kubeklipper

Kubeklipper is a Helm chart allowing you to deploy your 3D printer software stack in Kubernetes.

It includes:

• Klipper, a 3D printer firmware that runs on linux hosts and communicates with a think microcontroller counterpart in your 3D printer
• Moonraker, a web API for Klipper
• Mainsail, a slick web UI for Klipper/Moonraker
• And/or Fluidd, anoter slick web UI for Klipper/Moonraker
• µStreamer, a lightweight and fast MJPEG-HTTP streamer for your webcam
• go2rtc, a more complex and powerful video streaming solution, as an alternative to ustreamer.
• Cura, an advanced slicer software.
• OrcaSlicer, an slicer as an alternative to Cura.

Using this chart

The kubeklipper chart is distributed as an OCI image. You can use it as a dependency if you are using Helm v3.8.0 or newer. To do so, simply add an entry to your dependencies array like the following:

dependencies:
  - name: kubeklipper
    version: 0.1.0
    repository: oci://ghcr.io/roobre/charts

You can also install the chart directly:

helm install kubeklipper oci://ghcr.io/roobre/charts/kubeklipper --version 0.1.0

Things you will be able to do the Kubernetes way:

• Run a standard linux distro and kubelet on whatever compute you have connected to your 3D printer.
• Store your klipper, moonraker, and mainsail configs as-code, in your values.yaml file.
• Distribute other components (web UI, slicer) across different nodes.
• Leverage Kubernetes Ingress objects for local/remote access and TLS termination.
• Upgrade all* your 3D printing software at once, using gitops (if you want to).

Things you will need to do the old way:

• Flashing klipper on your 3D printer has to be done manually, as a prerequisite (*).
  • The mkuf/klipper:latest-tools image from the prind project contains the toolchain needed for this.
  • As klipper firmware does not change often, you won't need to do this more than once a year.
  • Have any ideas on better ways to do this? Let me know on an issue!
• Configure Cura using its GUI. Cura config is extensive and the software relies on having write access to it.

Things the chart doesn't currently do but might in the future:

• Better volume management. Currently users are allowed to template a volume spec, but not to create PVs or PVCs.
  • You can still create those outside of the chart and reference the volumes to them.

Architecture

Klipper and Moonraker run together, as different containers, in the same pod. This allows them to communicate over a unix socket. You should place node selector, affinities, or resources accordingly so the node running this pod can communicate with your 3D printer via USB.

Mainsail and/or Fluidd run each one on its own pod. All of them communicate with the Klipper/Moonraker pod over HTTP, so they do not necessarily need to run on a node connected to the printer.

uStreamer also runs as an independent pod, but like Klipper/Moonraker, you should specify selectors, affinities, or resources to pin it to the node with the required webcam.

Cura also runs as an independent pod.

Note on smarter-device-manager

I recommend smarter-device-manager to allow pods to access device nodes (/dev/*), as it provides a secure way to map only certain devices to the pods, while also removing the need to set nodeSelectors or affinities.

Images

This chart uses some of the awesome images built for the prind project, as well as the docker-cura image maintained by the excellent linuxserver folks.