Raspberry Pi on Rostock MAX

[h3ss]

I thought I'd share my experiences with integrating a Raspberry Pi into my Rostock MAX in case anyone is thinking about doing something similar.

I created a custom mounting adapter so I could mount it inside the front panel where the LCD goes:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:65730

To power it, I soldered the +5v & GND on an old USB A Female connector to the +5v & GND on a Molex extension cable so it can be powered from the internal PSU.

For the software, I'm using Octoprint which so far I have been really impressed with. I am running Arch Linux for the OS on the Pi.

I even added a Logitech C910 camera which is also controlled by the Pi. You can see my custom camera mount here:

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:65729

I stream the output from the camera using mjpeg-streamer which integrates with Octoprint. Together they create awesome timelapse videos of my prints automatically. You can see one here:

http://youtu.be/8_12KvIuvjA

The MAX is my first 3-D printer, and although it has been a struggle sometimes, I am really happy with it.

[daftscience]

Nice, are you using Foosels repetier branch? And have you noticed any connection issues? Or resend line#?


Also, I just modified your camera bracket for mine and hopefully will get that set up a bit later.

Tom

[h3ss]

I'm actually using John's Marlin firmware for LCD:

https://github.com/johnoly99/Marlin-for ... x-ramboLCD

However, I'm thinking about trying out Polygonhell's firmware since I've heard so many good things about it. Can anyone confirm if his firmware works well with Octoprint?

[daftscience]

It does. I'm using it now that's why I was asking. Foosel has done a lot of work to get it working for repetier, and it mostly works. My repetier branch fixes an issue caused by sending manual commands.

The only problem I have now is that it takes two attempts to initially connect to the printer. Other than that everything works.


Edit* I updated my repository and figured I would show you my config.yaml. It will make calibration a piece of cake.

Code: Select all

appearance:
  color: blue
  name: RostockMax
controls:
- children:
  - command: M106 S%(speed)s
    input:
    - default: 255
      name: Speed (0-255)
      parameter: speed
    name: Enable Fan
    type: parametric_command
  - command: M107
    name: Disable Fan
    type: command
  name: Fan
  type: section
- children:
  - command: G0 Z%(height)s
    input:
    - default: 50
      name: Height
      parameter: height
    name: Move Z
    type: parametric_command
  - command: G0 X0 Y90 Z%(height)s
    input:
    - default: 50
      name: G0 X0 Y90 Z
      parameter: height
    name: Calibrate Z Axis
    type: parametric_command
  - command: G0 X77.94 Y-45 Z%(height)s
    input:
    - default: 50
      name: G0 X77.94 Y-45 Z
      parameter: height
    name: Calibrate Y Axis
    type: parametric_command
  - command: G0 X-77.94 Y-45 Z%(height)s
    input:
    - default: 50
      name: G0 X-77.94 Y-45 Z
      parameter: height
    name: Calibrate X Axis
    type: parametric_command
  name: Delta Calibration
  type: section
- children:
  - commands: M206 T3 P145 X%(maxLength)s M206 T3 P149 X%(maxLength)s M206 T3 P153
      X%(maxLength)s M500 G28
    input:
    - default: null
      name: Max Z height
      parameter: maxLength
    name: Set EEPROM XYZ max length
    type: parametric_commands
  name: Set EEPROM
  type: section
feature:
  alwaysSendChecksum: true
  resetLineNumbersWithPrefixedN: true
  waitForStartOnConnect: true
printerParameters:
  movementSpeed: {}
serial:
  baudrate: 57600
  port: /dev/ttyACM0
system:
  actions:
  - action: shutdown
    command: sudo shutdown -h now
    confirm: You are about to shutdown the system.
    name: Shutdown
temperature:
  profiles:
  - bed: '120'
    extruder: '230'
    name: ABS
  - bed: '80'
    extruder: 180
    name: PLA

[DaGroundZero]

I am thinking about trying to do something like this. Are you happy with it?

[daftscience]

I am thinking about trying to do something like this. Are you happy with it?

It's the only host I'm using anymore. Once you have your EEPROM set you wont need repetier host anymore. And if you're not using RH build in slicer it makes loading GCODE files a bit easier.

[h3ss]

I am thinking about trying to do something like this. Are you happy with it?

I am very happy with this setup. For one, I no longer have to have a PC dedicated to the printer. Before I was always worried that if I did something else with the PC running the printer it would pause and cause defects in the print. Now I can set it and just monitor the print in my web browser. I can even be in another room while the printer is running and watch it on my laptop or tablet. Hypothetically I could even run a remote print while I'm in the office, but I'd be too worried about something going wrong and not being there to hit the panic button. I have considered controlling a relay through the GPIO on the Pi that can shut off the power to the RAMBO, giving me a remote panic button.

[theverant]

I have considered controlling a relay through the GPIO on the Pi that can shut off the power to the RAMBO, giving me a remote panic button.

When I get a spare moment I'd like to try my pi with the Max, this feature would be fantastic. Be sure to post if you go ahead with it.

[cjdavis618]

Have one on the way to try now...

