Month: March 2017

[Unofficial] Premade image to get OctoPi running on your Pi Zero W

I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ISSUES THAT MAY ARISE FROM USING THIS IMAGEOk, that’s out of the way. I followed /u/mojorific’s instructions for Getting Octoprint to work with Pi Zero W. I have a FlashForge and a PowerSpec, so I have to use the GPX Plugin. I have been slicing my gcode through MakerBot Desktop and then uploading it to the OctoPi. I don’t know how it would handle slicing from the Pi0W. I have run a few prints without issue, nothing more than 1.5 hours so far. But I have also run it with the camera (through the camera connector) streaming at default Timelapse settings.. The point being, I have a plugin installed and the camera running without issue. I am not slicing on the Pi0W to try not to overload it.I know some of you don’t have access to a OctoPi friendly Pi and a Zero W so I ran through all the updates mentioned in that link. It should be a fresh OctoPi install, so my plugins and stuff won’t show up for you. This setup can be done headless if you have PuTTY or a similar program, or you can plug in a keyboard and monitor and do it the old fashioned way.The img file can be downloaded here. You’ll need 7zip to decompress it, as I tried to make it as compact as possible.Pi0W.Lite.7z (686MB) – MD5SUM: 507ef5e605558f98987d7728edae88c2Pi0W.Lite.img (2.5GB) – MD5SUM: 38ad74293818631cfe7f473f9b85e629Once you’ve downloaded and uncompressed it, write it to your SD Card with Win32DiskImager (or your OS equivalent)After it’s written, you need to open the sd card and edit octopi-network.txt with your network settings (this is normal OctoPi setup)Plug it in, give it a few minutes to run through the first boot.Connect to it either through PuTTY using Octopi.local as the host name, or manually with a keyboard and display.Login using the default login:Username: piPassword: raspberryAfter logging in you need to reset the SSH Host Keys. Run the following commands:sudo rm /etc/ssh/ssh_host_*sudo dpkg-reconfigure openssh-serverOnce that is done, you should restart it using sudo shutdown -r 0You will need to reauthenticate you SSH session, but should be able to connect.At this point you’ll want to run sudo raspi-config and expand your file system under advanced. Also setup any additional things like you would normally at this point, including the camera, etc. Reboot when finished.In your browser go to http://octopi.local (may need to have Bonjour service installed on Windows. Or try pinging to get the IP)Go through the Configure Access Control setup.Login with your newly created accountYou will be prompted to update to 1.3.2. Choose “Update Now” and go do something else for about 10 minutes. When it’s finished it’ll restart on it’s own.Continue setting up OctoPrint like you would normally. Enjoy.TL;DR Download image, write to microSD, enter network setting, connect, run a few quick sudo commands, restart, and go. http://ift.tt/2mz9CRz

Mains wiring: The great satin of 3d printing exposed

This has become quite a hot topic among the 3d printing community, and I don’t feel it’s adequately addressed.My experience is limited to trade school and Co-op. I accumulated 200 hours of electrical theory, and 2000 “clock hours”(time in the field wiring under a licensed electrician). While this is only roughly a third of the experience needed to get a license in my state, but everything I needed to know about wiring a simple 120v circuit was learned in the first week of electrical shop. This is not bragging or boasting about experience, just a full disclosure.Mains power has the potential to kill you, but is wiring mains to your power supply a fire hazard? Not really. Hold off on the torches and pitchforks for a second, I’ll explain.1)The clamped wire under a screw termination method is used throughout your house, at much higher currents than your power supply draws. Your breaker panel has them, the meter outside your house has them, even the service lead coming into your house has them.2) Since your house wiring has very strict standards, if you wire them backwards, or in the newer houses, even loose, you will trip the circuit breaker. This makes the 120v side of your 3d printer safer than most of the other electrical components of your printer. Yes, not every house has modern tech like breakers, but that really has nothing to do with it. If it has fuses, it can be even more reliable than breakers, as breakers have been known to not trip. But even more so, if there is a problem with your houses wiring, it would be a far greater concern to your safety than a 1 time termination of your printer. I’d be having real concerns of a wire burning inside my wall in that case, not my printer.3) Connectors are rated by amperage, and power supplys don’t need a lot of them. Great proof of this is a heated bed termial failure is very common, while a hot end terminal failure is quite rare. They’re the same voltage, but vastly different amperage. a 12v 240w power supply is going to draw about 2 amps(leaving efficiency out of the equation). That’s not a lot. About the equivelent of 2 of my comcast boxes. Compare that to the 15a that has to flow through the connection to the main board, it’s it’s pretty small potatoes, which is a segue into the next point.4) good wiring practices are the same, no matter what the voltage. Let’s say as an example, you choose a plug type power supply, like a laptop uses, where only 2 wires have to be connected to the main board, at 12v. That screw connection has to be as good as the connection you would have to make to the power supply from mains. If there is a bad connection there, it is just as likely to cause a fire as a bad connection to the power supply. Good practices include, but are not limited to, DO NOT WORK ON AN ENERGIZED CIRCUIT, Use properly sized wire(or bigger). no tinning the wires, no insulation under the screw, no excess stripped wire hanging out of the terminal, and decent torque on the terminal screw, with a couple generous tugs on the wire to ensure the connection is tight, check and double check the schematic, and properly label your wires.Conclusion:Yes, 110v(or 220v) is a serious and potentially lethal shock hazard.Yes, if you are intimidated by the voltage, you probably should not work on it.If you know how to wire the input power to your board safely, you know how to wire a power supply safely.Yes, properly rated and certified power supplies is important, and although that wasn’t the intent of this thread, I will quickly address it. It doesn’t matter if you hire a licensed electrician to wire a bad power supply, the danger is the power supply, not the connection. Even though the main boards we use appear to have no standards or ratings, we can clearly see by the terminal issues that quality matters when it comes to electrical components.And IMHO, the most important fact to bring up is that it takes far less than an amp to stop your heart. 12v does not contain enough force to overcome the resistance of dry skin, but the 12v circuit on your 3d printer definitely has enough current to kill you many times over.This is not meant to be a tutorial. Tutorials on wiring an extension cord plug are sufficient to help you wire a power supply. This is mainly a rant on how I feel about the 3d printing community’s view on mains wiring.Please feel free to downvote if you feel I have misled any readers on the dangers associated with mains wiring. http://ift.tt/2mP9saG

Large format printer build woes: advice for others

I’ve been designing a large format printer for a while now (450x , 750y , 500z ) and man is it getting expensive fast. I knew it wouldn’t be cheap of course, and I’m certainly not cutting corners. I could use cheaper components, and smaller extrusion, linear rails, but then I won’t get the quality I’m looking for.I just dropped almost $500 on just chassis extrusion and fasteners via openbuilds.com, and they other day another $180 for a bed heater..So word to the wise, don’t forget, cost is NOT a linear function of size!I’ve got almost everything I need ordered, except e3d volcano x2 (going with IDEX design), and a new controller board. I bought an mks sbase but after learning more about it, won’t be using it or recommending it to anyone. http://ift.tt/2mOg5db