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Siri integration with OctoPod

Gaston Dombiak edited this page Nov 26, 2018 · 21 revisions

Using Siri shortcuts with OctoPod

What kind of things can I do via Siri?

  • Warm up/Cool down multiple printers' bed
  • Warm up/Cool down multiple printers' extruders
  • Pause/Resume/Cancel/Restart running print job

How does it work?

Siri is very powerful but not yet as mature as Alexa so bear with me. OctoPod will generate Siri suggestions for the things listed above. You will have to go to the iOS and open the Settings app. Go to Siri & Search where you will find suggested Shortcuts made by OctoPod. Find the ones coming from OctoPod and for each one you will have to click on the shortcut to record your phrase. You will then be able to say things like "Hey Siri, cool down bed" or whatever you decided to use as your phrase. At any moment you can go back and change the phrase that better fits your needs.

If you have multiple printers, then I would recommend adding printer name to your phrase.

I just installed the app for the first time, how do I use this?

If you installed OctoPod for the first time (release 2.1 or newer) then as you add new printers to OctoPod, new Siri suggestions get automatically created. As explained above, you will need to go to the Settings app to record the phrase to use for each action.

Note that suggesting for setting bed and extruders temperatures are not created automatically. This is because OctoPod does not know the temperatures that you usually use. Once you set the temperature from the app from the Panel window then a Siri suggestion will be created.

I had the app installed and just updated to 2.1 or newer, how do I use this?

Siri suggestions will not be present by default for existing printers. Siri suggestions will be generated as you use the app (see usages). For instance, if you set the bed temperature to 60 then a Siri suggestion for that action will be created. As explained above, you will need to go to the Settings app to record the phrase to use for each action.

Another trick is to go to each printer, make a change (add a space and then remove it) and save the printer. This will generate cool down and Pause/Resume/Cancel/Restart Siri suggestions. The rest will be created as you use the app as mentioned before.

Siri action does not work anymore after changing Printer configuration

If you changed the hostname, API Key, username or password then you will need to go to the Settings app, where you recorded the phrase for the shortcut, and delete all shortcuts for the modified printer. Just like you did the very fist time, you will need to look for existing Siri suggestions to find the ones from OctoPod and record a phrase for each action that you deleted.

The reason for all this trouble is that the printer information is stored in the shortcut so once you modified the printer information then that information became stale.