Ultimaker3 API - CASE LAB

The CASE LAB Ultimaker 3 API is a way to change RGB colors with the built in lightning when in "printig" or "idle" mode and a REST API (GET only) for all Ultimaker 3/3 Extended/S5. With the API you can make a single call to e.g "http://192.168.1.42/api/v1/printer" to get status on all printers in your farm as JSON data. In the CASE LAB at Chalmers Johanneberg it is used for displaying all printer cameras and data on a single web page for the users. It also controls our fan system based on ESP8266.

The programs

The ecosystem consists of three main programs.

cmd.py is a commandline interface which can Add, Show, Update(not implemented) and Remove printers for setting up the printer farm.
app.py Runs a webserver with flask on python which acts as an API for getting information out of the printers without having to authenticate every user and sending html/css files to the user.
status_checker.py Runs a loop which checks states on printers (running, idle, error) and changes colors accordingly. This is not dependant on app.py to run.

HEADS UP

This is early development. Will probably not work if you don't know what you are doing.

Requirements

Everything runs on Python 3 with a couple packages. Install the following packages by running the command.

$ pip3 install package-name

requests HTTP-requests for humans
clint Command Line Interface
werkzeug Chaching information
flask Web application framework for python
flask-restful Extension to flask for building REST-APIs

Running the program

In order to set up the printers and the server you must first run the configuration via the cmd (command line/terminal). Open up the terminal and change directory to this project, then run.

$ python3 cmd.py

Follow the steps (Add printer) until all machines are set up, then you can exit that application.

Then start the statuschecker in a separate shell (keep it running) by running:

$ python3 status_checker.py

Then you can start the server in a separate shell (keep it running) by running (runs in debug mode on http://0.0.0.0:8000):

$ python3 app.py

Useful commands for developing

In order to kill a process running on a ceratin port you can use the following commands. Make sure you got lsof installed, if not run "sudo apt install lsof" List processes running on a port: "lsof -i:port" => "lsof -i:8080" lists the port on port 8080.