Optical Filament Runout Sensor

I had a mechanical runout sensor on my Ender 5, but had a couple of breaks in the filament between the sensor and the extruder. So it wasn't doing me any good. It also couldn't detect a clog, and since I'm printing more with TPU (Ninjaflex) I wanted something that would allow me to clear the clog and keep me from wasting several hours and some expensive filament.


A friend sent me a copy of the sensor he was using, but I ordered the wrong bearings for the one he had. So I ended up making this file from scratch. I need the practice in Design spark anyways.

I've included the Designspark file, so you can tweak it however you'd like.

The mount is designed to allow you to mount it vertically or horizontally.

I printed the decoder in two parts. The wheel in ABS, and the base in TPU. You can print this in one piece in whatever filament you have lying around PLA should work. And put a rubber band around the base, or get a small balloon and slice across it to make a band to put ov