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Palette 3 Multi-Spool Mode

It doesn’t seem that the new Palette 3 supports a “Multi-spool mode”. I used this quite a bit on my Palette 2 to use up a bunch of ends of spools, and not be wasteful. Is this mode something that will be re-added in the future?

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Hey Gerrit, currently, Multi-spool mode isn’t available on P3, but we will have this built into a future firmware release. Apologies for the inconvenience at this time.

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Wow, color me surprised, I expected some hiccups that come with any early adoption of a product, but this is just downright unfinished. Why did I pay for air shipping when I can't use the product's advertised features for another unspecified amount of time?

Is there a software development schedule to implement basic functionality?

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I totally agree with Ben's comment. This is one of the PRIMARY features advertized by Mosaic, and it's EVEN IN THE FREAKING MANUAL! These shipped multiple months later than planned, how is it possible that core functions are completely missing???

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I agree with the comments. I paid for air shipping for a working product. I didn't pay air shipping to get a beta firmware that won't be complete until everyone else has their units.

Multispool was my main use for this product. I'm not happy that it's not enabled and likely won't be until the sea shipments have landed by the sounds of it.

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Hi Mike, we understand your frustrations and are working to have Multi-spool released as soon as possible. Palette's main function is to create calibrated multi-color prints, which you are able to do with the current product. While Pattern, Gradient, Random, and Multi-spool (non-calibrated print modes) are supported, we felt that it was important to focus on the main purpose of Palette as a majority of our users are using this product to complete calibrated prints. This doesn't mean that we've dropped Multi-Spool altogether, but as mentioned, this is a feature that will be released shortly.

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Johnny, is the determination of the "main function" of the Palette3 based on customer input/feedback or the desired main function from the product team? I ask as a 30 year veteran of startups. The feedback in the forums, which I acknowledge is highly self-selected, would seem to indicate a miss on customer expectations. Personally, I find the multi-material function interesting. But not that much more compelling than enabling large continuous prints and the consumption of spool remnants enabled by multi-spool.

Multi-material, as currently implemented, requires customers to abandon substantial investments in slicers and senders and accept a locked in workflow with a far less mature set of replacements.

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If "multi spool mode" is not defined as a "main function" of Palette, then why is it listed as a main function in all marketing materials, including the main web site, and even the quick start guide for the device?

and if multi color mode is defined as the primary function of the device, why is it implemented in such a way that users MUST deal with sub-par slicing and completely retuning printer profiles that they have already invested time and money tuning?

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Hi Stewart, yes, I think that it would be fair to determine the main function of Palette 3 based on customer feedback. While what you see on forums and pages may highlight delayed features like Multi-Spool mode, the large majority of customer inquiries that we deal with via e-mail and other customer support channels mainly relate to calibrated multi-color prints.

Hi Zeno, we don't refer to Multi-Spool mode in the P3 Getting Started guide or website, but if you're referring to runout detection where we switch to the next input once one has run out, we do have that currently available with Palette 3. Concerning any slicing concerns that you have, you're free to use Canvas (canvas3d.io) or PrusaSlicer (mm3d.co/p2pp), and you're also able to import S3D, Slic3r, and KISSlicer profiles directly into Canvas.

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This is interesting information. How is runout detection and input switching managed? Is this a configuration option that's controllable in the UI or config files or is it just automatically going to the next sequential drive?

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@jonnyyeu jonnyyeu When is this going to be released? This is literally the only reason why I purchased… two of these things. Other than that, I have zero use for these. I am very frustrated with this entire experience to be honest with all the connection issues and all. I really would like to speak happily about this product, but I’m getting pretty fed up with this.

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Hi Doug, sorry to hear about your frustration. We're currently working on this and should have it available shortly in an upcoming firmware release.

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@jonnyyeu please define "shortly". We paid for this device based on advertised features. not features listed as "coming soon". See my main forum post about roadmap. We bought these devices, as paying customers we need to know when our devices will perform as advertised.

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@zinventor Shortly would mean in the coming weeks

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Thanks. Looking forward to having this implemented.

