Make beautiful 3D print timelapse videos using your phone camera or web camera and computer connected to 3D printer USB port. No any extra hardware required
Usage example: https://youtu.be/Ea2dWP-aFYE
Tested with Prusa MINI+ printer, phone camera and server with macOS and Linux operating systems
Supported operating systems for launching server: Linux, macOS There are 2 options for running server: using docker or launching nodejs server directly
For both options you need to create .env file with following variables:
PORT - port on which server will be listening for incoming connections
SESSION_ID - identifier of the printing session that should be recorded
DEVICE_NAME - name of the unix device that represents printer USB port
How to find printer USB port name:
Check current devices
ls -l -t /dev/tty*example output:
crw--w---- 1 username tty 0x10000015 Jun 18 22:39 /dev/ttys011
crw--w---- 1 username tty 0x10000017 Jun 18 22:16 /dev/ttys012
crw--w---- 1 username tty 0x1000000f Jun 18 22:16 /dev/ttys013
. . .
Then connect printer USB cable and check devices again. The new device in the list is the printer USB port
example device path: /dev/ttyACM0
in this case, ttyACM0 is the DEVICE_NAME value
Optional variables:
IMAGE_SIZE_LIMIT - maximum size of the image (in bytes) that can be uploaded to the server. Default: 10485760 (10MB)
HTTP_SERVER_PORT - port on which http server will be listening for incoming connections. Default: 8080
HTTP_SERVER_HOST - host on which http server will be listening for incoming connections. Default: 0.0.0.0
SIGNAL_SOURCE - source of the signal that will be used to trigger camera.
Can be either serial-port (default, looking for signal from printer) or process-input (for debugging, looking for signal from process stdin)
Example configuration can be found in example.env
Clone repository, go to the project directory and choose one of the following options:
Docker is a software that use OS-level virtualization to deliver software in packages called containers
Install docker
Build docker image
docker build --tag easy-timelapse .Run docker container (replace with your printer USB port device name that was found in previous step)
docker run \
--device=/dev/<device name> \
--volume $(pwd)/tmp:/app/tmp \
--publish 8080:8080 \
--env-file .env \
--name easy-timelapse-local \
--interactive \
easy-timelapseCommand to stop server
docker stop easy-timelapse-localCommand to start server
docker start easy-timelapse-localInstall nodejs 18 or higher
Install dependencies
npm installGenerate self-signed ssl certificates
openssl req -x509 -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout ./server/certs/key.pem -out ./server/certs/cert.pem -days 365 -nodes -subj "/C=XX/ST=StateName/L=CityName/O=CompanyName/OU=CompanySectionName/CN=CommonNameOrHostname"Start server
npm run startThe best way how to create fluid timelapse is to take a picture after each layer, at the same position
It can be achieved by adding a piece of custom code to every layer change
In PrusaSlicer, go to Printer Settings -> Custom G-code -> After layer change G-code
Example code can be found in examples project directory
For Prusa printers, it's impossible to use M118 command for printing into serial port is not supported. Workaround - put the non-existent command and use the error message as a signal that indicates layer change
Connect printer with computer where you're planning to run server with USB cable
For Prusa MINI+ printer, use micro USB port on the right side
Printer should be turned on and connected to the same computer where server is running
Commands for starting server are described in "Installation" section
After starting server, check logs, it should print something like this:
2023-06-18 21:02:42.924+0300 - info - Visit https://192.168.10.101:8080 on device that is connected to the same network as this server in case you want to use its camera
Follow this instruction, open printed URL in browser on device that should be used as camera
If you're using docker, server won't be able to get IP address of the host machine, so you need to find it in another way
There are many ways to do it. One of them - install ifconfig utility, run it and check the output. Local network IP address usually starts with 192.168.
Since this server uses self-signed ssl certificate, you will be warned about it, you can ignore this warning and proceed to the website
Click to the "Camera" link to enter the camera page
On the "Camera" page, allow camera access
Once connection indicator in the top right corner becomes green, camera is ready to use
You can make test photos by setting SIGNAL_SOURCE to process-input in .env file (See "Installation" section, SIGNAL_SOURCE variable description). After changing config variable, restart server. Write photo in the process stdin and press enter
Photos should appear in the tmp/images/<SESSION_ID name> directory
All the logs from printer will be printed in the tmp/output.log file
Example command for creating video from images using ffmpeg:
ffmpeg -framerate 30 -pattern_type glob -i 'tmp/images/<SESSION_ID name>/*.png' -c:v libx264 -pix_fmt yuv420p out.mp4