Poll 8 December 17th 2021, Do you remote monitor your printer?  

RE: Poll 8 December 17th 2021, Do you remote monitor your printer?

Octoprint and TSD here

RE: Poll 8 December 17th 2021, Do you remote monitor your printer?

My wife and I are both to cautious to leave it running on it's own.  Probably if we had fire suppression installed and a camera setup we might be tempted.  But we would check on it VERY often.  But then we're the type who unplug everything before going to bed so it's not surprising.

RE: Poll 8 December 17th 2021, Do you remote monitor your printer?

@3Delight Absolutely understand those concerns; I've owned two printers now:

A Geetech A10M, and a Prusa i3 Mk3s+ 

Admittedly, my longest prints have been around 10-12 hours which I ran overnight. In the bedroom (I'm a light sleeper)
So the machines are generally attended to during operation. 

Originally I got Octoprint to monitor the A10M; thermal runaway protection is not enabled. 
The machine would frequently fail prints due to one reason or another usually half way through.
-Octoprint was so useful for monitoring the printer for failures, and theres plug ins for thermal runaway; Although it isn't a suitable replacement; it gives some safety assurance. 

Uses on the Prusa i3 Mk3s+:
I was thoroughly impressed with firmware safety features. - Even when mixing up a connector while building, it gave me a warning that I had goof'd up and I was able to solve the issues immediately. 
- Even though I still have Octoprint safety plugins installed, I feel they are not overly required with this printer. 
Now I use Octoprint simply for the easy of use:

• Being able to remotely upload/start prints (& general remote control) 
• Cancelling single objects (when printing multiple parts, if one fails I can tell the printer to stop printing that part) 
• Camera monitor

Overall I find remote monitor/Control so practical and helpful even for just one machine.. I haven't had a lot of time to get more "Adventurous" with it but it's something I'll definitely be trying to do in the future. 🙂 

RE: Poll 8 December 17th 2021, Do you remote monitor your printer?

Running OctoPrint and Octo App all the time to monitor prints. It's the only way to have a life while printing out bigger projects.....

I used to, at the start, but for the last few years I haven't bothered.  The Raspberry Pi camera assembly has been repurposed as a wildlife camera.  Once the first layer is down there is very little chance of any issues apart from running out of filament. I get caught out perhaps once or twice a year when I'm doing complex print-in-place parts.  Most of my prints are under 30 hours so losses are light.

Cheerio,

RE: Poll 8 December 17th 2021, Do you remote monitor your printer?

Posted by: @3delight

My wife and I are both to cautious to leave it running on it's own.  Probably if we had fire suppression installed and a camera setup we might be tempted.  But we would check on it VERY often.  But then we're the type who unplug everything before going to bed so it's not surprising.

I'm curious, has anyone ever had a serious incident like a fire occur?

RE: Poll 8 December 17th 2021, Do you remote monitor your printer?

There was this one:

https://www.inov3d.net/prusa-i3-mk2-3d-printer-fire/

But it is very rare to be honest.

RE: Poll 8 December 17th 2021, Do you remote monitor your printer?

raspberry pi3 + repetier host but i never left the printer unattended

RE: Poll 8 December 17th 2021, Do you remote monitor your printer?

OctoPrint + OctoApp. I don't have a camera yet, but I can at least keep track of how much time before I need to unload the printer and start the next job.

RE: Poll 8 December 17th 2021, Do you remote monitor your printer?

No, I don't remote monitor printing process, as I feel no need to do (to have) that.

Interactive versus automated monitoring

I monitor each of my (3) printers using OctoPrint with a camera and have the ability to start and stop jobs.

I've also purchased one of the smoke detector + automated outlet systems, but want to build my own to cover all 3 printers. The goal is to have each printer on a smart outlet that will shut off if the smoke alarm triggers. Not quite there yet, and I'm in a 3D printing lull at the moment.

RE: Poll 8 December 17th 2021, Do you remote monitor your printer?

Posted by: @bobstro

I monitor each of my (3) printers using OctoPrint with a camera and have the ability to start and stop jobs.

I've also purchased one of the smoke detector + automated outlet systems, but want to build my own to cover all 3 printers. The goal is to have each printer on a smart outlet that will shut off if the smoke alarm triggers. Not quite there yet, and I'm in a 3D printing lull at the moment.

I have my printers all hooked up to a smart switch that I can turn off power to the entire unit via my phone and/or Alexa

RE: Poll 8 December 17th 2021, Do you remote monitor your printer?

Hi

With m'y MINI+

I use Pronterface except when pause or filament change is needed (not supported ☹️)

I have an old smartphone used as IP camera and display printer info in my home automation system Domoticz via Telemetry API

And dream about wifi connection

JC

RE: Poll 8 December 17th 2021, Do you remote monitor your printer?

I definitely could, the Octoprint setup I have would easily support it, but I choose not to as I typically only print while I'm at home.

RE: Poll 8 December 17th 2021, Do you remote monitor your printer?

I am new to 3d printing, but having read and considered some of the horror stories, I decided not to run completely unattended prints.

Since I bought a Prusa printer specifically to not have to tinker with the printer itself, Octoprint is not an option: to much work and hassle setting it up, too many little things that can go wrong later. I'll reconsider if Prusa starts offering it. Of course ideally, I would love for my i3 to be remotely controllable.

As an interim solution I hooked up an additional camera to my Ubiquiti UniFi Protect system and placed it right behind the printer. I also added a smoke detector on the printer frame (behind, just below the filament spool) and the printer is plugged into a network-controlled power socket. I only run my prints during the day (the printer is in my workshop), I check on them every once in a while, and I know I can remotely cut the power if needed.

I'd say it's a reasonable compromise — to leave things completely unattended I think I'd rather have a full enclosure with better smoke/fumes detection and automated power cutoff.

RE: Poll 8 December 17th 2021, Do you remote monitor your printer?

I'd like another poll option:
No, it's not important enough for me to take time to figure it out.

RE: Poll 8 December 17th 2021, Do you remote monitor your printer?

Where is the 'No, I put the thing on my computer desk next to my bed so I can watch it run in person' option? Cause that's what I'm doing.