PrintStatusVFD

Monitor your 3D printer's status on a VFD display using Home Assistant and Moonraker

A lightweight Python script that updates a Posiflex PD-2800/320 VFD display with live 3D printer status from Home Assistant.

🚀 Features

• ✅ Live Print Status — Displays "Printing", "Paused", "Standby", etc.
• ✅ Print Progress Bar — Dynamic bar graph with percentage.
• ✅ Time Remaining — Converts seconds to a readable HH:MM format.
• ✅ "Printer Ready" Mode — Hides progress/time when idle.
• ✅ Auto-Start on Boot — Runs on Raspberry Pi via systemd service.
• ✅ Easy Customization — Change Home Assistant entity names via config.py.

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🔧 What You Need

• 🖥️ Raspberry Pi (or any Linux system)
• 🔌 Posiflex PD-2800/320 VFD display (connected via USB)
• 🔄 Home Assistant with Moonraker Plugin
• 🐍 Python 3 & Dependencies

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📥 Installation

1️⃣ Install Required Packages

Run these commands on your Raspberry Pi:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y python3 python3-pip
pip3 install requests

2️⃣ Clone This Repository

git clone https://github.com/YOUR_USERNAME/PrintStatusVFD.git
cd PrintStatusVFD

3️⃣ Configure Home Assistant API

Edit config.py:

nano config.py

Modify it to match your Home Assistant API token & entities:

# Home Assistant Configuration
HA_URL = "http://homeassistant.local:8123/api/states"
HA_TOKEN = "YOUR_LONG_LIVED_ACCESS_TOKEN"

# Home Assistant Entity IDs (Update based on your setup)
PRINTER_STATUS_ENTITY = "sensor.k1c_current_print_state"  # Printer state
PRINTER_PROGRESS_ENTITY = "sensor.k1c_progress"  # Print completion %
PRINTER_TIME_LEFT_ENTITY = "sensor.k1c_print_time_left"  # Time remaining in seconds

Save and exit (CTRL+X, then Y, then ENTER).

4️⃣ Test the Script

Run manually to check for errors:

python3 homeassistant_display.py

If everything works, press CTRL+C to stop.

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🛠️ Setting Up Auto-Start on Boot

To ensure PrintStatusVFD starts automatically on reboot, create a systemd service.

1️⃣ Create a Service File

sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/vfd-display.service

Paste this inside:

[Unit]
Description=VFD Display Printer Status
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3 /home/pi/PrintStatusVFD/homeassistant_display.py
WorkingDirectory=/home/pi/PrintStatusVFD
Restart=always
User=pi

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Save and exit (CTRL+X, then Y, then ENTER).

2️⃣ Enable & Start the Service

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable vfd-display.service
sudo systemctl start vfd-display.service

3️⃣ Verify That It’s Running

sudo systemctl status vfd-display.service

You should see "active (running)" in green.

4️⃣ Reboot & Confirm It Works

sudo reboot

Check the display after rebooting!

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🎯 Troubleshooting

🛑 The script doesn’t start on boot

• Check logs:

  journalctl -u vfd-display.service --no-pager | tail -50

• Restart the service manually:

  sudo systemctl restart vfd-display.service

• Ensure the script runs without errors:

  python3 homeassistant_display.py

⚠️ Display Shows "Printer Ready" Always

• Check if Home Assistant’s API is responding:

  curl -X GET -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_HA_LONG_LIVED_ACCESS_TOKEN"        -H "Content-Type: application/json"        http://homeassistant.local:8123/api/states

  If this fails, your Home Assistant API token may be incorrect.

⏳ The Time Remaining Seems Incorrect

• Ensure Home Assistant is providing the correct time in seconds.
• You can log the output by adding print(time_left_sec) inside get_printer_status().

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📝 Contributing

If you’d like to improve PrintStatusVFD, feel free to:

• 🐛 Report bugs via GitHub Issues.
• 💡 Suggest features by opening a discussion.
• 🔄 Submit a pull request if you add something awesome!

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📜 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License—do whatever you want, just give credit! 😎