Core One ESP32-S3 Gcode Console/Progress Viewer  

Core One ESP32-S3 Gcode Console/Progress Viewer

This isn't so much as a mod, more of an addition really.
This started off as a way of allowing me to enter specific gcode commands, like really precise X/Y/Z movements, without the overhead of running an ocotoprint setup.
I knew it was possible to enter these commands over the serial interface so I went about writing some esp32 firmware that would achieve this. I bought a couple of those tiny ESP32-S3 Super Mini boards, these things are tiny, no bigger than a postage stamp (at least where I live). 

This basically acts as a USB Host and runs a simple web server where I can input GCode commands to execute, but while I was doing that I noticed the Core one is basically spitting out relatively useful status updates continuously over serial, so I just reported the values to the web browser as a nice little bonus.

I know there are other ways to get this information, Prusa Connect/Link etc , but it always seemed a bit cumbersome to have to open another app to do this, so I wrote a simple Menubar app for MacOS that is constantly reporting these values to the Menubar in the top right of the desktop....that way I can be working on other stuff and with a quick glance up can see whats going on on my printer, print progress etc, without breaking my current work flow. I knew I'd find a use for that extra usbc port at the back of the Core One.

When you consider the esp32-s3 can be picked up for around £5 (even cheaper if you want to order from chin and wait a week) I just find the world we live in wild  these days...considering I grew up in the 80s where computers used tapes for storage and took up a quarter of the room 😂