I've been working with OctoPrint for years, connected to an Ender 3 via an Orangepi LTS. Unfortunately, the Ender is dying, and the latest problem has been with the USB connection. It's failed, I imagine due to a motherboard issue. Although the printer continues to print from the SD card, I can no longer connect OctoPrint.
The fact is that I am definitely considering changing the printer, and as always when it comes to getting up to date with everything, I see that the current printers that I was thinking about, and that many people recommend (e.g. BambuLab A1), have their own system (Bambu Cloud) that I am not convinced at all, and that they do not allow external connections from Octoprint (or at least not as I have worked until now, I know that there are plugins to view data, but not for real control of the printer)
Searching the forum, I only found one post from years ago, roughly listing the printers that connected and worked with Octoprint, but nothing current, so, to summarize...
What current printer options are actually compatible with OctoPrint? What models would you recommend for making the jump from my first Ender 3, which is now obsolete, so I can use it with my beloved Octoprint?
Thanks, and sorry for the long post.
I have a Bambu X1C and 3 Vorons, and a few other older printers that run Marlin.
The Bambu is a great machine. But I only use it when I want to to multi-color, which is not very often. I am also working on a Turtle box for one of my Vorons and will likely just sell the Bambu down the road. I dread the day something does not work on it. I will have to deal with customer support I am sure.
The Vorons are solid reliable machines that I can use OctoPrint to manage. Ya, I also run Main Sail on 2 of them but I do not look at that much and its more of a diag interface for me. It does also make for a good way to get your multi camera setup in place. OctoPrint can pull that in.
It does seem like the "Ready for OctoPrint" list is small these days. But I think that is mostly because the printer echo system is not just for people like me any more. A lot of consumers just want to open the box and follow the instructions (read them even), and just start printing. I call it the Eve mentality.
That said, they are out there and if you are willing to go a little deeper than you did with your Ender, you will find that there are options. I suggest you find the printer you want and research if its going to work out of the box(not likely). Then figure out what it might take to get it to work and build that into your setup plan.
It would also be great if some other community members with different (New or Newish) printers would just chime in and say something like "It works on my 'whatever' printer." Maybe add a comment about how much effort or deep the mods were that got them there.