Hey guys. I was doing some shopping at Costco, and i came across these 'CE Smart Home WiFi outlets. I decided to buy a pack and see if i can help my 3d printing experience.
So, Here’s what i was able to do.
I managed to get one set up with all the lighting for my Prusa Mk2.5. so now, when i’m not home, i can turn the lights on, to see my bed if i want to octoprint in and start a print.
I also have one set up on my cheaper chinese printer. this way i can start a print, then schedule the power to the printer to turn off after the print is done, for safety. for example, if the print is estimated to take an hour, set it to turn of in and hour and twenty minutes. less chance of any issues with those cheaper PSU’s.
Also, these connect to Alexa or Google Assistant, so i can voice control them as well.
I have been looking for an easy way to control my printers power remotely, and lights remotely. solutions have always been using a Raspi, or connecting to the printers PSU and using custom software and basically designing something from scratch. This is the perfect solution.
I figured i’d make a post as there were lots of people interested awhile ago when somebody was asking about controlling lights remotely.
I did a similar use case with a 4 pack of Sonoff Basic Smart Remote Control Wifi Switch. Basically US $6 each. If you don’t mind a bit of wire snipping it’s a great deal. I wired one Sonoff up to a power strip that runs my 3D printer, LED lamp and Raspi/Octopi/webcam. (They supposedly works with Alexa also, but I just use the phone app.) I’ve also done similar installs on powerstrips that run a 55" TV and a Chromecast that runs some video signage for work. Makes rebooting things remotely a breeze.
@Kyle_Taylor rebooting things… That makes me think… I could set one up to remotely reboot my father’s modem when it needs to be reset. These little devices are going to change my life, lol. Thanks for the idea.
I also setup a sonoff basic as a controller for a duplex outlet, essentially making a relocatable wifi 2 outlet power cord. Very handy for tasks that might need 2 ppl otherwise even found a thingiverse print to box it up and keep it clean looking:
There’s a TP-Link plug-in for octoprint, that I’ve been using with much success. No need to manually set a timer for power off, it’s in the G-code The plugin also let’s you set the power off as a timer so i usually have it set for a minute and also power down the octopi server when a print is finished.
Only problem I’ve had is when the wife turned off all the “lights” including my print… I managed to save that one though
even found a thingiverse print to box it up and keep it clean looking:
The plugin also let’s you set the power off as a timer so i usually have it set for a minute and also power down the octopi server when a print is finished.