EXPERIENCE SO FAR IN MY FARM.
Ok so i got single mk3s set up will explain more in a bit why only one.
used all day on about 4 or 5 prints, i like it and having all machines in one place rather then walk memory cards to each of my 30 machines will be nice.
things i have noticed
bugs
- i used a 3d pi over usb and noticed it always saying its disconnected when when it has not , not sure if bug or not but prints worked fine
Improvements i would like to see.
-more control over the gcodes in the project folder, be able to delete them add to them folders and just basicaly manage the ones i use all the time
- be able to set the temp to any value after the printer has started instead of the pre defined ones , some prints i change the heat so woul dbe nice to do that on the fly.
- maybe a gcode viewer showing how far through the print , not sure this would be possible on the 8 bit board prusas
now here comes my biggest issue, i would need 30 pi zeros for my all my machines which i would love to go and buy online today but theres massive shortages of pi's and when they come back in stock its one per customer so untill tat changes im not going to be able to rig my farm up which is a shame so thats my postion right now and first thoughts
RE: EXPERIENCE SO FAR IN MY FARM.
About the gcode viewer - you don't actually have to do that on the RPi, you can just provide the file (and current position with some precision) to the browser, parsing and rendering the actual state can be done in the frontend UI - JS on your computer can sure handle it better than the Pi. (just a little note, RPi Zero is 32bit ARM, Zero 2 is 64bit and quad-core iirc, so not exactly 8bit boards 🙂 )
RE:
I have a smaller farm, but immediately recognized that not being able to manage the GCODE files/folders in the browser is definitely an easy fix/add that would go a long way for usability. I am testing 1 printer out as well, on a Pi4 since all my prior farm printers were using Pi4's with AstroPrint, I would love for the Pi4 to work out for the reasons stated above (Zero's being hard to get) and because I already have 10 of them.
RE: EXPERIENCE SO FAR IN MY FARM.
Pi 4s work fine same 3b I believe