Re: Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
Katerine Aldrige
So nothing wrong with the Zero W, as long as you use it within its parameters.
Its biggest problem is supposedly CPU usage with wireless data transfer while printing. So no camera on the Pi, get a standalone IP camera.
I do not capture printing video anyway I have Octoprint to allow me to easily upload files from Cura to the printer (Octoprint) avoiding the memory card swap, to see the progress and time estimates, to cancel a print. To have easy buttons to move printhead/bed around.
I have been using it with telegram to observe long prints from work. I do have a Tasmota Sonoff S20 to control the printer, so I can turn it off if I see something going wrong. I keep Octoprint / Octopi running 24/7 though.
the raspberry's are to expensive and cheap.
when you want to stay closed source and want a favorable and not cheap solution then the Orange Pi Zero H2 is much better and cost the same.
Yes the wifi rates are half of the pi, but the antenna is much better.
For me i would buy a rockchip based board when choosing arm. because they are open source.
for $7 more you get a Pine64 ROCK64
a quadcore with 1,5 GHz with L2 cache, 1 GB ram, 20nm process tech a much better FPU and NEON.
You will also get native gigabit lan (not via USB) and one usb3.0 port, usb ports and wifi ....
I personal i use for server things a baytrail based solution which cost around $100 and consumes around 7W
I am currently running 3 cams and 4 printer bards (2 printers / to for playing around) and 6 octoprint instances on it with one core of 4 half used.
Those who say it's borderline may not have actually tried it. With only the web interface running WITH USB not pi cam. USB camera adds very little to overhead. CPU is mostly under 10%, id say average was 8%. When printing with camera, CPU varies between 30%-70%, I tested speed vs card. Pretty much exactly the same.
I did try it, did excessive testing of various scenarios, finally narrowed it down on CPU load caused by bandwidth utilisation on the built in WiFi interface (btw also present in pi3, just isn't noticeable there thanks to four cores instead of one) and then could reproduce it even without OctoPrint or a webcam in the mix just by curling a file from my NAS.
Can it work under the right circumstances? Yes. Is it recommendable for general consumption by people who wouldn't even know where to look for possible reasons of observed slowdowns (= the majority of users)? No.
If you're going to try to run a USB-based camera on a Raspberry, try to remember that the "S" in USB stands for serial. There's only one good UART in the Raspi. In my humble opinion, it's best to keep the webcam as the ribbon cable variety since that won't try to use a UART, possibly taking the good one.
Agree big time with cpu maxed out at 100% when rendering. I'm using built in wifi as well. I'm using an external hub since I need 2 usb ports. For Outsourced, The UART takes serial and converts it to parallel in hardware. All the pi sees is that parallel data is available. The USB also has a limited FIFO buffer in case the cpu is busy. I'm not using the Ethernet port that's on the external hub. It may contend for serial resources.
As far as nubi's I can understand a "standard" config that's pretty bulletproof. I feel like if someone can get octoprint running, the only extra thing they need to know is htop to get cpu usage. But again, I understand and defer the experts.
The Prusa guy was clueless. He even has them solder the board on instead of using a header and pin combination. And then of course, his configuration leaves the bad UART on the GPIO pins and it took one of his users to figure out that you have to disable Bluetooth and to turn off a serial feature in sudo raspi-config so that it wouldn't keep dropping the serial connection.
I like to share my almost finished project to have "usb only controllers" work directly with de Deluge (or any other usb midi device for that matter) the Idea was brought to my attention on the Deluge Facebook group by Fabio Barbon.
for maintenance, the Zero is configured to connect to my hotspot automatically, If it doesn't find my network, it will create a hotspot for you to connect to and that way you can ssh into it and configure what ever you like.
Thats how far i took it, software is running,, have to build a nice box to house the zero and 3 usb ports.. theoretically you could add a cheap usb to midi din adaptor and have an even more versatile device! i heard bluetooth midi works as well, i didn't test that
This looks like an awesome way to chain lots of midi devices together. Does the Raspberry Pi basically act as a midi thru for all connected devices? For example, would all midi data received into the Raspberry Pi be sent to all devices that are connected?
Thanks for the information Tenebrous! I was plan to power a Novation Launch Control XL and an Arturia Keystep with the Raspberry Pi but like you said it's probably best to have a powered usb hub in case I need more power. I found that the Keystep draws 500mA according to the manual. Does anyone know how much the Launch Control XL draws? I couldn't find it anywhere in the manual.
I've modified my Deluge with a similar internal setup with two USB ports coming from a hub, a raspberry Pi Zero providing host connectivity with bluetooth along with an extended internal battery (6 cell 18650).
