Raspberry Pi Zero W vs Raspberry Pi  

RE: Raspberry Pi Zero W vs Raspberry Pi

@robert-rmm200

I agree 1000% 👍 only use 40x40/10 or 40x40/20 Noktua 5V/12V fans. 6 years or 150000 hours guarantee - you get every cent you pay.

RE: Raspberry Pi Zero W vs Raspberry Pi

I am using a Pimoroni Fan Shim to cool the RPI 4B 2 gb that I am using for running Octoprint.

The fan is controlled by the pi so it only runs when it is needed.  

You can even add hats to the pi with it installed if you use a stacking header.

Fan Shim

Note:  I am using the RPI4 for Octoprint to support higher resolution video rates using the RPi High Quality Camera.

RE: Raspberry Pi Zero W vs Raspberry Pi

@heneryh

Just make sure you check it. Because it will not catch fire or anything, but if it's overheating it will throttle a lot, seem like it's working but will be much slower than it should be. 

I think Octoprint has a plug in to monitor if the pi is being throttled or not?

RE: Raspberry Pi Zero W vs Raspberry Pi

I found the commands to monitor the SoC temp and throttling status.  Haven't found a plug-in for throttling.

I'll monitor both during my next print job without the fan installed.  Then I'll install my 30mm fan and compare.

When the CPU throttles, the command vcgencmd get_throttled outputs 0x20002 (the first 2 indicates the Pi has throttled at some point between the prior boot and now; the last 2 indicates the Pi is currently throttling the CPU frequency.

The watch prefix just polls every sec...

watch -n 1 vcgencmd get_throttled

watch -n 1 vcgencmd measure_temp

RE: Raspberry Pi Zero W vs Raspberry Pi

The RPi will throttle on its own so at least you don't need to configure anything. I'd be surprised if Octoprint drove the RPi 4 hard enough to spike heat unless you've got poor air circulation in an enclosure or tight space. That may be a consideration even with a fan.

I'm running Octoprint on a RPi 3B (non-plus) and with a job running and viewing 1280x720 video on 2 devices. All 4 cores remain well below 10%. I've purchased one of the aluminum full-body heatsinks for my RPi4, but I'm hesitant to use it for Octoprint simply because it's such a waste of a nice unit. My RPi 3B+ on the 2nd printer is very snappy.

Nothing wrong with using a RPi 4 (on dedicated power), but it seems a bit of a waste and power hog. Has anybody seen a big difference in performance over a RPi 3B+? I'm using USB cameras. Does the on-board camera module require more power?

RE: Raspberry Pi Zero W vs Raspberry Pi

Posted by: @bobstro

The RPi will throttle on its own so at least you don't need to configure anything. I'd be surprised if Octoprint drove the RPi 4 hard enough to spike heat unless you've got poor air circulation in an enclosure or tight space. That may be a consideration even with a fan.

I'm running Octoprint on a RPi 3B (non-plus) and with a job running and viewing 1280x720 video on 2 devices. All 4 cores remain well below 10%. I've purchased one of the aluminum full-body heatsinks for my RPi4, but I'm hesitant to use it for Octoprint simply because it's such a waste of a nice unit. My RPi 3B+ on the 2nd printer is very snappy.

Nothing wrong with using a RPi 4 (on dedicated power), but it seems a bit of a waste and power hog. Has anybody seen a big difference in performance over a RPi 3B+? I'm using USB cameras. Does the on-board camera module require more power?

It's possible, I was playing around with the new high quality camera I got for the Pi. It was using 20% CPU consistently all the time. I played around with settings and got it down under 10%. But that's a constant load, then you add on other plugins etc. So if like you said if it's in a warm environment, and you have a constant load I can see it throttling. Especially the 4 which seems to have heat issues.

For me I found an old 5v 40mm fan, and when I just plug it in at 100% speed I can't hear it. So I am just gonna stick it in and forget about it.

RE: Raspberry Pi Zero W vs Raspberry Pi

There are many variable as we all know.  I saw one article where they stressed the 4 with varying cooling techniques.  The 4 on its side (gpio down, power/video connector up) using only convection was equally effective with or without the fan (no enclosure at all).  The fan would have a more significant impact in an enclosure I would think and depend on the vent locations.  I chose an enclosure that has as much ventilation as possible on both the top and sides.

I'll try to get some measured observations on my next prints where I use the onboard V2 camera with OctoLapse.  I wouldn't think one frame ever few minutes would stress the chips out so much.  But OctoPi does send a live stream over the network via browser so that might add some work.  Maybe I'll take some measurements with and without the live-stream tab open.

RE: Raspberry Pi Zero W vs Raspberry Pi

@robert-rmm200

Want to get a 4B. What RAM do you suggest?

RE: Raspberry Pi Zero W vs Raspberry Pi

@robert-rmm200

Great suggestion. Is it a Noctua 40x10 or 40x20?

RE: Raspberry Pi Zero W vs Raspberry Pi

I've been running 3b+ and 4b in parallel with recent OctoPrint with about six plug-ins.

Here is memory during a print and OctoLapse time lapse recording...

top - 14:13:22 up 4:52, 1 user, load average: 1.07, 0.74, 0.45
Tasks: 115 total, 1 running, 114 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
%Cpu(s): 1.8 us, 0.3 sy, 0.0 ni, 98.0 id, 0.0 wa, 0.0 hi, 0.0 si, 0.0 st
MiB Mem : 874.5 total, 527.3 free, 125.0 used, 222.3 buff/cache
MiB Swap: 100.0 total, 100.0 free, 0.0 used. 687.2 avail Mem 

RE: Raspberry Pi Zero W vs Raspberry Pi

Posted by: @heneryh

I've been running 3b+ and 4b in parallel with recent OctoPrint with about six plug-ins.

Here is memory during a print and OctoLapse time lapse recording...

top - 14:13:22 up 4:52, 1 user, load average: 1.07, 0.74, 0.45
Tasks: 115 total, 1 running, 114 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
%Cpu(s): 1.8 us, 0.3 sy, 0.0 ni, 98.0 id, 0.0 wa, 0.0 hi, 0.0 si, 0.0 st
MiB Mem : 874.5 total, 527.3 free, 125.0 used, 222.3 buff/cache
MiB Swap: 100.0 total, 100.0 free, 0.0 used. 687.2 avail Mem 

So you are saying we need 4GB! 🙂 

Out of interesting is the webcam running, I was seeing about 10% usage when I had my HD Raspberry cam running. I did not check the memory though, but seriously I think 1GB will probably be fine for most thing. But hey it's also only $10 more for 2GB right?

RE: Raspberry Pi Zero W vs Raspberry Pi

Here is a snap while watching the webcam feed while grabbing the 'top' data.  I think I bought the 2g because most people instinctively go for the middle option of anything.

This is the 3b+

top - 15:23:33 up 6:02, 1 user, load average: 0.67, 0.54, 0.48
Tasks: 112 total, 1 running, 111 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
%Cpu(s): 3.6 us, 2.3 sy, 0.0 ni, 94.2 id, 0.0 wa, 0.0 hi, 0.0 si, 0.0 st
MiB Mem : 874.5 total, 514.8 free, 126.2 used, 233.6 buff/cache
MiB Swap: 100.0 total, 100.0 free, 0.0 used. 685.8 avail Mem