outsourcedguru / octopi-install

Step-by-step instructions for installing OctoPi (OctoPrint) to your Raspberry Pi 3B

How to install OctoPi on a Raspberry Pi 3B

By far, the easiest method of installing OctoPrint for your printer is to use the inexpensive Raspberry Pi 3B single-board computer, taking advantage of the image file which has been created to make this simple.

OctoPrint is the web interface for your 3D printer. It's the product of the talented Gina Häußge.

OctoPi is a distribution image for the Raspberry Pi computer as maintained by Guy Sheffer.

Raspbian is the operating system for the Raspberry Pi which is based on Debian.

Preparation

Before starting your installation, it's best to gather some things together first. It's also a good idea to read through all this before beginning.

Checklist

• 5V 2.5A power adapter for the Raspberry Pi 3B 1
• Short USB serial cable (usually Type B to Type A style) with either internal metallic shielding or with one or two ferrite cores
• Raspberry Pi 3B (or 3B+)
• 4GB or larger microSD card
• A remote computer of some kind (OSX, Windows, Linux)
• A means of inserting a microSD card into this remote computer (SD adapter or a USB-based microSD adapter)
• 3D printer which has a Type B USB connector and which runs a compatible firmware: Marlin, RepRap, Repetier. Check the compatibility list first. In a few cases, you may need a plugin for your printer to work with OctoPrint.

Optional

• Raspberry Pi webcam and ribbon cable
• USB-based webcam, verifying that it's on the compatibility list
• Local TFT or similar touch screen for the Raspberry 1

Required software

1. Windows:

• If you don't otherwise have it on your remote computer, download and install Notepad++
• If you don't otherwise have curl as a command line tool on your remote computer, download curl and place it somewhere in your path like the SYSTEM32 folder
• If you don't otherwise have iTunes on your remote computer, download and install Bonjour (to assist in name resolution)
• If you don't otherwise have it on your remote computer, download and install PuTTY

2. Linux: If you don't otherwise have it on your remote computer, download and install Avahi as a service discovery tool (to assist in name resolution)
3. All:

• If you don't otherwise have it on your remote computer, download and install Etcher.
• Download the latest OctoPi image and save it as a zip file to your computer's Desktop folder. To minimize browser-unzip problems, the recommended method is:

curl -L -o ~/Desktop/octopi.zip https://octopi.octoprint.org/latest

Copy/paste this into a command prompt on your remote computer.

Installation

1. Insert the microSD card into your remote computer
2. Start Etcher
3. Select the octopi.zip file on your Desktop
4. Verify that your microSD media is selected
5. Press Flash!

Next, edit the wi-fi configuration

Etcher should dutifully eject the media when it's finished. But since we still need to make an edit, do the following:

 1. remove/replace the microSD card so that it's mounted again

NOTE: It's important to NOT allow your operating system to format or otherwise to "fix" the media. Neither OSX nor Windows will be able to mount the second (ext4) partition and may complain. This is to be expected.

Regardless, DO NOT choose any options to format the media!

 2. Edit the file octopi-wpa-supplicant.txt which is located on the boot partition.

• OSX: From Terminal, sudo nano /Volumes/boot/octopi-wpa-supplicant.txt (you will be prompted for your Mac user's password)
• Windows: In Explorer, go to the boot disk, right-mouse click on octopi-wpa-supplicant.txt and choose Open With... -> Notepad++ (make sure UTF-8 encoding is selected)
• Linux: If you're in a Desktop interface, you should be able to double-click this file in the boot partition. Otherwise, using sudo nano to edit the file would be necessary once you find the mount point.
• All: Erase all the file's original contents and replace with this as a starting point...

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
country=US
 
network={
        ssid="insert_your_SSID_here"
        psk="insert_your_wifi_password_here"
        key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

• Now edit the wi-fi zone's SSID and password, noting that these are both case-sensitive. Make sure that you've left the double quotes on either side of each.
• Finally, edit the country code making sure to enter this in UPPERCASE as a two-digit code.
• Save the file and exit the editor.
• Safely eject the media and only then remove it from your remote computer.

