RE:
Or use the M73 plugin in Octoprint because the MK4 profile is set to emit them and Prusaslicer is about the most accurate I've seen for time estimates as long as you're not overriding speed at the LCD.
There are two ways to use M73 on OctoPrint. First, works ONLY for USB printing and relies on plugin parsing each g-code line and catching M73 lines.
Second relies on printer echoing back percentage and times from M73 back to the host. That works well for both, over USB printing and directly from SD card / USB dongle printing.
Unfortunately MK4 doesn't support M73 echoing back to host (while MK3* does that nicely!). I, for example, print remotely via octoprint but from sd card and not over usb. Some OctoPrint plugins rely on M73 echoing back feature for progress, times etc and these won't work with MK4, too.
RE:
Could anyone with MK4, put usb drive with files on it, go to octoprint terminal and issue command
M20 L T
and copy & paste here what's returned?
It should list files on usb drive with short and long times, with timestamp (in form of hex number).
I see some reports that this is another thing not working on MK4 (while obviously this is working on MK3* for ages).
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
Well yes... Seems that only basic short output w/o timestamps is supported and L/T is completely ignored.
Send: M20 L T Recv: Begin file list Recv: MK4_FI~1.BBF Recv: DUALCO~1.GCO Recv: MK4MOD~1.TXT Recv: KEYCHA~1.GCO Recv: RCSAND~1 Recv: FILAME~2.GCO Recv: ROCKET~1.GCO Recv: ROBO_A~1.GCO Recv: End file list Recv: ok
RE:
Starting print from usb pendrive via M23 M24 g-code is another not working thing in MK4.
(filling issues / commenting on these on https://github.com/prusa3d/Prusa-Firmware-Buddy ... I would like to get MK4 firmware on the same features level as MK3* firmware at a time when I buy MK3.5 upgrade 😉
RE:
In my almost three years of using Octoprint with the MK3S* I never did print from the SD card via Octoprint and I see no reason to use the USB for that now. Isn't the whole experience of using Octoprint that you can use your network for this? 🙂
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
Perhaps the only reason for printing from the USB would be the resume function in case of a loss of power if the power grid is not stable in your area. Would not be a lot of fun for PETG prints though after the bed has cooled.
RE:
Few reasons:
- resume on power recovery
- ability to easily start print from octoprint remotely but also physically at printer LCD (in my case printer is on another floor than computer)
- avoiding layer shifts due and slightly worse print quality in come cases (due to MCU not keeping up with incoming over serial data; I guess that's not a problem now with 32bit and much faster MCU but we will see). Real problem I also had.
- g-code silently not executed over usb but no such problem when printing from sd card (there was such bug/miscompilation in mk3 fw and it did hit me)
- faster print times from sd card (not sure if that still applies to MK4) [1]
- printing from sd card is so much more tested (than over USB) by people, companies, print farms etc
1.
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
Have you ever tried the arc welder plugin? That reduces the size of the g-code files (percentages in the two digits usually). Could be enough to avoid speed problems.
I never compared the speeds from sd card to network printing. Wouldn't the printer pause then if it has to wait for the next chunk of g-code? The printing speed is set in the g-code or am I mistaken?
I have used a tablet to adjust the focus for my octoprint camera to speed things up and avoid walking back and forth.
RE:
I see the video is about gyroid infill. Perhaps arc welder could be useful there. But in my opinion gyroid is just something that looks good in timelapses and makes a lot of noise during printing. 🙂
A very special case, don't use it often, admit having used it in the beginning. 😉
Also a difference is whether you use wi-fi or ethernet on your pi.
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
Printer pausing due to empty buffers causes all sorts of printing problems. Blobs etc being most common but also burnt areas where the hot nozzle is just sitting there leaking filament and cooking the existing layers its already printed.
Printing speed can be adjusted on the fly from the lcd on something like the Mk3 or the same can be done via gcode commands.
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
Considered using arc welder but due to other reason. To try G2/G3 g-codes (which MK3* firmware handles but prusa slicer never emits). However I dislike how arcwelder doesn't integrate with PrusaSlicer nicely - it's a post-processing script and not native prusa slicer operation.
That was at a point where I already switched to always printing from sd card, so octoprint arcwelder plugin could not be used. (btw new MK3* 3.13 firmware will include MeatPack, too for speeding things up a bit).
Anyway printing from sd card proven to be a great and reliable solution (if you can workaround slow serial port speed and there are ways for that; otherwise uploading to sd card over serial is long *pain*).
These problems with layer shifting / slightly worse quality were so hard to diagnose (as for example only 1 shift happened in 3 hours print), so were never fully diagnosed. Other people on internet sometimes had similar problem but no solutions or pointers. Anyway printing from sdcard proven to be reliable and *never* produced a layer shift, so interest in debugging printing over usb problems was lost.
I use phone for similar purpose but LCD is more convenient for starting a print (if I need to do this at printer).
