Wireless 3d Printing - Cheap - The Orange Pi Zero and OctoPrint

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Dividion
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Wireless 3d Printing - Cheap - The Orange Pi Zero and OctoPrint

Post by Dividion » Sat Aug 29, 2020 11:36 pm

Summary:
For about $20, you can upgrade your 3d printer with wifi, ethernet, a web-based management interface, and still run it all off the single power cable that your printer came with, and without soldering anything.

Background:
I had picked up a half dozen OrangePi Zero boards on AliExpress with the intention of using them for some cheap, portable retro consoles in combination with some composite backup displays. It has the same chip as the Banana Pi Zero M2 (AllWinner H2+), which is much more powerful than a Raspberry Pi Zero. It also has a tiny footprint, built-in USB hub, etc. The original "Zero" only has composite out, not HDMI like the "Zero Plus 2". I think that because of that I couldn't get the latest RetrOrangePi build working on it, and just getting the composite working with a cheap backup display was a real pain in the ass, so I thought about re-tasking the boards for something else...

I also have a couple of 3d printers: a Prusa Mk3S as my primary, and an Ender 3 Pro that I got off Amazon a few months ago to have as a cheap secondary. Unfortunately, having these two printers tied to my desktop was becoming an issue, because I want to keep my office cool, but the printers perform better when it's uncomfortably warm, and enclosures didn't seem like the right option. It would actually be better to relocate the printers outside of the office, but that would mean untethering them from my computer and copying files to SD cards every time I wanted to print was not a viable option.

While surfing for solutions on how I could use the printers if they were remote, I came across OctoPrint. One thing led to another and I managed to get OctoPrint working on the OrangePi Zero, made some brackets to discretely attach the boards to the printers, and figured out how to power them off the printers' internal power. I'm happy enough with the results that I figured I'd share it with the community.

Hardware Needed:
Orange Pi Zero (or Zero LTS): https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000049806939.html
Breadboard Wires: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/10000348907053.html (type needed depends on your printer)
- Prusa: 2x wires - male to female
- Ender: 2x wires - female to female
Micro SD Card
USB Data Cable (type needed depends on your printer)
Ethernet Cable (makes setting up the Pi easy, but you can remove it for wireless)
Bracket and Screws: (just 4 small screws should be enough)
- Prusa: http://pocketadventures.com/models/stl_ ... racket.stl
- Ender: http://pocketadventures.com/models/stl_ ... racket.stl
Image

Software Setup:
There are instructions on the OctoPrint website (https://octoprint.org/) for setting it up from scratch in Linux. There's also a guide that was put together by "Daumemo" for setting it up on an Orange Pi Zero: https://daumemo.com/installing-octoprin ... ro-part-1/ For the most part I followed that guide, but I used a different build of Armbian. You can grab the latest off the Armbian website: https://www.armbian.com/orange-pi-zero/

Also, if you use Daumemo's guide, please note the following:
- After running the update/upgrade, log out and then log in as the non-root user.
- For the "source" command, the "S" should be lowercase.

Orange Pi Zero Wiring:
The Orange Pi Zero wiring is the easiest part of the assembly. Just attach the female end of the breadboard jumpers to the 5V and GND on the 13-pin header, right next to the USB port:
Image
And of course you'll need to run a USB data cable from the full-size USB port to the printer.

Prusa Wiring:
On the Prusa, nearly all of the ports on the mainboard are already in use. However, the J19 header is available, and it has a couple of options for 5V and GND. I rotated the picture so it matches what you'll see in the printer. You'll attach the male end of the jumpers to J19.
Image
You can use pins 2 (5V) and 4 (GND) or pins 10 (5V) and 14 (GND) - I used 10 and 14.
Image
If you use the bracket on the back-left corner, right below the controller board, then when you're done, it should look like this:
Image

Ender Wiring:
For the Ender, you can pull 5V from the display board, which the bracket sits underneath. The right-most pins in EXP1 are 5V (top row) and GND (bottom row).
Image
And fully-assembled it'll look like this (the SD card is still accessible from underneath):
Image

Other Tips:
Connect to the Orange Pi Zero using PuTTY.
You can easily find the board's IP addressing using Angry IP Scanner. (scan for port 22)
If you're used to "raspi-config", then you can easily enable WiFi by running "armbian-config".
This setup DOES NOT guarantee safe shutdown. Use the option in OctoPrint to power off the Pi before flipping off the printer's power switch. If the "sudo shutdown 0" command line doesn't work, try it without the "sudo".

Conclusion:
There you have it. For about 20 bucks and an hour or two, you can take your 3d printer to the next level. Sure, you can use different SBCs, but you'll either a) spend more, b) need USB adapters, c) need to solder the wires, or d) sacrifice functionality. In any case, it seems like a great use case for the Orange Pi Zero.


PS. They changed the download page and made it easy to find the right version of RetrOrangePi for the Zero. And it works... Yay! http://www.retrorangepi.org/images/OrangePiZero/
Check out my store for GBZ boards and accessories: http://pocketadventures.com

Dividion
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Re: Wireless 3d Printing - Cheap - The Orange Pi Zero and OctoPrint

Post by Dividion » Fri Feb 05, 2021 11:13 pm

EDIT: If the images don't show up, and you're using Chrome, right-click the lock icon in the address bar, select "Site Settings", and toggle insecure content to "Allowed". It's complaining because the site uses HTTPS, but the images use HTTP. You can also right-click the broken image links and open them in a new window/tab.
Last edited by Dividion on Mon Mar 29, 2021 9:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
Check out my store for GBZ boards and accessories: http://pocketadventures.com

Gabriellk
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Re: Wireless 3d Printing - Cheap - The Orange Pi Zero and OctoPrint

Post by Gabriellk » Tue Mar 23, 2021 6:28 am

Sharing is a good thing. I'm not the only one who works here, and I'm not the only one who prints. My husband can slice and print templates using octoprint instead of grabbing the end of the USB cable from my machine and plugging it into his (if it would even reach.)

Octoprint does not support wireless G-code transmission. You upload the gcode all at once to the Raspberry Pi, and when you're finished, you press print, and Octoprint sends the commands in through USB. Alternatively, you can save it to an SD card and then instruct Octoprint to use the SD card G-code. You may not be able to log into Octoprint to pause or stop the print if the wifi goes out in the middle of it.
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Vodixo
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Re: Wireless 3d Printing - Cheap - The Orange Pi Zero and OctoPrint

Post by Vodixo » Tue Mar 30, 2021 9:58 am

Gabriellk wrote:
Tue Mar 23, 2021 6:28 am
Sharing is a good thing. I'm not the only one who works here, and I'm not the only one who prints. My husband can slice and print templates using octoprint instead of grabbing the end of the USB cable from my machine and plugging it into his (if it would even reach.)

Octoprint does not support wireless G-code transmission. You upload the gcode all at once to the Raspberry Pi, and when you're finished, you press print, and Octoprint sends the commands in through USB. Alternatively, you can save it to an SD card and then instruct Octoprint to use the SD card G-code. You may not be able to log into Octoprint to pause or stop the print if the wifi goes out in the middle of it.
Thank you! I didn't know about it
Hi

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