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Obico for Klipper 1.0 Release!

· 3 min read
Kenneth Jiang
Kenneth Jiang

The wait is finally over! Obico for Klipper 1.0 release is here!

Previously, the most common comment we heard from the Obico community members was: "Obico is What I have missed the most since I moved from OctoPrint to Klipper".

This is what motivated us to start working Obico for Klipper early this year. After over 6 months of alpha- and beta-testing, Obico for Klipper is now ready for her 1.0 release!

What's in the 1.0 release?​

The most important part of 1.0 release is feature-parity with Obico for OctoPrint, with tunneling being the only exception.

Specifically, Obico for Klipper is now on par with Obico for OctoPrint on all following features:

  • The same webcam streaming as Obico for OctoPrint that works for all USB-based cameras and Pi Camera. Note: The Pro plan subscribers or self-hosted Obico server users will have 25FPS, unthrottled streaming. The Free plan users will have 5FPS streaming.

  • Start/Pause/Resume/Cancel your prints in the Obico web app or mobile app.

  • AI-powered failure detection that gives you a peace of mind.

  • Print job progress update with webcam snapshot pushed to your phone's lock screen.

  • Printer controls. Turn on/off the heaters. Move the nozzles. Right on your phone.

  • Failure and print job notifications sent to your choice of communication channels: email, Telegram, Discord, PushBullet, etc.

In addition, we have built these extra features for Obico for Klipper:

  • Integration with KIAUH. Now you can use KIAUH to easily install/update/remove Obico for Klipper.

  • Compatibility with Raspberry Pi Bullseye. This is for 32-bit OS only. The compatibility with the 64-bit OS is still being worked on.

Why is tunneling not included in the 1.0 release?​

We have decided to leave the tunneling out for the 1.0 release because there are still a few unresolved technical challenges. It'll take us a while to figure out the solutions for them. And there is a chance none of the solutions are good enough.

Among these technical challenges, the most difficult one is related to the modular design in the Klipper ecosystem. Moonraker, the backend, is separate from Mainsail or Fluidd, the frontend. This is a great design to achieve maximum flexibility and encourage innovation. The fact we can have multiple frontends that are all unique in different ways is a clear evidence.

Meanwhile, this also means, unlike OctoPrint, the frontend and the backend may not run on the same machine. This makes it a lot harder to figure out which address to tunnel a HTTP request to. The security restriction imposed by the browsers such as CORS (Cross-Origin Resource Sharing) further complicates the problem.

We are trying a few different ways to provide a tunneling solution for Klipper that is secure, and relatively easy to setup. However, it'll take a while for us to iron out all the wrinkles. We will announce it in our monthly newsletter once the tunneling for Klipper is out. Please add support@obico.io to your contact list so that you won't miss out on our communications.