Untether Your 3D Printer
Host software frees your computer and lets you control your printer from anywhere on the web.
MATT GRIFFIN is director of community and support for Adafruit Industries, where he hosts the weekly “3D Hangouts” live web video series. His new book Design and Modeling for 3D Printing is coming soon from Maker Media.
OCTOPRINT FEATURES
Untether your printer from your computer, for printing over a network — wired or wireless — from any web browser
Remote printer control software with custom-configurable controls
Monitor your print progress and temperature
Use live webcam feed to take reference shots or automatically film a time-lapse movie
G-code visualization (even while printing) and file management
Printer-agnostic — can interface with a variety of electronics and firmwares (Marlin, Sprinter, Smoothie) to operate a broad range of machines
TIRED OF TYING UP YOUR LAPTOP WITH LONG PRINT JOBS? Then you’re ready for 3D-printer host software. It acts as a web server so that other computers and mobile devices can control your printer over a local network, or even the cloud.
Host software lets you monitor your printer’s temperature, percentage of job complete, filament remaining, even a live webcam to watch your print’s progress. And it’s small enough to run on affordable embedded computers such as Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone Black, or pcDuino!
OCTOPRINT
At the heart of host software’s rising popularity is the free and open-source project OctoPrint (Figure 
), created by software engineer Gina Häußge, and its community-distributed, easy-to-install OctoPi image.
OctoPrint interface with webcam monitor activated during a print.
Nils Hitze
On Christmas 2012, Häußge forked the code on Github for the open-source printer host Cura as the start of her new “Printer WebUI” to untether her printer from her computer and control it via a web browser. OctoPrint (octoprint.org) became a project of passion she would develop entirely in her free time for two years.
This past August, the Spanish technology company BQ hired Häußge to continue open-source development of OctoPrint full time — with a team of developers, UI and UX designers, QA department, and tech support team to back her up.
WHO USES IT?
Anyone using a FFF-style desktop 3D printer with Marlin firmware or its variants. OctoPrint is popular among 3D printer hobbyists, the RepRap community, and hardware/software hackers looking for custom functionality. It’s incompatible with the .xg3 files used by MakerBots.
STRENGTHS
A large, active community of collaborators and users (Figure 
) coupled with investment from BQ ensures that OctoPrint remains in active development, led by Gina. The ambitious suite of options bundled into OctoPrint have defined what 3D printer host software should include.
Jason Gullickson’s OctoWatch Pebble project, github.com/jjg/octowatch.
Moritz Ulrich
LIMITATIONS
While Gina has taken steps to keep Octo-Print tidy and responsive, recent projects such as AstroPrint (astroprint.com) are dedicated to optimizing a codebase for embedded computers, rather than the easy-to-collaborate path the OctoPrint community has followed. As a result, these other solutions (including 3DPrinterOS and Print to Peer) may run more efficiently on embedded hardware or offer greater customization (Figure 
).
AstroPrint interface on an iPad.
Melinda Rainsberger
GETTING STARTED: OCTOPI
Grab the ready-to-deploy OctoPi SD card disk image maintained by Guy Sheffer (github.com/guysoft/OctoPi). Insert the card in your Raspberry Pi, follow the first-run installation wizard, and you’ll be up and running with OctoPrint, its software dependencies, and automatic configuration of typical network and wi-fi tools, webcams and PiCams, and other resources.
BOTTOM LINE
With a passionate community, time, and money pouring into this well-respected open-source platform, OctoPrint is the tool to beat. Vendors such as Printrbot, Type A Machines, and DeltaMaker have taken to shipping embedded OctoPrint systems in their machines. 
+ Get started with this great video guide to OctoPrint on the Raspberry Pi: makezine.com/go/gsoctoprint
SHE BUILT THAT:
GINA HÄUSSGE
Interview by Michel & Yves Sinner
Q: Describe OctoPrint to a noob.
A: It’s like a mixture of a baby monitor and a remote control — you can control your printer but also see what is happening, and all that from within your browser.
Q: What led you to create it?
A: I had this shiny new 3D printer with its constant stepper motor sounds and molten plastic smells. The most important goal was really not wanting to have the printer in the same room as me but still be able to watch and monitor it constantly. And without having to strap a full-sized computer and loads of cables to it. And I wanted to be able to monitor the printer from any wi-fi-capable device, so making it all usable from a regular web browser was a top priority too.
Q: How will your employment at BQ impact OctoPrint?
A: BQ is a very open-source-conscious company and we fully agreed on OctoPrint staying open source under the same license. I’m now able to work full time on Octo-Print. I have a team contributing to the project and supporting the community, peers to bounce ideas off, quality assurance. We will see a lot of interesting development.
Q: What’s your take on the integration of OctoPrint into printers?
A: It makes me proud. I find it very important, though, to not only take from the open-source community but also give back (by contributions but also always attribution). There are sadly always a couple of black sheep in the mix.
+ Read more: makezine.com/go/haussge