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PrusaLink and Touch Screen RaspberryPi  

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kldMurshed
(@kldmurshed)
Active Member
PrusaLink and Touch Screen RaspberryPi

Hello everyone,

I've recently been exploring some new hobbies during my free time. I stumbled upon a HyperPixel 4 touch screen that had been sitting in my drawer, and it sparked an idea. I already have my Prusa MK3s connected to a Raspberry Pi 3B+, and I thought it would be great to turn the touch screen into a control interface for my 3D printer.

Everything is working smoothly, except for one minor challenge – I need the GUI ( http://xxxx.local) to launch automatically on the touch screen. Unfortunately, I have limited knowledge when it comes to Raspberry Pi OS.

If anyone could lend a hand with this issue, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thank you in advance.

Raspberry

Posted : 18/10/2023 6:06 pm
_KaszpiR_
(@_kaszpir_)
Prominent Member
RE:

some suggestions how to do it with XFCE4 (other window managers have similiar functionalities like autostart on sesson but I just dont remember their names):
1. sudo raspi-config and select there boot to graphical system with automatic login, save and restart and see if it starts.
2. go to automatic app startup on window manager session start (for example for XFCE it is 'Session and Startup' )
3. in Application Autostart add new entry trigger 'on login', choose name and description, in command enter:

open  http://xxxx.local 

or

sh -c "open  http://xxxx.loca l"

(looks like formatting on forums is broken, there should be no spaces in url)
4. make sure you have default web browser chosen/installed
5. save and test by logging out and logging in

Some tips:
- you can change command to start specific web browser in for example fullscreen mode and set default web page to the url you provided
- this system will probably still require keyboard/mouse unless you have touch screen + on-screen keyboard (for example 'onboard' in XFCE)
- to avoid modifying setitng you can look over the web about 'linux kiosk mode'

See my GitHub and printables.com for some 3d stuff that you may like.

Posted : 18/10/2023 6:41 pm
Tojik
(@tojik)
Member Moderator
RE: PrusaLink and Touch Screen RaspberryPi

Hi, @_kaszpir_ the image does not have a GUI installed. I have not tested what does that option do. If it installs the gui, then it probably will start.

One other option would be to install the GUI version of Raspberry Pi OS and then install PrusaLink manually. The README goes over that but not to the greatest detail. Unfortunately PrusaLink assumes that if you need something custom, you already have the skills needed. I wasn't expecting this to be someone's first venture into the config file ridden Raspberry Pi world.

Anyway, if you choose to go this route - flash the GUI image then install prusalink manually, feel free to ask if you hit a wall or there's something huge missing in the readme.

Posted : 20/10/2023 8:41 am
_KaszpiR_
(@_kaszpir_)
Prominent Member
RE: PrusaLink and Touch Screen RaspberryPi

if image is based on the non-desktop os verision then it might not even have an option to boot to desktop mode, otherwise it will just fail to start X and will fall back to the terminal as it was.

You could also install descktop environment by hand later on, more details at https://www.makeuseof.com/how-to-install-a-desktop-on-raspberry-pi-os-lite/

See my GitHub and printables.com for some 3d stuff that you may like.

Posted : 20/10/2023 9:57 am
Eef
 Eef
(@eef)
Reputable Member
RE: PrusaLink and Touch Screen RaspberryPi

I was exspecting the touchscreen possibility was already part of the installation. 
(my new box + screen for Raspberry arrives today). 
So following and interested in solutions 🙂 

We will do what we have always done. We will find hope in the impossible.

Posted : 31/10/2023 6:31 am
Cicicok
(@cicicok)
Active Member
RE: PrusaLink and Touch Screen RaspberryPi

Installing the window manager is not the problem. Have you tried to open PrusaLink on official Raspberry touchscreen? Because I have and sadly the web is not optimized for this screen size.

It would be cool to have PrusaLink (Raspberry Pi version) optimized for small touchscreens (something like Octoprint), but I don't think that this will ever happend as it will differ from PrusaLink on MK4 and MINI (different HW but the functionality should be similar)

Posted : 06/11/2023 12:37 pm
Cicicok
(@cicicok)
Active Member
RE: PrusaLink and Touch Screen RaspberryPi

I took some print screens on the official Raspberry Pi touch screen which has 840 x 480 resolution. Imagine how it looks on even smaller 3.5" lcd with 480 x 320.

I looked into Github and found that this PrusaLink web frontend codebase is shared between all printers (including PrusaLink on Raspberry).

Posted : 06/11/2023 8:55 pm
_KaszpiR_
(@_kaszpir_)
Prominent Member
RE:

I guess number of users with so low screen r solution was so low that they did not bother to adjust the CSS for that use case - wouldn't be surprised if it was under 100 ;).

You can make an issue on GitHub to request it, I believe.

See my GitHub and printables.com for some 3d stuff that you may like.

Posted : 07/11/2023 12:14 am
Eef
 Eef
(@eef)
Reputable Member
RE: PrusaLink and Touch Screen RaspberryPi

Mmmmm, 

I tried to get Prusalink running on the touchscreen of the raspbery with 3,5 Inch display. 
No luck at all,  several roads I tried. 
How do other people do this: Octoprint on touchscreen seems to work. 
Also very difficult. Long story .
Last try (and succesfull) OctoDash works. It is made for a small screen so very useable. And very user friendly when doing the install and setup. 
Also managed to get the output of the webcam on the screen (to get the webcam setup nicely). 
So for now: No prusalink, but Octoprint + OctoDash

Regards Eef 

We will do what we have always done. We will find hope in the impossible.

Posted : 07/11/2023 4:37 pm
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