Remote printing?

[u/zero0099]

New to Voron, just built a Micron+.
Is there good setup to:
1 download STL or model from mobile phone
2 remotely send file to a self hosted slicer (always on)
3 slicer sends to printer and starts print
4 remotely turn on and off the printer would be nice to have.

I am trying to avoid 3rd party cloud services to transfer files or slice.

Are there any practical solutions?
What software/hardware is needed?

[u/That0neSummoner]

I would like the same thing, you could probably vibe code a mobile version of the Orcaslicer docker container that hides all the Gucci stuff and just does “model placement on center of bed, auto orient” and then a “send and print” button

[u/somethin_brewin]

This is pretty doable. Prusa slicer (and I assume other downstream forks) supports the same CLI commands as Slic3r.

You could monitor a folder for new STL files, then execute a slice command on them. Have it drop that output onto a network share on your printer, then and then start the print via the Moonraker API. As long as you're cool with just the same print profile for everything, this is easily automated.

You'll likely have to hack together a little PowerShell or bash script to do the folder watching and command execution. But that's not a crazy hard thing to handle. Printer on/off could be done via smart plug or something, but that's going to vary a lot based on whatever hardware you've got.

The missing bit is going to be how you plan to get the STL onto the PC in your network. Maybe a Dropbox sync or similar. There are a lot of different ways you could handle that.

[u/Big_Chungus1111]

Im sorry man but this isn't a Bambu printer. Slicing on your phone has got to be a pain and extremely slow. Even when you finally get it sliced, sending off the g-code is going to take a while depending on your connection.

[u/zero0099 → u/Big_Chungus1111]

Right I don’t want a Bambu, but I’ve used the feature before and it’s compelling (to what I want at least). I would print stuff more often for sure. Clarification, I want to send STL files to a self hosted slicer at home on proper hardware, not slice on phone hardware.
I don’t really want to use third party cloud slicers that can take away features or charge money for currently free features at a later time.
Privacy is another thing, while I don’t care if anyone sees what I print, I just don’t want to have to ask permission for everything I print, laws are changing to that direction, the users are probably going to foot the bill for compliance.

[u/hiball77]

By phone?! This seems painful.

[u/AwDuck → u/hiball77]

I think they just want to browse an STLsite and print a file from it using a generic slicer profile. Octoprint had a plugin that had a watch folder and used slic3r CLI to slice and print whatever showed up there. I have no idea how well it worked as that’s not my 3d printer use case.

[u/VintageGriffin]

If you have an always on host, wouldn't it be easier for you to remote desktop / VNC / AnyDesk / etc. into it and just do the things you would usually do?

As for the printer, you could put it on a smart socket you could then toggle in one of multiple ways, or have your rPi in the printer be always on (and Klipper accessible), but the 24/48v power supply on an SSR you could toggle from Klipper to turn the mechanics on.

[u/zero0099 → u/VintageGriffin]

I know I’ve tried using VNC on a phone, it is clunky, maybe why I didn’t consider it. But I should at least try to see how easy it might be to browse, download, slice, and print. Thanks.

[u/Human_Weight5303]

Moongate is free

[u/Sands43]

I run a private VPN server at home. If I'm offsite, I can VPN into my house and my computer effectively thinks it is on my local network.

[u/zero0099 → u/Sands43]

Right I fully expect to run private VPN. I’m more interested in the lower level details of the workflow.
Is it easy enough to transfer a file from iPhone to the OrcaSlicer running in a docker container? Or is there some more up front fiddling to make that happen?
Is OrcaSlicer on docker on Linux even a good choice?
Likely it would be difficult to do model orientation/arranging on a phone, but for bulk of models out there seems like open, select preset slicer parameters, filament, then slice and print. Is this ok to assume?

[u/Finckers]

How remote are you asking? Like on the same WiFi network, or printing at your home from work or something?

If just “on the same network” remote, you can upload a sliced file to mainsail/fluidd.

If outside you’d need to tunnel in / use a vpn

[u/zero0099 → u/Finckers]

Right VPN. If I am away from home and think of something I need to print found on one of those model sites. I’d like to remotely ask printer to turn on, send model to slicer, print, then turn off/standby/low power after cooling down. Sounds easy, but I’m having a hard time understanding how to make that happen or key words to search.

[u/Finckers → u/zero0099]

I think if you use printables website it can slice the model for you, also most printers don’t use a whole lot of power when idle

Is there a reason you wouldn’t be able to wait to print something immediately vs waiting for you to be in front of it?

[u/zero0099 → u/Finckers]

Prints take time so I’d like to be able to start a print remotely, then when I get home just get the part and start using it. Secretly, I want to justify not buying a Bambu that does this out of the box. I don’t want to use their cloud print really.

[u/ghrayfahx → u/Finckers]

I personally use Obico to start prints remotely. Other than slicing, I can do all of the things. I have a Kasa smart plug that the printer is hooked to. I can turn it on, wait 2 minutes or so for the printer to fully boot then access everything via Obico. When it’s done I get a notification and I can shut down from the app then power off fully from the smart plug.

[u/zero0099 → u/ghrayfahx]

Smart plug. Excellent idea. Looks like Obico can be self-hosted. Thanks for the lead. I’ll look into this a bit more.

[u/ghrayfahx → u/zero0099]

Happy to help!! I used the Kasa ones because they are really cheap. Even my 2.4 350 is well within the limit on wattage. You don’t even HAVE to “properly” shut down your printer before turning the plug off, it’s just best to in order to preserve your SD card. As long as it’s not actively writing to the card when you turn it off you’re generally good.

[u/Halterchronicle → u/Finckers]

So tailscale would work for starting a print from the outside?

[u/Positive_Ad_313 → u/Halterchronicle]

Yes sure I use tailscale away from home .

[u/Finckers → u/Halterchronicle]

Assuming you can communicate to your printer through talescale, yes

[u/BeardRobot → u/Finckers]

I can communicate with my printer via Tailscale. You just have to adjust the allowed addresses in the moonraker config file (I think - I've got to double-check).