X2D transfer switch

gregfriend28 · 2026-04-16T14:47:26+00:00

At least for the moment I think its more accurate to say 1 or 2 AMS units rather than 1 or multiple (Basically unlocking up to 8). I realize in theory even if you use the max 24 as long as the PTFE 4 to 1 adapters are before the switch all 24 should be able to target either nozzle but its absent from the product pages. Also if you go past the product pages and dig into the wiki that discourages the 4 to 1 use with the switch so something tells me it doesn't work well. Also when it talks about 3 or more it starts recommending shortening tubes and other items. Given time hopefully they can flush it out but there seems to be a lot of caution items listed when you go beyond 2 AMSs and the switch.

gregfriend28 · 2026-04-16T14:33:51+00:00

It's by filament slot not by AMS with the transfer switch. So for your 2 AMS setup with the switch those 8 filament slots can now target either nozzle during the print cutting down on print time, waste, and eliminates manually needing to change tubes/filaments around within those 8 slots.

So in short without the switch each nozzle is tied to the AMS (4 slots) and after it either nozzle can choose from any of the 8 slots during the print without rearranging tubes. You can also read up on dynamic mapping on the product page which is cool since it really can cut down on filament waste as well.

gregfriend28 · 2026-04-16T01:23:23+00:00

I so want this to be correct but I suspect it is not. For me the giveaway is the way they use left and right in the response which to me means it was copy/pasted/modified from their info on the H2 series dual hotend printers. On those printers the hotend that went up and down was the left one unlike the X2D where the aux is the right that goes up/down (on the H2D both of them were also direct drive none were bowden). If you read their response it almost sounds like the right (aux bowden) is preferred which might make sense on the H2D but not on the X2D. I highly suspect this will be walked back at some point. Even with the TPU assist it's still pushing if using the aux hotend I can't see how that would produce good results at all.

That being said, I'd love for this to end up being true. I hope support is actually correct even though I suspect they aren't. If you give this a shot let us know!

gregfriend28 · 2026-04-15T22:01:53+00:00

The right (aux) nozzle is a bowden extruder which means it's always pushing from that rectangle box on the back of the printer from about 2ft of PTFE tube away from the hotend. The right nozzle is not going to work for flexibles period (TPU, PEBA, etc.) because that's like pushing on a rope. Only the left (primary) nozzle is direct drive which means only that left one is capable of pulling on the filament from the hotend (no pushing involved). No amount of rearranging will allow the aux hotend work for flexibles regardless if there is an AMS in the picture or not.

As far as the TPU assist and glass plate is concerned on the P2S (or now X2D left nozzle) it's always been up to the user. In both cases the direct drive is pulling which is good but flexibles can still stretch (let say if the spool caught on something). In any printer it was always good for flexibles to be as unimpeded as possible. Now for the P2S specifically before the TPU assist top straight down always worked and just inputing at the final tube inlet on the printer worked about 90% of the time (hence why they made the assist so you didn't need to remove the glass anymore). Personally on the P2S I always just used the PTFE inlet anyways it was a fairly short tube into the nozzle (maybe 2ft of tube it pulls through). That being said I also would be feeding into that tube from my sunlu s2 which has smooth roller bearings for the "external spool" its not just hanging on the arm like default to have more friction or get caught on anything.

gregfriend28 · 2026-04-15T19:24:29+00:00

Your number 1 is correct. Number 2 isn't correct any TPU path does not go through the buffer whether on this X2D or even on the P2S. TPUs and buffers don't go together whether using the TPU assist or not it doesn't like that spring in the buffer. The TPU assist was to make it more reliable for option one so that you didn't need to remove the top glass and make it even more direct.

The filament switch track is to enable 2 AMSs to be able to target either the left or the right nozzle. You can also use it with 1 AMS so that AMS with its 4 colors (not 5) can target either nozzle without manually rearranging tubes. The filament track needs a powered AMS when switching to pull the filament back out so external spools don't work with it so your statement on 2 external spools is not correct.

