Bambu Monitor

A small, self-contained Python utility to monitor Bambu Lab A1 printers over MQTT, keep a merged live state and recent history, expose a simple HTTP status UI, and show desktop notifications and popups when prints start or stop. This project is unofficial and not affiliated with Bambu Lab.

Notice This project is not under active development and has not been rigorously tested. It was written for personal use; treat it as experimental and use at your own risk.

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Overview

Bambu Monitor connects to one or more Bambu A1 printers via MQTT in read-only mode, merges incoming status messages into a single per-printer state object, stores a short history of recent messages, and serves:

• Live JSON state at /state.json
• Recent message history at /history.json
• A lightweight web UI at / that auto updates
• A compact status page at /state for quick glance displays
• A video style single line status at /state-video suitable for PiP or overlay

It also sends desktop notifications, optional popup dialogs, and can flash the Windows console when prints stop or fail.

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Features

• MQTT watcher for multiple printers with TLS support
• Merged state that accumulates all keys seen from incoming messages
• Filtered status used for start/stop transition detection
• History buffer of recent messages per printer
• HTTP server exposing JSON endpoints and a simple live UI
• Desktop notifications and optional popups and sounds
• Windows console flashing for attention on stop/failure events

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Requirements

• Python 3.9 or newer
• Python packages: paho-mqtt and plyer
• Optional GUI support for popups requires tkinter (usually included with standard Python installs)
• On Windows the script uses native APIs for flashing and taskbar behavior

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Quick Install

# create and activate a virtual environment
python -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate   # use venv\Scripts\activate on Windows

# install dependencies
pip install paho-mqtt plyer

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Configuration

Edit the top of the script to configure printers and behavior. The main settings are grouped under CONFIGURATION.

Key configuration items

• PRINTERS — list of printers to monitor. Each entry requires:
  • label: friendly name shown in logs and UI
  • serial: device serial used in MQTT topic
  • ip: printer IP address for MQTT connection
  • code: MQTT password for the device
• MQTT_PORT — default 8883 for TLS
• TLS_VERIFY — enable or disable TLS certificate verification
• HTTP_PORT — port for the built in HTTP server
• HISTORY_SIZE — number of recent messages to keep per printer
• ENABLE_NOTIFICATIONS — toggle desktop notifications
• ENABLE_POPUP_ON_STOP — toggle modal popup on stop/failure
• PLAY_SOUND_ON_NOTIFICATION — toggle playing a sound on notifications
• SOUND_FILE — path to a custom sound file if desired
• LOG_LEVEL — DEBUG, INFO, WARN, ERROR
• RESET_STATE_ON_NEW_PRINT — clear merged state when a new gcode file starts

Example PRINTERS entry

PRINTERS = [
    {"label": "A1mini", "serial": "YOUR_PRINTER_SERIAL", "ip": "YOUR_PRINTER_IP", "code": "YOUR_MQTT_PASSWORD"}
]

Replace YOUR_PRINTER_IP / YOUR_MQTT_PASSWORD / YOUR_PRINTER_SERIAL.

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Running

Start the monitor from the command line:

python bambu_monitor.py

The script will:

• spawn a watcher thread per configured printer
• start the event consumer that sends notifications and popups
• start the HTTP server on the configured port

Stop the monitor with Ctrl+C or by sending a termination signal.

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HTTP Endpoints

• / — Live web UI that auto refreshes and shows the merged state per printer
• /state.json — JSON object with the merged state for each printer
• /history.json — JSON object with recent messages per printer (newest first)
• /state — compact HTML status showing first available state and remaining time
• /state-video — single line video stream rendered from the state suitable for PiP or overlay

Use /state.json for integrations or to feed other dashboards.

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Notifications and Popups

• Start events trigger a notification and stop any flashing.
• Stop, failed, or pause events trigger a notification, optional modal popup, and start flashing the console on Windows.
• A short debounce prevents stop notifications immediately after a start; adjust START_STOP_DEBOUNCE_SECONDS in configuration.

Sound playback behavior is platform dependent. Configure SOUND_FILE to use a custom sound, or rely on the built in beep/fallback.

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Logs and Debugging

• LOG_LEVEL controls verbosity. Set to DEBUG to see raw MQTT messages and status snapshots.
• LOG_RAW_MESSAGES toggles printing of raw incoming payloads.
• LOG_TO_FILE can be set to a path to persist logs.
• Console deduplication avoids printing identical successive messages; disable by setting DEDUPLICATE_CONSOLE_MESSAGES to False.

If you see no state:

• confirm PRINTERS is populated and correct
• ensure network connectivity to the printer IP and that the device accepts MQTT connections
• check MQTT port and TLS settings match the device configuration

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Troubleshooting

• No MQTT connection: verify IP, port, and device code. Check firewall rules.
• No notifications on Linux: ensure a desktop notification daemon is running and that plyer supports your environment.
• Popups not appearing: ensure tkinter is available and the environment allows GUI windows. On headless systems disable popups.
• State not updating: check logs at DEBUG level to see raw messages and whether the script is receiving MQTT payloads.

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Security Notes

• The script stores the device code in memory to authenticate to the printer MQTT topic. Keep the script and configuration secure.
• TLS verification can be disabled for convenience but enabling certificate verification is recommended where possible.

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License

This project is provided as is for personal use. No warranty is provided. Adjust and use at your own risk.

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