What is OctoPrint and why would you want it?​

OctoPrint Bed Level Visualizer plugin display screen/Courtesy: OctoPrint

We are all aware of how critical, yet difficult, it is to level a 3D printer bed. All of your prints will fail if you don't have a level bed, wasting your time, materials, and money. Even having an auto-bed leveling feature is not always sufficient, and your prints may still fail. To solve this issue, OctoPrint's Bed Level Visualizer plugin is the only tool you need to easily level your print bed.

To help you understand this useful OctoPrint plugin, we've written a complete guide on the Bed Level Visualizer to help you set it up quickly and eliminate your bed leveling issues.

What is the OctoPrint Bed Level Visualizer Plugin?​

Bed level visualizer is a useful OctoPrint plugin that converts the bed topography report into a comprehensive 3D map to show the varying elevation (height) across a 3D printer bed, assisting users in leveling the same. This plugin also assists you in determining whether your bed is warped or simply tilted. Thus, the bed is leveled by carefully tightening or loosening the leveling screws at peaks and valleys respectively, to make it as flat as possible for a successful print.

The Bed level visualizer plugin was created by jneilliii (GitHub page). This plugin was installed on at least 35.84k instances in the previous month (August 2022), with at least 759 new installations in the previous week (at the time of writing this article).

Introduction​

OctoEverywhere and Obico are two of the most popular OctoPrint plug-ins developed to let you access your 3D printer virtually anywhere in the world. Both these plug-ins have great functionality and features that enhance the overall experience of using your 3D printer remotely.

In this article, we'll take a detailed look at these plug-ins and understand them inside-out. Towards the end, you'll have a complete understanding of Obico and OctoEverywhere, and will be able to choose the best plug-in that matches your remote 3D printing necessities.

Why do you require OctoPrint plug-ins for remote 3D printing?​

OctoPrint by itself is a fantastic 3D printer host software that lets you remotely access your 3D printers. You can monitor and control your printer from your desktop without having to be near the printer. But, this remote functionality is limited solely to your local network.

It denotes that your OctoPrint 3D printer and the device should be connected to the same wireless network for you to access your 3D printer. This limitation prevents you from accessing your 3D printer on a mobile network or when you're far away from your printing area.

Moreover, OctoPrint's User Interface is not optimized for use on smartphones and small tablets. And while using OctoPrint on the phone is technically possible through a browser, it will result in a poor user experience. This restriction also means that you're limited to accessing OctoPrint via a laptop or desktop.

Obico and OctoEverywhere plug-ins help you to overcome these limitations by letting you access your 3D printers from anywhere and on any device. They're easy to set up, have a user-friendly interface, and feature various functions mainly designed for remote 3D printing. They also both provide integrations with the popular OctoPrint mobile apps (OctoApp, Printoid, Polymer, Octopod), which you can use on your mobile phones.

Obico for OctoPrint​

Obico is the successor to the popular The Spaghetti Detective (TSD) plug-in for OctoPrint. It improves vastly over TSD while retaining the core AI detection functionality. It is entirely open-source and designed to integrate seamlessly with OctoPrint.

Two things make Obico unique:

• It comes with AI detection technology for recognizing and stopping failed prints.
• In addition to enable other mobile apps to connect to OctoPrint remotely, Obico also provides its own free mobile app on both Android and iOS devices. It doesn't have the bells and whistles like other apps. Instead, it has a simple user interface that provides essential functions for remote printing.

OctoEverywhere for OctoPrint​

OctoEverywhere also provides a solid solution for remote monitoring of your 3D printer. It lets you access your OctoPrint instance on a browser interface and is tightly integrated with other OctoPrint mobile apps (OctoApp, Printoid, Polymer, Octopod), which you can use on your mobile phones.

OctoEverywhere is designed for ease of use. And the user interface is highly intuitive to access all of its features. Quinn Damerell - the developer behind OctoEverywhere, has recently introduced an AI failure detection feature for the plug-in. However, it's still in the Beta stage and might take a while before a full-proof release.

