Hi guys, this is my first post on this board. My name is Chris and I started printing on a clone i3 back in April of this year.

I have a pretty weak direct-drive extruder and experienced lots of filament feeding problems. Does anybody else run into this problem?

I built my own filament sensor which detects feed speed & direction using a Gray encoder wheel and IR sensors. Since then, I have been able to deal with feeding issues before my prints have irrevocably failed.
FilamentRollerLeftProfile.jpgFilamentRollerBoardPerspective.jpg

If you are interested in how it works, I made a quick tutorial here: http://www.filamentroller.com/how-it-works/

You can download the OpenScad and precompiled STL files on: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1801190
Even without the control board, you can make a decent roller for your filament spools.

In any case, I am planning a Kickstarter to build a small quantity of boards and wanted to see if you guys have any interest in this idea or not.

---> I am interested in answering your questions and, generally, hearing both positive and negative criticism of this idea. Thanks!