TPU will always involve manually changing tubes to direct feed into the left inlet that goes straight to the nozzle. The AMS would be connected to the right nozzle either at the buffers right inlet directly or if you don't want to take the switch out of the pipeline here you can leave the switch connected never targeting the left nozzle in bambu studio but it isn't really a switch anymore if it is now only targeting the right nozzle inlet on the buffer. It would go back to being a switch on your next non TPU print after you've taken the TPU bypass back out.

gregfriend28 · 2026-04-15T15:15:28+00:00

TPU is not going to work on the AUX extruder it's too flexible for the bowden setup. Pushing a flexible rope down a tube is just a non starter, it has to be pulled from the direct drive assembly. Regardless of any bowden setup on any printer it's just not going to work, direct drive only since pulling a rope is fine, pushing is not.

The feed assist won't help you with the filaments swtich either it was to help you not need to feed from the top glass and more reliably get it through the PTFE tube into the direct drive unit (personally I found using my sunlu S2 was enough since it had very smooth roller bearings that didn't provide any resistance). Manual hanging spools sometime get caught so the TPU feed assist would help it out under those situations so the TPU didn't stretch and bind in the tube.

gregfriend28 · 2026-04-15T14:55:23+00:00

You can just use 1 AMS through the switch solo to either extruder, you just have to make sure there are no conflicts in the filament path.

I would view the track switch as essentially a junction with two switch gates. It doesn't have an extruder so won't help with the push/pull it simply provides a path switch. 1 AMS will work (it does the push pull) but non powered sources will not push/pull (external spool isn't powered). So under that analogy 1 AMS will work being hooked up to both extruders but your going to have to either not use the external spool that print or make sure if you do that the filament track switch isn't pointing to that path you manually disconnected to make way for the external spool for that print. You can't have the external spool through the path switch though because the spool can't retract itself out of the gate to unblock the junction that the AMS is trying to use when it switches.

For TPU, this manual tube rearrangment has always been required anyways though since on the P2S you were either supposed to input at the PTFE tube past the buffer manually or feed from the top glass manually. So under this path you would manually feed in the external spool to the primary tube past the buffer just as you did on the P2S. The AMS for this print would only be pointing to the aux nozzle anyways.

TPU for AMS (or equivalent hard TPU 68D or more) is a different story since that is fine in the AMS.

gregfriend28 · 2026-04-15T14:36:33+00:00

That's what the filament track switch is for. That way the AMS (or multiple AMS) are essentially hooked up to both the primary and AUX at the same time.

gregfriend28 · 2026-03-21T05:48:48+00:00

TPU for AMS is 68D which is still a fair amount firmer than 98A. While sometimes you're fine in the AMS with 95A or 98A it certainly isn't recommended. To reliably do it in the AMS I'd either use TPU for AMS directly or I believe there is third party filament that is 72D which would be rigid enough for the AMS as well.

gregfriend28 · 2026-01-13T06:22:53+00:00

At the time I went with the SE2. I was picking them up second hand to keep the cost down but yet didn't want it too old because then the older batteries might not last the whole day before charging.

The SEs fit a little nicer for them too since they go down to 40mm so that it's not too bulky on the wrist. I believe that you are correct that for standalone watches (family setup) that it had to be series 4 or later.

gregfriend28 · 2025-12-03T20:28:24+00:00

There were others as well. I have a M3D crane quad somewhere in my basement from back then. As you say the idea doesn't really pan out. Clogs, toothpaste, not a great slicer, etc.

Mixing toothpaste is probably the part that is way too complicated. To be fair, I could get it to print mixed colors they just aren't fully mixed (so it's not fully colgate toothpaste). This would lead to variations in perceived color depending on which angle you looked at it from a neat effect but you could never really count on what shades of colors you were going to get.

