How to Fund Canisters with Cycles in Orbit?

Developers
1

Hi,

I’ve been following Kepler in this intro. I’m trying to deploy a canister through Orbit Wallet and I’m confused about the cycles funding workflow.

My Setup:

  • Station canister: g24fd-zaaaa-aaaac-qc2pq-cai
  • 1 Canister I created through Orbit: zhz7b-5iaaa-aaaae-ac4qa-cai
  • I have 1 ICP in my Orbit Wallet account

What I Expected:

  • When I top up or deploy a canister through Orbit, I expected it to automatically convert ICP from my wallet to cycles. I saw the “Mint from ICP” option and assumed this would handle it.

    image

What Happens:

  • I created a canister through Orbit’s UI, but when I tried to deploy it fails. I had to send cycles through dfx to deploy and top up the canister.

Questions:

  1. Is this expected behavior or am I missing something?

  2. What is the recommended workflow?

    • Should I deploy canisters through dfx first, then give control to my Orbit Station and manage permissions through it?

Thank you

2

That only applies to topping up the station/external canister once it runs low on cycles (there’s a background job that monitors the station/external canister). Instant top-ups (the “TOP UP” button) require the station to have enough cycles. Please use the “MONITOR” button and set up a top-up strategy if you want to mint from ICP transparently.

3

Thanks @mraszyk for the quick response. That clarifies things. I’ll set up the monitoring strategy as suggested.