# Need to make a Filament RUNOUT sensor for taz 5

**URL:** <https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/need-to-make-a-filament-runout-sensor-for-taz-5/27512>\
**Category:** LulzBot TAZ\
**Created:** [April 28, 2025, 8:41pm UTC](https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/need-to-make-a-filament-runout-sensor-for-taz-5/27512 "2025-04-28T20:41:58Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![keivan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/77aa72/32.png) [@keivan](https://forum.lulzbot.com/u/keivan)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 8:41pm UTC](https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/need-to-make-a-filament-runout-sensor-for-taz-5/27512/1 "2025-04-28T20:41:58Z")

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Hi All, this subject might already being discussed but I wanted to see if anyone can help me out, i have TAZ 5 and I need to make a filament runout sensor for it. can anyone tell me what I need to get and how to make it happen?

best  
Keivan

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**Author:** ![Wrathernaut](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.lulzbot.com/wrathernaut/32/13542_2.png) [@Wrathernaut](https://forum.lulzbot.com/u/Wrathernaut)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 9:01pm UTC](https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/need-to-make-a-filament-runout-sensor-for-taz-5/27512/2 "2025-04-28T21:01:34Z")

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You’ll need a custom marlin build to do it natively on the board, or if you don’t want to flash custom firmware, you can run through an Raspberry Pi running Octoprint and there’s plugins for it to run the sensor connected to the Raspberry Pi. With either option, you can either go super simple with a microswitch that’s depressed by the presence of filament, or you can get something like the Big Tree Tech Smart Filament Sensor 2.0 that detects the movement of filament, so it can detect both runout and jams.

Once you figure out the sensor configuration, there’s a few options for mounting the sensor/switch, depending where you want it.

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**Author:** ![keivan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/77aa72/32.png) [@keivan](https://forum.lulzbot.com/u/keivan)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2025, 10:25pm UTC](https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/need-to-make-a-filament-runout-sensor-for-taz-5/27512/3 "2025-04-28T22:25:32Z")

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thank you Wrathernaut, are there any how to steps online to do either ways you mentioned?

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**Author:** ![Wrathernaut](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/forum.lulzbot.com/wrathernaut/32/13542_2.png) [@Wrathernaut](https://forum.lulzbot.com/u/Wrathernaut)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2025, 1:29pm UTC](https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/need-to-make-a-filament-runout-sensor-for-taz-5/27512/4 "2025-04-29T13:29:42Z")

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For custom firmware, just follow any guide to building marlin, but you can use [Lulzbot’s Marlin fork](https://github.com/lulzbot3d/Marlin) as a base, so all you need to do is enable the runout sensor option. The Taz5 is considered a legacy printer now, so you might have to go back a few versions of Marlin to find one specifically for it - or make changes to the taz6 configuration to eliminate the auto bed leveling.

Octoprint - just set up octoprint on a raspberry pi for your printer (again, dozens of guides out there), and connect the sensor to the right PIO pins, (some good help here - [BigTreeTech SFS 2.0 new version - #8 by Alfi66 - Guides - OctoPrint Community Forum](https://community.octoprint.org/t/bigtreetech-sfs-2-0-new-version/56044/8)) then just run the appropriate plugin.[https://plugins.octoprint.org/plugins/smartfilamentsensor/](https://plugins.octoprint.org/plugins/smartfilamentsensor/)

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**Author:** ![keivan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/77aa72/32.png) [@keivan](https://forum.lulzbot.com/u/keivan)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2025, 8:37pm UTC](https://forum.lulzbot.com/t/need-to-make-a-filament-runout-sensor-for-taz-5/27512/5 "2025-04-29T20:37:17Z")

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thank you so much for your help.