Using a Raspberry Pi + Octopi to manage your printer

[PyramidDave]

I discovered that the video will not work under Windows Internet Explorer. Works on browsers that support Mjpg-Streamer. IE does not supportthis. Here is a link to a page that describes that problem. http://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/vi...=8659&start=25

I just use the ip address in my browser. I did not want to install bonjour on my windows machine.

[clough42]

The image should appear on the Control tab.

In Chrome, try "http://octopi.local"

Chrome can be very aggressive about searching instead of visiting local network sites.

[SgtToe]

The image should appear on the Control tab.

In Chrome, try "http://octopi.local"

Chrome can be very aggressive about searching instead of visiting local network sites.

Any idea why the video works in safari but not chrome? when I use the IP that is.

Also the video is delayed about 4 seconds and seems chopy, is this normal? is it because I am using a usb camera and if I used the pi cam it would be much more fluid since that uses a different data bus? Is it that the default is 10 fps? Do folks up that?

[clough42]

Not sure about the video working in Safari.

Delayed and choppy video isn't that unusual. There are a lot of factors. Not all cameras are created equal. If the camera can natively provide an mjpg stream, the pi doesn't have to do much. With other cameras, the pi has to do a lot of computation on the video stream. The pi camera is good because it doesn't use USB bandwidth, but I get better, more responsive video from a Microsoft LifeCam.

[Drone]

Any idea why the video works in safari but not chrome? when I use the IP that is.

Also the video is delayed about 4 seconds and seems chopy, is this normal? is it because I am using a usb camera and if I used the pi cam it would be much more fluid since that uses a different data bus? Is it that the default is 10 fps? Do folks up that?

Your video should be pretty smooth if viewing from inside the LAN, but across the internet I have found it is very choppy and lags quite a bit behind the actual print. I haven't found a cure for the laggy performance across the internet when connecting directly to the Pi, but if you remote into a local computer to the Pi (from the internet) and connect to the Pi from there it is smooth and immediate. I have also changed the frame rate to 20fps from the default 10fps although it was quite smooth at 10fps. You can edit video resolution and fps (either USB camera or a Pi cam) in the /boot/octopi.txt file.

Remoting into a local computer to connect to the Pi also solves my problem of allowing protected access to print viewing for me since I can control username and password to the remotes easily. I'm using virtual machines through Hyper-V and my 2012 server and have 3 virtual Win 8.1 machines setup for this so I can allow multiple viewing access at once. I have them setup so when logging into the VMs it has restricted access to the VM and opens Chrome and logs into the Pi automatically so my friends just enter a username and password at the login screen and OctoPrint starts immediately. And even with 3 logged in it is very smooth video.

BTW, you don't need a server for this. If you have a Win8 machine at home you can have Hyper-V and one VM running concurrent with your console session. It's a free addon to Windows 8 and 8.1 (but you will need a license for the virtual machine OS... but you can use the Win 8.1 Enterprise evaluation for 120 days for free or use the Windows 10 technical preview for free if you prefer). So with Windows 8 Hyper-V you can have 2 people using the Win8 machine at the same time.

The difference with the video streaming is night and day when logged in from a LAN source rather than across the internet, even though you are remoting into a computer from the internet. Maybe there is a way to get the Pi server to handle internet connections better and I just haven't found it yet. But this makes a big difference for me.

[TopJimmyCooks]

I just use teamviewer to remote into a home pc and open an octopi browser window. Easier than accessing the pi over the internet for us non linux guys.

[SgtToe]

Thanks for all the info, I will edit my ocotopi.txt and bump the frame rate up to 20. I think the choppyness I am refering to is because of frame rate. When I wave I see my hand on the right side, middle and left side, I donn't see it move across the screen.

My setup is all local, not over the internet, it is all wireless, but there is definitely about 3-4 second delay. I can walk over to the camera and wave and then walk back to my computer just in time to see myself arrive at the camera and wave. Does the amount of light slow the camera down? Does it try and compensate some how? All my testing was in pretty low light.

Printer will arrive Monday, so this weekend I need to get the relay working with octoprint so I can turn power on and off.

[Drone]

I just use teamviewer to remote into a home pc and open an octopi browser window. Easier than accessing the pi over the internet for us non linux guys.

Teamviewer should provide the same results and give much better internet stream than the built-in Pi internet streaming TJC... great idea. And Teamviwer (also VNC) can be had for free. So even better.

[Drone]

Thanks for all the info, I will edit my ocotopi.txt and bump the frame rate up to 20. I think the choppyness I am refering to is because of frame rate. When I wave I see my hand on the right side, middle and left side, I donn't see it move across the screen.

My setup is all local, not over the internet, it is all wireless, but there is definitely about 3-4 second delay. I can walk over to the camera and wave and then walk back to my computer just in time to see myself arrive at the camera and wave. Does the amount of light slow the camera down? Does it try and compensate some how? All my testing was in pretty low light.

Printer will arrive Monday, so this weekend I need to get the relay working with octoprint so I can turn power on and off.

Even 10fps should give smooth video over a LAN connection, at least it did with mine. I would guess it is wireless latency. With a 150mbs wireless dongle and 10fps mine was very smooth on the LAN, and was very smooth when remoting into a local PC accessed from the internet. Just as a test I also used a 300mbs wireless adapter and didn't see any improvement, so I'm guessing a good 150mbs adapter should be fine. If possible, move the printer close enough to the router to run a direct ethernet cable and run something like a G29 ABL command and see if the results get better.

[clough42]

Even 10fps should give smooth video over a LAN connection, at least it did with mine. I would guess it is wireless latency. With a 150mbs wireless dongle and 10fps mine was very smooth on the LAN, and was very smooth when remoting into a local PC accessed from the internet. Just as a test I also used a 300mbs wireless adapter and didn't see any improvement, so I'm guessing a good 150mbs adapter should be fine. If possible, move the printer close enough to the router to run a direct ethernet cable and run something like a G29 ABL command and see if the results get better.

Wireless is always sketchy for this kind of stuff. It's not just the max bandwidth. It's also about latency, latency distribution and the USB hardware behind the dongle in the Pi, which of course competes with the USB camera.