Camera on Prusa Mini with Prusa Connect
Hello everyone,
I am currently using a Prusa Mini, and I would like to add a camera through Prusa Connect. I have a Raspberry Pi 4B and a Logitech webcam that I used before with OctoPrint on my old printer, and I would like to reuse them for this purpose.
I have looked into installing OctoPrint on the RPi without connecting it to the printer, but I don't know how to retrieve the video on Prusa Connect. Similarly, I tried installing RPi OS and using it as a webcam, but I haven't found a way to retrieve the video either.
I believe that if there is a solution, it could be applicable to various types of printers and not just the Prusa Mini. However, the solution for the MK3 on the Prusa website requires a USB B port on the printer, which the Mini does not have.
Is there a way to achieve this?
RE: Camera on Prusa Mini with Prusa Connect
For now PrusaConnect supports only sending static images every 10s or less frequently.
You can use any camera that supports rstp, see https://gist.github.com/nunofgs/84861ee453254823be6b069ebbce9ad2
Other usb cams attached directly to the usb would require some direct usage of th device https://raspberrypi-guide.github.io/electronics/using-usb-webcams I haven't tried this but it just can be integrated into earlier gist script to fetch an image in a loop instead of using ffmpeg.
...or maybe it would be possible to use ffmpeg directly to the device?
I may try to do it this week because I have similar use casw
See my GitHub and printables.com for some 3d stuff that you may like.
RE: Camera on Prusa Mini with Prusa Connect
Okay, thank you. I will look into that!
RE: Camera on Prusa Mini with Prusa Connect
I just noticed that there is an example with v4l via usb device https://gist.github.com/nunofgs/84861ee453254823be6b069ebbce9ad2?permalink_comment_id=4644820#gistcomment-4644820
See my GitHub and printables.com for some 3d stuff that you may like.
RE: Camera on Prusa Mini with Prusa Connect
I don't think we have solution to this on the buddy platform yet, regardless of USB B port availability.
Just a technicality, MicroUSB is actually called
RE:
@Marlots but why would you need USB-B port to be connected to the printer, especially with the Mini? Mini is different to MK3 in such way that MK3 actually uses rpi to expose it over the network to control the printer. With mini you can control printer directly over the net.
If you just want to have a camera pointing at the printer and tho be posting photos of it then you do not even need a printer at all, just a rpi + usb camera + token/fingerprint of the camera (generated) + script that sends screenshot from camera to the PrusaConnect using the token/fingerprint. This way you can even send photos of the kittens or whatever you like instead of the printer photos.
Of course assigning camera to the printer on PrusaConnect is another story if you have multiple cameras and multiple printers.
Nether less you can send photos from other devices, for example I do it that I send photos from the laptop using USB camera connected to the laptop. So the taking photo and sending it to PrusaConnect is completely not dependent to the printer state. And this can be extended to any printer you have, even more, you can have multiple cameras sending photos for given printer, and how you arrange them depends on the user.
Just sending a photo if the printer is active (such as online) is a bit more complicated but also doable.
See my GitHub and printables.com for some 3d stuff that you may like.