📸 Camera Support for Resin Printers: An Exciting (but Cautious) Update!

[danielcherubini]

We're thrilled to announce one of the most requested features: experimental camera support for Elegoo resin printers is now available in the Home Assistant integration! This allows you to keep an eye on your prints, but it comes with some very important considerations.

The Goal: A Built-in Camera Feed

The main advantage of this feature is having a camera feed integrated directly into Home Assistant without needing extra hardware or software. When it works, it's a fantastic way to remotely monitor your prints.

However, the camera implementation on the printers themselves is known to be buggy and unstable. This is a hardware/firmware limitation, not something the integration can fully solve. Our goal has been to provide this feature while adding as many safeguards as possible.

The Cons: Understanding the Risks

Transparency is key, and we want you to be fully aware of the potential issues before you enable this feature:

• Printer Instability: The most significant risk is that maintaining a constant video stream can crash the printer's mainboard. This could happen mid-print, potentially damaging your FEP film or even the LCD screen.
• "Stuck" Connections: The printer allows a maximum of two simultaneous camera streams. If a client (like Home Assistant or another app) disconnects improperly (e.g., due to a crash or network issue), the printer may not release the connection. Once two connections become "stuck," you won't be able to view the camera feed again until the printer is power-cycled.

Best Practices for a Stable Experience

Given the risks, we strongly recommend the following approach for the best results:

1. Use On-Demand Viewing (Don't Stream 24/7)

The most stable way to use the camera is to view the stream only when you need it. A constant, 24/7 connection is very likely to cause a crash eventually.

The best way to achieve this is with a picture-entity card in your dashboard. This card shows a stable, still image by default and only loads the live video feed when you click on it.

Here is the recommended card configuration:

type: picture-entity
entity: camera.your_printer_chamber_camera
camera_view: auto
show_name: false
fit_mode: cover

2. Power Cycle with a Smart Switch

Because connections can get stuck, the most reliable way to "reset" the camera is to turn the printer off and on again. We highly recommend putting your printer on a smart switch (like a Shelly, TP-Link Kasa, etc.) that is integrated with Home Assistant.

Crucially, you should never power cycle the printer while a print is in progress, as this will cause the print to fail. This method should only be used between prints to reset the camera connections.

This also helps with general printer health, as these printers are likely not designed to be on 24/7.

How to Enable the Camera

This feature is disabled by default for all users.

• New Users: During the initial setup, you will be asked if you want to enable the camera. You must accept the risks to proceed.
• Existing Users: If you are upgrading, the camera entity will be added but will be disabled. To enable it:
  1. Navigate to your Elegoo Printer's device page in Home Assistant.
  2. In the "Entities" card, find the disabled "Chamber Camera" entity.
  3. Click on it, go to the Settings tab, and toggle it on.

We hope this detailed explanation helps you enjoy this new feature while understanding its limitations.

Happy Printing!

[400HPMustang]

Moving the conversation over from my issue post. I guess I should close that now?

My card is already using a picture-entity card to put the snapshot of the stream on the card so I'm not streaming live all the time.

{ 'type':'custom:hui-element',
              'card_type':'picture-entity',
              'entity':'camera.' ~ base ~ '_chamber_camera',
              'show_name': false, 'show_state': false, 'camera_view':'auto',
              'style': {
                'top':'48%','left':'50%','width':'54%','border-radius':'12px',
                'overflow':'hidden','box-shadow':'0 6px 18px rgba(0,0,0,0.35)'
              } },

Though sometimes I do tend to leave the stream open which is probably what's killing it.

As soon as my next print is done I'm going to add in a smart plug to power cycle the thing and keep it off when I'm not

[danielcherubini]

That looks like the same as the yaml in the post above, the trick is the camera_view: auto .... the other setting live makes it into a camera live feed, which keeps the stream open.

[400HPMustang]

That looks like the same as the yaml in the post above, the trick is the camera_view: auto .... the other setting live makes it into a camera live feed, which keeps the stream open.

Yeah sometimes I just click it and leave it open and get distracted by other things. Probably what killed it the other day. I wonder if there's a time limit for watching the live stream that I hit before it nukes the feed?

[danielcherubini]

my guess is that the camera sends some kind of junk data to home assistant, which thinks is an error, so it tries to reconnect. Because of this the printer just opens a new stream, adding another stream and not hanging up the previous.

What's really anoying is that there's no way for me to tell the printer "hey, we encountered an error please lets handle this gracefully"

[danielcherubini]

Actually I think this might be what you're after

https://card.camera/#/examples?id=change-to-live-temporarily

[lugui1998]

does the issue of causing crashes and the limit of 2 connections effects the printers which use SDCP over WebSocket such as the Saturn 4?

[danielcherubini]

It absolutely does. The Saturn 4/ultra/4k and the mars of the same range. Same problem.