RE:
Printer pausing due to empty buffers causes all sorts of printing problems. Blobs etc being most common but also burnt areas where the hot nozzle is just sitting there leaking filament and cooking the existing layers its already printed.
Printing speed can be adjusted on the fly from the lcd on something like the Mk3 or the same can be done via gcode commands.
What I meant about speed problems is that you would probably see if the printer has problems keeping up, either by watching it move or at least by inspecting the print. If you have a problem, then you can look for an alternate solution, but only if.
I have never felt the need to adjust printing speed on the fly, neither on the LCD or in Octoprint. If you have to repeat the print because you were impatient ...
Perhaps a problem for people who do this commercially and/or are on a time constraint. But then the print quality should be also a priority.
The blob thing I had once or twice on a large print, where the nozzle had to move all the way to the right on the bed. But that was caused by the USB cable being jiggled by the cables for the extruder (I think) and this caused a bad connection on the USB. I changed to another USB cable then.
But hey, I got two nice half moon bowls out of that. 🙂
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
Fair? They created a well known product and their selling point was open source, ease of use, accessibility and repairability, etc. They've, up until recently, always been receptive to the community and modding to improve the product.
While that's absolutely fair, they did create an expectation by supporting it in the Mini then saying this was basically the Mini's firmware. So I could see a slight argument for it being an expected feature and wouldn't be surprised if it's on their todo list but not a priority since this printer does support Link and Connect out of the box.
It's not Prusa's responsibility to make things like Octoprint work how folks want it to. The MK4 works as-is out of the box. Prusa may step in and help, but, honestly, it's all open source so the Octoprint folks could step in themselves if they want/need something specific implemented in firmware. Sit down with their favorite IDE, make a branch, then PR it. If Prusa comes along and helps, that's great and going above and beyond, not "getting off their butts".
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
It should be noted that the SD card, or in the MK4's case the USB drive, is used in power loss recovery. Octoprint has MANY features, but most of all I think Octoprint is used for print farm management and\or Octolapse. The fanboys among us will say "just use prisalink for network prints" but until prusalink and\or prusaconnect has any meaningful, competative, and reliable plugins its a moot argument. And, to be honest, I just dont see that happening very quickly as Octoprint can be used on many printers but many printers can't use prusalink\prusaconnect.
In my almost three years of using Octoprint with the MK3S* I never did print from the SD card via Octoprint and I see no reason to use the USB for that now. Isn't the whole experience of using Octoprint that you can use your network for this? 🙂
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
It should be noted that the SD card, or in the MK4's case the USB drive, is used in power loss recovery. Octoprint has MANY features, but most of all I think Octoprint is used for print farm management and\or Octolapse. The fanboys among us will say "just use prisalink for network prints" but until prusalink and\or prusaconnect has any meaningful, competative, and reliable plugins its a moot argument. And, to be honest, I just dont see that happening very quickly as Octoprint can be used on many printers but many printers can't use prusalink\prusaconnect.
In my almost three years of using Octoprint with the MK3S* I never did print from the SD card via Octoprint and I see no reason to use the USB for that now. Isn't the whole experience of using Octoprint that you can use your network for this? 🙂
I don't get why is Prusa is investing valuable SW/FW resources on prusalink or prusaconnect.
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
It's more about their printer farm support than for individuals. Octoprint, for example, isn't terribly helpful for managing 20 printers. With Connect, they're all right there on 1 page. They've developed Connect for that and I assume Link is probably just adding a local Web UI to the same API interface so minimal effort, really.
I don't get why is Prusa is investing valuable SW/FW resources on prusalink or prusaconnect.
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
All of those things are true. The Octoprint folks are more than welcome to PR against the codebase to enhance it to suit their needs. As long as they don't introduce bugs, security issues, or anything problematic, I'm sure Prusa will accept enhancements.
Or use the source code from the firmware to alter their own codebase to work with what exists in firmware today. Nothing is stopping either approach. And again, it's not on Prusa to go and make things for 3rd parties. All the tools are available for 3rd parties to do whatever they want with it, those 3rd parties need to do it, if they actually want it, no whine and complain that Prusa isn't doing it for them.
Fair? They created a well known product and their selling point was open source, ease of use, accessibility and repairability, etc. They've, up until recently, always been receptive to the community and modding to improve the product.
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
Power loss recovery works perhaps for PLA on the smooth sheet, hardly for PETG or other materials that self-release from the textured sheet after that has cooled down or rather as it cools down. Release from the bed happens quite fast then. Also depends if you need it at all, meaning how stable your power grid is. I don't think I have lost a print yet due to power loss and Octoprint being unable to resume. And doesn't the power loss feature write its status constantly to the medium? Cheap sd cards or usb sticks probably won't last long then.
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
Regarding the mk4 screen not updating, can we use OctoDash on a screen to monitor octoprint (temps, progress etc) locally?
RE:
No idea how that is connected, never used this so far. A tablet/phone with the Octoprint interface in a browser works anyway. I have used this on a tablet, don't know how it looks on a phone.