[cambo3d]

what is rasberry pi, is it something like an arduino? what are pros and cons compared to the arduino?

[geneb]

http://www.raspberrypi.org/

Absolutely nothing like an Arduino.

It's a 700Mhz ARM based computer for $35 that has the same outline as a credit card.

g.

[halley]

what is rasberry pi, is it something like an arduino? what are pros and cons compared to the arduino?

An Arduino is a microcontroller chip capable of driving a few devices; the chances of it driving any kind of video display are basically nil.

A Raspberry Pi is general purpose Linux computer (based on a Broadcom video processor chip and ARM core) that is about as powerful as a typical tablet device or smartphone. It costs about the same as an Arduino kit. It has a very limited ability to send and receive some digital signals, on top of full HDMI video output, USB ports and Ethernet ports. The idea was to give a board that school children could learn a lot about the internals of computers, but hobbyists have bought 100x the number they expected to sell to schools.

I've run Pronterface on a Raspberry Pi to drive a Printrbot. Unfortunately, the ARM core is slow to process all the file parsing, and the 512 MB RAM limit means it will run out of memory quickly on complex prints like Yoda Head. People in this thread are talking about running a web-server-based interface to feed the g-code.

[daftscience]

I can see there being an issue with really complex gcode, but I haven't run into an issue with that at all. The only time mine got bogged down was when I was printing and attempting to record 1080p video with a webcam. But I figured that would be a bit much.

[h3ss]

Well, it looks like I can no longer use Octoprint.

I switched to Polygonhell's Repetier firmware and I can't emphasize enough how impressed I am with the improvement. Seriously, if anyone is still running the Marlin firmware it is well worth the effort to switch to Polygonhell's.

Unfortunately, despite trying numerous fixes that Daftscience posted, I was unable to get Octoprint to work correctly with the new firmware. The closest I came was being able to send basic commands to the printer, but when I started trying to print it errored out and failed. This is a shame, because I really like Octoprint's simplicity and webcam integration.

Since I didn't want to abandon the convenience of having a web UI for the printer, I ended up trying Repetier Server and am quite impressed. It does a good job of controlling the printer. I'm not too enamored with the UI, it doesn't seem all that intuitive, but it's manageable and most importantly it does a great job of talking to the new firmware, even supporting the binary protocol.

I missed the webcam support, so I am currently in the process of shoe-horning webcam features into Repetier Server. So far I have just created a wrapper page that loads the main UI in an iframe and puts some elements on top so I have a button that will popup a webcam view. You can see the results here:

[img]http://i.imgur.com/8LAbgrD.png[/img]

I've also written a Bash script to take timed .jpg stills which can later be turned into a timelapse video with ffmpeg or mencoder.

Eventually I'm planning on using PHP to provide the camera wrapper including controls in the web UI to kick off or kill a recording session.

If anyone's interested in the code let me know and I'll publish it.

[daftscience]

Have you tried Foosel's repetier branch of octoprint? https://github.com/foosel/OctoPrint/tree/repetier. What was the error you were getting? It's still a work in progress but I'm still using it.

The last issue I had was was if I sent a manual command while it was printing there was the possibility they would both get the same line number. That's been fixed. The current issue is every once in a while communication errors are horrible. I read this is a problem with repetier firmware reading ascii commands. In this case repetier server will have close to no communication errors but all other hosts will. The fix was supposed to be sending the emergency stop command. I haven't really had time to investigate this too much as I've only had the issue once.

I made this yesterday with the latest update to octoprint (again, using the repetier branch.)

[predawnsky]

how do you guys connect the pi to the rostock max

[bubbasnow]

how do you guys connect the pi to the rostock max

usb cable

[predawnsky]

so im trying to install the repetier server on raspberry and cant figure out how to do it and the instruction are not helping me

[bubbasnow]

so im trying to install the repetier server on raspberry and cant figure out how to do it and the instruction are not helping me

I would use an octiprint image

[0110-m-p]

so im trying to install the repetier server on raspberry and cant figure out how to do it and the instruction are not helping me

The instructions are definitely lacking. I pieced together instructions from about 7 different sources. I absolutely love the functionality of it, but it was a true PITA.

I'm planning on posting up a complete How-To thread once I get my camera setup working. In the mean time, here are some of the sources I used to get mine running.

http://forum.felixprinters.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=409" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.appropedia.org/MOST_RepRap_p ... ier_Server" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.britishideas.com/2012/09/29/ ... th-reprap/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://forum.seemecnc.com/viewtopic.php?f=54&t=1227" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://elinux.org/RPi_A_Method_for_ssh_blind_login" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[geneb]

I found out the other day that Repetier-Server is going (or has gone) closed source, so you might want to just drop it and move to Octoprint.

g.

[Nylocke]

How much of Repetier is closed source at this point?

[geneb]

To my knowledge, Host and Server are. This makes me nervous about the state of the Firmware.

g.

[Nylocke]

With Eris SeeMe did say they might switch back to Marlin. Sounds like that's going too...

[geneb]

I suspect the move is the desire to disassociate entirely from Repetier and his MakerBot-like behavior.

g.