In this part of the 3018 Desktop Router project, I setup a permanent home for CNCjs on a Dell Wyse 3040 thin client. I’m running CNCjs as the CNC control software and G-code sender (the CNC’s grbl controller is actually doing the motion control). I’m using mjpg-streamer to add a USB webcam to the CNCjs web UI, with nearly no load on the CPU to encode. And I’ve setup a script to launch ffmpeg to record the mjpeg stream when g-code is started and stopped (also using nearly no load on the CPU to transcode).

Previously, I described my ‘Ultimate’ OctoPrint setup, and part of that setup process including remounting a lot of OctoPrint folders to locations on my NAS. This setup worked well until I added OctoLapse, and wanted to backup folders not part of the folder path configuration in OctoPrint. To solve this, I used a different approach entirely, using symbolic links instead of a bunch of network mounts to cleanly and easily relocate OctoPrint data to network storage.

This Christmas, I printed a whole series of maze boxes as gifts for family members. After finding a gift maze model on Thingiverse, I felt like there must be a better solution to programatically generate mazes of varying difficulty, and so each person who gets one has a unique experience. Before writing such a program myself, I checked to see if it had already been done, and sure enough it had.

As I recently posted about, I got my CR-10 MAX working and did some basic upgrades to it. After that, it was printing pretty well, so I decided it needed a camera so I could start trusting it with longer unattended prints. I still don’t have power control of the printer, so I won’t let it run when I’m not home, but now I feel comfortable leaving the basement knowing I can check to see if it’s making a mess of itself.

I’ve had a Creality CR-10 MAX for about a year and a half at this point. I bought it on sale in early 2020 when I had big project ideas that wouldn’t fit on my workhorse Prusa i3 MK3S, so it’s fair to say I bought it for the large size for the price point and not the build quality or feature set. However, I’ve never really liked it, so now that the Prusa is working really well with Octoprint, the box, the cameras, and all of the other projects I’ve documented here, it’s time to move on to the CR-10 and get that one working well too.

In this project, I’m going to setup my Creality CR-10 MAX in the same way that I’ve setup my Prusa i3 MK3S. I’ll continue to update this page as I make progress, instead of splitting the project into multiple parts like I did for the Prusa. My goals for the project are as follows: OctoPi install, printer profile in OctoPrint, remote mount filesystem, and MQTT - Completed Here PrusaSlicer profile for the CR-10 MAX - Completed, Not Published Power control and monitoring - Not Started HomeAssistant integration, including better notifications including which printer is done (currently my notifications assume ‘columbia’ is done) - In Progress LED status indicators - Not Started Camera mount for the wide angle camera - Completed Here Camera mount for the nozzle camera - Not Started Dealing with the lack of USB power/isolation of the Creality printers (The printer controller and LCD will stay on powered by the USB port) - Not Started Most notably, I will not be building a box for this printer at this point in time.

After buying some cheap USB boroscope cameras to use as an actual boroscope for home renovation projects, I decided to buy one with a flexible cable to mount near the nozzle of my Prusa i3 MK3s to get a time-lapse of the nozzle during the printing process. Watching the first layer closely during a print can show failures early, since most failures are due to bed adhesion or other first-layer problems.

Today I just published a project I’ve been working on for awhile - my 3D printer nozzle camera - and it’s the first project I’ve made a corresponding video for! I built this nozzle camera mount to carefully watch the first layer of 3D prints, since most failures happen early on due to poor first layer adhesion or related issues. Keeping the camera out of the print volume while still getting a good view of the nozzle and print was challenging, but I ended up with a cool solution that I’m really proud of, and the view is fantastic.

I have a Prusa i3 MK3S 3D printer, and I use it for many projects I post here. I want to know roughly how much power it consumes while printing, to get a feel for both the peak power consumption of the printer (to, say, size an off-grid power system) and energy consumed for an average print. I know the cost of filament is pretty low for most projects, but I don’t know the cost of energy (or wear on the printer).

Flexy Rex is a 3D print that’s been circling the internet for awhile. See below for the links to all of the variants that have been created over the years. Anyway, I printed this is one of the test prints with my upcoming Nozzle Cam project. My cousin was visiting from out of state along with her young son, so I let him print a Flexy Rex, watch the printer (and the camera feed), and take it off the bed when it was done.