[Feature Request] Use Bambu AMS spool identification to track inventory locations across multiple printers

[ImNanou]

Use case

I use TigerTag Studio Manager in a FabLab with a relatively large filament inventory and many Bambu Lab printers.

Our printer fleet is almost exclusively Bambu Lab, and nearly every printer is equipped with an AMS. External spool feeding is only used occasionally, mainly for materials such as TPU that cannot normally be fed through the AMS.

Our physical filament stock is stored in our office, while the printers are located in another room.

Our current workflow is:

1. We receive new filament spools, mostly Bambu Lab, but also some third-party brands.
2. Each physical spool is added to Tiger Studio Manager as a TigerData+ spool.
3. The spool is then physically stored in our office.
4. When filament is needed, someone takes a spool from storage and loads it into one of our printers / AMS units.

This last step is where I am currently unsure about the intended Tiger Studio workflow.

Current workflow question

When a TigerData+ spool leaves physical storage and is loaded into a printer, what is the recommended workflow?

Should I:

• remove/delete the TigerData+ item from the inventory?
• promote the TigerData+ spool to a TigerTag?
• keep the spool in the inventory and change its location/status?
• use another workflow that I may have missed?

I am not assuming that keeping the spool in the inventory is necessarily the correct approach.

I would first like to understand how TigerData+ is intended to be used once the physical spool starts being consumed.

However, because almost all of our filament usage goes through Bambu Lab AMS units, I wondered whether the AMS itself could become part of that workflow.

Possible AMS-based workflow

If keeping a physical spool represented in Tiger Studio while it is being used is compatible with the intended inventory model, it would be extremely useful if its location could be updated automatically based on the AMS.

For example:

Office storage
→ X1E-03 / AMS A / Slot 2
→ Office storage

Instead of manually tracking every movement, Tiger Studio could know that a spool is currently installed in a particular printer, AMS and slot.

With many printers and shared filament stock, this would make inventory management much easier.

Bambu RFID clarification

I understand that directly reading or decoding Bambu Lab RFID tags is not currently part of TigerTag's workflow, and that directly interacting with Bambu's protected RFID system may involve technical, legal or licensing considerations.

I am not suggesting that TigerTag should read, decrypt or reverse-engineer the Bambu RFID tags itself.

The idea would instead be to use information that is already read legitimately by the Bambu AMS and exposed by the printer.

The AMS already identifies official Bambu Lab spools.

If the printer/AMS telemetry exposes a persistent identifier for the physical spool, Tiger Studio could potentially store that identifier and associate it with an existing TigerData+ inventory item.

In that sense, the Bambu spool could behave somewhat like a TigerTag that:

• is physically read only by the Bambu AMS;
• uses the identifier already reported by the Bambu ecosystem;
• is associated with a Tiger Studio inventory item;
• can still appear in the same inventory as normal TigerTags.

Tiger Studio itself would never need to directly read the Bambu RFID chip.

First-time association

For example, when a Bambu spool is inserted into an AMS for the first time, Tiger Studio could detect something like:

Bambu Lab PLA Basic - Jade White
X1E-03 / AMS A / Slot 2
This spool is not currently associated with an inventory item.

Tiger Studio could then ask:

Which TigerData+ spool should this be associated with?

I could manually select the correct inventory item once.

Tiger Studio could then store an association similar to:

AMS-reported spool identifier → TigerData+ spool ID

After this initial association, if the same identifier is seen again in another AMS, Tiger Studio could potentially recognize the physical spool automatically.

For example:

Office storage
→ X1E-03 / AMS A / Slot 2
→ removed
→ H2D-01 / AMS 2 / Slot 1

The inventory item would remain associated with the same physical spool throughout its life.

Multi-printer FabLab use case

Because we operate many Bambu Lab printers, the main benefit would be having a central view of where each spool currently is.

For example:

• PLA Basic Black # 12 → Office storage
• PLA Basic Jade White # 04 → X1E-03 / AMS A / Slot 2
• PETG HF White # 08 → H2D-01 / AMS 2 / Slot 1
• TPU 95A HF # 02 → X1E-05 / External spool

This could effectively make the printers and AMS units part of the inventory location system.

For us, knowing where the spool is is probably more important than knowing its exact remaining weight.

Remaining filament / weight tracking

Very precise remaining-weight tracking is not particularly important for our use case.

I do not need to know the remaining filament down to individual grams, or even necessarily within 100 g.

Our printers make extensive use of AMS auto-refill, so when one spool becomes empty, another compatible spool can automatically take over.

Because of this, an approximate remaining quantity would already be more than sufficient.

For example, something as simple as:

• Full
• Mostly full
• Partially used
• Low
• Empty

would already be useful.

If the printer reports an approximate remaining quantity, Tiger Studio could potentially use that.

Otherwise, even a rough estimate based on print consumption would be sufficient for our workflow.

The primary goals for us are:

1. Knowing that the physical spool still exists.
2. Knowing where it is currently located.
3. Having a rough idea of whether it still contains useful material.

Gram-level accuracy is not important.

Auto-refill consideration

Our use of auto-refill is also one reason why extremely precise tracking is less valuable.

A print may start on one spool and automatically continue on another compatible spool when the first one becomes empty.

In this environment, location tracking and basic spool state are much more useful than trying to maintain extremely precise remaining-weight values for every spool.

External spool use

External spool feeding is relatively uncommon for us and is mainly used for materials such as TPU.

For those cases, a manual assignment could still make sense:

Office storage
→ X1E-05 / External spool

TigerTags could also remain useful for:

• third-party filament;
• spools used externally;
• spools that cannot be uniquely identified by the AMS;
• situations where automatic AMS-based identification is not available.

Possible hybrid workflow

This could potentially result in a hybrid workflow.

Official Bambu Lab spools

Reception
→ TigerData+
→ Office storage
→ AMS detects spool
→ Associate AMS identifier once
→ Automatic location tracking afterwards

Third-party / non-identifiable spools

Reception
→ TigerData+
→ Office storage
→ Promote to TigerTag when needed
→ Track using NFC

Both types of spools could still appear together in the same Tiger Studio inventory.

Why this would be useful

In a shared FabLab with many printers and many filament spools, manually updating every movement becomes difficult very quickly.

An AMS-based association could potentially:

• reduce manual inventory management;
• show which printer currently contains a spool;
• show the AMS and slot where the spool is installed;
• keep the identity/history of the same physical spool;
• allow Bambu RFID-based identification and TigerTags to coexist;
• provide approximate remaining-filament information;
• work well with environments heavily using AMS auto-refill;
• scale much better when many printers and many users share the same filament inventory.

Main questions

My main questions are therefore:

1. What is the recommended Tiger Studio workflow when a TigerData+ spool leaves physical storage and starts being used in a printer?

2. Should the TigerData+ item remain in the inventory, be promoted to a TigerTag, be removed, or handled another way?

3. Since almost all of our printers use Bambu AMS units, could a persistent spool identifier already reported by the AMS be associated with a TigerData+ spool?

4. Could that association then be used to automatically track the spool's current printer / AMS / slot?

5. If this is technically possible, could Bambu-identified spools and TigerTag-equipped spools coexist in the same inventory and follow a similar lifecycle?

I am mainly trying to find the simplest and most scalable workflow for a shared FabLab with many Bambu Lab printers, AMS units and filament spools.