Show HN: I connected my 3D printer to the internet
zprint.liveHi HN,
I made a little TUI like website that connects my 3D printer (Prusa MK4) to the internet for use. It has two main functions:
1. You can see a real time 3D rendering of whatever the printer is currently working on (gcode viewer) via a SSE stream of commands the printer is processing
2. If you are located in the USA, you can submit an STL file to receive a quote for printing that file, and if ordered, I will then ship it to you
The service does use quite a bit of memory to run the 3D gcode renderer, so be advised before visiting the render section of the website.
I made this because I thought it would be fun to write my own live gcode viewer after being somewhat disappointed with the existing ones I came across, and I also thought it would be fun to make something where the end result is a tangible product for a change.
This is also just a fun side project I’ve been working on, I’m not trying to turn this into an actual business so all prices are just to cover the cost of running the service. I will most likely take it down after a few months and just use it locally as an interface to the printer. The service is also pretty strict about not letting you print things that may fail without supports even if it’s very rare.
Overall it was a fun project to work on and I learned a lot more about how 3D printers work through doing it.
Some cool websites that offer STL files to download for free:
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