Mini - option wifi ?  

Rpi zero

Posted by: @cwbullet

 

Posted by: @turro75

 

Posted by: @kanex

ok, thanks for all this information.I don't want to install Octoprint, I was looking for something plug&play.Prusa is a bit abusive to have promoted this feature, to sell the mini.To be continued...

I set an rpi zero w as usb stick, the folder mounted as usb stick is also network shared. No way to start/monitor a print from remote but at least You can manage gcode from anywere.

How does the RPI zero work?  I have heard of issues with it crashing.  

Rpi zero is daily used in many long term task so the hw looks stable. I personally haven't any crash till today, anyway the longest print with this setup were 6h long.

Maybe using it as octoprint full of plugin would run out of memory, nothing that a swap partition wouldn't solve.

rpi zero

I looked back through my notes and most complained about them being slow and not crashing.  Sorry for my confusion.  

Posted by: @turro75

 

Posted by: @cwbullet

 

Posted by: @turro75

 

Posted by: @kanex

ok, thanks for all this information.I don't want to install Octoprint, I was looking for something plug&play.Prusa is a bit abusive to have promoted this feature, to sell the mini.To be continued...

I set an rpi zero w as usb stick, the folder mounted as usb stick is also network shared. No way to start/monitor a print from remote but at least You can manage gcode from anywere.

How does the RPI zero work?  I have heard of issues with it crashing.  

Rpi zero is daily used in many long term task so the hw looks stable. I personally haven't any crash till today, anyway the longest print with this setup were 6h long.

Maybe using it as octoprint full of plugin would run out of memory, nothing that a swap partition wouldn't solve.

concur

Posted by: @mark-6

 

Posted by: @lupin

I also would like to hear more of Prusa's roadmap for Mini, more and more often.

We can speculate as to how many are on the development team, what else is being developed, and so on. No one outside Prusa really knows. But, I agree that letting their customers know more about a roadmap would be much appreciated. The Mini was announced October 12, 2019 and that announcement included mention of Ethernet printing and WiFi. It's been 22 months since then. That is a long time to deliver promised features.

I am not unhappy with the Mini. It has performed spectacularly for me, but if I was someone who bought it for these features, I would be very disappointed.

Regards,

Mark

I have to agree.  I would not hold my breath.  

RE:

Quite disappointed that this feature is still not available...

Anyway!

Would it be possible to use a rpi zero w and add a usb-to-ethernet adapter?

This way the rpi would connect via wifi to your home network and the prusa mini would be connected via ethernet to the rpi. Theoretically this should make the printer available on the local network.

Power could be delivered to the rpi via the usb port of the prusa printer - not 100% sure about this.

I know that there even exists a rpi case for the camera module and I imagine one could mount it at the back of the printer to monitor the print progress.

What do you guys think?

RE:

The chip shortage is no reason to not develop the software for the wifi. ESP8266 modules are not hard to find. Likely many of the makers that use these printers already have a hand full or more of them just sitting around. I probably have a good 20+ different variants of the ESP8266 and ESP32 around here, at least 5 of them the exact model they had planned to use for the WiFi option. They could still develop/release the software.  If the ESP8266's require a custom firmware as well, those of us that have and use them are more than capable of using the ones we already have and flashing that firmware on them ourselves.

RE: Mini - option wifi ?

If you're going to go the route of using a Pi as a WiFi to ethernet bridge. You might as well just install OctoPI on the PI and use that for running your printer. It's far more functional than the current web interface on the mini. In fact I still think you can do much more than monitoring the print process with that web ui. You can't upload gcode and start a print though it even over ethernet.

RE: Mini - option wifi ?

This is the solution at hand until Prusa releases.  

Posted by: @d0ug

If you're going to go the route of using a Pi as a WiFi to ethernet bridge. You might as well just install OctoPI on the PI and use that for running your printer. It's far more functional than the current web interface on the mini. In fact I still think you can do much more than monitoring the print process with that web ui. You can't upload gcode and start a print though it even over ethernet.

RE: Mini - option wifi ?

Agree with the above. I looked at the screenshots of what Prusa showed so far. I'm sticking with my OctoPi setup for the forseeable future. It's easy to get going, so I don't feel any urge for built in wifi for the Mini.

