Camera watching of 3D printing

[AlbionWizard]

Hello folks!

I work at a 3D labb in an art school as a teacher assistant. Our wish here is that we want to monitor our MakerBot replicator 2 while its printing. It happens that a print takes longer overnight and we may not maintain the printer at these late times. And if something bad happens to it, either if it prints wrong or the material is stuck behind, we must somehow control the printer remotely while we are at home. And cases the printer does an error we must shut it down remotely.
My current solution is to fix a webcam and attach it to the side of the printer. Then I found a handy iphone app called AtHome which you can view your webcam. Problem is that it doesnt work at far distance, if you want to be home for example. And I havent found any solution for shutting the Makerbot remotely.
I have heard from my boss that she has visited printing companies and saw people doing this. And that those people have searched in the forum of this method and applied it to their printers. But unfortunately, I have no luck of founding anything.

So if anyone know any of this technique, let me know please. We want our students to live in a better 3D printing world!

thanks in regard!

[LuckyImperial]

You need to set up a dedicated sever that streams to the net. You can use set up a Rasberry Pi to do it pretty easily, or, you can buy one that's already been premade for you. I suggest an Astrobox.

https://www.astroprint.com/p/astrobox

Note that it does not come with a web cam, but allows easy plug and play of a linux compatible web cam.

[djprinter]

If you can connect to a wireless network at school you could use a wireless network camera like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-031-_-Product

As for turning it off if things go wrong. You can try something like a wifi enabled outlet adapter. These will allow you to turn outlets on and off via your smart phone.
http://www.amazon.com/WeMo-Insight-E...ds=wemo+outlet

[LuckyImperial]

If you can connect to a wireless network at school you could use a wireless network camera like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-031-_-Product

As for turning it off if things go wrong. You can try something like a wifi enabled outlet adapter. These will allow you to turn outlets on and off via your smart phone.
http://www.amazon.com/WeMo-Insight-E...ds=wemo+outlet

I think these are better suggestions then my Astrobox for you.

[AlbionWizard]

Many thanks you guys! Didnt know devices such as WeMo even exists. How does it work? You plug the device to an outlet an plug it into another device? can you use your phone even outside of home?

[djprinter]

Many thanks you guys! Didnt know devices such as WeMo even exists. How does it work? You plug the device to an outlet an plug it into another device? can you use your phone even outside of home?

Yes, and yes.

You can access the wemo from anywhere provided you have a the password. It works the same as those cheap timers that you plug into an outlet, the only difference is that this one connects to a wifi network making it available from any internet device.

[dunginhawk]

Or you could use octoprint on a raspberry pi and actually be able to kill your prints remotely. thats probably more preferred than just seeing your print fail and watching it continue

[AlbionWizard]

Many thanx for your kind solutions! We will continuue on experimenting.

[Labbo1979]

Hey Ive seen some guy on facebook saying 3dprinterchat.com is paying up 20usd for a step by step instruction about 3d printing. maybe this would be an awsome step by step haha because i tried to find it there.