Printers

Printers watches your 3D printers: what each one is printing, its camera, and every print that ends. When a print comes off the plate, you record what came out: the good parts go into stock and the filament comes out of stock, in one step.

Printers works with Klipper printers through Moonraker, the same connection Mainsail and Fluidd use. It needs Inventory and Production. Ordryx watches the printers; it never starts a print.

Who can do what

Each role has a level for Printers (see People and roles):

The Spoolman address and token can be set only by the owner.

Add a printer

You need the Manage level. Open Printers, press the gear for Printer setup, then + Add a printer. It takes three steps.

1. Connect: type a Name and the Mainsail or Fluidd address: the page you open for the printer. Then the API key. To find it, run ~/moonraker/scripts/fetch-apikey.sh on the printer's Pi and copy what it prints. If your Moonraker lets this computer in without a key, leave it empty.
2. Press Test. Ordryx says whether it connected, whether it found a camera, and how many past prints the printer has. Tick Bring in its past prints too only if you want to record old prints (usually leave it off).
3. Press Next: costs & filament. Optionally fill in Power while printing (watts) and Other cost per hour (wear, parts, paying the printer off), so prints are costed. Under Filament on it now, pick the filament item loaded now.
4. Press Next: maintenance. Ordryx suggests the usual maintenance tasks for the kind of printer. Tick the ones you want.
5. Press Add printer (or Skip maintenance).

The API key is stored encrypted and never shown again. Changing a printer's address removes its saved key, so you type it again.

Bambu printers can't be added yet: Ordryx says so if the name or address sounds like one.

Live

Printers › Live shows a card for each printer with its camera. Use All, Printing, To record and Idle to filter them. Each card shows:

• the state (printing, paused, finished, offline) and the time left,
• the file, the progress and layer, and the nozzle and bed temperatures,
• the filament and spool loaded,
• maintenance that's due or coming soon.

If a printer is offline or has an error, the card says so, with a link to check its settings.

With the Operate level, a card that's printing has Pause, Resume and Cancel. Cancelling stops the print for good; afterwards the card asks you to record what came off the plate. On some installs these buttons are switched off by whoever runs Ordryx, and Printer setup shows Off (watch only); then use Mainsail instead.

Recent prints below the cards lists the latest prints on every printer, with how each went.

Record what came off the plate

When a print ends, its card says Take it off the plate, then record what came out. The Live tab in the menu shows how many prints are waiting.

1. Press Record on the card (or in Recent prints).
2. The first time Ordryx sees a file, it asks What did this print make?
   • Parts for a number × a product: uses the printed parts in that product's recipe.
   • One-off: pick the parts: any mix of printed parts, just for this print.
   • Test or calibration print: filament only, nothing for stock.
3. Tick Use this every time a file starts with … to remember it for files with the same start. Leave it off for a one-off. Press Next: how many came out good.
4. Under How many came out good?, set the good count for each part. The rest are scrap: pick why (Warped, Layer shift, Stringing, Didn't stick, Spaghetti, or Other…).
5. Check This print on the right: the filament used, where that number came from, the spool it came from, and what the print cost.
6. Press Add … to stock.

The good parts go into stock, and the filament comes off its item and its spool. If the whole plate failed, choose All of it failed under Not parts for stock?, pick why, and press Record as scrap. The filament still comes off. Press Later to leave it for now.

Ordryx says where the filament number came from: Measured by the printer, From the file, or Parts' weights + overhead (the parts' weights plus the printer's extra filament per print). If the spool was changed in the middle of a print, Ordryx splits the filament between the two spools.

Printed parts and filament

Ordryx needs to know which items come off the printers and which are filament. On an item's Edit page in Inventory, the 3D printing part has:

• Printed part: tick it for parts that come off a printer. One weighs (grams) splits a plate's cost between its parts by weight.
• Filament: tick it for filament. Items counted in grams or kilograms are offered as filament too.

In a recipe on the Production Recipes page, a printed part is marked printed, with a link to print more when it runs short.

Printer setup also has What each file makes: the rules that link a file name to what it makes. A rule is made when you tick Use this every time while recording, and you can add or change them there with + Add a rule.

Spools

If you keep a filament in spools, each spool has its own code (like SP-0012) and its own amount. Tick the item Filament, then keep it in spools on its page (Details › Kept in). Spools come in when you receive the filament on a purchase order, or with Add spools.

Printers › Spools lists every spool: each printer first, with the spool loaded on it, then each shelf. Scan or type a spool's code to open it. A spool can be weighed (Weigh), loaded onto a printer, taken off (back to a shelf, or empty), marked empty, or labelled. Print labels prints labels for the spools shown.

On a printer's Live card, Load a spool or Spool… loads a spool or takes it off. Scan its label with the camera, type its code, or pick it from the list.

Out of filament

If a printer's filament sensor pauses a print, every screen shows that the printer is out of filament, for people who can record prints. Press Change the spool. Ordryx walks you through it: mark the old spool empty (or put it back on a shelf), load the new spool, then Resume the print. Without the Operate level, resume it at the printer.

Spoolman

If you use Spoolman, the owner can add its address in Printer setup › Spoolman, then link each of Spoolman's filaments to an Ordryx item. A filament item's page then shows In Spoolman: the spools and what's left on each, with Count from spools to set Ordryx's count from them. Ordryx only reads Spoolman; it never writes usage to it.

Maintenance

Printers › Maintenance has a card for each printer with its tasks, each marked Due, Soon or OK. When you've done one, press Done, add a note if you like, and confirm. Ordryx logs who did it and starts counting again. Done lately lists the latest.

Press + Add a task to add one, or Add the usual ones for a printer with none. A task is due every so many printing hours, prints, kilograms of filament or days, whichever comes first. A task can show Soon at 90% and put itself on the Overview's To do when it's due. The Maintenance tab shows how many tasks are due.

Alerts

Printers can tell you when:

• a print failed,
• a printer went offline in the middle of a print,
• a plate is waiting: a finished print hasn't been recorded for a while (set Plate waiting alert in Printer setup; 0 means never),
• a printer is out of filament.

Each person chooses email or push for each one. See Notifications.

Report

Printers › Report shows how busy each printer was, how prints ended, the filament used, good and scrapped parts, and what they cost. Pick a period and a printer, and download it as Excel or CSV. Cost each for a part includes the filament and printer time of its scrapped ones. See Reports.

Wall display

Wall display (on the Live and Maintenance pages) shows every printer full screen, for a TV in the shop. Sign in on that screen with an account whose role only has View on Printers. It stays signed in while it shows.

Printer setup

Printer setup (the gear in Printers' header, Manage level) holds:

• Printers: each printer's connection, running costs, camera, maintenance, and Use this printer (turn it off while it's being rebuilt; its history stays). Remove this printer… takes it out of Ordryx; past prints and costs stay in reports.
• What each file makes: the file rules.
• Costs and reading: the Electricity price per kWh, how often to Check for finished prints when nobody is looking, and the Plate waiting alert.
• Filament: your filament items, what's left, and + Add filament.
• Spoolman: the link, if you use it.