RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
Another MK4 customer who loves Octoprint checking in...
- I'm a happy owner of a Prusa Mini+ running Octoprint on a Pi4. It has been fast, reliable, and excellent for over a year. Octoprint integration with the printer isn't perfect but at least I can see feedback on the screen that Octoprint is controlling, and make a print speed change mid-print if needed.
- My MK4 arrived last week and I attempted to setup PrusaLink and Prusa Connect via Wifi... WHAT A NIGHTMARE.
- Whole new workflow and a bunch of time figuring out PrusaLink setup, Wifi setup, Prusa Connect account, etc etc.
- To call Prusa Connect "slow as molasses" would be an understatement. Upload over 2.4GHz wifi literally 10-20x slower than uploading using Octoprint on the Mini.
- Whole interface felt slow as heck! Frequent refreshes to try to fix incorrect statuses...
- Crappy webcam support.
- No support (that I could see) for Polymer + OctoEverywhere on iPhone, which has become hugely helpful for monitoring (and even canceling prints remotely from my phone if needed).
- In the 5 days I had Prusa Connect running, for nearly 2 full days it was completely down due to an acknowledged server issue - yikes...
- Completed prints have to be manually acknowledged with 2-3 clicks at the printer before you can print again. Annoying.
- The whole thing feels like a workaround. PrusaSlicer just sends the GCode to the USB stick and then the printer prints from the stick, then Connect shares the status.
- After that awful experience, I read this forum thread and reddit threads claiming to get Octoprint working, so I decided to shell out the money to buy another Pi4, another USB webcam, and fire up a second instance of Octoprint for the MK4.
- I was able to get the second Octoprint instance running and recognize the MK4.
- I was able to get the MK4 and it's Pi/webcam added to Polymer and OctoEverywhere, alongside the Mini+.
- But then all my Octoprint prints were failing after the first layer! The nozzle appeared to stop extruding filament after the first layer and would just be moving in mid-air. I spoke with a Prusa support specialist who tried but was not able to fix this issue.
- Prusa acknowledged that their priority right now is improving Prusa Connect since Octoprint is not their product. I gave them my feedback that I thought this was a serious mistake and that they are frustrating MANY of their most loyal customers by not prioritizing support for Octoprint.
FINALLY: I carefully watched one of my failed Octoprints jobs and noticed that the hotend was unloading the filament a small amount immediately after completing first layer (i.e. E-axis was moving for a moment after first layer). I then realized OCTOLAPSE could be the culprit because it modifies the GCode in order to snap a photo after each layer.
Sure enough, I disabled the Octolapse plug-in and I'm now printing my first successful Octoprint job on the MK4.
Hopefully this allows Octoprint to work now, but I also hope Prusa read this thread and consider changing course to at least get Octoprint (and Octolapse) working reliably with the MK4 before putting more resources into Prusa Connect.
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
I observed the same problems with Octolapse when "Stabilization" is enabled.
Octolapse on the MK4 works for me with the settings in this screenshot. Most important is to disable stabilization. I use the trigger "Smart - Snap to Print".
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
My MK3* farm is full of Pi+HP4Touch displays along with the LCD mount 😉 I can't wait to mount one to work along with an MK4!
BTW any news on the "enabling" of the "touch" feature of the "touch"screenn on the MK4? lol
Wonder if/ when this will be fixed
be nice to have a new faceplate with the Hyperpixel mounted next to it
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
BTW yesterday after a spool emptied, Mk4 was expecting me to remove the filament piece which was not visible 🙁 so I had to pull it out of the gears causing the head to move and loosing the print because of missed steps/Layer shift. Tried to make the MK4 detect a crash by hitting the nozzle with a pair of pliers to no avail but no, no crash detection on the mk4!
Lamest of all is that even Prusa support does not know this!! They THINK Mk4 HAS crash detection enabled!! ROTFL
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
Glad I found this thread. I got my Octoprint/pi4 going with my MK4. So far so good.
