OctoPrint is one of the best tools you can get for your 3D printer. It provides you with a convenient way to send G-Code to the printer, kick off the print, monitor the print via webcam, and pause/cancel the print all in a beautifully structured user interface. There is a downside though - OctoPrint can only be accessed on your home network, not anywhere else.

Imagine: you just set up a print, turned the printer on, and see everything is perfect. You have some spare time so you leave the house, but one thought lingers – what’s going on with my print? Did it fail, how much time there is left for it to end?

No need to panic. Although you can't directly use OctoPrint outside your home network, there are plenty of ways to let you do that indirectly from anywhere as long as you have an Internet connection. It may be hard to choose which option is the best for you. In this article we try to help you with that, presenting the pros and cons of all possible ways to access your printer remotely.

3D Models to Print: Fidget Star Edition​

3D printing enables makers to create some absolutely amazing things. Whether for practical use or just for fun, it's always amazing to see what you can make with a 3D printer.

If you have a 3D printer yourself, it can be exhausting trying to find models on some of the popular sites like thingiverse so I am highlighting a couple of fun 3D models that I have really enjoyed printing recently.

Check out the timelapse video created using Octolapse and watch The Spaghetti Detective's viral tik tok video that got over 50 million views on its Tik Tok account to get a sense of what these fidgets are all about. Want to print these fidgets yourself? We'll show you where to get the files below so you can do just that.

The Fractal Fidget Star and its attachments​

Our absolute favorite fidget is by far the 8-pointed fractal fidget star and the attachments that go with it designed by Chuck Hilliard (known as chuuckaduuck on Thingiverse and social media). This is by far the most popular of all the fractal fidgets (maybe because it has a cool 3D printable attachment to go with it).

The fractal fidget stars look awesome in this timelapse video:

I made a giant fidget star for my grandma and posted it on our Tik Tok account a few months ago and it just hit 50 million views. Check it out:

@thespaghettidetective

Can’t wait for Grandma to see this tomorrow! #fypシ #foryou #grandma #3dprinting #granny #fidgettoys #3dnerds #3dprinter #spaghettidetective #diy

♬ original sound - The Spaghetti Detective 🍝

Where do I get the STL files?​

You can get the STL file for the 8-Pointed Fractal Fidget Star on thingiverse here or on My Mini Factory here.

Tips for printing the fidget star

• Take it slow especially on the first layer to ensure proper adhesion. We have printed these from 5-25% infill with success at all levels.

The fractal fidget attachments can also be found on Thingiverse here.

Tips for printing the attachments

• Begin with 'A1A String Attachment' to calibrate the fitting to your print. Adjust the X and Y axis in .1mm increments until satisfied with fit. Sometimes it is easier to release an attachment by pushing it through rather than pulling it out.

I have regained my confidence that The Spaghetti Detective app is on pretty solid ground when it comes to security. I take full responsibility for the blunder I made in the process of developing and deploying the auto-discovery feature. Meanwhile, we don't want to have the auto-discovery function disabled forever. It would be the easiest way moving forward, but also the laziest. We know auto-discovery has made it extremely easy for new users to link their printers to The Spaghetti Detective and everyone loved it! We still want to give them a way to do it, and do it securely.

And we found a way!

The original auto-discovery design and implementation​

The Spaghetti Detective had a serious security incident on August 19th. That incident was caused by a mistake I made in the function called "auto-discovery".

This post is to provide an update on what we have done after the incident.

What we did on the day of the incident:​

• Immediately disabled auto-discovery once we found out the vulnerability, about 4.5 hours after it happened.
• Identified and deactivated the 73 printers that were exposed to this vulnerability during those 4.5 hours.
• Sent an email to all The Spaghetti Detective users to disclose this incident.
• Offered all Pro subscribers the option to cancel the subscription and receive a full refund.

What we have done afterward:​

• Had the code base of The Spaghetti Detective app thoroughly audited by a Security Consultant. No other vulnerability is identified.
• Performed vulnerability deep scans using Detectify, which distributed "exploitation scanning" to 30 whitehat hackers. Again nothing showed up.
• Designed, implemented, audited, and thoroughly tested a new way to do auto-discovery. To "have more eyeballs on the code", we have launched a bug bounty program.

We have regained the confidence that The Spaghetti Detective app remains on a pretty solid ground when it comes to security. Meanwhile, we have learned not to take things for granted. We will keep our antenna up for any signs of vulnerability or abuse.

A personal note from Kenneth:​

I was waiting for a shitstorm after I sent the email about the security incident to all The Spaghetti Detective users. The consequence of the incident was serious. Although only 73 users were impacted, it resulted in unauthorized access for at least one user's printer. I didn't expect this kind of blunder to be easily forgiven.

