Set up OctoPi on NEM Printers

OctoPi is a full OS intended for running OctoPrint, and is based on Raspbian. It's a perfect choice for running OctoPrint on Raspberry Pi systems.

Bill of Materials

You need the following for each printer:

1. Raspberry Pi 3B or newer Example
2. Power supply providing 5V and >= 2.5A Example
3. MicroSD card of at least 32GB size Example
4. 3D printed case for Raspberry Pi to attach to its printer's frame Prusa Example / Ender Example
5. A USB-A to USB-B cable Example
6. Miscellaneous hardware for mounting the Pi case to its printer
7. One or more velcro or other cable ties to tidy wiring

Set up OctoPi

Follow guides/SYSTEM_SETUP.md to set up a new OctoPi system.

Set up OctoPrint

1. SSH to the OctoPi instance as user pi:
   1. Say you just set up OctoPrint for a printer called pinky
   2. In Powershell (Windows) or Terminal (Mac, Linux), run ssh pi@pinky
   3. You'll be asked if you really want to connect to the host, where you will say yes
   4. You will be prompted for the password for user pi. If you don't know this password, get it from the OctoPrint steward (e.g. Mike H on Discord)
2. After logging in successfully using SSH, copy and paste the entire following block into your PowerShell or Terminal window:

# Clone/update the repo for NEM-OctoPi
if [[ ! -d nem-octopi ]]; then
  git clone https://github.com/NorthEndMakerspace/nem-octopi.git
  cd nem-octopi
else
  cd nem-octopi
  git pull
fi

# Install or upgrade Ansible then run the playbook
bin/setup.sh

The above code will run the automation to configure OctoPrint for a NEM printer.

NOTE: The above automation can take ~10 minutes or so depending on network speed. Do not worry if your SSH connection looks idle; it's working!

When you're returned to the command prompt on your SSH connection, you're finished! You can log out of your SSH connection by typing exit and close your PowerShell/Terminal window.

Finally, open a web browser and connect to http://printername. You have to type the http:// prefix. You're now ready to log on as the admin user steward. If you need the admin user steward password, get it from an OctoPrint steward (e.g. Mike H on Discord).

Configure the 3D Printing Room PC

On the 3D Printing Room PC:

1. Open http://printername in the browser and confirm it opens.
2. Add a bookmark to the bookmarks bar. Make sure the bookmark is for the base URL http://printername.
3. Log on as user steward.
4. Click the wrench (upper right corner) to open OctoPrint settings.
5. Click on Features -> Application Keys
6. Click the magnifying glass to the right of the application key for PrusaSlicer
7. Note the API key and copy it to the clipboard.
8. Open PrusaSlicer and add a Physical printer:
   1. Click Printers on the top bar
   2. From the drop-down selector, choose the default system preset people normally use on this printer.
   3. Click the gear icon to the right of the printer profile drop-down. It's pop-over text says Add physical printer
   4. For the Descriptive name for the printer type, all lowercase, the name of the printer you're configuring, e.g. pinky
   5. Change Host Type to OctoPrint
   6. Enter the printer name for Hostname e.g. pinky
   7. Paste the API key from the clipboard into the API Key / Password prompt
   8. Click Test and it should succeed.
   9. Click OK and you're done! You'll see the new physical printer in the printer profile drop-selection list.
9. Log out of OctoPrint.
10. Log in as user nem with password nem and tick the box to Remember me.
11. This is the user members will use on a day-to-day basis; it does not have access to OctoPrint settings.

Other Guides

If needed, manual configuration is documented at guides/OctoPrint_SETUP.md.

Look in guides/ for more docs around managing OctoPi and OctoPrint.

Examples of sending webhooks from OctoPrint.

Non-Steward HowTo Documentation

Here's basic documentation for members who want to use OctoPrint

Prepare for a new printer

The Ansible playbook is pre-configured with details about each current printer. When adding a new printer for the space, one must first update the Ansible playbook before configuring OctoPrint on its corresponding Raspberry Pi system.

This has to be done by a developer on the Github repo:

export ANSIBLE_VAULT_PASSWORD="" # octoprint "steward" user's password
export ANSIBLE_VAULT_PASSWORD_FILE=ansible/.vault_password
ansible-vault edit nem-octopi/ansible/roles/octoprint/vars/main.yaml

Then push your commit and open a PR on the project. After it's been merged, one can continue on to setting up OctoPrint for that printer.

Reference

https://github.com/guysoft/OctoPi