There are 3 quick steps to add a 3D Printer to your Fleet Account.
1) Verify Permissions
First, make sure an Admin has permission to add printers to your system!
Walkthrough for first timers:
- Create a Group. Go to the GROUPS tab. For this example, create a group named PRINTER LAB 1.
- Create a Role. Go to the ROLES tab. For this example, create a role named LAB MANAGER.
- Set the Permission. Make sure the LAB MANAGER role has ‘MANAGE PRINTERS’ turned on. To find this permission, scroll down to the Group permissions section. Save the ROLE.
- Assign a User to the Group with that Role. Go to the USERS tab. Find the user you wish to be able to Add Printers, click the ‘X Groups’ link. (X will be a number)
- Add the user to the PRINTER LAB 1 group, then assign the user the role of LAB MANAGER for that group.
- You're done with this step! Everyone that has the LAB MANAGER role will be able to add printers to the system, specifically for the groups in which they are a LAB MANAGER.
2) Connect the AstroBox
Instructions for AstroBox Touch:
- Power up the AstroBox Touch.
- Connect to wifi. Make sure the AstroBox Touch is connected to wifi.
- On the home screen, if the wifi icon is green, you’re connected to wifi.
- If the wifi icon is red, press on the icon. This will bring up a screen to input your wifi network’s ID and Password.
- The wifi icon must be green before you move on.
- Connect to AstroPrint servers. Make sure the AstroBox Touch is connected to the AstroPrint platform. You’re already connected to the internet, but now you need to make sure the AstroBox is communicating with your AstroPrint Fleet backend.
- On the home screen, if the AstroPrint Rocket is green, the box is connected to the AstroPrint platform.
- If the rocket is red, the box is not connected to the AstroPrint platform. Press on the rocket to open the login screen. Put in the email address and password for your account.
- This icon will need to be green before moving on.
- *NOTE: Make sure the account ID (email address) you use to log in on the AstroBox Touch is one that also has permission to add printers to groups! If the account ID does not have permission to add printers, the AstroBox will not be visible in the backend!
- If you are following the walkthrough example above, you'll want to make sure the Email Address and Password you use on the AstroBox Touch is associated with a user account that has the LAB MANAGER role in the PRINTER LAB 1 group.
3) Assign the AstroBox to a group
For the walkthrough, anyone logged into the Fleet Management backend, with a LAB MANAGER role, will be able to do the following (but only for the groups in which they are a LAB MANAGER):
- Go to the Printers tab. In the Fleet Management Backend, go to the 3D PRINTERS tab, click ADD 3D PRINTER.
- Select the AstroBox/Printer. You now see a list of all 3D Printers that have been connected to your platform but ARE NOT ASSIGNED TO ANY GROUP yet. As a reminder, if the printer is not in a group, it is not visible on the front end.
- Assign AstroBox/Printer. Assign the printer to a group, and submit the form.
- You're done!
Troubleshooting and Best Practices:
A) For Multi-Admin environments: Use a shared account (email address) to log into all your AstroBoxes (Ex: printer_lab@YourOrg.org)
- Think of the AstroBox interface/screen as being for tasks you would do right at the printer (such as rebooting the AstroBox, extruding filament, moving the print head, etc).
- To do any of these tasks, you will need to be logged into the AstroBox interface/screen.
- Only one user can be logged into the AstroBox interface/screen at a time. For another user to interact with the AstroBox interface, the first user will need to log out.
- For this reason, Best Practices for multi-Admin environments is to use a shared account (email address) to log into all AstroBoxes. With this strategy, all Admins can log into any AstroBox.
- What you do NOT want to happen: One administrator used their account to log into (and set up) all the AstroBoxes, they are out of the office for the day, and another administrator needs to reboot a box or change filament in a printer. They won't be able to do this since the they do not know the first administrator's password.
- Solution: Use a shared account for all the AstroBoxes. (Ex: printer_lab@YourOrg.org)
B) Multiple Admins can interact with the AstroBoxes in the Fleet Management backend
- Think of the cloud interface/backend for the AstroBox as being for all your remote tasks (such as sending the next print, remote monitoring, queue management, etc).
- Any user that has permission to interact with the printers (on the backend) can do so. However, they will not be able to do things like moving the print head or extruding filament from the backend (for safety purposes).
- Ex: Let's suppose you have 5 people that have an ADMIN role in your organization, and the ADMIN role is set to have permission to do things like: Assign boxes to groups, start prints, manage group queues, remotely monitor printers, etc. All 5 of those users will be able to perform those functions through the Fleet Management backend.
C) Any admin (with the proper permission) can assign AstroBoxes to groups
- The account/email address used to log into the AstroBox and connect it to your Fleet, does not have to be the same one used to assign the AstroBox to a group.
- Once the AstroBox is connected to your AstroPrint Fleet Account, any admin (with permission to do so) can log in to the Fleet Management backend and assign the box/printer to a group. They can also move the box/printer to another group, if necessary.
D) The AstroBox will disappear from your PERSONAL account!
- An AstroBox cannot be simultaneously in your AstroPrint Personal Account and your Fleet Account.
- Sometimes people get confused during setup: They connect an AstroBox to their Fleet Account, then when going online to verify the AstroBox is connected, they accidentally go to their Personal Account (and therefore cannot find the AstroBox online). For clarity purposes: When you are in your personal account there is a black bar at the top of the dashboard. That bar is blue when you are in your Fleet Account.
- You may have seen your AstroBox show up in your Personal Account, then after you added it to the Fleet Account, it disappears from your Personal Account. This is normal, we promise!
- This is for security purposes. The permissions/roles platform protects your AstroBox from being used inappropriately. Personal Accounts are not governed by the permissions/roles system, therefore we cannot allow an AstroBox to exist simultaneously in a Personal Account and a Fleet Account.
E) If your account is on SSO, contact us to get a password added to your account, otherwise you will not be able to log into AstroBoxes.
- The AstroPrint Cloud works with SSO, however the AstroBox cannot. When you use SSO we do not have a password on file for your account, therefore there's no way for us to verify your identity on the AstroBox.
- To solve this: Contact us and ask us to create a password for your account. Easy Peasy.
- Once we do that, your account will be able to login via SSO or via email/password.
- When logging into the AstroBox, you'll need to use your email/password.
Next article: Printer Profiles, Material Profiles, and Custom Slicer Profiles.