Using a Raspberry Pi + Octopi to manage your printer

[AbuMaia]

I haven't really had much use for the LCD since I started using the OctoPi. I haven't even used the SD card. While the print is running from the OctoPi, the only info the LCD gives is temperature and location. I do use the LCD knob, though, to resume a print if my filament runs out and triggers a pause switch, though I could do that with any momentary switch, I think. Now you've got me thinking about removing my LCD. As for a display being required for the Raspberry Pi, not necessarily. I access my RasPi over wifi from my Ubuntu laptop. I open a terminal and SSH into the RasPi via its router address. Then I can do the setup from my laptop (only because I have zero hdmi-capable displays in my home, and I didn't want to buy any).

[gmay3]

I have been reading through these posts and have ordered what appears to be necessary to set up the Raspberry Pi with Octopi. However, it is not clear to me if this eliminates the need for the kit lcd display or not? I do understand that a display is required to access the Raspberry Pi.

The kit LCD on top of your printer is not needed if you are using octopi. Since I'm working on new LCD bracket parts that will become a rear spool holder, I actually have my kit LCD, ribbon cables, and sd card unplugged from the printer completely. You just need connect the usb on the raspberry pi to the usb on your RAMPS board.

If you want to, you can run with the kit LCD attached, and it will just mirror the commands given by octopi. One thing that is nice about having the LCD attached is as a redundancy, if the octopi server goes down for some reason, it's nice to see that the temperatures are commanded 'off' on the LCD. Also varying the print speed is easier using the kit LCD knob.

[dacb]

Personally, I would keep the LCD. It can be the only place that some errors are displayed. It is also useful for doing manual moves, etc.

[AbuMaia]

So who's interested in setting up a "bullet time" camera rig for their printer? http://hackaday.com/2014/12/19/multiplexing-pi-cameras/

[gmay3]

Haha only to be used while printing a bust of Neo!

[dacb]

Ha ha!

Out of curiosity, is anyone use a non-USB camera with OctoPi right now?

[AbuMaia]

Nope, I'm using a USB webcam, though I'm considering getting the RasPi camera to use instead. It has more image controls, such as brightness level, so I can turn on my extruder LEDs without washing out the print area.

[csader]

I'm getting some pretty unpredictable behavior with OctoPi on my 512MB Raspberry Pi:

1. Commands often don't get received at all. Other times it seems they get put into a queue and take a long time to make their way to the printer. Right now I'm having trouble getting the Temp Set commands to be sent to the hotend and bed. Other times I have trouble getting the Z axis raise button to work.

2. Since yesterday, almost every time I try to print with OctoPi the print starts fine and about 5 seconds in just stops. No errors, just stops. The heat bed and hotend stay on, though. When I try manually loading the same gcode on an SD card, it works fine.

3. Today, I tried to start a print and Octopi was reporting the heatbed was at 110, while the LCD showed it was at 98. So the print tried to start with the heatbed way below temp. Tried stopping the print from Octopi immediately and it took about 2 minutes before it finally cancelled.

4. This might be a Cura thing, but I'm getting unpredictable pre-heating behavior. Sometimes the heatbed and hotend will heat at the same time. Sometimes the heatbed heats first, then the hotend. Can't figure out why.

[csader]

But of course, now that I've posted this, it's working great. Again, unpredictable...at least for me.

[andyschneider]

First off I'd like to thank you guys for this wonderful thread.

Unfortunately, I'm having issues with my files using OctoPrint. I can upload files to both the local and the SD card and I've tried .gcode and .gco extensions. I have no problems with this part.

When I click 'load' or 'load and print' under "Files" nothing happens. This happens with any file I try, regardless of how I uploaded them or if they were already on the SD card. Delete doesn't work either.

I can change temperature and control the axis and the extruder through OctoPrint. I can also start .gco files from the LCD on the printer which I uploaded earlier through OctoPrint.

I've tried using Chrome and Firefox and I'm in octopi.local. I feel like there might be a simple solution to this, or at least I'm hoping there is.

Any suggestions?