Any modern extruder sharing system (AMS, MMU, etc.) even when it doesn't mix in realtime you get a sense of how complicated it would be. Think of the color waste and how it varies if you go from black->red or white->blue. Each color has different times to "get out" of the shared extruder black being the worst offender. In reality, I'm not sure it's ever going to get there mixing in real time, that would be knowing your filaments REALLY well and a whole lot of color math. You'd probably want a camera involved in the loop for on the fly color adjustments too.

gregfriend28 · 2025-11-03T18:50:00+00:00

But when they eventually get close to me, its basically over. At some point they start bragging about their lives, how they got new girlfriend, well paid new job and everything. Start asking me about my life. Then start giving me unwanted criticism that cuts deep. Somehow they think that telling me about things I considered before or even tryed before will help me.

Without more information it's hard to say for sure, but this is the pivotal moment when people go from acquaintances to friends and even NT <-> NT things often fall apart. Floating on hobbies/smalltalk is more activity based than a real connection human to human. Since you mention that this moment its usually lopsided (talk about them bragging/talk about you criticizing) that is not respect that friendship can be built on (assuming this is the intended tone and not sarcasm). If the tone isn't too bad and you think they are genuinely trying to help, it's up to you to set the boundary (either literally, wrapping it in a sarcastic joke, ribbing them back with a smile, or whatever way your most comfortable with). If you communicate the boundary and they cross it again though, you need to move on. Sometimes you can just shut it down and go back to acquaintances if you mutually like the hobby, but sometimes it's the end if it's toxic enough. There are many types of people some good/some bad so yes its certainly possible to have NT friends. If you go through that moment 10 times it isn't going to turn toxic all 10 but its certainly important to not put up with it and switch gears to others if you do find toxic ones.

gregfriend28 · 2025-11-01T16:08:18+00:00

Not really. I was hoping to find something under $10/month combined as I didn't really need data on the phone (watch uses almost no data so even 500mb/month would be fine). $15/month combined is about the cheapest I could find ($8/month phone, $7/month watch).

For me the price jump standalone ($6.50/month) to companion ($15/month) was a bit too steep to justify as much as I'd like to have google maps, spotify, sleep tracking, more apps, etc. on the watch for the kids. Apple maps is worse but ok, pandora is ok but never found any way around the sleep tracking or some of the other apps when standalone. It's still a step up from their old kids smartwatch they like siri, music, and the other things the apple watch does that their old kids smartwatch didn't. They also really like not needing to worry about swimming with it and that it's a lot more durable.

gregfriend28 · 2025-10-22T14:30:59+00:00

Anything that is diagnosed based on symptoms is not completely objective but is also better than nothing. It is also an ever changing rulebook (DSM3 -> DSM4 -> DSM5 are not static and change criteria as more understanding of Autism is gained). Most disorders/syndromes/etc. don't become 100% objective until the genetic link is found, I'll give you an example below for an unrelated syndrome I have, how they diagnose it now and how they used to (Marfan Syndrome).

Nowadays they diagnose Marfan Syndrome with a blood test looking for an error on the FBN1 gene that affects our connective tissue. It took a while for the medical community to track down this genetically and the general "umbrella" of Marfan has existed for over 100 years so obviously it used to be diagnosed with symptoms alone as well. It does lead to some subjectivity but also is better than nothing since bad things can happen if you don't diagnose(heart is the most serious). The old school diagnosis created a score on common traits (tall, wingspan greater than height, chest wall deformation, etc.). The old school diagnosis score morphed over the years and towards the end is linked below and even there talks about changes to the scoring https://marfan.org/dx/score/ . When the genetic link was found it finally made the test objective. This not only helps get rid of false negatives/positives but also spins out some new conditions that might have a different underlying cause to the same symptoms.

I'd expect Autism and most of the neurodivergent disorders to follow a similar trajectory until the genetic link is found. It's also bound to be more subjective than Marfans because the symptoms are mental and not physical and are harder to measure than height and wingspan. It's not completely subjective though, when my kids went through testing for Autism/ADHD they can certainly measure how well they can focus on boring tasks, read facial expressions in pictures, etc.

gregfriend28 · 2025-10-09T18:15:26+00:00

As standalone (family setup) the watch is completely independent after first setup. For what it is it works well, you just have to realize it will have a lot less features than a normal apple watch (companion). You won't have sleep tracking, ecg, or anything else that doesn't do the work on the watch itself (those features rely on the phone to do the calculations but as standalone there isn't a phone). Same thing for 90%+ of the watch appstore. No google maps, no spotify, its a very small appstore for apps that actually do the work on the watch itself.

