INSTALLING OCTOPI
Updated: Jul 4
Hello, welcome to my step by step guide on installing Octopi.
Before we proceed to the guide I would like to note the hardware required to complete this guide.
a. Raspberry PI
b. Power Supply
c. Micro SD Card (min 4GB however 8GB or more recommended)
d. Micro SD Card Reader
e. Computer with access to network to setup everything on
Next we'll look at a list of software you'll need.
Download and install Notepad++ https://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/
Download and install Putty https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html
Download and install Angry IP Scanner https://angryip.org/ you will need Java installed for Angry IP to work download and install from. https://www.java.com/
Download and install Etcher https://www.balena.io/etcher/
Download Octopi http://octoprint.org/download/
And now you can finally start installing Octopi
Connect storage intended for pi to computer
Run Etcher
Click on Select Image, locate and select the octopi image you downloaded (in some cases if it doesn't show up you might have to unzip it first)
Click on Select Drive (or Change) and select the drive you want to write the image to. Make sure the correct device is selected you don’t want to write to the wrong device as you will lose all the data that’s on there, if the wrong device is chosen
Click Flash and wait for completion (By Default Etcher Writes and then validates this takes some more time but is safer, if you want you can have it not validate by clicking on the gear icon top right and then remove the checkmark on "Validate write on success")
if it fails and says something like cant read from drive or the system cannot find the file specified, then try again if after the 3rd time you get same error then either use another USB port, another storage card as this one is not good(sometimes Chinese cards say some GB but are actually not what stated and this causes issues) and lastly another reader writer( I have a USB micro SD reader that always fails at around 40%).
You will get messages about formatting drive from windows explorer, ignore these just close them
Once the image write is complete close Etcher
If you will connect the pi to your network using wireless follow steps below else if you will use a wire/Ethernet skip to step 14
Navigate to your SD Card and locate octopi-wpa-supplicant.txt (on older versions it used to be octopi-network.txt but this is no longer supported) (if your card is not visible in My Computer then disconnect and reconnect the card, be sure to eject it first from the taskbar if etcher has not done so already).
Right click it and select Edit with Notepad ++
For Wireless there are 3 types of security available WPA/WPA2 , WEP , Open/Unsecured. Depending on your Wi-Fi security type you modify the corresponding section, i.e. my wifi SSID/Name is At1998 and its password of type WPA2 is 123456789 so I would edit the following section, if it was WEP then I would edit the corresponding area ## WPA/WPA2 secured # network={ # ssid="put SSID here" # psk="put password here" #} The resulting code should look like ## WPA/WPA2 secured network={ ssid="At1998" psk="123456789" } Note that you have to remove the commenting marker # and note that this is case sensitive If you want to use static IP through the WIFI this will be covered in another guide which can be done only after completion of this guide by following this link https://www.fission3d.com/single-post/2017/09/23/Static-IP-on-PI
Save the file and exit Notepad++
Eject the storage and connect it to the PI
Connect the power supply and allow a few minutes for the PI to start up
Use Angry IP to locate your PI's IP if you don't know how follow link below https://www.fission3d.com/single-post/2017/09/25/Angry-IP-Scanner-Guide
Close Angry IP Scanner
Open Putty
Where it says hostname enter the ip you noted previously from Angry IP
Port to 22
Connection Type SSH
If you want to save this so you don’t have to enter every time add a name to where it says Saved Sessions and click save, from now and on you can double click on the name and it will open automatically
Press open
You will receive a prompt asking you if you want to save the key click yes
Default login is : pi
press enter
When entering the password you will not see any characters on screen this is a normal security feature
if you enter a wrong password then it will ask you for username again
Password : raspberry
press enter
If you delay entering the password you will get an error close putty and open again
Now you will start programming the system, copy the codes provided one by one, to paste you just right click in putty after each code press enter
sudo raspi-config
in newer versions of Octopi you will be asked for the password again
Select Update and press Enter
When prompted about size increase Type Y and press Enter
Once Update is finished go to advanced options with the arrow keys and press enter
press enter on Expand filesystem, this will modify the partition to use the full SD size
you will receive a confirmation that partition is resized press enter
if you will use pi through the internet or would like to secure it you can change the default password by selecting Change User Password
you will get a prompt where you’ll be asked to change password press enter
enter password press enter
repeat password
press enter
you’ll get a prompt that change was successful press enter
next you can change the hostname if you will have more than one pi and would like to differentiate i.e if you will connect it to a printer you could add the name of the printer, i.e. I have the creality CR-10 so I will use crealityCR10
go to Network Options press enter
go to hostname press enter
read what characters you can use (if you use a name with characters that are not allowed you will have issues as the hostname is saved in 2 locations and sometime the second attempt will not save properly causing other errors down the road its best to keep it to letters and numbers without any spaces
Enter the new hostname press enter
Once done either press esc or the quit/finish button
Now that settings are done well restart the pi with following command sudo reboot
Close the warning about network from Putty this is because the connection was lost since the pi is restarting
Close Putty
Give it 2 min to reboot
Open a browser and enter the ip of the pi you recorded previously
If all went well you should be greeted by octoprint setup
So Far So Good 😊
Click next
Add username and password for safety (I recommend you use the same as the pi so you do not forget or mix them)
I recommend you select keep access control enabled by clicking on it, unless you have a reason not to
Click next
Decide if you want to Enable Connectivity Check and click on the appropriate option. (Usually if you have a reliable always on internet connection you can disable this but its up to you)
Click Next
Decide if you want to Enable Plugin Blacklist Processing and select appropriate option.
