Maintenance

The Maintenance page has two lists. A schedule is recurring upkeep for one printer, such as lubricating the Z rods every 200 print hours or replacing the nozzle every 30 days. A log entry is one completed service, with the date, downtime and what was done. Add schedules first, then log each service against them so the page can tell you what is due. Three figures sit at the top: Downtime this month, Downtime this year and Schedules due.

New schedule asks for the printer, a task name (for example Lubricate Z rods or Replace nozzle), an interval type (Every N print hours, or Every N days) and a description of what the service involves. A print-hours schedule compares the printer's cumulative print hours against the hours at its last service; a days schedule counts calendar days. Switching Active off pauses a schedule (the list shows it as Paused), and a paused schedule never falls due. Delete removes it; its past log entries stay in the log. To put the same task on the rest of the fleet, open a saved schedule and choose Apply to all printers at the foot of the form (under More on a narrow screen). Every printer still in the fleet without a task of that name gets the saved version, starting from its own print hours today; printers that already have it are left alone.

A schedule is due once the interval has elapsed since the last service logged against it (or since it was created, for a new schedule). Due schedules are flagged on the page, counted in Schedules due, and raise a Maintenance due notification on the bell. A schedule on a Retired or archived printer is never due; it reads Printer retired. Logging a service against the schedule clears the flag and starts the interval again. Until a service is logged against it, a schedule shows Never serviced and No service logged yet rather than Up to date. To start the count from the last time you did the job, log it with that date. For a print-hours schedule, also type the printer's hours at that service in Printer hours at service (it starts at today's hours). Otherwise the next service comes due late.

A log entry is one service you did. Linking it to a schedule is what resets that schedule's due clock.

Log service asks for the printer, an optional schedule the service was against, the date, downtime in hours, the printer's hours at the service (filled in with its hours now), a task description (Replaced nozzle, cleaned bed), notes, and what the service cost. Mark done on an active schedule opens the same form with the printer, the schedule and the task already filled in.

With a cost filled in, check Also add as an expense (Maintenance) to put that cost on the Expenses page as well, dated the day of the service. It is added once, and the entry then says the cost is on the Expenses page. After that, the entry and the expense stay in step. Change the cost or the date on the entry and the expense follows. Clear the cost or delete the entry and the expense is deleted too (only owners and admins delete expenses).

Pick a schedule when the work matches it: a days schedule counts from the entry's date, a print-hours schedule from its hours. The newest entry against a schedule always decides, so an older entry logged later does not move the clock back.

Entries can be deleted after a confirmation. Deleting an entry, or changing Against schedule to None, puts the schedule back to the service logged before it (or to when the schedule was made), so undoing a mistaken Mark done makes the schedule due again if it was.

Downtime hours on log entries add up into Downtime this month and this year on the Maintenance page, and into the Downtime by printer and Downtime by month reports. If what you want to see is lost capacity, log the hours the machine was out of action rather than the minutes the job took.

Search on the Maintenance page matches printer names and task descriptions in both lists. The printer detail view on the Printers page does not repeat the log; open Maintenance and search for the printer's name to see its history.