Filament alarm/sensor

thingiverse

This started out as a quick hack for my printer but it's proven itself to be really useful so far. It's a printed base with a battery, buzzer, switch and some PTFE tubing that works like a charm. Your filament will run through the short PTFE tube while holding the switch open, which disconnects the buzzer circuit. As soon as your filament runs out or passes through completely, the circuit closes and the buzzer starts singing its song. This instantly lets you know it's time to hook up a new spool! You could do a more advanced version and connect it to your controller, but this is a simple add-on that works on any printer without any hacking - just put it between your spool and extruder and you're good to go! To build it, you'll need the following hardware: 9V battery, micro-switch, some wire, PTFE tubing, and 2x M3 screws for the switch. You can check out more of my projects at YouTube, Instagram, 3D Hubs, or Patreon. Here are the print settings I used: printer - The Frankenstein, rafts - no, supports - no, resolution - 0.2mm, infill - 35%.