Click Next
If you want to use the onboard cura slicing on the pi then import a profile (export your settings from cura on the computer and then navigate to it from the import profile button ) if not click next ( personally I prefer to slice on the pc and send the sliced gcode to octoprint )
Click Next
Now you set up your printer, add the details note there are 4 tabs to navigate and add settings, these are printer specific so check around should be pretty straightforward (you can change later from settings if you get something wrong)
Once done click next
Read the warning
Click finish
If you are asked to reload click Reload Now
If you haven’t connected your printer and any other device i.e. camera keyboard… then connect it now (make sure the printer is ON)
On the left where it says connection choose the Serial Port, usually there should only be one option there something like /dev/ttyUSBX choose that (its best to choose and not leave on AUTO as then its faster and wont get errors when it tries out the ports one by one)(if you cant see the printer in the port menu try restarting the PI and printer)
Enter Baud rate this is printer specific but you could start with the highest and then step down one by one until it works, check the Save connections and Auto connect checkboxes so you do not have to do them every time. If its stuck on Connecting then click disconnect and change the baud rate or port and try again until it works. When in the state panel it shows Operational it means its connected.
The last step of the setup process is to check that everything works fine. First lets check the bed and hotend function, for this just enter a figure higher then ambient in the fields for tool and bed target temperature, I like to use 100 Celsius just to verify it works, once you enter a figure you then have to click on the blue checkmark next to it to apply the temperature. Wait a few seconds and see if the figures under Actual rises, if so change the temperatures to 0 and click on the blue check mark to switch off the heaters, alternatively you can click on the arrow next to the blue checkmarks and select OFF don't forget to do this for both the tool and bed.
Now we will check all the Axes are moving correctly, to do this click on the Control Tab at the top, the first section is for X and Y axes. Click on the right and left arrows and see that the X axis on the printer moves accordingly then click on down and up to check that the Y axis moves accordingly (when down is pressed it should move towards you) finally click on the up and down arrows under Z and check that the Z axis moves accordingly. if everything moved as expected your good to go, if one of the axes did not move in one direction but did in the other your still good to go as sometimes the axis could be either at its max limit or min limit (sometimes the firmware assumes it is at min limit and only allows one direction movement). If however one of your axes was moving opposite to what you were expecting then go to settings by clicking on the small wrench at the top right, then click on Printer Profiles, and select the small edit pencil icon next to your printer, next click on Axes tab and select the Invert control on the Axis that was opposite. Click Confirm and Save.
That's it you have successfully installed/configured Octopi and are ready to print :)
Finally to transfer files to the pi all you need to do is either drag and drop the gcode, to the files section or click on the upload button at the bottom of the files section and point it to your gcode file.
Once you file is uploaded it will be listed under files, you can print the model by clicking on the small printer icon which is near the name of the model.
If you like this guide and would like to support so I can make more please consider donating ;)
If you think any part of this guide is wrong please send us a shout at guides@fission3d.com
Octoprint/Octopi is created and managed by Gina Häußge, "foosel". If you'd like to support her efforts consider contributing to her patreon https://www.patreon.com/foosel
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