Transcript:
Hey, guys, drop your 3d print scape today. I wanted to go over Why the Raspberry Pi is a perfect accessory to a 3d printer. It doesn’t matter if you’re running a printer or like your indoor three or indoor three. Pro CR 10 or higher in printer, like a pro, So or your TAS BOTS or anything like that, They are great accessories. Regardless, there are multiple things that you can do with them. I mean, obviously, there’s octoprint, but there’s a lot more to it than just that if you wanted to. So I’m gonna go into those and more detail in this video also go over some of the accessories that you will want to get with it and talk about the differences between your Raspberry Pi 3 & 4 and help you make a decision on which one you might want to get. So let’s go to get started first. Let’s talk about Octoprint. So that’s gonna be the thing that everybody is the most familiar with it allows you to control your 3d printer remotely. Octopi is the pre-built image that you put on your Raspberry. Pi, it’s really simple. I did a couple videos on setting all of that up. I’ll link to them in the description, and then you connect to that using any computer that you have on the network or tablets and even phones. I also have mobile apps for as well if you don’t want to just use them browser interface and with that, you would actually connect to the printer with the USB, so you’d have a USB cable that connects to your Raspberry PI and connects directly to the printer. You will want to make sure you get the right one for your printer. They have different sizes based on the printer, Both of the printers that I’m using right now have a different connection. One of them is just standard USB the other one’s micro USB. So make sure you’re looking at what the actual connection type is for your printer before actually getting a cable or if you have any of them around the house that works too, the next thing to point out really would be applying to all of the options. I’m going to be talking about, but it’s you can power this multiple ways. You can use just your standard. AC power supply, which also you can get a switch as well so that will plug into here. You have your on and off switch and this plugs directly into the Raspberry Pi, or you can tie it directly into the printer’s power supply. If you be using it with that one all the time I will do a video going over how to set that up with the indoor three Pro, probably in the next couple of weeks. So make sure you check that out when it’s ready. And then if you’re gonna be using off to print, you probably don’t want to get a camera with it as well. You have a couple choices. You can get a Raspberry. Pi camera like this! It just connects directly with the ribbon cable. It connects right here. I’ll go over that in a second or you can get a webcam that would connect to USB only thing. There is if you plan on using this with multiple printers at the same time that will take away from your USB ports so it will reduce the number of printers. You can connect to, so as it stands right now. Unless you get some sort of USB hub, you can have four printers connected to this. You do have to pay attention to the mappings like this. That’s the only real caveat, but you can’t have for printers connected to one device. All right, so lets. Go over some of the accessories here. I have, I actually bought this as a kit. I’ll link to it in the description below, but it comes with a nice little case. All the heatsinks. If you just buy the Raspberry Pi, you don’t have these heat sinks and they do heat up, especially if you’re running anything That’s more computer, intense, so it’s definitely worth getting those. You have your SD card back here. I’ve just standard micro SD. You have to get the converter which I have one right here. It’s just SD dat USB. This will just plug in here. Then you can connect it to your computer just like that. And then if you’re going to be putting a monitor on this of any type, you will need this mini. HDMI to HDMI converter. So you can actually connect to it, and then you could use a keyboard and mouse with it as well, depending upon what OS you have on it, initially with octoprint, that’s kind of pointless because you can control all remotely, but if you’re planning on doing other things with it, it is an option, so I just want to make sure they kind of talk that briefly. Also, if you’re going to be using anything that is CPU of compute-intensive, I would recommend getting the fan. I have this already on the case. Don’t take it off! It did come with this set as well, so it wasn’t much extra, But it will help increase the longevity of the unit itself. It will help disperse the heat and therefore helps the actual unit and then. I wanted to talk about cases. This was the case that came with the setup bot. If you’re gonna be piecing it together, you don’t have to get the case. There are many options that you can just print for anything. Averse some really good ones that can also mount them