Onward ...

January 31, 2020

OctoPrint Anywhere is now succeeded by The Spaghetti Detective, a faster and more powerful remote monitoring tool for OctoPrint. It also, as the name implies, detects print failures using AI.

My original plan, as announced in this blog, was to ramp down OctoPrint Anywhere entirely. However, some users have since brought to my attentions some scenarios that I didn't anticipate.

And hence I changed my initial plan and made the decision to maintain OctoPrint Anywhere as a subscription-only service indefinitely.

What's the final plan to bring OctoPrint Anywhere onward?

OctoPrint Anywhere is now a subscription-only service. Current PRO/PRO+ subscribers will be able to use the service just as they did before.
OctoPrint Anywhere free service has ended as of February 1st, 2020.
If, for some reason, The Spaghetti Detective doesn't work for you, you can still sign up for an OctoPrint Anywhere account. You will have 15 days of free trial for OctoPrint Anywhere's PRO plan. When the free trial ends, you will need to either upgrade to PRO/PRO+ plan, or lose access to OctoPrint Anywhere service.

OctoPrint Anywhere Free plan worked well for me. Why did you choose to end it?

There are 2 important reasons for this decision:

The Spaghetti Detective free plan works just as well, if not better. Not a single user has become less happy after moving from OctoPrint Anywhere free plan to The Spaghetti Detective free plan.
Maintaining 2 plugins and 2 cloud server clusters is just A LOT OF WORK. Since The Spaghetti Detective has been better designed and implemented, runs faster, and has more cool features such as AI-based failure detection than OctoPrint Anywhere. It just makes sense for me to focus my effort on one of them. Otherwise, neither of them will improve as fast as I'd like them to.

Why did you choose to keep PRO/PRO+ service alive?

After I announced the news that OctoPrint Anywhere will be succeeded by The Spaghetti Detective, the responses from our users was outpouring.

Most subscribers told me how excited they are about the AI feature in The Spaghetti Detective, as well as the better video streaming experience. However, some subscribers did run into issues that prevented video streaming The Spaghetti Detective from working as well as it did in OctoPrint Anywhere. One such scenario is that video streaming in The Spaghetti Detective has very short delay (2-3 seconds), and hence makes it more susceptible to a bad network connection. Whereas the longer delay (about 10-15 seconds) in OctoPrint Anywhere's video streaming, which is usually a bad experience, makes it more resistent to all kinds of network conditions.

Since OctoPrint Anywhere free users don't have premium webcam streaming, they are not impacted by such difference at all. That's why none of them had worse experience after moving to The Spaghetti Detective.

OctoPrint Anywhere subscribers are the ones who have supported me all along. Without them, OctoPrint Anywhere or even The Spaghetti Detective wouldn't be where they are today. I feel the obligation to reciprocate their support with my commitment to not leave any of them high and dry in this transition. That's why I have decided to maintained OctoPrint Anywhere PRO/PRO+ services for a small amount of subscribers who found The Spaghetti Detective video streaming not working for them.

- Kenneth Jiang, Developer of OctoPrint Anywhere and The Spaghetti Detective

Something Old. Something New.

December 25, 2019

Kenneth Jiang

There couldn’t be a better time for me to make this announcement. As we say Goodbye to 2019 and Hello to 2020, the turn of next decade also marks the most important time for OctoPrint Anywhere.

I have made decision to sunset OctoPrint Anywhere in the next few months.

I did not make this decision because I'm tired of maintaining and running OctoPrint Anywhere for everyone, or because OctoPrint Anywhere has become too old to live on. I made this decision precisely because, as we are stepping into the next decade, I have something newer and better to succeed OctoPrint Anywhere.

Kenneth Jiang

Founder @ OctoPrint Anywhere

OctoPrint Anywhere will be succeeded by The Spaghetti Detective

The Spaghetti Detective is an OctoPrint plugin built on top of everything I have learned from building OctoPrint Anywhere. That's why it does everything OctoPrint Anywhere does, but better.

