Octoprint Pi 4  

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

Posted by: @mafredri

... It takes many years (if at all) for the dust buildup to become a problem...

Well, you obviously live (or work) in a very clean environment and i'm happy for you. Unfortunately many of us don't. I have my 3D printer in my workshop where i do all electronics (and some other stuff, too) and it's located in a basement, so dust is a constant companion.  I clean my PC from dust at least twice a year and i have massive expensive coolers with big fans on my CPU's  which rotate pretty slowly or not at all if not necesarry, otherwise it would be even worse.

Second PC is located in a living room, but i have two golden retrievers which contribute to dust pretty big time, so that PC is also prone to dust. 

I'm just saying from my long years of experience.  Attached pic shows how it looks under a fan, of course hidden from your eyes, so you think it's ok, while it ain't... (Picture is just an example, it's not my PC...)

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

Posted by: @charles-h13

I do not think it is entirely needed.  I did hook my pies up with power over ethernet throughout this nifty gadget:  Loverpi POE HAT.  I am very happy with the results. I installed a Noctua 40mm fan.  It works and it relatively silent.  I have a 50/50 split with this setup.  My enclosure does not get above 105 F.  Argue what you want.  I just do not see it as needed 100% but it does add a cool factor.  

I have been asked what I did with the other half of my MK3Ss.  I have used acable from Little Red Toaster.  This and Power Over Ethernet allow for less cables and quicker disconnects.  

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

@protoncek

Thanks, I wish that was the reality but unfortunately I suffer from dust as well (my printer is at home, btw). And my condolences for your suffering as well.

I don't really want to derail this topic further by an extended discussion on fans and dust. So to clarify I'm by no means saying dust build-up isn't a thing. My point is simply that for this specific use-case, even if there's dust buildup, it won't be a problem for a very long time. A problem is when the device stops working or overheats, that's my definition anyway.

By the way, I think the reference picture is a bit of an unfair comparison to a Raspberry Pi running a 40mm fan. You'd have a hard time sandwiching a fan to the Raspberry Pi so that there'd be similar buildup as when it's against a heatsink. If that's a 120mm heatsink fan, then it'd easily have over 10x the airflow compared to a 40mm, if it's 80mm it'd still be 5x. That's also how much faster they'd generate the buildup.

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

From my experience I must say that RPI 4 with 8 GB at that moment will not function well under Octoprint although there is an available Beta image for that RPI grade on Octoprint site, however some issues involved. So, I'm with the idea to use the previous model like RPI3 or 4 with 2 or 4GB. Octoprint program is using about 200 mb.

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

@pinhas-gold

You could try to boot the Pi 4 8GB with kernel parameter `mem=4G` (or less) and see if that helps. It's not ideal as this limits how much RAM is available to the system, but it may serve as a work-around until support becomes better.

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

If like me you've been hunting for ways to avoid a USB connection, or just want to know if it's doable to connect directly to the Einsy board, after far to much searching I found this well written page:

https://zaribo.com/blog/raspberry-pi-3-einsy-rambo-rpi-gpio-connection-tutorial/

Think it should still work on the Prusa, but if someone could confirm?

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

I did, although on Pi4. It works, but i went back to USB because this setup doesn’t allow FW update via octoprint web page with Firmware updater plugin. So i use USB.

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

Do you know if that's an issue with the plugin or an issue with the way the Prusa accepts updates or something else? If it's a plugin issue then it might still be worth looking at, if it's something to do with the Prusa then USB would be the way to go.

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

Well, for update printer must reboot. Connecting through USB does that by default. I think that one of those pins shoud do that, too, at least if i looked the schematic corrfectly. However, i couldn't manage to achieve that. It's possible that octoprint doesn't activate that output pin. 

In any case i prefer USB, because i have RPi located in more accesible place, not at the back of the printer, as link suggests. Having Pi hidden and hard-to-get is a bad idea. I have printer in a case, so each time i would need to access Pi i would have to take it out of enclosure. First,  it's very good idea to make an SD backup every now and then, to have as fresh backup image as possible. Then, i have tendency to experiment with Pi. And, lately i've had three sudden Pi crashes, so accessing to SD card is essential. 

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

@protoncek

The RPI GPIO cable has never been an issue for me - 2 years and running on 8 printers. 

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

I agree, it's not an issue. It's just that i find much easier to update FW via octoprint than connecting printer to PC, open slicer.... 

That's why i stick with USB connection.

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

@protoncek

I don't flash the firmware that often, that's why I'm also satisfied with charles solution - runs absolutely trouble-free for almost 3 years. A reset is triggered by the Raspi, which I need e.g. to deactivate the MMU2 or which could also be used to flash the firmware.

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

Just wonder if there are RPI 4 with 8GB users that are using Octoprint on their MK3s I3 w/o any issue with basic Plug Inns. 

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

OK, so I looked up that buck converter they used in that link I posted earlier. Raspberry Pi 4 users were commenting on low voltage warning. I found this 12~24V to 5V 5A buck converter that people seem have find works well. Also the Raspberry Pi 4 8GB I'm told is 64bit and Octoprint seems to not be overly happy yet with that one. There does seem to be a beta around though that seems to work.

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

@eewec-ourbyni

All Raspberry Pi 4s are 64-bit, but the Raspbian OS has remained 32-bit for these devices. With the 8GB, the OS had to be changed to 64-bit to take advantage of >4GB RAM.

But this is a good point. I had not considered 64-bit being the issue when recommending mem=4G above. Indeed it should be possible to run a 32-bit Raspbian on the 8GB Pi for compatibility, but it would not be possible to take advantage of all the RAM.

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

I found this much earlier today; Interesting thread about 64-bit octoprint. It makes for an interesting read if nothing else.

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

@mafredri

Thanks for the information! I will save some money and buy the 4Gb version. I think this is sufficient for working with Octoprint.

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

Just for octoprint even 1GB is quite enough (used ram never reaches 1G). But since it’s not that big price jump i guess 2 or 4GB is “manageable”.

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

@protoncek

All but one of mine are 2GB and it is more than sufficient.  I have 1-4GB and that is overkill.  

RE: Octoprint Pi 4

Thankt for all the information.

I have now a Octoprint 3+ with 8gb. and it works fine.
At this moment i use external power but is it safe to use the power from the board?
And how do i connect.