Since the Creality CR-6 SE does not have Wi-Fi or an early warning system to monitor the printer motions and status, I decided to create a device to track the printer's lateral and vertical motions while printing so as to get informed of potential malfunctions related to the printer movements:

• X-Axis (the hot end)
• Y-Axis (the printer or heated bed)
• Z-Axis

To endow this device with the ability to track X-axis, Y-axis, and Z-axis movements, I decided to employ the HuskyLens AI camera to recognize tags (AprilTags) denoting the axis motion. Since I was trying to develop a budget-friendly IoT device, I decided to utilize Raspberry Pi Pico to obtain and transfer the detected printer movements by the HuskyLens AI camera. Although there are various methods to connect Raspberry Pi Pico to the Internet, I chose to use the Pico-compatible WIZnet Ethernet HAT utilizing W5100S Hardwired TCP/IP CHIP. Since my printer is very close to my router, I did not encounter any issues regarding connecting the Ethernet cable or positioning the device.

After connecting Raspberry Pi Pico to the Internet, I decided to utilize a Telegram bot to track the detected printer axis movements and get notified of malfunctions related to the printer motions. Since Telegram is a cross-platform cloud-based messaging service compatible with iOS and Android, the Telegram bot allows the user to monitor the printer movements and potential malfunctions on several devices. On Telegram, it is effortless to create bots with a command list unalike any other messaging application, which are special accounts that do not require an additional phone number to set up.

To be able to process the detected printer movements and send updates to the Telegram bot automatically, I developed a PHP web application. The web application obtains the printer movements from the Raspberry Pi Pico via HTTP POST requests, stores the received printer movements in the given MySQL database table, detects potential malfunctions related to the printer motions, and sends updates (also notifications) to the Telegram bot via the Telegram Bot API. After developing the web application, I employed a Raspberry Pi 3 to host a LAMP web server to run the application.

Lastly, to make the device as stylish and robust as possible while operating in my workshop, I designed a T-800 Terminator-inspired case with a removable top cover (3D printable).

🎁🎨 Huge thanks to DFRobot for sending me the HuskyLens AI Camera.

🎁🎨 Huge thanks to WIZnet for providing me with a WIZnet Ethernet HAT.

🎁🎨 Also, huge thanks to Creality3D for sponsoring a Creality CR-6 SE 3D Printer.

🎁🎨 If you want to purchase some products from Creality3D, you can use my 10% discount coupon (Aktar10) even for their new and most popular printers: CR-10 Smart,CR-30 3DPrintMill,Ender-3 Pro, and Ender-3 V2. You can also use the coupon for Creality filaments.

Step 1: Designing and printing a T-800 Terminator-inspired case

Since I wanted to place the device towards my FDM 3D printer while printing 3D models in my workshop, I decided to design a complementing metallic case to create a robust and sturdy mechanism operating flawlessly. To make device connections more accessible, I added a removable top cover to the case. Then, I got inspired by The Terminator to add a T-800 replica to the device since it aims to track the movements of the printer and detect potential malfunctions to eliminate them :)

I designed the main case and its removable top cover in Autodesk Fusion 360. You can download their STL files below.

For the T-800 replica affixed to the removable top cover, I utilized this model from Thingiverse:

• T-800

Then, I sliced all 3D models (STL files) in Ultimaker Cura.

Since I wanted to create a solid structure for the metallic case with the removable top cover and emphasize the...