ECAS Inline Filament Sensor - Refined

Overall:

A “refined” version of the Inline Filament Sensor by Ryan-G that was remixed by Turpinator to resolve some of the slight issues I had during use.

Details:

I really like Ryan-G's inline filament sensor, it's simple, small and works extremely well for simple filament detection. I don't like the collet as much due to difficulty with tube removal and Turpinator came to the rescue!

I've been using Turpinator's version all over my setup for months but I had a single location that was a problem child… The sensor just before my extruder. During a filament load there was a chance of the squared cut tip hitting the lip of the entry or hitting the lip of the PTFE on exit and jamming.

This refinement is to resolve both of these issues, doing so make this a “one-way” path though so be aware of what direction your filament is being driven in. Firstly I increased the clearances around the switch as I always had issues with the ball-bearing sticking or the tip of the switch lever catching on the printed part. Also the inlet has the walls chamfered more aggressively so that it'll be outside of a 3mm ID of a PTFE and funnel filament better. The outlet doesn't chamfer out at all so it'll keep the filament within the ID of a 2mm PTFE tube. If you install this backwards you're make the issue worse in both directions.

Usage:

In general, if you're using an MMU have the arrow facing away from it. If you're installing this before your MMU (such as for pre-gate sensors) have it face backwards since that's the feed direction during an unload. If you're installing it after the MMU (such as for extruder sensor) have it face forwards since that's the feed direction during load.