3D Printing II – Adding an external SoC and modeling a basic part

3D Printing II – Adding an external SoC and modeling a basic part

The issue of print reliability

One of the issues that become apparent early on with large prints is the reliance the 3D printer has on the computer operating it. When 3d prints can take 10+ hours, the odds of a computer crash wasting both time and physical resources becomes non-negligible. The solution to this problem is an external SoC such as a Raspberry Pi. We can use the SoC to control the print remotely with a web console. This SoC will stay always on and has the ability to remotely start the printer.

When choosing an SoC to use, it is necessary to understand the functions it will be performing. Our SoC needs to be able to serve a webpage and move a series of stepper motors quickly. This is not computationally expensive, so the logical choice is the Raspberry Pi Zero. Although it lacks the specifications of better SoC’s, its small power requirements and form factor make it perfect for this relatively simple task.

OctoPrint

Raspberry Pi 0 using OctiPi Linux controlling the printer.

OctoPrint is a prebuilt Pi image that contains Raspbian and OctoPi (A web control framework for 3D Printers). It can be found for download here: https://octoprint.org/download/

The installation process is fairly self-explanatory and I won’t be covering it here. Go take a look at the site for yourself.

This article is in progress, please check back for more.

Replacement grill handle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OctoPi printing a Pig model.

The Author

Bijan Moradi