What NebulaOS Is

What NebulaOS is

In one paragraph

NebulaOS is replacement software for the Creality Ender-3 V3 KE 3D printer. It replaces everything Creality installed - the operating system, the printing software and the touchscreen app - with an open system built around Klipper. You install it onto the printer's second system slot, so the software you have now stays where it is and you can go back.

What it replaces, and with what

What you have now	What NebulaOS uses
Creality's printing firmware	Klipper - open-source printer firmware, widely used, with far more tuning available
Creality's touchscreen app	NebulaScreen - NebulaOS's own touchscreen app
Creality's web interface	Mainsail - a browser interface for uploading files and controlling the printer
Creality's cloud	Nothing. NebulaOS talks to your printer over your own network

Some words you will meet constantly, explained once:

• Klipper does the actual printing - it reads the G-code and drives the motors and heaters.
• Moonraker sits between Klipper and everything else, so the screen and your browser can both talk to the printer at once.
• Mainsail is the web page you open in a browser to control the printer.
• NebulaScreen is the app on the printer's own display.

Words you will see has the rest.

What you get

• Real calibration. A guided menu that walks through each calibration in the order a new printer needs them, remembers which ones you have done, and tells you when one needs redoing because of something else you changed.
• Live first-layer adjustment. Nudge the nozzle height while watching the first layer print, in steps as small as 0.001 mm.
• Control from anywhere on your network. Upload from your computer, watch from your phone.
• A camera, if you have one, including the settings of Creality's own Nebula Camera.
• Power-loss recovery that can continue a print after the power goes out.
• Two system slots, so a bad update can be undone by starting the other one.
• No cloud account. Nothing is required to leave your network.

What it costs you

Being straight about this matters more than selling it:

• It is not Creality's software and Creality will not support it. Installing it is your decision.
• You have to calibrate. Your existing calibration does not carry over, and skipping it means chasing first-layer problems that an hour of calibration would have fixed.
• This is version 1.0.0, the first full release. It is actively developed, so expect it to keep changing.
• Only the Ender-3 V3 KE. See Supported hardware.
• Some things need a computer. Not many, and not for ordinary printing.

What it is built on

NebulaOS is not a fork of Klipper. It runs unmodified upstream Klipper and adds its own features as separate modules that load alongside it. That is a deliberate choice: upstream improvements and upstream documentation keep applying, and NebulaOS's own additions are clearly separable from them.

NebulaScreen is based on GuppyScreen by ballaswag, under GPL-3. NebulaOS is open source, and the repositories are at github.com/NebulaOS-KE.

Is it for you?

Probably yes if you want better print quality than the stock firmware gives you, you like the idea of controlling the printer from a browser, and you are willing to spend an hour calibrating.

Probably not if you need the printer working reliably tomorrow with no time to set it up, or you are not comfortable that going back involves a menu rather than a button.

Next

• Supported hardware - check your printer
• Safety first - read before installing
• Installing NebulaOS