Data flow

From tap to print

The full journey of one spool through the system:

sequenceDiagram
  actor User
  participant Chip as TigerTag chip
  participant App as Connect / Studio
  participant Cloud as Firebase
  participant Printer as Printer (LAN)

  User->>Chip: NFC tap (phone) or place on reader (desktop)
  Chip-->>App: 144-byte identity payload
  App->>Cloud: upsert spool in users/{uid} inventory
  Cloud-->>App: real-time snapshot to every signed-in device
  User->>App: assign spool to a printer slot
  App->>Printer: native protocol (MQTT / WebSocket / HTTP)
  Printer-->>App: live telemetry (temps, job, filament slots, camera)

Where each kind of data lives

Data	Lives in	Notes
Spool identity	The chip + the user’s cloud inventory	Chip is authoritative for offline use
Reference database (brands, materials…)	`cdn.tigertag.io` (same Firebase project)	Bundled with apps, refreshed from CDN
Spool images (incl. TigerTag+ product photos)	`cdn.tigertag.io` (same Firebase project)	Served to all apps
Inventory, racks, friends, prefs	Firestore `users/{uid}/…`	Owner-only by default, rules-enforced
Public discovery codes	Firestore `publicKeys/{code}`	O(1) friend lookup
Printer credentials & telemetry	Local only (desktop)	LAN traffic never transits the cloud
Live weight (TigerScale)	Device → Firestore	Appears live in all clients

Where your slicer fits

TigerSystem does not replace your slicer — it completes the picture around it:

flowchart LR
  YOU["You"] -- "3D model" --> SLICER["Your slicer"]
  SLICER -- "sliced job" --> PRN["Printer"]
  TAG["TigerTag chip"] -- "scan" --> ST["Tiger Studio"]
  ST -- "which filament is in which slot" --> PRN
  PRN -- "progress · temps · 'ends at' · camera" --> ST

You slice and launch jobs exactly as before, with any slicer.
Tiger Studio tells the printer which filament sits in which slot (AMS / CFS / Canvas / ACE / material station), so the machine-side information matches reality.
Whatever started the print, the job shows up live in Tiger Studio — progress, temperatures, finish time, camera.
The chip carries the filament’s recommended print settings; there is no automatic slicer-profile import today — you mirror them in your slicer profile yourself.

Two planes, deliberately separate

Cloud plane — identity, inventory, sharing. Internet, Firebase, rules-enforced.
LAN plane — printer control and cameras. Local network only, native vendor protocols, zero cloud dependency (the desktop app keeps working with printers when offline).

Note: the exception is Anycubic cloud mode, where the printer link itself goes through the vendor’s cloud MQTT — see Anycubic compatibility.