upload code to octoprint then print via mk3S SD card instead of though octoprint stream
 
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impression3D.xyz
(@impression3d-xyz)
Trusted Member
upload code to octoprint then print via mk3S SD card instead of though octoprint stream

Hi,

I use octoprint with a raspberry zero connected to my mk3S ans it's very useful. but the print is sometimes slow, I thin the rasp zero is a little but underpowered..

via prusaslicer it's very useful to be able to slice and upload the code to octoprint and then launch the print.

 I would like to upload the geocode to octoprint and then write it on the sd connected to the printer, and launch the print  reading the file on the printer's SD card instead fo letting octoprint sending the code directly to the printer (because it's slow)

is it possible to do that ?

moreover if the raspberry is shutdown the print can continue..

 

thanks

 

Thanks for your answer.

 

Best regards

This topic was modified 4 years ago 2 times by impression3D.xyz

MK3S and Mini print farm

Posted : 29/06/2020 4:17 pm
towlerg
(@towlerg)
Noble Member
RE: upload code to octoprint then print via mk3S SD card instead of though octoprint stream

Yes you can do that but it's unbeleivably slow. Also you should be aware that the Pi zero is generally considered to be no longer fit for task and should be replaced with either Pi 3B+ or Pi 4 (but not 8GB version).

Posted : 29/06/2020 6:05 pm
karl-herbert
(@karl-herbert)
Illustrious Member
RE: upload code to octoprint then print via mk3S SD card instead of though octoprint stream
Posted by: @impression3d

Hi,

I use octoprint with a raspberry zero connected to my mk3S ans it's very useful. but the print is sometimes slow, I thin the rasp zero is a little but underpowered..

via prusaslicer it's very useful to be able to slice and upload the code to octoprint and then launch the print.

 I would like to upload the geocode to octoprint and then write it on the sd connected to the printer, and launch the print  reading the file on the printer's SD card instead fo letting octoprint sending the code directly to the printer (because it's slow)

is it possible to do that ?

moreover if the raspberry is shutdown the print can continue..

 

thanks

 

Thanks for your answer.

 

Best regards

several possibilities:

- use a faster Pi (3B+ or 4)

- send the gcode to octoprint (without starting the print), upload it from octoprint to sd-card and start the print. Transfer from octoprint to sd-card is very slowly (115200 baud)

- try a flashair sd-card ( https://www.toshiba-memory.com/de/products/toshiba-wireless-sd-cards-flashair-w-04/ )

 

Statt zu klagen, dass wir nicht alles haben, was wir wollen, sollten wir lieber dankbar sein, dass wir nicht alles bekommen, was wir verdienen.

Posted : 29/06/2020 7:25 pm
jackjameshoward
(@jackjameshoward)
New Member
RE: upload code to octoprint then print via mk3S SD card instead of though octoprint stream

Hi @karl-herbert and  @towlerg,

Both of you have said yes it's possible to do what the OP has asked, but neither has actually explained how to do it.

I'd like to do the same thing as the OP but I can't see how to 'Send to printer (internal SD)' directly from PrusaSlicer. Or as you stated @karl-herbert how to "send the gcode to octoprint (without starting the print), upload it from octoprint to sd-card and start the print.".

Would it be possible for either of you to show me how to set this up in PrusaSlicer or Octoprint?

Posted : 11/09/2020 11:13 am
karl-herbert
(@karl-herbert)
Illustrious Member
RE: upload code to octoprint then print via mk3S SD card instead of though octoprint stream

@jackjameshoward

That is quite simple:

Generate an API key in Octoprint:

Copy the API key into the Prusa Slicer, enter the IP address of your Raspi and test the connection:

Statt zu klagen, dass wir nicht alles haben, was wir wollen, sollten wir lieber dankbar sein, dass wir nicht alles bekommen, was wir verdienen.

Posted : 11/09/2020 11:44 am
karl-herbert
(@karl-herbert)
Illustrious Member
RE: upload code to octoprint then print via mk3S SD card instead of though octoprint stream

@jackjameshoward

Start printing after upload to Octoprint - yes/no:

Statt zu klagen, dass wir nicht alles haben, was wir wollen, sollten wir lieber dankbar sein, dass wir nicht alles bekommen, was wir verdienen.

Posted : 11/09/2020 11:48 am
Greg
 Greg
(@greg-10)
Active Member
RE: upload code to octoprint then print via mk3S SD card instead of though octoprint stream

HI There,

I thought I'd try a Raspberry Pi B 1.2 on my i3 Mk2.5S with MMU with Octoprint. I got it all working but in short: I'm not impressed. Unsure if someone can point me at any fixes but I have my doubts.

So here is what I found.
The drag and drop has an "upload to local" or "upload to SDCard"
The USB-A port has a limited rate of 115.2k and I've observed the behaviour below:

Upload to local
This is the quickest and most convenient. BUT.
This will put the Gcode onto the SDcard on the RPi itself. Once you print from there is has to send the instructions for the printer down the 115.2k serial port.

This is ok for simple geometries but for complex ones the instructions don't go fast enough. When doing tight circles and small arcs it struggles to keep up. The print head jitters, the lines are not smooth, and the result is (frankly) rubbish. You can see a comparison of the output prints in the below photo

.

Upload to SDCard
This fixes the serial bottleneck. BUT.
This uploads it to the SDCard on the RPi and then sends the file down the USB-A cable onto the SDCard on the printer. This means you could initiate the print from the file on the SDCard, and it would work as if you'd loaded the file from your computer.

