Initial Thoughts
Well, I installed this on a Raspberry Pi 3B+ with a MK3S+. I have to admit the install went really easy -- I downloaded the image from the Github site, burned it with the standard Raspberry Pi imager (even accepting my Wifi and SSH settings!). The web interface is nice - Prusa branding of course. Had two minor issues that were easy to figure out:
- Camera was visible on PrusaLink but not PrusaConnect - found the slider that turned it on. I suppose that's off by default for privacy reasons.
- Had to remind myself how to change the Octopi settings - got bad API Key the first time
I'm mildly curious what the non-beta goals are for this. It doesn't have feature parity with OctoPrint, clearly, but it perhaps doesn't really need it. There are a few things I'd like to see:
- Camera: not currently on par with OctoPrint. I routinely like to monitor the first layer through the camera, and that's not really possible at 10s/shot. I suspect this is for bandwidth-saving purposes. So my suggestion is allow faster updates on PrusaLink than Connect.
- Slicing: I noticed the policy about GCODE only for privacy purposes, but I would consider allowing cloud slicing as an opt-in. Currently there is no slicer I'm aware of for devices like iPads or phones. The ability to take an STL, upload it to PrusaConnect, have it be sliced and printed would be huge.
- PrusaConnect for tech support? Not sure if it's the plan, but should be. I think tech support having direct-to-printer connectivity to check settings, or working directly with customers would be a game changer. I know for me, when I was trying to get my Mk2 back up, there were countless emails going back and forth.
So at least for now - ra ra go you! I'm going to hang around at least a little while to get a better feeling for it, but so long as the camera thing gets better, it's already looking quite good.
RE: Initial Thoughts
Hi, Thank you. Really. I'll share this with the rest of the team. I have not yet seen a request for the support feature, sounds cool. The video streaming is a frequently requested feature. But juggling MJPEGs and raw data encoding from webcams and raspi cams took me over a month to get working properly. We'll see what the future holds.
RE: Initial Thoughts
Yeah, I can only imagine. I'm a photographer, and I don't think any two of my cameras have the same RAW format. I think every single time I get a PhotoShop update it says "added support for new cameras." Frankly, I think that'd be very hard to keep up with.
From what I recall, OctoPrint doesn't have any webcam processing built-in, it just uses an external process. I imagine that wouldn't work for you because you actually have to pipe frames from Link to Connect. Maybe cheat by still sending frames internally, but visualizing the stream client-side?
Sigh - you have me missing coding again...
RE: Initial Thoughts
It's also that a 4k photo won't encode on a raspi zero w in a reasonable amount of time slowing down printing in the meantime.
I have asked about mjpeg streamer, don't remember why we decided against it.
I'll ujst be doing what i get assigned. If time comes to try streaming again, i'll be on it 🫡
RE: Initial Thoughts
Indeed my friend, that brings back many memories. I intend to hit some open-source stuff before I retire from the Army.
I forgot about Prusa's relationship with the Pi Zero. It was a long time ago I heard about the limitations, and I don't think I've ever tried to run OctoPrint on the one I got. It's just not made for it. I've been running it with both my Mk2 and Mk3 for years now on a Raspberry Pi 3 B+ - with video - I think I even had two instances on it when I was running both a Mk2 and an Ender 3.
You wouldn't be the first developer to have to code for a minimal hardware platform, but I suspect at least 75% of your customers are running it on RPI 3/4/5's...
RE: Initial Thoughts
A friend of mine mentioned that when they found the native resolution (i assume of a max fullhd camera) it would magically work even on the Zero W with Octoprint (probably downscaling or something was eating resources). Also somehow klipper seems to be light enough to run on the Zero. In the past, MK3 PrusaLink couldn't be ran over USB and the zero 2 was unobtanium after the pandemic, so i couldn't assume 3/4/5. And even now, looking at average hobbyists, buying another raspi per printer costs some money. If 5 years ago I had a setup with a zero and somebody came and broke it saying "just buy a raspi 3" I would have been pissed. Anyway, I hope you "hitting" some opensource projects while employed for the Army does mean something positive 😀 and I wish you get to do that.