Using Octoprint vs Prusa web admin - what am I missing?
I built a small machine to take a look at octoprint. I got it going, no issues, but feel im missing something.
Ive been printing on my mini for about 6 months, and am using it direct out of prusaslicer via the API, and then integration into my HomeAssistant for some alerting/automation. Works great.
But, I feel Im missing the point of Octoprint. So, to fellow Prusa Users, what am I missing? Is there a huge advantage to using Octoprint full time vs the Prusa Setup?
Not a troll post, just wondering what Im missing.
Thanks,
RE:
I think Octoprint became really popular because the flagship MK3S and its decendants only had a USB port.. no Ethernet connectivity.. And so there was no option to send files remotely to the MK3/2 series of printers. Enter OctoPrint on a Raspberry Pi that allows both wireless and wired remote communications by buffering the GCODE from the slicer into Pi memory. Works great. Then people started making plug-ins for it as OctoPrint is open source. So you have things like "exclude region" (if one part fails you can draw a box around it and continue printing by skipping that part).. or Bed Level visualizer which allows you to easily use a mod to physically level the bed to pretty good tolerance, or Remote control / Spaghetti detective stuff and many others (ArcWeld that combines Gcode movements into fewer Gcode commands so as not to overwhelm the printer).. . The Mini came after and although it had an RJ45 was quite a while getting network connectivity options.. I think the Wifi was only activated 2 years after launch (Heresay, I don't have mini). As it is now, a Pi running Octoprint can buffer a file from the slicer much, much quicker than the network options of the MK4; so if you are printing large files, you'll likely get a better experience right now from Octoprint plus printer. Now I have only 1 year experience with the MK3 so I don't have a complete history.. am sure there are some holes in my explanation.. but that is what I understand, to date. I was hoping on the MK4 that Octoprint would not be necessary, but I think Prusa needs to speed up their network interface and remove some of the TCP stack bugs.