For high amps like that, i think it would be better to have it in seconds. (Ex: on for 1 second and off 1 second) which would give a 50% cycle, but safer for a relay and the oven's controllers. Also, seconds should not impact that much the temp, as it has a big thermal mass.
Something I've done in the past is store all my 3d parts (the "source objects" as well as the sliced gcode) on a NAS and configure OctoPrint to pull the files from there. This way I can totally skip uploading manually as the files will just appear in the OctoPrint UI. Obviously this doesn't work directly with the printer though but the workflow felt quite nice.
So i tried it just now and it also seems to work with our A1 and P1S. Thats the tool we were searching for quite a while now, because a whole printfarm program would be overkill. Thanks a lot! Now we just have to wait for Bambu to implement folder support... Right now it impossible to use it with 300+ Files and no real file sorting on the printer screen. Maybe we can implement to upload whole folder structures with subfolders when the support is here..
Couldn't you use a weight sensor for the bins or even a cam to look for the red line just to automate it I guess the weight sensor set up might take more space.
Hey Stephen, thanks for the video. How do you manage the files when they are on the printers SD card? We have 400 different items/files that we have to sync throughout our 8 printers and scrolling through the list line by line (seems like it's not even alphabetically ordered) seems like a pain in the ass 🥸
Hey nice shirt :) Also that cable length fixture y'all made is genius! I just put together a Shapeoko router from Carbide3d and suuuuper noticed the difference it made to have cable harnesses bundled together like you mentioned. Anyway see ya at Open Sauce!
(I don't run a print farm but from my own experience with ~3 printers) I'm not convinced this is actually what you want though? Feels like you'd really want a central thing that has a queue of jobs and sends jobs to a printer once it becomes "available" again (you'd probably have to have a human press a button on the printer to signal it's ready to print again but anyway) then the more complex version being the central thing knows the capability of each printer and sends jobs based on the requirements (for example, sending color jobs to a printer with the color(s) you needed loaded)
Slicer is a tool to slice 3d model into g-code. For managing printers there are some tools like octofarm, some plugins in klipper and so on. This is not a job for slicer
Nice Video. I have an Idea, maybe it’s better if you put the 3d printing parts in your software aligni. But you don’t put the new stoke manually in the software, maybe a barcode scanner will work for each piece or you have scanned only once and an Interface ask how much new pieces came to stoke.
can you send "print this file" commands to the printers? you could attach a load cell to the part bins and send print commands to free printers once the tray weighs less than safety stock.
You still used the sd card in 2024, while fluidd and mainsail are a thing? (or even octoprint lmao). Edit: yeah with that speed and printer-after-printer upload, mainsail would be way faster!
Does the transfer notify you if the file already exists and offers a rewrite? Or do you make every file a different version number? Seems like the SD could end up loaded with multiple versions thus in time you end up scrolling through too many files to find the latest.
right now, it just rewrites over any file with the same filename. this is actually great for our usecase, so there's only ever one file to print for a given part, for a given version of the machine. when we send an updated gcode file, we keep the name the same and it just kills the old version!
With your farm upload tool, does it also purge the old, now obsolete gcode from the printers? If not, how do you ensure that someone doesn't print a build plate or two of an old, unused revision?
its funny that you made this piece of software. a year ago I tossed around the idea of starting a print farm, but stopped dead in my tracks when I realized this wasn't a thing yet. I had considered learning some programming to address the issue, but other priorities needed my attention. I'm glad to know at least someone has a solution of sorts so if I goto back to the idea of a print farm, at least there is a starting point. Thank you for your time and efforts!
This should still be a separate tool, but it should be a service. To keep printers up to date with new versions, handle prints etc. A little container you spin up somewhere to manage a fleet of octoprint/klipper or other firmwares.
Maybe printers should support mDNS / Bonjour / Avahi. Or maybe usual DNS SRV records. Get me all ips of printers with x y z features and upload x to them.
Suppose it’s a two-part problem. One being the slicer not being able to send files to multiple machines, second would be the firmware running on the printers themselves. With Klipper, you can control multiple machines from a single pi, and define in each printer’s config file where it’s “virtual SD card” directory is. So you can have multiple machines running from a single pi, all sharing the same directory where gcode is stored, and the start print and end print gcode can be localized to each machine with macros so you don’t have to worry much about customizing gcode in your slicer for each machine. With all that said though, I’m always happy to see progress being made in 3D printing from the community. Well done!
Four when things need printing it would be possible to make a very easy and cheap system where you simply press a button indicating that it needs printing as you could use some esp 32 and have one as a receiver connected to a monitor displaying what parts are in need of printing
It would be very easy for printers without Wi-Fi to have a little board that can connect to the SD card slot with a cable and act as an FTP server that can be powered over POE. I have made a prototype but it’s kind of functional.
I talked to the CEO of Bambu Lab Europe in Barcelona during their tour and he said an API is scheduled for this summer. So something to look forward to.
Love this! Have been following along for a fair while now. Would be interested in seeing some more of your process like your version of the Kanban system.
