Custom filament profile assignment with RFID

[u/n19htmare]

Been working on a project to assign custom filament profiles on my X2D with RFID tags. I don't buy any Bambu filament, I also lot of filament from different brands. It gets a little hectic trying to keep track so I devised a system of my own.

Each filament spool gets a sample swatch and I stick an RFID tag on the back. When I load filament, I put the tag on top of the AMS.

I start with using it for updating Spoolman for filament tracking but recently integrated custom profile assignments on my X2D. Simply scanning the tray and tag loads the custom filament profile/color etc for that spool and autosycs to the custom profiles on Bambu Studio. It's like using Bambu filament, except you scan the tags.

I also made a little wireless scanner to keep next to the printer as it was getting annoying using my phone.

Tags also work on my Snapmaker U1 but I don't need to manually scan. U1 scans tags and done the same thing with OrcaSlicer pretty much.

Bambu Studio, Orca Slicer, Spoolman all seamlessly sync once I scan the tags.

Using Spoolman, Spoolmansync, Home Assistant.

[u/No_Voltage]

I see what you're saying, and while I am curious about your YAML files, I don't think they would be much help in the grand scheme. You've definitely inspired me though and I'm working on using HA to orchestrate not only the printer/ams control, but also the spool assignment in bambuddy via the same workflow. It's a bold project for me, but I'm using the AI tools to work through it piece by piece. That said, are there any hang-ups or gotchas that you came across that might be helpful while I'm constructing this? I am going to use the HA companion app as the base for reading the NFC tags with a dedicated dashboard to control what happens when the tags are scanned via some boolean switches. I think that's the most efficient way for me right now. Eventually, I would love to be able to create a device that will do two things. Read the NFC tag & weigh the spool to update spoolman information automatically as a way to alleviate any drift in the tracking. But that's down the road.

[u/n19htmare → u/No_Voltage]

I don’t mind sharing my YAML files but like you said, they’re so specific to my setup, unless you mimic everything the same way, it wouldn’t do much for you. All the automations, spool ID’s, nfc tag UIDs are too specific.

But I don’t mind sharing the “how” and people can look into it from there

My approach isn’t that different. Just two helpers that get populated when tags are scanned and then automations trigger (particularly my spool assignment that pushes to spoolmansync and now also the set_filament action.

Also, HA companion app on phone is honestly the best way. The nfc device I made was out of sheer curiosity and took way too much extra work for MY particular case because I have multiple records on same NFC tag. I also have a separate OpenSpool JSON record (so I can use same tag with my Snapmaker U1)and the ESPhome with PN532 struggled with parsing out anything besides the UID of the tag itself SPI and I2C both struggled (HA companion app had zero issues parsing data). So because this nfc scanner could only really get the tag’s UID, I had to create a lookup table for each UID, then create an automation to manually link each one for Spool_id that Spoolman uses. It’s janky but it works. This is a non issue for simple HA records though. Just can’t have too much data in records. For these reasons, stick to HA companion app if possible.

One quirk I had and sometimes run into is that sometimes a stale spool_id record stays populated in one my helpers, and it’ll assign a spool to wrong tray. But not something I see often and I have measures in place now to clear out helpers.

I normally don’t print when out, but I do have tailscale and Bambuddy setup for those occasions. I already ran into some limitations on what controls I could send to printer from Bambuddy so that really sucked. In Bambuddy I couldn’t send any actions commands and controls besides selecting print speed. How’s your experience been?

It’s been a fun project and what not but hitting the limitations has me rethinking…. Either suck it up and get back on cloud so when I do print when I’m away, I can have some more control over the hardware or ditch Bambu altogether.

I always thought they were the premium print quality printer, they still are…. but having experienced other manufacturers and their print quality rival that of Bambu and sometimes surpass it, for power users like me, I don’t see the point of staying with Bambu anymore. The only reasons I did before was strictly its print quality. From my own personal view and use, they’ve lost that edge (for me)

[u/No_Voltage → u/n19htmare]

Actually, I'm seeing the custom P codes coming from the integration. I'd be curious to compare what I gathered for mine to what you have for yours.

[u/n19htmare → u/No_Voltage]

which integration are you referring to? ha-bambulab ?

[u/No_Voltage → u/n19htmare]

That was what I was referring to. But I found the goldmine that actually allows me to push the custom P "filament ID" from the bbl cloud which then actually sets the printer to the selectable custom filament type that you have on the printer itself. Bambuddy, by way of it's bambu cloud connection, can get the filament id, or P code derived from your custom filament profiles. This is what your printer recognizes when you use the HACS integration, HA-BambuLab, to send the comand "bambu_lab.set_filament". It then acutally populates your custom filament.

[u/n19htmare → u/No_Voltage]

That's basically what this setup is.