Remote 3D Print Farm Tools - Trying Out The Astrobox Touch

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Recording Equipment:

[HackMonkey]

We have been using Astroprint/Astrobox for over a year on a single printer. It has a bit of an identity problem, as it can excel at the low end of the market, and at the high end, but not very well in the middle. The Noob focused more on the higher end, but we use it at the low end. While we do have more than 2 printers, it is only used on one printer, which my kids primarily use. Even though the popular maker vibe is to mock cloud things, the Astroprint cloud slicer is actually pretty good. It can use the Slic3r PE 1.4, or Cura 3.6 engines. While those engines are about a year old, they are pretty feature rich. There is a desktop app, but the beauty of the cloud slicer is it can be used on devices that don't have native slicer support, like phones, tablets, or Chromebooks. My kids primarily use Chromebooks, and the setup works great. I bought the $35 software license, and recycled an extra Raspberry Pi 2, and cracked 8" touchscreen. Now they have a easy to use slicer, touch controls, and remote monitoring. An upside of using the cloud is the prints can be remotely monitored without punching a hole through a fire wall or using a VPN. My son can easily show off his in progress prints to his buddies at school, with no special firewall considerations. Now our other printers, which I primarily use, do use Octoprint to control/monitor, Astorprint/Astrobox has worked out fantastic for the limited use case with my kids. It seems this aspect of Astroprint is often overlooked. Most often the price for buying prebuilt boxes or multiple machines is the focus, but again, I think Astroprint has an identity problem.

[ZebraandDonkey]

Very nice. Only ever used their app. Nice to see an overview.

[Nostradamus]

Was thinking wow this is nice - then when mentioned it has a subscrption fees and costs money to add more printers after a certain amount - yea nahh pass, Ill stay with Repetier server which is a one time fee, no other fees, unlimited printers, web (upload files straight to RPI not to a 3rd party) and touch screen interface and addons. Stay with repetier server or octoprint.

[IanDouglas]

I tried AstroPrint for a while, but prefer OctoPrint. I'm curious what the Prusa print farm software is going to be like.

[masterviper]

i was a astro print backer for 100 on their kickstarter u could have been a lifetime member wish they would bring it back

[MisterMakerNL]

Good thing is that the hardware can be re-used. Because lots of these companies stop after a while and then you have some hardware that isn't working anymore. But since they use Pi's this isn't so much of a risk,

[orange-micro-fiber]

6:15 "doesn't need to take the time to train new staff [on octoprint]"


What training does OctoPrint need in the use? The setup was the difficult part. The interface is simple.

[ewaldikemann]

Side note: AFAIK, AstroPrint is based on OctoPrint

[dirkpetersen]

Use RepetierServer Pro. One Time fee for the Pro Option and you have everything you need. It can also run multiple printers on one Server. 😉

[didriketholm]

I have the sidewinder. What printer did you choose in the menu for your astrobox? DIDn't look like sidewinder

[ChristianEriksson]

Take a look at 3Dprinting OS. A bit cluttered but works pretty nice.

[DavidSciberras]

Astroprint in my opinion is great, but overpriced for what it offers. Running it through a Pi is quite easy and cheap, but buying the astrobox is a bit overkill.

[flexplexico]

Octoprint is not hard to teach to staff - whats easier than slice, upload, and press print?

[homerbuilt]

Starting a small print business. What printer would you recommend? Something with good accuracy and repeatability. Our parts have to fit together. We have an Ender 3 now.

[gabrielmirzakandov]

Ender-2 pro cal also work with Astrobox ?

[Bachlorshouse]

I'll stick with octoprint and octofarm for when I get multiple printers.

[DThird]

AstroBox in my opinion won't last long in this kind of market especially with it's extreme subscription fees. Also, there are other good and cheap(or free) alternatives.

It's heading the S3D way I think

[MobileDecay]

I have a hard time believing that Octoprint is really hard to set up. 😂

[rodsnyder]

If I had known that you are going to Formnext I'd have gone there too. :( Well I'll try next year.

[mmiscool]

Hey. If you want to test a system that supports automated queuing, credit card billing and routing of jobs to printers by print size and material let me know. I am with a smaller outfit that has software that was specifically designed to run public facing print farms.