Getting the Raspi?
Hi and thanks for the invitation!
I have a question - the github MK3S firmware release notes that had the link to the beta application form also mentioned "Selected beta testers will receive an RPi Zero W with pre-soldered GPIO pins" which could either mean "everyone selected for beta testing" or "selected testers of the selected..." 🙂 Since the invitation mail didn't mention this, I guess it was the latter 🙂 but just wanted to be sure that I didn't miss anything before I go and buy it myself (seems to be cheap and still available at e.g. rpishop.cz luckily so that's not an issue).
But a related question - since the getting started post says "We’re already working on support for regular Raspberry Pi and we’ll publish a guide shortly." would you recommend buying Zero W now, or the regular one (and which exact one)? What's the ETA, and what are the expected pro/cons of regular vs zero w? Zero W can be embedded in the case with the main board, I guess a larger one not so that would be a con? What features will the more powerful one enable that are not possible with Zero W?
Thanks!
Only select beta testers received the Pi0 with pre-soldered headers.
RaspberryPi Zero W does not have too much power - i means CPU, but PrusaLink works much better than OctoPrint and we prepared one little improvement in this way, so will be works better than now 🙂 But you can run PrusaLink on any Linux system with UART/USB. We want to test other boards, but RaspberryPi Zero is tested now.
Here's how to configure the USB
RE: Getting the Raspi?
Hi guys!
Just a small hi from the Netherlands,
I just received the invite for the PrusaLinkn and happy to start testing with our over 50 Mk3S(+) printers!
Unfortunately, i already hoocked all printers to a raspberry pi 4 4gb (4 printers per raspberry) and it would make much sense also puting raspbery pi zero in there.
Also the Raspberry pi zero is sold out in my country for at least a month on all shops i checked.. .
Let me know when you support raspberry pi's, than i'm happy to start testing with the link!
Gr Ewoud
RE: Getting the Raspi?
You can use the regular Raspberry Pi's with PrusaLink without any issues, I'm not sure if it is currently possible to use 4 printers with a single PrusaLink instance (Maybe using Docker in the future?). You only need to add a file telling PrusaLink to use USB instead of the GPIO pins.
Hi guys!
Just a small hi from the Netherlands,
I just received the invite for the PrusaLinkn and happy to start testing with our over 50 Mk3S(+) printers!
Unfortunately, i already hoocked all printers to a raspberry pi 4 4gb (4 printers per raspberry) and it would make much sense also puting raspbery pi zero in there.
Also the Raspberry pi zero is sold out in my country for at least a month on all shops i checked.. .Let me know when you support raspberry pi's, than i'm happy to start testing with the link!
Gr Ewoud
RE: Getting the Raspi?
Hi Daniel,
Ohw, ohkeej, than i misread, we will start looking into this:)
My current setup already uses docker, but since my collegues know a lot more about it, and i don't know if we use docker in such a way you mean 🙂
In the mail i got it said:
"A quick overview before we start: PrusaLink is a Raspberry Pi Zero W (soon also RasPi 3 and 4) running our custom software"
Perhaps this is a bit outdated than if they already support this,
Thanks for leting me know!
RE: Getting the Raspi?
Hi, sorry, I haven't thought about that usecase until recently and I think that's true for the whole connect team. At least nobody told me. The only way to do this now would be to make docker or lxc containers, because each instance searches for a config with the printer port and settings in the same place.
Internally, the farm and testing department want the same thing, so it should get done. But they want some harder features with it, so we kinda procrastinate on that one. Sorry
RE: Getting the Raspi?
Hi Tojik,
no worries,
I start testing wit 1 or 2 printers on a raspberry, so i don't have to change/buy any hardware,
In that way i can still see what the prusalink all offers, and if it would be an upgrade from my current system, or what feedback i can give to improve the system;)
RE: Getting the Raspi?
The problem with the docker setup is that its finicky as heck. You'd end up with printers assigned to specific pi ports (a different config for RPi3 B, RPi3 B+ and think RPi4 as well). So printer A would get the topleft usb and could never be plugged elsewhere. We will have to change that, ideally so the printers aren't dependant on a single RPi and can be plugged into any available one. And that is a way different system than the config file we use now.
RE: Getting the Raspi?
Snap, i'm on mobile an you're fast. Thank you for the kind words. I'm sure you'll have feedback
RE: Getting the Raspi?
Yes that was our problem for starts as well, that in the beginning random ports were given to printers, so the order of plugin the cable in determined the placing in our dashboard:p but for our setup, having a fixed usb port for the same position in our dashboard is exactly what we needed (and have), since we don't care about a bit extra setup time, but don't want things to swap around the printers when something reboots:p We sometimes take out printers for maintenance/rentals and put them back, but always the same location, although it wouldn't matter for our case, if we would swap 2 printers, we want to have a fixed dashboard to a fixed location, regardless specific which unique printer is standing in that location:p
However i don't have any exact knowledge how the ICT operated, i had a collegue working on that, if you have any specific questions, he might be able to let you know what we did,
In the picture our dashboard, where we can drag-drop .gcodes so the printer starts.
RE: Getting the Raspi?
Yup, the printer swaps on a single port is what's the problem, as the config ties it to a specific serial number.
I know how to stop them jumping around on reboots. The big problem is the shared list of printer serial numbers against which we would authenticate (instead of the foxed config thing) anyway. I gotta start wrapping gifts 😀