What makes OctoEverywhere stand out is its server, although not open-sourced as Obico's server, is highly optimized. Quinn Damerell made a claim that you can load the OctoPrint page faster on OctoEverywhere than on your own Raspberry Pi. This claim is consistent with my own experience.

Introduction​

Remote monitoring of your 3D prints is, to date, one of the most challenging tasks to accomplish in 3D printing. And while applications like Octoprint and Klipper give you access to wireless monitoring, natively, these software are limited for use on the same network.

This is where Obico comes in handy and lets you experience the true meaning of remote, wireless 3D printing. In this article, we'll look at the Obico software in its entirety and understand its benefits to your 3D printing workflow.

What is Obico?​

Obico is a 3D printer monitoring and controlling tool that features AI detection technology to notify you about any failed prints. It's the successor to the popular Octoprint plug-in, The Spaghetti Detective. Obico builds upon The Spaghetti Detective and adds features like printing from anywhere, Octoprint tunneling, and improved AI print failure detection.

You can use Obico on Android, Apple, and any other browser based devices from virtually anywhere in the world. This cross-compatibility allows you to select any device and start with remote 3D printing. And it frees you from the bounds of your local wireless network, and you can access your 3D printer even over a mobile network.

Obico's AI detection capabilities quickly recognize print failures or discrepancies in your ongoing print and notify you about the print's status. This feature helps you to save considerable printing time, cost, and filament that you would've otherwise lost due to failed prints.

However, Obico is not a standalone software yet. Instead, it works alongside Octoprint and Klipper 3D printing applications. You'll need to install either of these software on your 3D printers before setting up Obico and experiencing remote 3D printing.

Setting up Obico is relatively easy on both these platforms, and there are detailed guides available on Obico's websites that you can refer to install Obico for your 3D printer.

Let's briefly explain the basics of configuring Obico for Octoprint and Klipper applications. It'll give you an insight into the installation process and help you to learn about the Obico software.

DLSR camera connected with 3D printer/Courtesy: 3DWithUs

For the 3D printing community, cameras have become an integral part of the 3D printing process. They are handy for both live monitoring of 3D prints and recording timelapses of their creation.

However, connecting a camera to your 3D printer is a challenge for many. So, to make things easier, we've come up with two solutions.

Why you might want to connect a camera to your 3D printer​

3D printing is not an exact science. Despite having the perfect g-code, printer, model, and planning, things don't always go your way. The most common 3D printing issues include print not sticking to print bed and calibration issues. Both cause spaghetti of filament around your half-formed model. It can waste filament and time, as well as damage your printer.

The safest course of action is to never leave your 3D printer unattended, but really, that's impossible.

This is where the 3D printer camera enters the picture (sorry for the pun). If something goes wrong with a print job, these cameras can be very helpful for finding out what went wrong and when. With a camera, you can not only keep track of your 3D prints, but with services like Obico via OctoPrint or Klipper, you can also monitor and remotely control your 3D printer. Additionally, if your printer is acting up, you'll know it right away, thanks to Obico's AI-powered failure detection. (but more on this later)

And who doesn't enjoy watching time-lapse videos of 3D printed objects? Even if you're not interested in 3D printing, you have to admit that watching a 3D print appear to grow autonomously over time is fascinating.

The bottom line is that adding a camera to your 3D printer setup is a must-have to get the most out of your 3D printing experience.

Would you like to upgrade your 3D printer? There are several modifications you can make to your 3D printer to transform it into an impressive machine. These modifications apply to the hardware, software, and firmware features of the 3D printer. The beauty of it is some of these modifications can be 3D-printed directly at home. Others can be purchased and mounted on your 3D printer to improve specific aspects of your 3D printing activities.

We have compiled the best of these upgrades and modifications for the 3D printer in the list below. From a brand new automatic bed levelling sensor to a simple 3D printable extruder, you won't recognize your 3D printer once you're done with these upgrades. Unlike these Ender 3 upgrades, which are for a specific model, note that this is a general guide for various 3D printer upgrades that can help improve 3D printing quality and user experience. It isn't for any specific printer and will generally apply to most open-source 3D printers on the market.