The only challenge I'm having is that the push knob/live Z offset feature disappears when printing from Octoprint. So I have to bake the offset into the slice.
If anyone knows a way to live adjust the Z when printing from Octoprint please let me know.
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
Can someone with a MK4 and the Cancel Object Octoprint plugin verify that still works?
( https://plugins.octoprint.org/plugins/cancelobject/ )
RE:
The only challenge I'm having is that the push knob/live Z offset feature disappears when printing from Octoprint. So I have to bake the offset into the slice.
If anyone knows a way to live adjust the Z when printing from Octoprint please let me know.
re Live Z, I thought the new touch probing took care of that. No?
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
Yes but sometimes you need a little extra squish on the fly and you don't want to have to do it in the slicer.
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
Can you elaborate it a bit more detail what you went through to get it successfully set up please.
With my MK3s+ it was simple as never had a problem in 2 years,
I had connection with USB & ethernet was able to transfer the information to the printer to print it, but then when I look to check on it it had stopped & I never had that problem before.
If I physically put the same file on the flash drive it will print no drama.
Any help greatly appreciated
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
Hi all.
I got my MK4 yesterday and got it running with the usual tests. I do want to use OctoPrint so I took the RPi 4 I previously used on my MK3s+ and connected it via the USB-C connection that is on the back of the electronics box. Then I created a new profile for the MK4 in OctoPrint to set the build volume correctly and upploaded a job to Octoprint from my Prusa Slicer - just a simple thin rectangle that prints in 10 minutes.
It seems to work just fine - the print completed without issues. Perhaps I'm just first time lucky so I will run a multi hour print next
The only thing I´d like to see is that the printer display should show the progress of the print - I can see it on the PI Touch Screen and in the web interface but the Printer screen just shows the temp and material
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
Hi, the functionality for showing progress of OctoPrint jobs on the printer display this is not yet implemented in the MK4 firmware. We can only hope ... 🙂
The only thing I´d like to see is that the printer display should show the progress of the print - I can see it on the PI Touch Screen and in the web interface but the Printer screen just shows the temp and material
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
Hi, the functionality for showing progress of OctoPrint jobs on the printer display this is not yet implemented in the MK4 firmware. We can only hope ... 🙂
The only thing I´d like to see is that the printer display should show the progress of the print - I can see it on the PI Touch Screen and in the web interface but the Printer screen just shows the temp and material
I am currently on 5alpha and noticed that when a print is started via the printer's knob/LCD and is then immediately canceled, the interface stays in "printmode". Any subsequently started print from Octoprint will then correctly display progress and messages (as in: M117 works as intended and can also be used from the terminal). The LED-bar does not seem to work, but at least a nice large progress-indicator is available again in this way.
Maybe someone can check if this also works with the stable release firmware versions...
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
That is a nice discovery. I will try this out not with 4.6.4 but with the new 5.0.0-alpha2 that was just released.
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
Yes, this workaround also works on the new firmware 5.0.0-alpha2. The display shows the name of the file on the USB for which the print was started and aborted, but it shows the correct temperature and current layer and the total number of layers (x/total) of the actual print for a short time when a new layer is started. After a short press on the knob it will also show the estimated time the print will be finished.
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
does the filament runout sensor work with Octoprint and the MK4 ?
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
No.
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
Why not? ain't it at firmware level? what has Octoprint to do with the runout sensor here??
RE:
The firmware does not talk to OctoPrint to the same extent as an MK3**/Mini* would. At the beginning we did comparisons of the serial log in OctoPrint between an MK3S+ and an MK4. Not the same command set is supported on the MK4. So OctoPrint would not know when to pause the print and let the filament be changed.
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
So when the fiñament runs out, the printer keeps printing on air if sent from Octoprint???
How lame 🙁
RE: Prusa MK4 & Octoprint
I don't know if the printer keeps printing, but Octoprint does not know that there is no filament and keeps sending code to the printer. The print is lost, I assume from what I have heard. I have not tried this myself.