One of the essential steps when first setting up your Klipper based printer getting your Host (Raspberry Pi, CB1, etc) to talk to your mainboards and toolboard PCBs. To do so, you need to obtain the ID of each of PCB (device) that is connected to your host. This guide covers two methods for determining the USB ID of your boards - via web interface or SSH. Note that this guide is only applicable to USB connected PCBs and not CAN based connections.
¶ Method 1a - Web Interface (Fluidd)
This method is applicable if you installed the Fluidd web interface.
Use your browser to access your printer's Fluidd web interface, then click System (the icon on the left menu bar that looks like a PC tower) and then Devices (the USB icon under "System Information").
Make sure the Serial tab is selected, then click the refresh icon on the top right. You should see one or more devices show up in a list.
Depending on the number of USB devices connected to your host, you should see one or more devices show up. The USB ID you want will be under the input box named path_by_id.
¶ Method 1b - Web Interface (Mainsail)
This method is only applicable if you installed the Mainsail web interface.
Use your browser to access your printer's Mainsail web interface, then click MACHINE (the icon on the left menu bar that looks like a wrench) and then open any config file (typically printer.cfg)
After opening a config file, click on the DEVICES button on the top right.
Make sure the SERIAL tab is selected, then click the REFRESH button. You should see one or more devices show up in a list.
Depending on the number of USB devices connected to your host, you should see one or more devices show up in this list. The USB ID you want will be under the input box named Path by ID.
¶ Method 2 - SSH
This method is applicable to all printers regardless of the web interface you installed. However, you will need to be able to log into your host via SSH. If you are on Windows, putty is the goto tool for SSH. If you are on Mac OS, you can simply run ssh on your Terminal. For more info about remotely accessing your Raspberry Pi using SSH, read this article.
Log in to your Host via SSH and run the command ls -l /dev/serial/by-id/ . You should see an output such as the following:
In the output, each line represents the USB ID of one of the boards connected to your host.
¶ Identifying Multiple Boards connected to your host
If you have multiple boards/devices connected to your host, you will need to correctly match the IDs up to each board you want to connect.
- If your boards use different types of MCU chips, you can differentiate the devices by the mcu name typically contained within the ID. For example, a board which uses the RP2040 MCU will have an ID similar to the format of
usb-Klipper_rp2040_0123456789ABCDEF-if00. - If your boards all use the same type of MCU chip, you will need to isolate each board by physically disconnecting all other boards and refreshing the device list.