directly on to your 3d printer as well. So just keep in mind what you’re going to be using it for if you’re doing something where you’re gonna be moving it around all the time, possibly reimaging it for different purposes and not using it dedicated to a 3d printer. I would recommend getting a case like this, especially when it comes with the kit, really no additional cost. When I pieced everything out individually. The case was basically for you at that point, and sorry, if you’re hearing banging in the background, there’s a crazy bird outside that likes to run into the window constantly. I keep trying to scare him away, but he keeps coming back. It’s the same bird. He’s been there for a couple years. Now, alright, so that really covers everything you’ll need for running this with octoprint. I have done multiple videos on how to set that up. So like I mentioned before I will link those in the description and after prints, really the memories of why people get raspberry Pis for the 3d purse, the wireless connectivity and the Ui is just awesome. Alright, so let’s go on to the next one. This is a little bit different. I haven’t actually done this yet. Myself, it’s one of the items that I have on my backlog, so I’ll probably be doing a video on it pretty soon. It’s using clipper to basically add this as a compute unit to your printer so it would offload all of the processing from your 3d printer onto here. And then the actual board on the 3d printer will just be responsible for the hardware. What that does is theoretically allows the printer to print faster. I want to run more tests before. I actually confirm that. That’s what I said theoretically. I did me the documentation, But a documentation and real-world examples aren’t always the same. So I will be doing some research on that and then getting back to you guys. If you did go that route, you will want to dedicate the Raspberry Pi to the printer that you working with. If you have more than one printed, you’re willing to do it with you will want to have more than one. In those cases. The Raspberry Pi 3 is probably going to be more than enough. This is a four here. I will go over this some of the key differences here in a couple minutes, but just try to be smart with what you’re buying if you’re gonna be using it for the same thing all the time and the Raspberry Pi 3 meets the needs. Go ahead and just get that and save the extra money and only get the 4 if you’re gonna use the additional memory and such as well, but with clipper like I was saying, I don’t know if it’s worth it, it might be overkill. It’s something that I don’t know if it’s relatively new, But you don’t hear much about. I want to do the research before giving you guys a recommendation. Either way it may be overkill. I’m not sure yet, but if you can double your print speed as an example for buying a Raspberry Pi for around 50 bucks, that might be worth it. It just depends what you’re printing and making sure that you can still get the same quality out of your printer. All right, so moving on to the next one. This isn’t something that you see often. I wanted to try to get you some examples that you won’t see as soon as you do. A Google search, right, that’s not providing any value. If that’s all I gave you. So the next one is, you can actually install the Merlin firmware directly on your Raspberry Pi and use that to run the printer. I haven’t done it myself. There are some examples of it. It’s getting deep into the DIY outside of 3d printing. But if you were building a 3d printer that definitely an option for you. I wouldn’t go trying to modify one of the printers you already have. I don’t know what it would buy you and might sure it would be more performant. I just don’t know if it’s going to give you enough to justify potentially destroying what you have putting this in place, so it is an option. It is something that I have seen done. I will be walking through that myself. I’m gonna buy a Raspberry Pi 3 for that. I’m just in case I do break anything. I won’t be too upset, but it is a really neat concept, especially if you’re building your own printer. Instead of buying some of the control boards that are dedicated for this, you can get one of these. I think you’re still happy to get a control board of some sort to connect all of the Stepper Motors and stuff to, but it can be a lower-end one. It’s almost the same concept of using clipper works, offloading all of the processing onto the more powerful board, but it will actually be running. Merlyn as well. So if you guys are interested, leave a comment below, and I’ll try to set something up walking through all of that. I don’t want to spend the time doing an in-depth video If nobody’s gonna be interested in it, though. So if you are interested in, make sure you leave a comment below, all right, moving on, so the last use case that I wanted to cover was using the Raspberry Pi with a PI screen, They’re a 7 inch touchscreen screen. That will pretty much replace what