I read on YouTube about the Turtle Box, which seems to be a DIY MMS. I do own a QIDI Plus 4, and I am thrilled about how it does its job. What I am looking for next is the multicolor printing.
Is the Turtle Box a way to add multicolor printing to a single-filament printer? And on making it be able to add multicolor printing to any printer? And to do it DIY?
What I am worried about is how to integrate the functionality of the Turtle Box into a printer without this functionality.
Also, the topic of efficient use of filament while doing a print with multiple filaments. I do understand that a lot of filament is lost while switching filaments in a multi-filament print. Just a tag, filament retracting.
Who can give information about this.
I think you mean box turtle?
It is DIY and has several independent extruders which merge at a combiner which feeds the selected filament into the printer extruder. Each filament retracts or extrudes as needed. As far as I know it is controlled through the slicer software. A full description can be found on Github.
All of the open source projects I have seen (including Box Turtle) require Klipper. The QIDI Plus 4 does run Klipper. Since QIDI has their own MMS, the Box Turtle should work just fine.
I personally have not seen one. there are full kits of all the non printed parts. they run 440 USD. I don’t know what the independently priced components are but potentially fairly costly.
The Qidi box is due very soon Q1 of this year. Personally I would wait to at least look at their off the shelf solution. It should be before the end of next month.