Filament sensor: support to 3 types of sensors
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- The implementation of a switch to see if I'm out of filament. (this is already implemented)
- The implementation of a "mouse wheel " attached to the filament to check if the filament if moving and how much it's moving (If the wheel is not moving, there is no more filament or the hotend is jam )
- A ccd sensor to check filament diameter to dinamicaly execute M200 gcode to change filament diameter to allow volumetric extrusion (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:699308 and [[url=http://www.thingiverse.com]www.thingiverse.com] )
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The first two of these is being worked on in a single unit.
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The third option is implemented in Marlin, and requires a buffer and knowledge of the distance from the filament diameter sensor to the nozzle. That is, if you want to use it to compensate for filament diameter variation along its length.
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I'm not keen on the ccd sensor idea, although I will implement it if enough people vote for it. I don't think it's difficult to buy filament that is made to close tolerances. If you buy cheap filament that needs this sort of compensation, I suspect you will have other problems with it too.
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Filament diameter compensation isn't particularly important with modern filament quality control – reputable brands usually hold +/-0.03mm or so and guarantee +/0.05mm. It was more important back when quality control was worse and when people were using plastic welding gun wire as filament.
People who extrude their own filament often want this feature because home extruders hold rougher tolerances, but that's a pretty small group.
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I'll raise a hand to show interest in the CCD filament diameter sensor. For the exact reason RCarlyle speculated, namely, filastruder (who's even one of your distributors if that's not reason enough).
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OK, point taken.