you have on the printer itself. That’s more if you’re wanting to set everything up locally and not use off the printer so again, it’s going to be great for a DIY setup or something along those lines, or if you’re trying to upgrade the user interface on one of your printers, it’s not gonna be much value if you’re planning on music off decor and the long run anyways, though, I guess it could provide some value. If you’re still wanting to use it, you interface as well, it’s really more of a preference thing personally. If I was to be using off to print, I would not spend the money on that because you will have to dedicate a Raspberry Pi, and I scream to the printer, so it’s really just more of a preference and what are you looking to do the long term if you only have one printer that you’re working with, and you want to run off to print and still have the option to control everything locally with the touchscreen, It could be a good use case as well. I have seen it done. It is pretty nice. I’ve done it before. I’m one of my old printers. If you guys are interested, I can do a video on that one as we’ll. Just let me know again. Some of these are edge cases, so I don’t want to just go spending several hours doing a video if nobody’s interested in it. But if there is interest, I would love to do it for you guys. So just let me know. All right then, Lastly. I wanted to go over some of the differences between your Octoprint 4 Which is what I have here and your 3 or sorry. The 3 plus, so there’s really three main differences that aren’t important first, something the processor itself. It’s gonna be a little bit quicker. It’s not a huge difference on the processor, but it’s definitely noticeable you will get a larger bumping performance if you’re also coupling up with one or the other upgrades as well. So your Raspberry Pi 3 you can get one gig of memory with it, or if you four, you have three options. You can do one two or four gigs of memory, so it depends what you’re wanting to use. If you’re wanting to future-proof it or whatever the case may be, This is the 4 gig memory, but if you’re adding the additional memory and with the processor bump and you will see a noticeable performance increase the last major difference between the two are the USB ports, so they both will still have 4 USB ports, but in this case with the riser pipes Fours, two of them are USB 3.0 so we’ll give you a quicker interface again. It depends what you’re using a fork. If you’re only going to be using it for octoprint or just to control one or two things, The Raspberry Pi 3 plus is going to meet all the needs. If you’re wanting to be able to potentially swap them out later on, do other with them, then go back to using off the pram or just tinkering with them. I would recommend the fourth. It’s not much more expensive. None of these are really expensive, but you’re talking to difference of depending upon which models 20 to 40 dollars, So I guess it does add up. If you’re getting multiple units, but if you’re just giving a one or two, it might be worth it for you or just get a couple Raspberry Pi 3s If you find in getting multiple ones, and then maybe a four, see if you like the performance difference, or if it’s worth it to you in most cases unless you’re doing anything extremely intensive on them, the three is going to be more than enough for 90% of the use cases. I think you would be talking about now if you’re trying to do some retro gaming on these, which I know some people that have done. I’ve done it as well. The four will give you a nice little bump, so it’s just really, It depends what you trying to do with it. I just wanted to make sure that you’re aware of the differences and that the three will meet the needs for pretty much everything that we’re doing and that even though I’ve got the four here, The three will meet the needs for pretty much everything we’ll be doing so. I don’t want you to buy something that’s more expensive, Just because that’s what I’m showing and what I have. It’s just a decision I made, and it’s not necessarily one that she would have to make, or should make so just keep that in mind. I’ll link to both of them in the description below. Alright, so that was a somewhat quick overview of some of the things you can do with the 3d printer and using a Raspberry Pi. Please let me know what you think. In the comments below. And if you want me to go into more detail on any of those and do a more in-depth how-to video covering those topics. Please let me know. I would love to do it, but like. I said I don’t want to do it. If nobody’s gonna be watching it, so just let me know if you’re interested and then one last thing before we go in in this video. Make sure you guys smash that, like button and subscribe. If you haven’t already, it’ll really help this channel out. We’re a little bit less than 2 months old and over 150 subscribers. So thank you. I really appreciate that, that’s all I have for this video. I’ll talk to you next time, thanks.