9.2.2 Printer settings: name, description, location, and make of printer

From the printer manage screen, Figure 9.9, click on “SETTINGS” to get to a screen such as shown in Figure 9.13. Features of the printer “SETTINGS” screen include:

1.

When your printer is first registered with the Polar Cloud, its Name field is set to match its serial number. At the “SETTINGS” screen, you may change the printer Name, as well as enter a text Description of your printer and its Location; see Figure 9.14.

2.

When your printer is first registered with the Polar Cloud, you told the Polar Cloud (for Polar3D printers) or the registration process assumed (for other printer makes) the printer’s “Make”; that make is displayed at the left-hand side of the “SETTINGS” screen. It is possible to change the printer’s configured “Make” (only owners of OctoPrint controlled printers would ever be likely to wish to do this) via the “MAKE” drop-down menu at the right-hand side of the “SETTINGS” screen (beween the “Location” field and the “Add Allowed” switch).

3.

The “Add Allowed” switch (relevant only for Polar3D printers) controls whether or not Polar Cloud members with physical access to a Polar3D printer can add themselves as a printer manager by going through the “ADD A PRINTER” Polar3D printer registration procedure (the LED security light check – see Figure 1.16 of the Polar3D Printer Guide); by default, the switch is off, meaning that a member can only become a Polar3D printer manager through an invitation from the printer owner.

4.

You may set “Tags” for your printer – perhaps setting some additional strings by which you would like the printer to findable via “SEARCH”.

5.

The “Public Key” field is typically present for non-Polar3D makes of printer, including DREMEL printers, FlashForge printers and OctoPrint controlled printers. This RSA public crypto key is generated (typically by the printer itself) when the printer is initially registered in the Polar Cloud, and used for communications between the printer and the Polar Cloud. (Do not manually alter this value, as doing so will break communications between your printer and the Polar Cloud.)

6.

Click the “SAVE” button when you have finished adding (or changing) field values or setting a switch. Or click the “RESET” button if you started making edits but don’t like them and want to undo them all.

7.

The “DELETE PRINTER” button appears only to the printer owner. Clicking this button will delete the printer from the Polar Cloud entirely; in particular, note that any pending print jobs in the printer’s queue will be discarded (and members who submitted such jobs will need to recreate jobs for their objects). “DELETE PRINTER” might be used if you are transferring the printer to a new owner at a different organization and you don’t have any pending print jobs queued to the printer to be concerned about. An alternative approach for when you want a chance to move pending print jobs is to “obsolete” (rather than delete) the printer in the Polar Cloud: for a Polar3D printer, use the “Reset Printer on the Polar Cloud” button on the “Network” screen of the Polar3D printer’s local web interface; for a DREMEL 3D45 printer, use the printer control panel’s “FACTORY RESET” button (under “TOOLS”, “SETTINGS”). Regardless of printer make, if the new owner is a colleague inside your organization, who will permit the pending jobs to finish up on the printer under their new ownership, yet another alternative is to use the “CHANGE OWNER” button on the printer “MEMBERS” screen.

8.

Note that when a printer firmware update is available from Polar 3D, all the printer “MANAGE” screens, including the printer “SETTINGS” screen, will in addition show an “UPDATE” button (to the right of the “BUILD PLATE” button, left of the “LOCAL UI” button); at such a time, clicking the “UPDATE” button will cause a printer firmware update to be loaded to the printer; see Section 9.5.

The printer Name will be the name displayed when listing printers, e.g., displayed in the printer tile in TILE display or account “ACTIVITY” screen or in the drop-down printer list on the build plate screen or in the drop-down printer list on the printer dashboard screen or in the drop-down printer list on the printer management screen. Thus many printer owners, if they change the printer Name from its default serial-number value, find it useful to incorporate the serial-number into the name: e.g., Physics-lab-P3D02259, or Media-Center-P3D02265 or the like.

Especially if your site owns multiple 3D printers accessible to many students or other Polar Cloud members, consider entering some information in the printer Description and Location fields to aid in locating and identifying the purpose of this particular printer. In particular, note that when searching for a printer, see Section 9.4, the Serial Number, Name, Description, Location, and Tags fields are all compared for a match.

Be sure to click the “SAVE” button when you have finished entering your desired information on the “SETTINGS” screen; see Figure 9.14.