WYS

thingiverse

Hello! My name is Jean, and I live in Paris. I designed a cool accessory called WYS that lets you accurately weigh your remaining filament on your working spool, avoiding unexpected machine stops or even worse, failed prints due to the end of the filament! It's very frustrating, isn't it? Indeed, as our slicing software calculates the weight of our print, it becomes really easy with WYS to know before you press the start button that your print will safely complete without any surprises after hours of useless printing time and costly filament waste. The idea is to offer a super-affordable DIY system based on the 5 STL files attached combined with low-cost and ready-to-use hanging electronic balances available on Amazon (5 grams resolution), no tricky custom electronics to build or set up! Once your 5 components are printed, it'll take you less than 5 minutes for final assembly and first testing. The hanging electronic balance used is under 10 € on Amazon and works autonomously on battery for years with a great modern look (see the Amazon reference below). On top of that, you'll notice the easy side spool charge/exchange optimizing the limited space we usually have behind the back panel. Please see the video in the post-printing section. I've been using WYS system on my printers since two months refining many details and optimizing print quality, assembly, and ease of use. Many nights of work were required to reach this current simple design; you'll see some of the design evolutions in one of the photos. It works really great now and I'm happy to share the STL files. I'm sure you'll find your own cool refinements and variations. I natively designed WYS system for Zortrax M200 printer, but you'll find an adapter for Ultimaker 2 printers in the package. For sure, I can design adapters for other brand printers or even a universal one if you're interested. So, you'll find the video with assembling instructions and below all needed information for the best use of the system. I hope you enjoy this nice accessory, and to motivate me to share more cool ideas, don't hesitate to offer me a tip for a beer or even a glass of champagne! ASSEMBLY Simply follow the video instruction to build your WYS. A very simple string able to support 2Kg will be fine. Just take care of the good positioning of part 2 during the string assembly to get appropriate lengths of string between parts. Links to buy the hanging electronic balance on Amazon: France: http://amzn.eu/3Pk9de5 Germany: search for "odowalker balance" in the search tool bar England: http://amzn.eu/5Zf2f44 Spain: http://amzn.eu/8YAPn2d USA: http://a.co/6FBIAVZ INSTRUCTION FOR USE Two simple ways to proceed: Either switch on the hanging electronic balance and once the zero value is stabilized (tare processing), simply pull the ring of part 5, and the weight will appear automatically. Or first pull out the ring of part 5 during tare processing (the hanging balance is then unloaded) and then release the ring to get the weight. In both cases, the hanging electronic balance will switch off automatically after 1 minute. To get the exact amount of remaining filament material, you'll have to subtract the weight of parts 1 and 2 and the empty spool (about 240 grams, but better to get precise measurement of these two components). To make easier the calculation, you can use the free cylindrical space of part 1 to round the overcharge (see photo) to 300 grams. I used one screw and set of washers glued in the cylindrical space to round the total overcharge in my case.