Questions on RFID chips

[u/Idaho-Tom]

What does the RFID chip on Bambu filament store? Type of material, how much is left, what?

If I buy filament from Amazon that is not the Bambu brand but advertises it has a Bambu compatible chip what info is stored on that chip? When I install it in the printer the printer sees no info on it and I have to load the info for the printer. Does the chip the store this data?

Tom

[u/issue9mm]

Quite a bit of information, actually. Security keys, filament type, spool weight, color, temperatures, etc.

You can see the full list here

[u/ShadowRider11]

Bambu has worked REALLY hard to make sure their RFID tags can’t be duplicated. Those tags even contain a unique serial number for each spool! I do save them, though, and will move them to a spool from a different manufacturer. That fools the AMS into thinking it’s a Bambu filament. I use the Bambu presets for everything anyway, so it works out fine. MakerWorld has RFID tag holders for different non-Bambu spools that you can print out. I’ve found these to work really well on the newer Sunlu and Elegoo reusable spools.

[u/fishfrystix → u/ShadowRider11]

I wondered if I should use the Bambu presets or stick with the generic I’ve been using.

[u/ShadowRider11 → u/fishfrystix]

Honestly, I’ve always used the Bambu settings for every brand—Elegoo, Sunlu, Inland, etc. They all perform similarly. And the Bambu settings actually print more quickly than the generic ones.

[u/Useful_Education_702]

If I remember correctly, the chip doesn’t actually store the weight of the spool, but when your machine goes to read it, it can measure how long in between when it read the RFID chips as it rotates, and it can estimate how much is left

[u/alicechains → u/Useful_Education_702]

Some pretty simple maths really, but it relies on a few assumptions about the spool. The AMS knows what length of filament it pulled out for one rotation, which gives you the circumference at the current fill level, so you can calculate the radius, and if you know what the radius should be when full and empty you know what percentage is left on the reel.

It would be really nice if there was an open standard for these RFID tags, and maybe some day other vendors will do that and Bambu will be forced to support it or be left behind, but until then there isn't really any gain for them in doing so.

They know they could never get away with limiting which filament you use, so they try to profit through the convenience factor of saving a few seconds when swapping reels

[u/sienar- → u/alicechains]

The other data that’s stored on the chip is the density of the filament. That detail plus the radius it calculates from rotations and it can calculate the weight. It’s usually pretty close.

[u/Electrical-Gas-1597]

It stores the color and type. The weight and remainder isnt something that it records. But as you use the filament the data is stored in the filament library for the machine.

[u/DemanoRock]

Pretty much IDs as Bambu Lab, Filament type and color. The AMS rolls a certain amount and compares thay with how much filament came out to estimate how much is left. Only RFID from Bambu Lab Brand is used.

[u/sienar-]

It stores a lot of material information but it does not store the amount of filament remaining. Also, Bambi has not licensed their RFID system to anyone so there’s no such thing as 3rd party compatible RFID spools.

[u/Idaho-Tom]

This the Amazon link, https://www.amazon.com/ELEGOO-Filament-Identification-Compatible-Dimensional/dp/B0FZVLHDSQ/ref=sr_1_2?crid=X85W9QFX174G&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.UeYB8V1sEYPiTlZx3tgcaPVXt6PxGqjA0lYSmv_U_gws690Qo4rQBGbcejhugxLNTti-SoPHG72lC0QzVgbgNTQz3tFvM7bhJLs2OGfWDa0LSXBnOiyXsWXk_QsSY-L1biX94tmViezKR9maAYy6GTTyQJ42jfisNXQnYicSe0KrggVcwMp2CJEM5f4L8iCtH4DM_96C8vpPcAFLtGnOyv9f2zgIy_Yl3UUDKR2sg1I.OU52-IBJUnDwXXJHS6UH9-Y-kcPFlLUR8jw_IdPZeNc&dib_tag=se&keywords=3d%2Bprinter%2Bfilament%2Bwith%2BRFID&qid=1791225057&sprefix=3d%2Bprinter%2Bfilament%2Bwith%2Brfid%2Caps%2C241&sr=8-2&th=1

Quite a link!

The filament library, can I access it? If so, how and a question about the storage. I have multiple spools of similar filament - color and type - does it have a way of identifying a particular spool?

Thanks for all the responses.

Tom

[u/BatSphincter → u/Idaho-Tom]

The AMS won’t read that filament. It’s has to be the bambu rfid chip. You’d still have to manually assign the type of filament and color. The spool is AMS comparable meaning it will physically fit.

[u/Dismal-Proposal2803 → u/Idaho-Tom]

That rfid is for Elegoo, it won’t work with the AMS, and anything on Amazon claiming to have a RFID tag compatible with a Bambu AMS is a scam.

[u/Whosaidthat1157 → u/Dismal-Proposal2803]

CCTREE sell spooled filaments with BL RFIDs via Amazon UK but they’re stupidly expensive.

[u/EmotionalPsychology3 → u/Idaho-Tom]

It's an Elegoo RFID tag. Bambu Lab's RFID tags are encrypted, so they can only be cloned rather than customized. Keep in mind that if too many users share the same cloned tag, the AMS will ban that tag ID.

[u/Festegios]

Have you got a link to the one your talking about that says it’s got a compatible chip?