Here’s a quick little video we shot to help out with the starting process of the AstroBox and the 3D printing capabilities it has to offer! This time, on a Creator Pro.
For more information you can go to https://www.astroprint.com
12 Likes
Dintid
June 12, 2015, 11:17am
3
Would be good with build in terminal access. Not being able to send gCodes for bugs and calibration is really bad. The camera settings is either each laver or with some minut interval, but no option for live streaming which is extrmely odd!
i started using astrobox and just expected those two things as naturally there. I was wrong. Also had to buy a 20-25 Euro special wifi thingie or it wouldn’t work. Updates to the underlying system is disabled so cant get new drivers easily.
Had to log in using SSH to get raspberry camera to work.
Dont get me wrong. I actually use this. For now. But it’s some Odd choices they made.
@Dintid All the features you mentioned are on the roadmap. It’s justa matter of priorities
We are also open source at GitHub - AstroPrint/AstroBox: AstroBox allows you to control your 3D Printer wirelessly and welcome contributions
Also, the WiFi module that we recommend and test with for the RPi is actually pretty cheap ($10) at: http://amzn.to/136HVWj
1 Like
Dintid
June 12, 2015, 2:40pm
5
The wifi is far from cheap in Europe. Absolute cheapest is 20-30 Pounds with shipping. 20 Pound if you live in the UK, which most people in the EU doesn’t do.
I’m not Linux or programmers person, so can’t contribute, aside from making recommendations.
It just boggles me that liveview isn’t the standard way to use webcam and the other two options could be, well, options.
3D printers really aren’t consumer ready, seing as the brain really don’t know what’s going on at the hotend, fans etc, so Gcodes are an absolute must.
Been looking into Octopus, and will try Again, now that I got a working camera. Their interface is rather dated, compared to AstroPrint, but there are some downloadable GUIs.
I noticed that AstroPrint AP is going active each time I start a print, even though I marked the “disable when known Network is detected”. That is just so bad even though I put a custom password on it.
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In regards to live-view vs still images: With some other solutions on the market, users have been getting failed prints due to the fact that many cheap linux boards could not stream gcode and video simultaneously without slowing down. When it slowed down, the gcode did not stream fast enough and print head started jumping, causing a failed print. We decided to start with still images only so as to protect the end user from getting a failed print by accident. We’ll be adding in live-view as an option in the future though.
In regards to your hotspot not turning off, please fill out a support request through your AstroPrint account. This is not an issue that other people have reported. We would love to find out what is going on in your case and fix it!
Dintid
June 20, 2015, 6:56am
7
Thank you for responding. I know my previous posts could easily sound like troll posts. I assure you that it is not though.
Live-streaming:
Nice to know the reasoning, but that actually leads me to another big issue: why can’t we upload to SD Card attached to the ramps board? It’s the logical thing to do.
When uploading to SD Card, and starts the print/streaming from that location it also prevents failed prints caused by USB connection failures due to lots of EMI/EMF noise from the alle the Electric wires in a 3D printer.
Try looking at the Photo I attached. The powerwires, signal-wires and USB are routed right along-side each other. It will be the same in many printers due to size-constraints and a wish to keep it neat.
Regarding Hot-spot.
Astropoint strong points compared to octoprint (some of)
AstroPrint Works much better on mobile devices.
Astroprint camera Works in IE which isn’t the case for Octoprint.
We do plan on adding in the ability to save files directly to the sd card. Since not all 3D printers have sd cards we wanted to make sure we could reliably print to the most 3d printers we could. We def still have a long roadmap of features to add to make AstroPrint even better. Thanks for telling us your thoughts we love to know how people are using their printers so we can make AstroPrint better for them.
For the hotspot it stays on the first time until you reboot your box. This is to make sure you have connected to the internet and don’t lose your connection to the box while you are still on the hotspot. For first time users this can be confusing.
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Dintid
June 20, 2015, 5:21pm
9
I have installed Astrobox 5-10 times. While it doesn’t make me a veteran it does bring me past first time user
It is only logical that hotspot turn off when you select the “turn off hotspot when known Network is detected”. It just didn’t turn hotspot off untill I did it manually. Even though I did remove the power completely. I only noticed it after I moved the printer (to another spot in the house with same wlan) and wanted to control it using my phone, and noticed the hotspot being on.