Some of things The Spaghetti Detective has but OctoPrint Anywhere doesn't or doesn't do as well are:

Automated failure detection based on AI. No more checking webcam feed every 20 minutes. The powerful AI watches your prints automatically so that you can print worry-free.
25 frame-per-second USB webcam streaming (hi Logitech users 👋).
The Spaghetti Detective also has a more beautiful user interface and more complete help documents.
The Spaghetti Detective runs faster than OctoPrint Anywhere.

I'm in! How do I move from OctoPrint Anywhere to The Spaghetti Detective?

Just uninstall OctoPrint Anywhere plugin; then install The Spaghetti Detective plugin and follow the setup wizard that pops up after OctoPrint restart. In case you get lost, check out this set up guide.

Please do it at your earliest convenience. Your 1st month with The Spaghetti Detective will be free-trial of all features with unlimited access to AI features. After the 1st month you can upgrade to Pro or stay as free account.

Note: It's important to uninstall or disable OctoPrint Anywhere plugin before you install The Spaghetti Detective plugin. Otherwise the webcam streaming won't function properly.

I subscribed to OctoPrint Anywhere PRO/PRO+ plan. What will happen to my subscription?

Glad you asked! Because you have supported OctoPrint Anywhere with your subscription, I'll reciprocate with extra benefits and discounts when you move to The Spaghetti Detective. I'll also refund the remaining term of your OctoPrint Anywhere subscription.

Specifically:

If you are an OctoPrint Anywhere subscriber and you want to subscribe to The Spaghetti Detective Pro plan, you will be guaranteed to pay less or equal amount on monthly basis.
You will also receive 1000 Detective Hours ($50 value) for free when you subscribe to The Spaghetti Detective Pro plan. This is my way to say "thank you for supporting me on OctoPrint Anywhere". Learn what Detective Hour is.
The benefits above will be applicable to anyone who has an active OctoPrint Anywhere subscription as of January 1st, 2020.
You will receive an email around January 15th with all the details on how to claim these benefits, as well as how you will receive refund on the remaining term of your OctoPrint Anywhere subscription. Please do not cancel your OctoPrint Anywhere subscription until you receive that email.

What's the plan to sunset OctoPrint Anywhere? Any specific timelines?

January 1st, 2020 - New user registration will end. That will also be the last day when anyone can upgrade from a Free plan to a new PRO/PRO+ plan. Existing plan subscriptions remain active.
February 1st, 2020 - OctoPrint Anywhere service for users on Free plan will end.
April 1st, 2020 (It's for real, not a April Fool's prank) - OctoPrint Anywhere service for users on PRO/PRO+ plan will end.

What will happen to my OctoPrint Anywhere account after the service stops?

All your account information and data, such as your time-lapses or uploaded G-Code files, will be permanently deleted from our system within 1 week after OctoPrint Anywhere service stops. Please download the time-lapses you want to keep. If you want to download your G-Code files, please contact me by email.

OctoPrint Anywhere 1.0!

June 25, 2019

Kenneth Jiang

When I wrote the first line of code for OctoPrint Anywhere 2 years ago, I just wanted to get webcam feed on my phone without port-forwarding. I didn't have the slightest ambition to make it the best 3D Printing cloud solution for all the makers like you and me.

With robust webcam streaming, 1-click sharing, automated time-lapse capturing, and ease of use, OctoPrint Anywhere is now an essential tool for many makers. But I still wouldn't call it the "best" 3D printing cloud until it offers something that's very unique and superior.

And here it is! On Thursday June 20th, we will launch OctoPrint Anywhere 1.0! It sports 25 FPS video streaming that no other 3D printing clouds currently offer. When I looked at the new smooth video streaming, I knew OctoPrint Anywhere has become the best!

There is no way we could have done it without our supportive users like you! Special thanks to everyone who participated in the beta testing.

