stepper controllers. https://www.amazon.com/DAOKI-Expansion-Arduino-Heatsink-Engraving/dp/B08KFYKKN4 or https://www.amazon.com/WWZMDiB-CNC-Shield-V4-Engraving/dp/B0BYMX542S Bill

The firmware only needs the pins changed... there is no code changes necessary other than the Enable, Step, Direction pins as well as the I/O for the button. The code has those pins defined at the top and all you need to do is match the proper pins with the board you choose. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=cnc+shield&crid=3MVR50G4IYYQ1&sprefix=cnc+shield%2Caps%2C153&ref=nb_sb_noss_1 BIll

We printed all our parts in PETG. As for PCBWay, I have no idea, we used JLCPCB and our full project file is included, just import it into EasyEDA. Lastly, the Arduino CNC shields will work just fine if you change the pin assignments for the stepper motors and the I/O ports you want to use. Bill

The filament should move freely through the 3DChameleon when it's printing. Make sure the alignment of the cam is at perfect 90 degree increments... if it is off, then it can still have some filament in contact with the drive gear. There can also be issues if the PTFE tubes are bent too tight or there is debris within the tubes or Y adapter... so make sure they're clear. You can manually insert the filament and manually test the unit to make sure it's operating... and once it switches colors, check to see if the remaining 3 filament are free to move... if not, look for the above issues. Bill

I can't disclose the vendors, however, theirs's does look similar, doesn't it. ;-) I think the Ad5 is actually the best machine for the money... it's what we switched to for our entire print farm... they're actually as good as the P1Ps we were using previously, but were a little faster (for the same quality) and that swappable print head is a really nice design. And the best part is those machines are $200 cheaper for nearly the identical machine. As for their cutter, it looks like they can continue to use their print head if the blade was just above it... close to where we put ours, but right below the top cover. And since they're now using OrcaSlicer as their base slicer, color comes with it for free. Seems like a logical choice.

I corrected the text.

That's a mistake... it should say to remove it if YOU HAVE a cutter. You need it if you don't have a cutter. Bill

I might add, the expansion capability is already in this release of the firmware, you can spot it by looking for the Sparkfun I/O expansion code... it's already got most of the filament runout sensors included. This same code block and I/O expansion board can be used to "sense" the filament position to do the auto calibration. You can add 4 filament runout sensors prior to the 3DChameleon and it will automatically detect them and enable additional features, like the "skip to random" or "skip to next" filaments, which will both ignore the unloaded filaments. This allows for things like using up all the filament off of a spool and automatically switching to the next spool. (If your firmware supports it, like Klipper or Octoprint do.)

I never said that, what I did say below was that this is one of the things that will be enabled by this release. There will be a big simplification of the system as well an expansion capability that allows others to also add on to it.

No... it's nothing like that at all... The plan is to simplify and expand the design even farther. And those "add-ons" are actually enabled by this release. Along with our current ideas, we will be able to incorporate other's ideas as well. Bill

Since your printer is Klipper based, you actually have a much better installation path than without it. The 3DChameleon is designed to be universal and will easily install on your printer, however, with Klipper, you can actually use some of the community developed macros to get a lot more out of it. Bill