If you do much with a 3d printer, at some point you will need to head out of the house but still want to monitor your printer’s progress. There are a few ways to do it. I’ll tell you how I have my printer set up for this.

A few years ago I tried Octoprint on a Raspberry Pi, which was configured and connected to my printer with an attached camera. I used Octoprint to manage my printer and all of my gcode. It did a fine job, to be honest, and I don’t really have any complaints except that Octoprint feels “heavy” and sluggish.

At some point I found out about Klipper. I set it up one day to give it a try and I’ve stayed with Klipper ever since. It provides all of the tools that I need to monitor my printer and to manage my printer. It also provides me with an upgraded firmware that seems to give me better print results.

I’ve only been able to get Klipper to work on my home network, so I wasn’t really able to monitor my printer if I had to run to the grocery store for a minute. I found a telegram plugin that allows me to communicate with the printer from my cell phone, even if I’m not home.