Monitoring 3D Prints

[mwu]

The Pi can't find my college's network, thus I can't connect via WiFi. I'm considering buying an ethernet cable but I'm not sure that will fix the problem. Will I need a router? Or is there a way to get the Pi recognize the campus network?

I had similar issues getting a pi on wifi and found that I needed to unplug and reconnect the wifi usb stick after the pi boots. I tend to use ethernet on mine to avoid that annoyance. Of course my printer is right next to my router, so using a cable is not really an issue for me.

[Wolfie]

Hey guys. Quick update here. I ended up buying the Raspberry Pi B+. The reason I waited so long is because I wanted to see how the Pi 2 performed and then decide which I needed. I chose not to get the Pi 2 because it shuts off when exposed to xenon light and I'm not 100% sure my printer doesn't use xenon lights and I may want to take pictures or use xenon light around it in the future.

Anyway, I am having a problem. The Pi can't find my college's network, thus I can't connect via WiFi. I'm considering buying an ethernet cable but I'm not sure that will fix the problem. Will I need a router? Or is there a way to get the Pi recognize the campus network?

Trust me, your printer does NOT use xenon light. And its not xenon light. Xenon is a gas, not a light though its used to create light. The gas is used in glass tubes inside photographic strobes (ie, camera flashes). Your iPhone/cell phone does NOT have one either, those use LEDs. The lights in your printer are probably LEDs. Xenon flashes are extremely short duration light sources so are ideal for photography as it produces a slightly cool white light thats extremely intense. It does it by charging a capacitor with high voltage and then dumping it as an arc of high voltage as a spark through the tube filled with the xenon gas. When the gas is so energized, it emits a bright white light.

As for the Pi, its the light FROM a xenon flash (and potentially other short duration high intensify light sources) and some laser pointers that could trigger it. So, don't take pictures using a high power camera strobe or point a laser pointer directly at the CPU regulator on the board and it won't shut off.

[ssayer]

OR put a case on it to shield the offending component from the light source...

[mwu]

OR put a case on it to shield the offending component from the light source...

Yea, I was gonna say. Stopping light would be an easy solution. Here's a great vid exploring the effect, it's cause, and preventing it using some blue tack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrDfRCi1UV0

An opaque epoxy would probably also work.

[taskman]

I use http://bambuser.com/
It keeps your previous streams so you can go back to see what happened and you can monitor the machine through your cellphone

Here is a previous broadcast
Sorry for the bad view, the camera started going lose at some point
http://bambuser.com/v/5297955