I modified the Ruby connection script as I found the midi network was a little "shouty", with some devices which provide midi through on USB (with no option to turn this off) causing issues with clock and notes being repeated across the midi connections.
I added the Deluge to the list in the same way as "Through", so as not to connect to itself, and I added a (blind) attempt to connect any secondary midi port on the device (my Monolouge has two USB midi ports, "0" being the output, and "1" being the input. As I want to control the Monologue from the Deluge, the original script only connects port "0", and the Monologue does not respond to midi, but can send midi to the Deluge on this connection).
The result is the Deluge sits in the middle of the network, with to and from midi connections to each port on each device, and each device is unable to broadcast over the USB to each other, avoiding conflicts.
As an aside, I also added nak_holdoff=0 to /boot/cmdline.txt, which seemed to fix some stuck note issues I had early on. I found this on a forum and it seemed to fix some issues i was having with a Keystep and a Seaboard Block.
An extra note to this - the Raspbian image that's provided on the -as-midi-host.html blog seems to have issues with more than 3 USB devices on certain USB hubs - I tried on several different hubs and had issues when connecting devices on a 7-port hub.
I managed to resolve this issue by upgrading (or rather re-imaging) to Buster Lite - the script for adding USB devices works fine now, I currently have 4 USB ports on the back, as well as the Deluge connected for a total of 5 potential devices.
Still troubleshooting some weird power issues, but I think that's down to the USB hub and powerpack combo... I had to go through a number of different USB power banks to find one that functioned how I wanted, and the one I settled on still isn't perfect, as it reboots other devices when the USB hub is switched on, if other devices are powered on...
Awesome! Definitely going to try this. This may be a silly question, but would this work just as well using a micro-usb OTG hub? Love the look of the official Zero enclosure, so hoping I might be able to get that along with it.
Example hub:
Take a look at DietPi ( ). Easy to set up, less running background services and can be configured via ssh without monitor. Read only support and more. I run all my Pi's (Camera, Home Automation) with DietPi.
I have to fix some power problems first before I add more gear. I like to power everything from one usb source (usb charger with multiple outputs or power bank). Powering the deluge with a myVolts Ripcord 9V works but I have noise when I connect a 1010music blackbox, that is powered from the same 5V supply and connected to the input of the deluge. USB powered Zoom H6 on deluges output had added noise to but I could fix that with an isolated DC/DC converter. The blackbox needs to more power, so the DC/DC can't be used. I'm testing a modified 5V Ripcord for the blackbox at the moment, that filters the 5V.
I know you are wondering, yes, OctoPrint will run, and better yet, even OctoPi 0.18.0 boots up fine on it as well, so no new image needed! And contrary to the earlier iterations of the Zero, the Zero 2 is actually a platform I can recommend for the...
I used to run astrobox with a pi zero w (first version) for a couple of years and never had issues with speed or stability. Camera streaming was a bit slow, but usable. Main reason to use it was to be able to run it powered directly from the trigorilla board.
They were probably aiming for a small footprint (to have it inside the Einsy case), low power requirements (to power up the Zero directly from the Einsy board) and easy access from a price perspective (5-10 USD being more tolerable than 35-40). Without a webcam and additional plugins, the Zero mostly works; when you start piling up on it, that's when things go bad. So just like alfred.w above, the Zero has been repurposed and printing is done from a Pi 3.
I am using Pi 0W with Pi Camera V2. I use it to remotely monitor my prints and adjust temperature. I have not tried running code from it nor do I intend to. It works great! After printing a few camera mounts I settled on this one :2736439 . I think it is the best one out there.
I am using Pi 0W with Pi Camera V2. I use it to remotely monitor my prints and adjust temperature. I have not tried running code from it nor do I intend to. It works great! After printing a few camera mounts I settled on this one :2736439 . I think it is the best one out there.
I wish I had researched first before I bought this damn Pi zero W. My mistake for assuming that since Prusa endorsed it so much that they built in compatibility with their MK3S. I just built my MK3S, ordered the Pi Zero and had it set up and ready to go before the printer even arrived. I have a Pi 3B+ on my Ender 3 Pro that runs beautifully, but again, since it's built in, no need for external box or occupying the USB port to connect it...went with the Pi Zero. DON'T DO IT!! This thing is sooooo slow. Causing print errors too. I have a logitech 270 webcam attached and even the 720P resolution it has is too much and if you look in on your print, you're liable to over tax the tiny Pi zero and get messed up prints. The damn thing can't handle pushing the video out, and handling the g-code at the same time.
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