Are people with Octopi on a Pi Zero W using a camera?  

Re: Are people with Octopi on a Pi Zero W using a camera?

You gotta remember you can't expect the world from a cheap little $5 - $10 computer. You could always hook up a Pi3 to the USB but that defeats the purpose of having Einsy support for the Pi.

Re: Are people with Octopi on a Pi Zero W using a camera?

You gotta remember you can't expect the world from a cheap little $5 - $10 computer. You could always hook up a Pi3 to the USB but that defeats the purpose of having Einsy support for the Pi.

I totally understand.. I am more than aware that the Pi Zero is much less powerful than its larger cousins.. But this is the first time I have seen it documented that it hasn't got the horsepower to drive Wifi and a camera at the same time.. And just question whether some of the people who are having problems may be using a camera.

My plan (or I should say hope) was to use the Pi to drive Octopi and a camera... But wonder if this is asking too much, so I may focus on Octopi for now and see whether they ever bring out a Zero2 with more horse-power

Re: Are people with Octopi on a Pi Zero W using a camera?

It is working for me.

I'm using the Zero W running OctoPrint, communicating through the RPi serial port, with an attached USB hub/Ethernet adapter ( https://www.adafruit.com/product/2992 ], with a wired Ethernet connection and a Logitech C930e USB camera attached to the bed (same camera I've used on other printers).

That does mean I'm not using the Zero's internal WiFi.

As of RC5, I've not had any problems with the sample GCode and one or two locally sliced models, not a single glitched print. Of course, that's an anecdote and not proof it'll always work.

That said, the OctoPrint interface is definitely slower than on a Pi 3, and I'll be interested in moving it to a 3 once all of the features (can power-panic be supported, etc.) stabilize for the Zero, and it's clear what the tradeoffs would be of switching to a 3.

Re: Are people with Octopi on a Pi Zero W using a camera?

It is working for me.

I'm using the Zero W running OctoPrint, communicating through the RPi serial port, with an attached USB hub/Ethernet adapter ( https://www.adafruit.com/product/2992 ], with a wired Ethernet connection and a Logitech C930e USB camera attached to the bed (same camera I've used on other printers).

Considering they say that the the Wifi is CPU intensite, this is a really smart move and considering my printer is next to my router would be a better solution than Wifi...

I think i mght give that a go.. are there any guides on how to configure it, and how to disable,the wifi?

Re: Are people with Octopi on a Pi Zero W using a camera?

I've upgraded my MK3 and stuck the Pi Zero W back on the header, and it has been running nicely for a few days with no skips!

Camera-wise, I'm waiting on longer Pi camera ribbons (I'll splice one to a short Zero camera ribbon) and plan to see what it takes to really trip up the Pi.

Resolution, frame rate, and compression are adjustable, and 640x480 at 1Hz should be plenty to check if it's making spaghetti. I'm not as interested in time lapse as occasionally checking a view.

Re: Are people with Octopi on a Pi Zero W using a camera?

It is working for me.

I'm using the Zero W running OctoPrint, communicating through the RPi serial port, with an attached USB hub/Ethernet adapter ( https://www.adafruit.com/product/2992 ], with a wired Ethernet connection and a Logitech C930e USB camera attached to the bed (same camera I've used on other printers).

Considering they say that the the Wifi is CPU intensite, this is a really smart move and considering my printer is next to my router would be a better solution than Wifi...

I think i mght give that a go.. are there any guides on how to configure it, and how to disable,the wifi?

To disable wifi & bluetooth on the Raspberry Pi Zero W, you need to get to the command line (either plug in a monitor and USB keyboard, or connect via SSH secure shell to get at the command line.
sudo nano /boot/config.txt

Add the following to the file:
dtoverlay=pi3-disable-bt
dtoverlay=pi3-disable-wifi

Press Ctrl + X to exit and Y to save. Then reboot the pi. Alternatively, take the microSD card out of the pi, insert into a PC/mac and open the config.txt file on the fat partition and make the changes to the config file using a text editor that way.

If you just connect up a USB to ethernet adaptor, then in most cases it will be automatically recognised by the kernel. If your home network has DHCP (most do) then if you plug in an ethernet cable it should be given an IP address automatically. If you want a static IP address, you need to add the following to /etc/dhcpcd.conf
interface eth0
static ip_address=*your static address you want*
static routers=*address of modem*
static domain_name_servers=8.8.4.4 (google DNS as example)

Re: Are people with Octopi on a Pi Zero W using a camera?

I did some monitoring tonight running HTOP on the Pi Zero W while running a variety of prints and watching the CPU usage. The camera used was the official RPi camera 1.3. which is 5mp. I have a 8mp 2.1 version around here also, but I don't think it is necessary for print monitoring. I had a bunch of little cable holders that took about 20 minutes, so seemed like a good project to test with.

Here is what I observed:

No camera -
6% cpu while just sitting idle.
30% cpu while printing.

With RPi 1.3 camera attached -
- While sitting idle -
8% cpu no stream active.
40% cpu 1 stream active.
80% cpu 2 streams active - Minor lag in video, but not commands.
100% cpu 3 streams active - Major lag in both video and commands.
- While printing -
30% cpu no stream active.
60% cpu 1 stream active.
100% cpu 2 streams active - Minor lag in video, printing not effected.
100% cpu 3 streams active - Major lag in video, printing not effected.

In all the variations, I could not perceive any degradation in printing. All prints finished with a minute of each other. All the prints looked the same.

Re: Are people with Octopi on a Pi Zero W using a camera?

I did some monitoring tonight running HTOP on the Pi Zero W while running a variety of prints and watching the CPU usage. The camera used was the official RPi camera 1.3. which is 5mp. I have a 8mp 2.1 version around here also, but I don't think it is necessary for print monitoring. I had a bunch of little cable holders that took about 20 minutes, so seemed like a good project to test with.

Running Wifi too?

Re: Are people with Octopi on a Pi Zero W using a camera?

Yes. This is the Pi Zero W connected directly to the Einsy over UART. I was in constant connection with Octopi, watching the Gcode Viewer, if not watching the camera.

I did some monitoring tonight running HTOP on the Pi Zero W while running a variety of prints and watching the CPU usage. The camera used was the official RPi camera 1.3. which is 5mp. I have a 8mp 2.1 version around here also, but I don't think it is necessary for print monitoring. I had a bunch of little cable holders that took about 20 minutes, so seemed like a good project to test with.

Running Wifi too?

Re: Are people with Octopi on a Pi Zero W using a camera?

Yes. This is the Pi Zero W connected directly to the Einsy over UART. I was in constant connection with Octopi, watching the Gcode Viewer, if not watching the camera.

Awesome.. Whilst Ethernet would be OK. Its extra cabling that I don't really want.

If I can get Octopi printing and the camera working, using Wifi I will be overjoyed, so am going stick with the standard offering for now and see how it goes. If its found later that Wifi is that much of a CPU hog, I will just change over to Ethernet.

Cheers

Jon

Re: Are people with Octopi on a Pi Zero W using a camera?

there are two things that improved my cpu usage quite a bit.

1. Better WIFI Signal, i installed a Wifi Repeater close to the printer
2. SnapStream Plugin https://plugins.octoprint.org/plugins/snapstream/