Instead, I was humbled by the kindness and support in the overwhelming responses you folks sent to me. I only did what I should have done: taking responsibility for my own mistake and cleaning up the mess. But you generously showered me with so much love!

At that moment, I felt lucky. Not because I escaped a shitstorm. I felt lucky because I realized I happened to be serving the most awesome group of people in the world. I started The Spaghetti Detective to give all 3D printing enthusiasts a way to securely and safely monitor your printers. I have disappointed you once. The only thing I can do is to make The Spaghetti Detective better and safer so that I won't disappoint you again!

OctoPrint is the most popular software for monitoring and controlling your 3D printer from another room. It's expansive list of plugins takes it to the next level. In this blog post, I will discuss my two favorite OctoPrint plugins, Octolapse and The Spaghetti Detective. As a content creator myself, I will highlight some of the benefits these plugins provide for creating content.

What is Octolapse?​

For those of you that do not know, Octolapse is a plugin for OctoPrint that was developed by FormerLurker. It is an easy to install plugin that provides seemingly magic time-lapses of your 3D prints. You can configure the time-lapses to work in a bunch of different ways. Some configurations make it look like the 3D print is growing out of the build plate, while others provide a satisfying animation effect. You can fully configure many settings to get the exact result you are going for (depending on your camera setup).

OctoPrint tab (Source: Octolapse page)

This article was updated on August 12, 2022

OctoPrint is a web interface dedicated to making 3D printing easier by allowing you to control and monitor the process. The software allows you to access and control virtually any parameter on your printer.

Moreover, in a heart-warming, traditional internet fashion, it’s open source.

There is a vast database of plugins developed by the 3D printing community that make your experience with OctoPrint even better, and here we list and explain the most popular ones.

I screwed up. It was the first security breach The Spaghetti Detective has had in 2 years of her existence. But it was an embarrassing one that I can't forgive myself for.

What happened?​

I made a stupid mistake last night when I re-configured TSD cloud to make it more efficient and run faster. My mistake created a security vulnerability for about 8 hours. The users who happened to be linking a printer at that time were able to see each other's printer through auto-discovery, and were able to link to them too! We were notified of a case in which a user started a print on someone else's printer.

73 users got impacted as a result. It's not a huge number. There are bugs that impact a lot more users. But the consequence is very severe. Nobody wants his/her own printers being linked to and controlled by another account.

I created The Spaghetti Detective to let all 3D printing hobbyists have a way to safely monitor their printers from everywhere. And this is one of the worst mistakes I can make. My sincere apologies to our community for this horrible mistake.

The Detective has done a really good job at spotting, well, spaghetti for all of us! Kudos to her! However, there is only 1 problem: her hearing is no good. This small birth defect means:

• She can't detect anything that she can't see, such as the clicking sound when a step motor stalls.
• She can't detect anything that she can't see clearly. This means she usually needs to wait at least a few minutes for the spaghetti monster to fully reveal itself before she can catch it.

This is why we came up with a bold idea - if we fix The Detective's hearing, she will be able to catch the criminals earlier, or catch the ones she would otherwise miss!

The Spaghetti Detective uses AI (Deep Learning) to detect 3D printing failures. Compared to a CPU that runs in most PCs, GPU is much faster and more power-efficient at running the Deep Learning model in TSD. GPUs are commonly found in gaming PCs. However, even an entry-level gaming that can run TSD private server can easily set you back $1,000+. Ouch!

Are there an inexpensive GPUs that can be used to run TSD private server? Yes! NVIDIA Jetson Nano is a popular option among people who run TSD private servers. It is a single board computer so it can run TSD private server all by itself. The best part? It's quite affordable. Even if you throw in other things such as power supply, NVIDIA Jetson Nano will let you run TSD private server with less than $150!

If you are one of the people who want to jump on the Deep Learning bandwagon by doing a fun project, and you don't want to break the bank, follow along!

Some context: Photogrammetry is a term coined in 1867 by a Prussian architect (hence the difficult pronunciation). It is a science that uses photos to understand information about the object(s) present. A specific use case is to use multiple pictures in determining the geospatial relationship of the same object(s) across a series of photographs, then produce a 3D model from that understanding.

And here is where I come in:

I first heard about photogrammetry from this YouTube video by CG Geek. It seemed like it might be something I could do, so I decided to try it out! I recently acquired a Creality Ender 5 Pro that I wanted to try more fun stuff with. To take this to the next level, I bought a direct drive kit from Micro Swiss in order to use NinjaFlex but you can do this same concept with a stock 3D printer and other filament.