I tested this and it works but the transfer to the printer itself is very slow at buffering to the local SDcard. I'm talking hours for a file that took seconds to send to the RPi local SDCard. If I look at the serial console you can actually see the GCode commands get sent one by one. It's really unworkable. In the end, I reverted to ferrying the SDcard back and forth.

I should add that doing this means you lose some of the real time status capabilities of the Octoprint.

So here are my questions:
1. Can the transfer from the Rpi SDCard to Prusa SDCard be sped up somehow?
2. Is the RPi b 1.2 the problem, and if I invest in a better RPi will it fix anything?
3. Can an RPi (of any flavour) be connected directly to the controller of the i3 Mk2.5S? (like it can be for the i3 Mk3).
4. Can the data rate for the Mk2.5 USB port be changed from its hardcoded setting?
5. Should I just ferry SDCards back and forth and wait till I can get a Mk3?

Thanks in advance

G

This post was modified 3 years ago by Greg
Posted : 19/02/2021 9:29 am
bobstro
(@bobstro)
Illustrious Member
RE: upload code to octoprint then print via mk3S SD card instead of though octoprint stream

The forum software can be tricky on mobile. I had a nice response all written up and lost it. Grr...

Trying again... I've gone down this rabbit hole. There are several issues to be aware of when mixing OctoPrint and the printer SD card:

  • You can use OctoPrint to launch print jobs from the printer's SD card. This works just fine. Once the job has started, OctoPrint is out of the picture and you can even reboot the RPi without disrupting the print job.
  • The speed of the RPi is less important in this scenario.

OctoPrint is useful for launching print jobs off the printer SD card. That's the good news. Now the hard reality check:

  • All transfers from the RPi to the printer SD card are via a slow serial connection and the printer-side communications are all being handled by a single 8 bit CPU core. There are no coprocessors or any multitasking. This consumes all of the printer controller CPU time and is very (very very) slow. A small transfer can take an hour or more, easily.
  • OctoPrint can read files from the SD card, but this is done over the same slow, CPU-consuming process. By default, filenames on the SD card are only displayed in 8+3 DOS filename format. Viewing long filenames requires plugins with varying reliability.

OctoPrint is not good for transferring files to the SD card in the printer. It's not going to solve the sneakernet issue if you regularly and reliably need to get files onto the printer SD card. That's the bad news.

So long as you're comfortable with printing via USB from OctoPrint, it's a great solution to avoid running back and forth to the printer. If you really need to print from SD card on the printer, it's a mixed bag. Note that when you send a file to OctoPrint from PrusaSlicer, it is being stored on the card in the RPi, not the SD card in the printer. You will be printing via USB when launching prints directly from PrusaSlicer to OctoPrint.

I've also used a FlashAir and the newer variants. They're not overly reliable, IME. They can help with the sneakernet issue. The FlashAir is discontinued and quite expensive for what you get now. A 16GB FlashAir card costs as much as a full configured RPi with OctoPrint some days. The inexpensive Fysetc and BigTreeTech boards aren't very reliable and require a lot of fiddling to get going.

My recommendation is to set up a RPi 3B or faster, configure OctoPrint on it, and print via USB. The new ARCWelder plugin can solve some of the issues with slow transfers and printing curves that consist of lots of small movements.

My notes and disclaimers on 3D printing

and miscellaneous other tech projects
He is intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two dimensional thinking. -- Spock in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan

Posted : 19/02/2021 3:49 pm
bapski liked
karl-herbert
(@karl-herbert)
Illustrious Member
RE: upload code to octoprint then print via mk3S SD card instead of though octoprint stream

I can only confirm bobstros "My recommendation is to set up a RPi 3B or faster, configure OctoPrint on it, and print via USB."

The data exchange from the Pi to the SD card runs with a transfer rate of 115200 br. Flashair cards are extremely expensive and also not always reliable (problems with the configuration).
Best solution: Pi 3B+ via USB or GPIO - Runs on my system for 3 years stable and without problems with a Kingston Micro SD industrial card.

 

Statt zu klagen, dass wir nicht alles haben, was wir wollen, sollten wir lieber dankbar sein, dass wir nicht alles bekommen, was wir verdienen.

Posted : 19/02/2021 4:10 pm
PiPaNie
(@pipanie)
New Member
RE: upload code to octoprint then print via mk3S SD card instead of though octoprint stream

I found this, which can realize SD card wifi print printing.

Posted : 08/04/2022 8:00 am
Alison G
(@alison-g)
New Member
RE: upload code to octoprint then print via mk3S SD card instead of though octoprint stream

What is "this"? I am working on getting Octodash and such setup, but the painful baud rates of serial are a concern to me. What is the thing on the left? Is that a special kind of SD card? I would rather write straight to the SD card if I can and not have to wait hours to do it.

Posted : 08/05/2022 8:36 pm
towlerg
(@towlerg)
Noble Member
RE: upload code to octoprint then print via mk3S SD card instead of though octoprint stream

 

Posted by: @alison-g

What is "this"? I am working on getting Octodash and such setup, but the painful baud rates of serial are a concern to me. What is the thing on the left? Is that a special kind of SD card? I would rather write straight to the SD card if I can and not have to wait hours to do it.

I think you've got this backwards. If streaming from Octoprint, printing will start immeadiatly whereas trying to write the whole file to SD is an inherently slow process where printing cannot start until the whole file has been written.

Posted : 09/05/2022 12:07 pm
MisterTinker
(@mistertinker)
New Member
RE: upload code to octoprint then print via mk3S SD card instead of though octoprint stream

Looks like a node pro by fiberpunk. Very mixed reviews on amazon, so I opted not to link it

Posted : 31/01/2023 5:31 pm
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