When and Why Should You Upgrade Your 3D Printer?​

You should upgrade your 3D printer if, first, the stock firmware has some issues. You may also need to do this to make the printer faster, more accurate, and effective with its function. Upgrading the 3D printer is also done to protect the machine, user, the printed objects and make it easier to use.

But 3D machine upgrades and modifications are best left to the pros. If you're a new beginner, we recommend not doing a bunch of hardware upgrades. Instead, take some time to get to know the machine. Often, people do too many upgrades when first starting, but they don't understand why they are doing them or if they are even necessary at all.

You need to know the machine, its strengths, and its weaknesses. You should not necessarily upgrade when unsure what the problem is, as it is easy to misdiagnose issues this way.

Best 3D Printer Upgrades​

There are many upgrades and improvements for the 3D printer that you can print out yourself. However, for most of them, it will be necessary to buy them. In this section, we have listed the essential components, software, and firmware that will improve both your 3D printer and the quality of the prints.

Octolapse with Octoprint is like a match made in heaven. These two go very well with each other and help you create awesome time lapse videos. And even though installing Octolapse is easy with Octoprint, setting it up and configuring it to deliver high-quality timelapse videos is slightly tricky.

In this article, we'll look at the detailed procedure for setting up Octolapse for your Octoprint instance with Cura and PrusaSlicer settings. We'll also share some tricks and tips to fine-tune your image settings to get the best quality footage for your 3D printing timelapse video.

Let's start with understanding the Octolapse plugin.

Octoprint running on multiple printers. Orginal Ender 3 Drawing Source: reddit user junonedor

OctoPrint is the most popular 3D printer management software for wirelessly monitoring and controlling your 3D printer. The Raspberry Pi, which is a single-board computer (SBC), is commonly used to run it.

Not only does OctoPrint make the entire process simpler, but it also makes 3D printing more efficient. It makes using a 3D printer and gathering statistics incredibly straightforward and easy, and thus is by far the best upgrade for your printer.

OctoPrint is a wonderful tool, but it does have some restrictions despite its many strengths. One of them is the inability to use more than one printer with a single OctoPrint instance. Of course, you can handle numerous printers at once by choosing a different printer when the first print is complete-just not at the same time.

At the moment, you have to install multiple instances of Octoprint on the Raspberry Pi if you want to run more than one printer at the same time. Since OctoPrint wasn't designed for more than one printer, running multiple printers at the same time isn't officially supported.

But it's possible!

In this article, we will discuss different ways of getting started with OctoPrint for multiple 3D printers.

Creality released its first-ever Ender 3 model in March of 2018. It was an instant success and became widely popular due to its budget pricing and decent build quality. Ever since the company's released improved models, which retain the original Ender 3's form factor but come with a slew of impressive features at a relatively low cost.

But, cumulatively, there are now 10 Ender 3 models in three different series. Some of the printers have similar features to the previous generations, while others are entirely upgraded with a slight price bump. This becomes confusing for many buyers, and you might buy an Ender 3 that's not ideal for your 3D printing needs.

In this article, we'll clear out this confusion and understand the similarities and differences between all ten printers. It will help you to make an informed decision and get an Ender 3 that is better suited for you.

Let's get started and end the Ender confusion once and for all.

The wait is finally over! Obico for Klipper 1.0 release is here!

Previously, the most common comment we heard from the Obico community members was: "Obico is What I have missed the most since I moved from OctoPrint to Klipper".

This is what motivated us to start working Obico for Klipper early this year. After over 6 months of alpha- and beta-testing, Obico for Klipper is now ready for her 1.0 release!

Introduction​

Klipper is quickly becoming the de-facto choice for fast 3D printing. 3D printer manufacturers such as Voron and Prusa3D have contributed to its popularity by using firmware in their machines. And as Klipper's completely open-source and free-to-use, you can install it virtually on any 3D printer, old or new.

In this article, we'll go over the installation process of setting up the Klipper firmware using the Klipper Installation And Update Helper (KIAUH). It's an effortless and interesting way to install Klipper on your 3D printer.

Let's start Klipping!