ESP32 CAM - Prusa Connect - Camera for print progress
Hi All,
Now that Prusa Connect is here, it is time to fully take advantage of the ecosystem and build a camera monitoring system for you.
I'm planning to start a Kickstarter/crowd supply project for a plug-and-play solution to have a camera for your Prusa Mini or Prusa MK4
This project for me started in 2021 when I already made my first boards ( https://hackaday.io/project/182811-esp32-cam-prusa-mini), this worked great for me, but was difficult to setup, now with prusa connect it is time to share it more broadly, and make it easy for you to integrate.
This post marks the start of an adventure, the goal is to gather ideas and feedback from you, and the community. So that when we launch a campaign it is a product you would actually like to use!
Please let me know if you like this project, and if you have suggestions
Later I will follow up with more details
RE: ESP32 CAM - Prusa Connect - Camera for print progress
Just had a look through the api documentation ( https://connect.prusa3d.com/docs/cameras/) and nothing in there looks too scary, just a couple of json posts.
The problem is going to be configuration which I think will require using the arduino IDE to enter the printer uuid that the camera is attached to and probably an upload interval, then uploading the compiled software. It is quite trivial to do but as soon as you start talking about IDEs and using FT232RL serial converters a significant percentage of people are going to be running for the hills but decent instructions should help.
I would offer to help with the software but don't really have time atm and my C++ skills are not great as I come from a C#/SQL background.
RE: ESP32 CAM - Prusa Connect - Camera for print progress
Hi JP,
I currently have a arduino sketch up and running, I am thinking of adding something like wifimanger ( https://github.com/tzapu/WiFiManager) for people to make it easy to add their tokens
Er, if you just want a progress check can't you just point any old webcam at the printer ...?
If you want't to be really cheap repurpose a camera from an old laptop; they're almost all USB cameras without the cases. For monitoring, a Pi Zero and a USB hub is enough 'though a Zero 2W is cheap enough for the extra convenience.
I did fit a camera and Pi way back when Mk3's were new and after a couple of pointless time-lapses the novelty wore off and the printer never needed monitoring so I found a better use for the Pi and the camera went into a nature cam project.
Cheerio,
RE:
What would be in the kickstarter/crowdsupply setup?
Would it be more like DYI packaged devices with pre-flashed firmware?
Would it be esp32 based or rather USB device?
I've been using esp32-wrover nodemcu dev board + camera with esphome, and frankly speaking flashing it via web browser + standalone captive portal to allow to connect to another wifi would be the most easy way to do it?
esphome would require disabling HomeAssistant integration to prevent it from rebooting.
Other things it allows is streaming (mjpeg, though) or still images exposed via http server.
More details in https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/postid/659086/
See my GitHub and printables.com for some 3d stuff that you may like.
RE:
Oh cool!
Yes, either a diy package with PCB,esp32-cam and code, or a fully assembled version
I also used Home Assistant in the past with ESPhome, I did not know it could set up its own webserver and stream from there.
I think the Prusa API request a PUT command, do you know if the esphome server can do that?
RE: ESP32 CAM - Prusa Connect - Camera for print progress
Yeah I was thinking about that,
It is mostly convenience, with a webcam comes a Pi Zero W, with that comes a power supply, with that comes an extra socket, where this just plugs into the existing hardware. It is also cheaper
RE:
esphome server rather can not push camera image - it's rahter more like serving image/stream so client would pull it and not push it.
I guess someone did some simple shell script that fetches image from esp and pushes to other location.
If you want to push directly from esp32 from esphome ... maybe using somehow esphome lambdas, will see if there are any examples of that.
If you want to push directly from esp32 then I know that it would have to be coded with custom firmware, people already did it: https://randomnerdtutorials.com/esp32-cam-post-image-photo-server/
See my GitHub and printables.com for some 3d stuff that you may like.
RE: ESP32 CAM - Prusa Connect - Camera for print progress
Made it into this:
https://jerrydevos.nl/print-camera-kickstart/
RE: ESP32 CAM - Prusa Connect - Camera for print progress
sorry, I used the wrong video link, here is the correct one:
RE: ESP32 CAM - Prusa Connect - Camera for print progress
Looks pretty neat!
Some suggestions:
- video and stealth version, you should really edit the video not to show the video rotated in that angle 😀
- product page should provide more details about the hardware such as image quality and how frequently image is pushed to PrusaConnect, whak wifi stnadards are supported (some people have only 5Ghz...)
See my GitHub and printables.com for some 3d stuff that you may like.
RE: ESP32 CAM - Prusa Connect - Camera for print progress
The framerate is cleverly hidden behind a timelapse. Maybe too cleverly? But yeah, neat
RE: ESP32 CAM - Prusa Connect - Camera for print progress
yeah Prusa Connect set a limit to refresh only every 10 seconds, so even though the fps of the camera can be higher, it won't show any quicker on Prusa Connect
RE: ESP32 CAM - Prusa Connect - Camera for print progress
It is now up for sale! I made a little webshop to make it easy for you to get one 🙂
https://jerrydevos.nl/product/printcam-prusa-mini-print-progress-camera/