First boot

Insert the microSD into the Raspberry Pi 3B. Connect the power adapter to the micro USB connector and plug it into a power outlet.

Watch for activity on the LEDs which are on the Raspberry Pi.

Name resolution: Assuming that the Raspberry connected to your wi-fi network, both OSX and Linux will likely be able to find the new installation using its hostname of octopi.local.

Windows installations which have iTunes or Bonjour installed should also be able to resolve octopi.local into its IP address.

Users with Windows installations without iTunes or Bonjour might need to do some detective work in order to find and use the IP address of the Raspberry. Check your router's DHCP area to see what it issued.

Connect remotely to the Raspberry Pi 3B

• OSX or Linux: From a command prompt, ssh [email protected] using raspberry as the password
• Windows: Start PuTTY then connect as the pi user to either octopi.local or to the IP address your router has issued to the Raspberry Pi. As above, the password is raspberry.

Windows: It may be necessary to log into your router to determine which address was given. If you have previously installed iTunes, then you should be able to more easily use the Pi's hostname of octopi.local. See the Name "Resolution section" above.

Make some adjustments

Once remotely-connected with ssh or PuTTY, visit the sudo raspi-config utility (using the password raspberry as before).

Once there, adjust the localisation features for your timezone, wi-fi zone and locale. When finished, allow it to reboot. Note that once the reboot is initiated, you will lose your remote connection which is to be expected.

In my case (US and English), for the locale setting it was necessary to scroll down to the en_GB.UTF-8 setting. I then pressed the space bar to remove the checkbox, scrolling down to the en_US.UTF-8 setting. I pressed the space bar again to select, advancing to the next screen. From here, I then chose en_US.UTF-8 for the default locale.

Visit the web interface

Assuming that your Raspberry Pi connected to your wi-fi network, try visiting the address http://octopi.local from your remote computer.

For Windows users without iTunes or Bonjour, you might have to enter an IP address instead of octopi.local to reach your instance.

Shutting down OctoPrint before poweroff

Before removing power from the Raspberry Pi, make sure to shutdown the OctoPrint service:

1. From the OctoPrint web interface: System menu -> Shutdown
2. From a remote shell to the Raspberry Pi: sudo poweroff
3. (After 30 seconds for Raspbian to shut down) remove power from the Raspberry Pi by unplugging it

Simply plug the power back in again to boot everything up.

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Troubleshooting

Can't connect remotely from ssh/PuTTY

There are some common reasons why you might not be able to remotely connect on first attempt.

1. The most likely problem is that the SSID/password were not entered correctly into the configuration file.
2. If you're attempting to use an IP address, you might have the wrong IP address.
3. If you're attempting to use the hostname octopi.local and you're on Windows, it doesn't have the Bonjour name resolution service loaded by default. You might have to resort to using the IP address.
4. You could try the command ping octopi.local to see if the hostname can be resolved and to determine if packets can be routed to the Raspberry Pi.
5. For OSX/Linux, remember to prefix the hostname with which user you're trying to connect as: ssh [email protected]
6. For Windows, remember to attempt to connect as the pi user.
7. Booting the Raspberry Pi with its own monitor/keyboard/mouse is sometimes helpful to verify that Raspbian is at least booting. Feel free to log in when prompted. The command ifconfig will reveal if the wlan0 wi-fi adapter is in the RUNNING state. This means that it connected successfully to your wi-fi network and it received an IPv4 IP address. If you see the address, you can try to use it to remotely connect from your remote computer. If the adapter is not in the RUNNING state then try again to edit the configuration file from earlier.
8. Connecting an Ethernet cable to the Raspberry and connecting that to your router is useful in troubleshooting wi-fi connectivity problems. Your router should issue an IP address more easily in this way, allowing a remote connection. You may need to reboot for the adapter to receive an address.

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Optional topics

10" local display

I will note that the SunFounder 10" Capacitive TFT Display has a 12V 2A power adapter and its board supplies 5V power to the Raspberry, making the 5V power adapter unnecessary.