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@jonnyyeu "Shortly would mean in the coming weeks" well it's been nearly 5 weeks now......how do you define "in the coming weeks"?

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@jonnyyeu - I brought my Palette 3 Pro out of early retirement and installed the new firmware update. I looked through all of the screens and I did not see anything regarding multispool or how to manage it. I also logged into Canvas and I did not see anything on how to manage the drives/multispool. I even looked under the account settings where the colors are managed.

I think it would be helpful if we had some guidance as to what we should expect from an obvious beta release of multi-spool and also how it is implemented.

Did you guys just implement a basic "advance to the next drive when the filament runs out" type of scenario or is it a little more advanced? Don't you think we should know this so we can lay our spools out accordingly?

To say multispool is in the new firmware and then release the following one liner as the only documentation is bush league.

"This is the first release of filament sensing functionality, future releases will include additional features"

What does that even mean?

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@jonnyyeu - Ok. I found Multispool under the 'Start Print->Custom Print->Multi-Spool Settings on the P3P. That is confusing. We manage the colors/drives in Canvas but we manage the multispool inputs on the P3P. I would think all drive management should happen in one place.

Can I suggest better supporting documentation with the firmware releases. Just saying multispool is available is too darn vague.

Can you also clarify that this implementation of multispool does not allow multi-color printing with runout detection? It seems like this beta release only allows you to specify what drives are to be used for input and when the lower numbered input runs out it advances to the next highest input.

For example, if I had a print with 4 different colors in drives 1 thru 4 (yellow, red, blue, green) and drive 1 (yellow) ran out I wouldn't want it to use drive 2, 3, or 4, I would want to be able to specify a backup drive for yellow. How do we do that?

When do you think we will get real multi-spool?

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Hi Larry, since Multi-spool mode doesn't require Canvas, you wouldn't need to manage anything on that interface. Concerning runout/backup drives, those are expected in the next firmware release. We appreciate your feedback and will include more information on our release notes in the future.

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Hi everyone, Multi-spool mode is now available on the latest FW release.

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Is there any documentation on this? Thank you for getting this in, but wondering where and what is needed for this, as I could not originally find multi spool options.

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Hi Mike, this can be found under 'Start Print->Custom Print->Multi-Spool'

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Mosaic just released a firmware update today

The release notes say,

After this release, we'll be working on the following features:

  • Screen responsiveness improvements (set to be released soon)
  • Run-out / Multi-spool / Back-up Drives
  • etc.

So I guess there is no run-out detection feature currently available despite being told runout detection is something the Palette 3 currently supports.

Just yesterday we were told.

“Hi Zeno, we don't refer to Multi-Spool mode in the P3 Getting Started guide or website, but if you're referring to runout detection where we switch to the next input once one has run out, we do have that currently available with Palette 3. “ (but no explanation on how its use)

I think we’ve been spinning our wheels looking for features that aren’t yet implemented.

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Hi Larry, my apologies as it was my understanding that runout detection was already implemented and that we were waiting for backup & Multi-spool. That was my mistake and I provided incorrect information.

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@jonnyyeu Ok. I understand these features will be coming shortly. Thanks for the clarification.

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Ironically, I was in the middle of a print when I responded above. I just checked the printer and found out the hard way there is no runout detection whatsoever. The filament ran out of input one and the Palatte did not detect it had run out. It was printing in mid air without filament. I would have at least expected the P3P to stop or know there wasn't any more filament going through the device. The programming logic to accomplish this is very straightfoward. It seems like it would be an easy thing to do.

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Is this for real?

it has sensors to tell if filament is loaded but if it runs out it won't even pause?

C'mon mosaic this is just pure laziness on your behalf.

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@shaqfoo I think it depends on where in the machine the gap in filament occurs, and when in the cycle it happens. It seems like as soon as the filament passes the switch right before the outgoing drive, the machine no longer cares about it's existance (or movement) - since any break after that goes unnoticed. Breaks before that are only caught if they happen during a splice cycle, where they would cause the switches to be triggered in the wrong order, but even then sometimes they don't get caught.

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Author avatar Gerrit Padgham will be eternally grateful.
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