RE: Mini - option wifi ?

Yeah. I don't need wifi as I have local LAN available close to the Mini. I could use Pi with octoprint, but with just one printer for hobby use, no need. I can wait for the printfarm side of the Mini's firmware and can wait for the wifi at least for the moment.

I can understand also why one would like to have wifi, no need for additional cabling and the intended additional device for it was cheap.

RE: Mini - option wifi ?

As pointed out in another thread (title is "!" actually) if the Mini accept a usb memory stick you can get a WiFi enabled usb memory stick and do the WiFi link to your computer that way.

I am using a FlashAir SD card on mine (MK3S) and I can read/write to the printer via WiFi using my laptop to access the printer  as a network directory.

If yours accept a USB stick to store and print from a WiFi USB stick should provide the same functions.

RE: Mini - option wifi ?

Yes, Octoprint is a very viable way of getting network functionality to the Mini. However, Prusa should officially acknowledge this already and stop marketing the Ethernet port as if you could already upload gcode and do network/OTA firmware upgrades on stock machines!

The feature text on the Mini’s product page makes it sound as if the long-announced future software update is only needed for the farm functionality, whereas in reality even the bog-standard status page as only (currently) available feature via Ethernet fails to load properly in common browsers.

RE: Mini - option wifi ?

I asked on the helpdesk for over 1 year, when i had no prusa. The answer was "soon (c)".

Few days ago i have bought Prusa Mini+, because i am tired of the software dev on Bresser Saurus which lacking 1.5 year of software updates (alter version of flashforge). Lucky i have ethernet cables on the place where the Bresser Saurus stands, so when the mini arrive i can connect it directly to ethernet. 

Wifi is really nice to have. I have it also on my Bresser Saurus (Flashforge Finder).

RE: Mini - option wifi ?

Posted by: @oxize

Lucky i have ethernet cables on the place where the Bresser Saurus stands, so when the mini arrive i can connect it directly to ethernet. 

Wifi is really nice to have. I have it also on my Bresser Saurus (Flashforge Finder).

Don't expect to gather any practical use out of the Mini's Ethernet port just yet! If you want to remotely initiate prints and/or monitor the current state, use the existing Ethernet cable to connect a RasPi 4 or 3b+ and control the Mini via the RasPi and Octoprint. The Ethernet port on the Mini currently is basically useless for daily printing life.

RE: Mini - option wifi ?

Oh, i got an RPI 4 with Octoprint ready for the Prusa Mini+.

RE: Mini - option wifi ?

Posted by: @lupin

Yeah. I don't need wifi as I have local LAN available close to the Mini. I could use Pi with octoprint, but with just one printer for hobby use, no need. I can wait for the printfarm side of the Mini's firmware and can wait for the wifi at least for the moment.

I can understand also why one would like to have wifi, no need for additional cabling and the intended additional device for it was cheap.

I just have the one printer myself. I find that OctoPi with a couple of plugins and linked mobile app expands ease of use tremendously. Shove the .gcode files from the PC direct to the Pi storage--and with things set up right PrusaSlicer & SuperSlicer can dump direct to the Pi without having to save then copy. Pretty slick. Then, once a multi-hour print is running, I can keep tabs anywhere in the house with OctoApp, and it throws a notification when a print finishes.

RE: Mini - option wifi ?

Ye, i cant wait for mine.

Changed the exclosure, because i got idle temps of 55+ till 60ish. Now using a custom tower heatsink in a S2PI Mini case.

Now getting 28-31ish temps 😀

RE: Mini - option wifi ?

Now that the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 is released (note I didn't say available), I would not use a zero 1.   Chris Riley just did a video Raspberry Pi Zero 2 - Octoprint - Prusa MK3 - Chris's Basement - YouTube

RE: Mini - option wifi ? Zero 2

Has anyone set this up on a Mini?

RE: Mini - option wifi ?

I was looking for information about it and I didn't find any recent updates so I opened a support chat to ask about it and they said they are beta testing it already 😮 

RE: Mini - option wifi ?

It looks like it's coming very soon 👏🏽👏🏽
They announced it on their latest Prusa Live