Kenneth Jiang

Founder @ OctoPrint Anywhere

What are included in OctoPrint Anywhere 1.0?

25 FPS (frame-per-second) webcam video streaming. Check out this video that compares the new 25 FPS streaming with the old 3 FPS streaming. Note: 25 FPS streaming is available only on OctoPi with Pi Camera.
The ability to change webcam resolution without messing with any configuration files.
The ability to upload GCode files and start a print remotely.
Shorter delay when you open up OctoPrint Anywhere to check webcam feed, printer status, or temperature.
Faster page loading.
Bug fixes!

How do I get these new cool features?

Ugrade the plugin to version 1.0 as soon as OctoPrint prompts you to do so. You won't get features like 25 FPS video streaming if you are still on version 0.9.10 or earlier.

Upgrade to PRO or PRO+ plan, if you are not currently a subscriber. Most of the new features are available only to PRO/PRO+ subscribers.

What else will change?

The subscription will be simplified to only 2 plans:
- PRO: $5/month or $50/year. You will get all PRO features and you can connect up to 2 printers.
- PRO+: $10/month or $100/year. You will get all PRO features and you can connect unlimited printers.
Check out our new pricing page for details.
Your first printer will still, and always, be free even if you don't subscribe to any plan. But the webcam will stream at 1 frame every 3 seconds, a lower frame rate than before.

What if I have already subscribed at $5/month, and have also pre-subscribed 12 months of premium service? Won't I be over-paying based on the new pricing?

We will pause your existing subscription until June 21st, 2020 so that you won't be over-charged based on our new pricing.

What if I'm paying more than $10/month today?

We will convert your existing subscription to the corresponding new plan based on your number of printers. The prorated subscription payment for this month will be credited toward the new plan or refunded to you should you email use to tell us so.

Why did you reduce webcam stream frame rate for free users?

This was a tough decision we had to make.

OctoPrint Anywhere started as a side project to scratch own own itch. The enthusiasm from OctoPrint users were overwhelming. Thanks to a generous friend who provided free cloud hosting, we were able to extend the service to hundreds of users for free.

However, by mid last year, when we grew to a few thousands of users, the cloud hosting cost also grew too high and we lost our free cloud hosting. Instead of shutting down OctoPrint Anywhere completely, we listened to our users and decided to start charging users with more than 1 printers.

The paid subscription helped, but not enough to fully cover our cloud hosting cost. Every months, OctoPrint Anywhere team members are paying hundreds of dollars out of their own pockets just so that any OctoPrint hobbyist will have an affordable way to monitor the prints remotely.

Since 60% of the cloud hosting cost is incurred by providing 3 FPS webcam streaming for our free users. In order to make OctoPrint Anywhere self-sustainable, we have to significantly reduce the frame rate for the free users to keep cost under control.

With the new webcam streaming frame rate (1 frame every 3 seconds) for free users, we expect to have our cloud hosting cost fully covered, so that we can provide a quality service to OctoPrint users forever.

Why are most new features only available to PRO/PRO+ users?

This is because these features, such as 25 FPS video streaming, and GCode upload, incurs much higher cloud hosting cost.

We started to think about building these features quite a while ago. Then we realized that we couldn't because these new features, although much needed, would have pushed the cost to run OctoPrint Anywhere in the cloud much higher than what we could have afforded.

Although we are fully committed to making OctoPrint Anywhere affordable to all fellow hobbyists, we realized the only way to bring these new features to life is to charge for the usage of them. This way, the users who support OctoPrint Anywhere with their subscriptions get to use the best features available for desktop 3D printing, while the users who don't want to subscribe can still have a safe way to monitor their 3D printer remotely.

Why does 25 FPS webcam streaming only work with Pi Camera?

We found out it is A LOT OF work to make video streaming work on different hardwares. So we decided to focus only on Raspberry Pi with Pi Camera (the ones with CSi interface such as this one) for our first release. We may be able to support USB cameras in later versions but we don't know if and when given the technical challenges.