Awhile back (August 14, 2013, to be exact) we covered a project by PrintToPeer, a large-scale interlocking sculpture made from 3D printed tokens crowd sourced by 3D printer users the world over. Linked, as it’s called, was a demonstration of 3D printing’s ability to unite people, regardless of distance, around a common goal. The sculpture was also a symbol for the flagship product being developed by, PrintToPeer which has just hit Indiegogo today.
PrintToPeer describes itself as a common OS for all 3D printers, a driver that will allow 3D printer users to link multiple machines to an app in the cloud. The OS is able to network all 3D printers (all connected to a Raspberry Pi pre-installed with the PrintToPeer driver) to a single software capable of slicing, analyzing and managing multiple prints, so that places like schools, hackerspaces, 3D printer retailers and offices can monitor and control all of their 3D printers in a shared space. The platform also gives multiple users shared access over one or many 3D printers.
The project began when the company’s three founders wanted to network their four 3D printers, but had no way to do it. After talking to schools that lacked the ability to share access to their 3D printer among teachers, students and other schools, the founders realized that there was a demand for 3D printer networking. And, though paper printers have made the journey from parallel ports, to Plug-and-Play USB, to WiFi, many 3D printer models are stuck tethered to computers (even Octoprint, which can control your printer from the net, can only handle one printer at a time, for now). As a result, PrintToPeer was formed to develop a common printer driver and web platform that could catch all 3D printers up to speed.
The company has teamed up with distributed 3D printer network 3D Hubs, who will be using the PrintToPeer API to automate their printing process. Of the quoted 500 types of desktop 3D printers out there, the PrintToPeer driver and web app are thought, by its developers, to work with 80% of them. If you want to be a part of that 80%, you might consider their crowd funding campaign. Still unsure? You can head over to their website and work with their demo software. As a simulation, it in no way deals with the actual complexities of managing multiple 3D printers, accompanying extruder jams and the like, but, if their app is anywhere close to this level of simplicity, it may be a great solution to your networking problems.
Source: Indiegogo
