Connect to your MakerGear M3's access point and preferred network.
Introduction
From time to time you might find yourself unable to locate your printer via the web-based interface. Maybe your network went down, or you someone accidentally disconnected your printer from the network. Don't worry, this article will help you find your printer!
First Connection
If you have never set up your printer before, we recommend that you follow the sequence in http://setup.makergear.com to get started. This will walk you through the steps to connect to and set up your printer. If you continue to have problems, follow the rest of this guide.
Find My Printer Tool
If you have already connected to your printer at least once, try the Find My Printer Tool to find your printer. This tool can scan your local network for computers running Octoprint like your MakerGear M3. To use the tool you will need to use a recent version of Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox.
Just click 'Scan for Printers' and you'll see a list of any printers connected on the same network as your device. You'll see a link associated with any located printers that will take yo to your printer's interface.
If you are still having problems connecting to your printer, follow the steps outlined in the rest of this article.
Ethernet Connection
If you can connect your printer to your network via an Ethernet connection, we recommend you do so to speed up the process of locating your printer. Once you have connected it to your network, it will be easier to reconnect its wifi connections.
Network Connection
First you'll need to figure out if your printer is a)creating its own network or b)connected to a network.
When your M3 3D Printer is creating its own network, it will create a Wifi Network with the name (SSID) "M3Printerxxxxx" where "xxxxx" is the last 5 characters of your serial number. For example, if we had a printer with the serial number LM123V45, you would see a wifi network "M3Printer23V45". From your device, available Wifi networks - if you see a "M3Printerxxxxx" network, then your printer is in Access Point mode and creating its own network. If you don't see that network, then the printer is connected to another Wifi network.
NOTE: If you are connecting your M3 3D Printer to your network via Wifi, it will continue to generate its own wifi network.
IP Address
When the M3 is connected to a network (wireless or wired) it has an IP Address. This address is made of four numbers separated by four periods. For example
10.250.250.1
192.168.0.23
10.0.0.20
By typing the IP address into your Web Browser, you can access the M3's Octoprint interface. We recommend starting the address with "http://" so your browser knows that you want it to go to s specific address.
http://10.250.250.1
http://192.168.0.23
http://10.0.0.20
When your printer is in Access Point mode, it creates its own network and can control the network. In this scenario, the printer will always have the IP address http://10.250.250.1
However when connected to another network, the printer will not control the network, so it will be assigned an IP address from your router. You can use the Find My Printer Tool to figure out what IP address your printer has.
The M3 3D Printer will typically only be accessible to other computers on the network - it is not possible to access the M3 3D Printer from outside your network at this time.
IP addresses work well because they work across a wide variety of devices and networks. However, they can be more difficult to remember and may change depending on your network setup.
Hostname
Each M3 3D Printer also has a hostname. By default the hostname is "M3Printerxxxxx" where "xxxxx" is the last 5 characters of your serial number. (You can change the printer's hostname in the Octoprint settings tab)
Certain computers can use the printer's hostname to access the printer. For example, if we wanted to access a printer with the serial number LM123V45, you could type
http://M3Printer23V45.local
into your browser, and you'll be able to access the printer's interface.
Hostnames work well because they can be easier to remember and won't change, even if the IP address changes. However some computers / platforms can't use hostnames properly.
Mac OS, Linux and iOS computers have built in hostname support.
Windows computers need to install Apple's Bonjour Print Service to use hostname links.
Chromebook / Android computers do not support hostname links. You will need to use IP addresses.
Network Scanning Apps
There are a variety of applications that you can run on your computer or smartphone to scan your network for different devices. These applications will scan your network for all connected devices, but you can differentiate your M3 printer based on its name. You can use these tools if you are having problems with the Find My Printer Tool or if you need a tool that doesn't require an internet connection.
Android - Zentri Discovery
iOS - Fing
Mac/Linux/Windows - Angry IP Scanner
Resetting your Printer
There are some situations where you still can't find your printer. Maybe the printer is connected to a network that you no longer have access to. Or maybe you've changed the name of your printer and no longer know what it is called.
In these cases you can hold down the reset button on the printer for 60 seconds and let go. Your printer will do the following
- Reset its Wifi network name and password to the defaults based off of your serial number (see http://setup.makergear.com for more info)
- Reset its Octoprint username and password
- Disconnect from any connected networks and restart its Access Point Mode
Once this operation has completed, you can connect to your printer's Wifi Network and go to http://10.250.250.1 to connect to your printer. Run through the setup instructions to reconnect your printer to another network.
NOTE: The reset procedure will NOT reset the hostname if you have changed it: you can manually change this once you've connected to your printer.