What is LINK and what is CONNECT?
Hi, browsing all the stuff here about PrusaLink and PrusaConnect I wasn’t able to find a simple explanation on both services.
Is PrusaLink the OS on the RP, commanding the MK3 and receiving info from the MK3?
And is Connect a way to connect with Link from anywhere over the internet?
Do I need Connect when I can interface with Link via local network web interface?
thanks
tee
Best Answer by Zbigniew Trzepizur:
PrusaConnect: a web ("cloud", if you will) service hosted by Prusa that lets you manage and monitor your connected printers: either just one or a whole bunch of them.
PrusaLink: a middleware layer that sits between your printer and the Internet and connects to PrusaConnect. It runs on a Raspberry Pi and is needed for i3MK3 printers as they are based on a legacy, Arduino-derived controller board that's unable to connect to the web service on itself. Apart from being an intermediary between your printer and PrusaConnect, it also exposes an API that can be used by PrusaSlicer to send print jobs directly over your home network and serves a local web interface that offers a subset of functionality offered by PrusaConnect with regards to printer control and monitoring. Printers that are based on newer and beefier electronics, both current (Prusa Mini) and upcoming (Prusa XL) do away with PrusaLink as their more powerful microcontrollers are able to talk to PrusaConnect directly.
RE: What is LINK and what is CONNECT?
PrusaConnect: a web ("cloud", if you will) service hosted by Prusa that lets you manage and monitor your connected printers: either just one or a whole bunch of them.
PrusaLink: a middleware layer that sits between your printer and the Internet and connects to PrusaConnect. It runs on a Raspberry Pi and is needed for i3MK3 printers as they are based on a legacy, Arduino-derived controller board that's unable to connect to the web service on itself. Apart from being an intermediary between your printer and PrusaConnect, it also exposes an API that can be used by PrusaSlicer to send print jobs directly over your home network and serves a local web interface that offers a subset of functionality offered by PrusaConnect with regards to printer control and monitoring. Printers that are based on newer and beefier electronics, both current (Prusa Mini) and upcoming (Prusa XL) do away with PrusaLink as their more powerful microcontrollers are able to talk to PrusaConnect directly.
RE: What is LINK and what is CONNECT?
Great! Thank you so much for clarifying all of it.
That does help to understand the concept. 👍🏼
RE: What is LINK and what is CONNECT?
Thanks for the answer, I somehow missed this one :/
I'll just add that PrusaConnect aims to provide print job planning, statistics and so on. It would like to become a competent farm software helping its users to manage a larger scale print farm.
RE:
It would like to become a competent farm software helping its users to manage a larger scale print farm.
After months of using it, I think it has good promise. I find it more streamlined than Octoprint and have enjoyed using it. Queuing works very well, and you can send files from PrusaConnect to many printers. It has some big gaps still (such as the very crude file management options), some serious issues (such as the incessant beeping when it thinks there is a network error), some quirkiness (file transfers between local and cloud storage is frequently acting up), and some inexplicable major misses (such as the Mini—originally touted as the ideal farm machine—not being supported by PrusaConnect). But it's on the right track. I wish it was higher up on the priority list at Prusa and some of the developers used to add what I consider superfluous features to Prusaslicer could be moved to Tojik and the PrusaConnect team, so it had the resources to accelerate the sw development to the pace it needs.
Formerly known on this forum as @fuchsr -- until all hell broke loose with the forum software...
RE: What is LINK and what is CONNECT?
Yea, the mini thing. At least there's a light at the end of a tunnel now. And the wi-fi works 😀 The connect team is not small by any means and I wouldn't touch slicer. Those guys do awesome work imo. Thanks for the kind words and criticism. And a personal sorry for the beeps
RE:
Keep up the good work! There's just something about the way it works that speaks to me more than Octoprint, which is why I've stuck with it.
There are really not that many areas that need to be improved for this to be a top contender but some are basic, like consistent file management across Prusalink and Connect (folders, drag and drop file movement). I know you guys have spent a lot of time on the camera, which I personally don't care about, and hopefully you have figured it out soon, so some of these other areas can be tackled. Can't wait to see Mini integration into Connect, my Minis feel very lonely 😞
And the wi-fi works 😀
True. But speed is atrocious. I first thought it was the WiFi module but frankly even after switching to Ethernet transfer speed is not impressive but acceptable . Better than WiFi but nothing compared to my Mk3s printers where file transfer is just instantaneous. I don't know if it's the networking stack in the firmware or processor speed or what.
Formerly known on this forum as @fuchsr -- until all hell broke loose with the forum software...
RE:
Yea, the esp is not a speed champ by any means, googling suggests a maximum of 500 kilobytes per second in the real world, doing nothing but downloading data.
RE: What is LINK and what is CONNECT?
I am a long time user of OctoPrint, but since I just upgrade my Mk3s to a Mk3.5 I thought it might be a good time to try out Prusa Link and Prusa Connect. Siffice it to say that after trying both for a short time, I went back to OctoPrint. This may just be a case of being familiar with OctoPrint and therefore more comfortable with it, but I have to say that I found both Prusa Link and Prusa Connect non-intuitive.
I have not given up on either Link or Connect - I plan to try them again. Although I think they show promise, some improvements are still needed (and I hope/expect they will come). Meanwhile, here are some of my concerns :
- The documentation for both products seems to be a bit out of date, or a bit confusing, or both
- After numerous attempts, I was unable to add a camera to either Link or Connect, and I found the online instructions to be "not helpful"
- Unfortunately the GUI seems to follow the Prusa practice of sprinkling the various controls and options all over the webpage, in non-obvious locations that can only be discovered by random clicking. A single, well organized control panel would be welcome.
- Unlike Octoprint, where I can see most of the stuff I care about for an ongoing print on a single web page, with the Prusa products I have to bounce around different pages.
One advantage OctoPrint has is a large collection of PlugIns, allowing me to customize it to my requirements (mostly).