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Hi guys, I’m looking at getting a raspberry pi to run as a host to my 3d printer, to save all the messing around with SD cards

As far as I can tell I have 3 options:

Octoprint (octopi) - Seems to be the most common software around, but also lacks in documentation, or a help forum or similar… but I do know I can write plugins, so thats a plus :slight_smile:

Astroprint - Seems like a relative newcomer, but has its own product (the “astrobox”) that is popular at my local maker space. Again, I cant find much information other than a review written on their website.

Repetier host - Looks like the “professional choice” with a number of features locked down to the pro version. Looks by far the most complete project, but also the least user friendly.

Any experience\help\advice much welcomed

thanks

Dan

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I had a frustrating time with Octopi on a new Raspberry Pi 3, so I swapped it for an old B+ and was finally able to connect to the printer over USB. With both devices I had a rotten time keeping a wifi connection and finally ran an Ethernet cable. There are still problems. About one out of ten prints will stop with Octopi reporting that the printer is not responding. I’ve started rebooting the Raspberry every other print or so, and that may have fixed that problem. Time will tell.

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thanks. Thats worth keeping in mind. I imagine the wifi issue will be the same whatever software I use. seems to be a common issue people have with the Pi… If restarting it after every few prints works, I’ll have to write a plugin that does it automagically. shouldnt be that difficult to write.

I think I’ll probably end up with all 3 at diffrent times to be honest…

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Octoprint is my solution for all my current printers. With the latest version(s) no more printer job stop happened

+ it’s free (but you can become patreon if you wish)

+ it’s super easy to install with the OctoPi flavor (basically a raspbian+Octoprint packages from the start)

It surely doesn’t have all the features one may want but it does the job

wifi support will be down to the compatibility of your wifi with the Raspberry you use (some Raspberry have wifi integrated, some requires a third-party USB dongle)

The only trick I know of is choose your raspberry power supply wisely. Cheap 1A 5V USB power supplies won’t be enough for the latest versions.

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Yeh, I know all about the pi. Its the newest main line model (the pi 3B) that has built in wifi, the rest (including the zero) all need a wifi dongle.

as for a power supply, I have an “official” pi one, so I know it’ll work well :slight_smile:

Thanks for the advice :slight_smile: