[FR] Single Nozzle, Shared Extruder Stepper, Single Servo, 8 Filaments

[dodgenet]

[FR] Single Nozzle, Shared Extruder Stepper, Single Servo, 8 Filaments

Hello, I have an FDM 3D Printer with 8 Filaments selected by one 300 degree hobby servo and one shared planetary geared extruder stepper motor. I feel it is a more efficient approach to printing in multiple colors, but haven't found support for it's shared extruder stepper. The system uses an 8 into one splitter either threaded directly into the hotend cooler, or connected via a short length of Bowden Tubing. The mechanicals produce the desired effects when controlled through gcode macros/scripts, so it should be fairly simple to implement for someone with programming knowledge. It simply needs to retract the active filament, move it back and forth a few times until it's cool enough, change servo angle, then extrude the newly selected filament while the printer is paused a few seconds to allow the retract/angle/extrude moves. The system doesn't need a daughterboard or additional stepper drivers, and can be adapted to any 8 or 32 Bit controler. I'm considering releasing the design to the open source community once everything is working properly, and I feel it's simplicity and universal nature will be welcomed. I realize there are a few options out there when it comes to multi-material, but this design would enable those without access to commercially available systems to print 8 colors in a more cost-effective manner. Thanks in advance for your time and consideration, and please let me know if you need more details or have suggestions on how I might get such a setup working in bugfix-2.0.x

8-in-1.zip Contains Configuration.h and other info..

[adobolifts]

Hello, do you have any updates to this? I am currently trying to make it