3D printers and smart homes are relatively nerdy, tech-savvy pursuits.So it makes sense then that one can complement the other, and I’m not even talking about 3D printing mounts for your sensors or other gadgets.Adding my new printer to Home Assistant took a matter of minutes and unlocked a ton of new potential for handy, print-related automations.
Home Assistant works with a broad range of printers Whatever 3D printer you have, there’s probably an integration you can use to add it to Home Assistant.We’ll be focusing on Home Assistant here, since the open platform has a highly active community of contributors who work tirelessly to make devices like 3D printers work with their smart home servers.Prusa printers are the only brand with an integration in Home Assistant’s main integration repository.
You can find PrusaLink by searching for it under Settings > Devices and services using the “Add integration” button.For everything else, you’ll need to install the Home Assistant Community Store, or HACS for short.HACS is essentially a third-party integrations database, with the option to expand the list of integrations by adding custom GitHub repositories.
I found the Bambu Lab integration in HACS, which is how I was able to add my new P2S 3D printer to Home Assistant.Elegoo 3D printer owners can add the Elegoo Home Assistant integration, Creality owners can use the Creality WebSocket integration, while UltiMaker owners will find the UltiMaker integration useful.Others include an integration for AnkerMake printers, a Formlabs integration, and an integration for Snapmaker printers.
If your brand isn’t listed, you might need to do some research to see what’s available.That said, with the majority of home users owning something from Bambu Lab, Prusa, Creality, Elegoo, and Snapmaker, the main bases are covered.Using your printer’s status in automations Once you’ve added your printer to Home Assistant, you’ll be able to use your printer’s various states in automations.
These readings and statuses will show up as sensor entities in Home Assistant, functioning as triggers and conditional states that you can build automations around.Ventilation is fairly important if you have your printer in your home, whether that’s some sort of aftermarket extractor attached directly to the printer or a simple ceiling fan in the same room with a window open.With a fan connected to your smart home, either via a smart wall switch or a simple smart plug or controller, you can trigger the fan automatically when a print job starts (and stop it again afterwards).
This is just one example of many I thought of with the dizzying array of triggers my Bambu Lab P2S offers me in Home Assistant.There’s even a trigger for opening the printer’s door, which I use to trigger a lamp next to the printer just to test the reaction time.The printer also reports errors and fail states, which you can use to build a more robust notification system than the one that your printer already uses.
I’ve noticed the Bambu Handy mobile app doesn’t always notify me of a successful print, so I’ve turned off first-party notifications, and I’m now relying on Home Assistant instead.I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that the Bambu Lab AMS 2 Pro appears as a separate device in Home Assistant.This multi-filament spool holder and dryer has its own sensors, including relative humidity within the filament storage container.
This includes humidity changes (perfect for notifications that filament may be “wet”) and a drying finished status, which I’ve created a notification for.Even just throwing a spare smart humidity sensor in the box you use to store your filament can give you a heads up if the humidity reaches concerning levels, so you can dry it out again.Controlling and monitoring the printer in Home Assistant With so many sensors, it’s easy to keep track of your printer in the same place you control lighting, climate, and other connected devices.
You may already be used to using a printer-specific app for this purpose, but there’s no denying the appeal of all this information living in one place.How-To Geek Report: Subscribe and never miss what matters Unlock your tech-savvy potential and master the digital world with How-To Geek.Subscribe By subscribing, you agree to receive newsletter and marketing emails, and accept our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
You can unsubscribe anytime.For example, you could build a single dashboard for all of your printers (and AMS units if you have them), keeping your hobby and the rest of your smart home separate but accessible.The Bambu Lab integration has a surprising number of actions that can be sent to the printer, including print jobs, loading filament, and starting or stopping a drying process.
Some printers can also display the camera feed within your Home Assistant dashboard, allowing you to integrate this alongside your other cameras for an at-a-glance look at your printer’s current progress.Bambu Lab P2S Build Volume 256x256x256mm Printing Speed 600mm/s The Bambu Labs P2S 3D printer is ready to go out of the box and can have you printing within 15 minutes.It features up to 20-color printing with the AMS unit, has an upgraded built-in camera for remote monitoring and time lapses, and has an enclosed body for printing even high-temperature filament.
$549 at Bambu Lab Expand Collapse Bambu Labs A1 mini 3D Printer Build Volume 180x180x180 Printing Speed 500mm/s The Bambu Lab A1 mini 3D printer is ready to go out of the box and can have you printing within 30 minutes.Offering full-auto calibration, this compact 3D printer features a 180mm build volume and is compatible with the AMS Lite for multi-color printing.It also features built-in vibration and flow-rate calibration, which are typically features only found on more premium printers.
$299 at Bambu Lab Expand Collapse Bambu Lab AMS 2 Pro A multi-material system for Bambu Lab printers with active air vent 65°C filament drying, air-tight filament storage, a brushless servo feeding motor, Bambu's signature RFID filament sync, and compatibility with up to up 24-color/material printing by connecting more AMS 2 Pro units.$359 at Bambu Lab Expand Collapse Having a 3D printer with a decent Home Assistant integration might actually be worth spinning up a Home Assistant server if you don’t already have one.Having your smart home take care of ventilation in your shop (or spare bedroom), and a richer notification system can be a real boon for anyone used to managing this stuff alone.
It’s easy to get started since Home Assistant runs on just about anything.
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