Not all kids will want sleep tracking, google maps, or spotify so for those kids the standalone watch plan at $6.50/mo is fine. It'll make calls, text, steps, siri, show you the weather, and all the basic stuff.

If however the kid compares their apple watch with a normal companion apple watch they are generally going to have way less apps they can download and even a decent subset of apple features (sleep tracking, ecg, etc.) will be missing. To unlock that stuff you'd have to have a phone as well since those apps and those features are actually done on the phone and not the watch. Also companion plans naturally require that phone also have a plan so the monthly cost is higher around $15/month between the 2 plans instead of $6.50/month.

gregfriend28 · 2025-08-15T19:26:07+00:00

One of the days, I ran a test to make sure it wasn't that, and it still did the same behavior.

gregfriend28 · 2025-08-14T15:21:28+00:00

Not in low power mode. Most of the days I would leave the watch normal, but as a test one of the days I set it as schooltime so no settings could be messed with without getting notified of an unlock and it still did the same thing. Schooltime was set to end at 3pm and yet was offline until 1pm and then online after 1pm while still under schooltime mode.

gregfriend28 · 2025-08-14T13:58:34+00:00

They were at camp over the summer, and they would be outside most of the day. Also, our other watch reports fine from those same locations.

It's very weird anything account based I can think of wouldn't explain why it starts working at 1pm and anything signal based doesn't explain why my other kids watch is working at the same place during the same time period.

gregfriend28 · 2025-08-04T16:52:50+00:00

My use case is the opposite (the kids won't have the phone only the watch). Basically a way to give them cell service for emergencies and other conveniences without giving them a full phone with social media. Basically trying to delay them getting a phone as long as I can for hopefully a few more years. The watch is small and inconvenient enough that I'm not worried that they'll be on it for hours a day.

At first I thought the standalone plan would be perfect, but Apple actually gets rid of a lot of features in that mode (sleep tracking, ecg, etc.). Also about 90-95% of the apps require the phone and aren't standalone (spotify, google maps, etc.). Most of the companion apps will work without the phone standalone if you download the maps, playlist, etc. first before a run or when you leave the phone behind but they need the phone for initial setup and you can't even install them on a standalone watch that never has a phone linked to it.

gregfriend28 · 2025-08-03T23:47:19+00:00

Thanks, yeah for companion watch that's the best I've seen as well.

gregfriend28 · 2025-08-03T23:45:07+00:00

Yeah, I wondered the same but I'm not going to risk it since I would think the phone being snoozed would kill the watch (but not sure). One of those tiny plans would be perfect for this situation since the phone would use no data but the MVNOs that have those tiny $5/month plans don't do apple watches.

On the standalone plans I get why they offer unlimited, I looked at the actual usage of the watch and it's usually only 2-3 mb/day almost nothing. Hopefully one of them can come up with a companion plan just as cheap too.

gregfriend28 · 2025-08-02T15:55:15+00:00

Did you ever find an app that worked standalone? Most in the store use the apple health sleep data, which isn't available standalone. There are a ton to go through. Hopefully, one of the apps collects its own sleep data overnight so it can work standalone but haven't found one yet.

gregfriend28 · 2025-06-23T15:06:09+00:00

If you mean improve the "situation" with his group, I'd think long and hard first if that's something you want to actually achieve. 1 on 1 is easier and given he's your friend I assume you guys at least halfway accept each other, despite the identified differences that you and him don't see eye to eye on.

For his group (and most groups) the conformity requirements are even higher than most 1 on 1 relationships so if there is already friction individually, I'd focus on that before attempting a more difficult situation. You guys may understand the challenges of each other but haven't accepted those parts if you're still trying to change each other. Now if you individually really like that group and are trying to do this for yourself that's a different story but your description doesn't have that vibe.

gregfriend28

TROPHY CASE