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Octoprint 1.5.2 3D print server on Omega2+

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    Re: Octoprint (3D print server) on Omega2+

    I installed Octoprint 1.5.2 on an Omega2+ with the Mini Dock for USB and power. There are other ways to do this, like a few different Docks that would work, or you can do it with pins. But USB seems the simplest to me at least for my use.

    The post I'm replying to explains how to do this with Octoprint 1.3.9 on an older Omega2+ firmware, I don't know which version. I wanted to do it with the latest version (1.5.2) and firmware (Ω-ware: 0.3.2 b233), and I was able to do it with a few tweaks. For completeness I'll post the whole procedure. I'm writing this from memory, I didn't take notes on the specific things I did differently so let me know if you have problems.

    I made changes to config files using the Code Editor app through the web interface. The previous instructions use vi, which to me seems more difficult. Ok, here goes.

    This assumes you have gone through the initial setup wizard, have a microSD card in the slot on the Omega (I think 2GB is enough but I'm not positive), and have a way to connect your 3D printer to the Omega (USB is simplest).

    1. Change the package repository

    In the file /etc/opkg/distfeeds.conf, uncomment these two lines (probably lines 2 and 5):

    src/gz openwrt_base http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06-SNAPSHOT/packages/mipsel_24kc/base
src/gz openwrt_packages http://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06-SNAPSHOT/packages/mipsel_24kc/packages

    run

    opkg update

    2. Format and mount SD card

    opkg install fdisk e2fsprogs block-mount

umount /dev/mmcblk0p1
mkfs.ext4 /dev/mmcblk0p1
umount /dev/mmcblk0p1
mkdir /mnt/SD
mount /dev/mmcblk0p1 /mnt/SD

    (will get some error like can’t umount, just ignore it)

    3. Copy OS to SD card

    
tar -C /overlay -cvf - . | tar -C /mnt/SD/ -xf - 
umount /mnt/SD

block detect > /etc/config/fstab

    4. Auto mount SD card on system boot

    In the file /etc/config/fstab,

    change the option: target '/mnt/mmcblk0p1' to option: target '/overlay'
    change the option: enabled '0' to option enabled ‘1'

    reboot

    after rebooting you can verify if /overlay is mounted properly by running

    df -h

    You should see something like

    Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root                 7.8M      7.8M         0 100% /rom
tmpfs                    60.9M    124.0K     60.8M   0% /tmp
/dev/mmcblk0p1           14.5G      1.3G     12.4G  10% /rom/overlay
overlayfs:/overlay       14.5G      1.3G     12.4G  10% /
tmpfs                   512.0K         0    512.0K   0% /dev

    Except your used and free space will be different.

    5. Set up swap space and expand /tmp

    opkg install swap-utils

    create swap file on SD card

    dd if=/dev/zero of=/rom/overlay/swap.page bs=1M count=512

    This will take a few minutes

    mkswap /rom/overlay/swap.page
swapon /rom/overlay/swap.page

    To check

    free

    should look like

                 total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:        124808      96724      28084        132       5444      15564
-/+ buffers/cache:      75716      49092
Swap:      1048572          0    1048572

    expand /tmp

    mount -o remount,size=200M /tmp

    5. Install C++ and Python (I chose Python 3 because Python 2 is being phased out)

    opkg update
opkg install gcc make 
opkg install python3 python3-pip unzip
opkg install python3-dev --force-overwrite

pip3 install --upgrade pip
pip3 install --upgrade setuptools

    7. Download and install Octoprint

    cd /root
wget https://github.com/foosel/OctoPrint/archive/1.5.2.zip
unzip 1.5.2.zip
cd OctoPrint-1.5.2

ln -s /usr/bin/gcc /usr/bin/ccache_cc

    Install (this will take a while)

    pip install -r requirements.txt

    Fix some file/folder names for compatibility

    sed -i 's/Häußge/H\./g' /root/OctoPrint-1.5.2/src/octoprint/util/comm.py
sed -i 's/Häußge/H\./g' /root/OctoPrint-1.5.2/src/octoprint/util/virtual.py
sed -i 's/Häußge/H\./g' /root/OctoPrint-1.5.2/src/octoprint/plugins/virtual_printer/virtual.py

sed -i 's/exit("You should not run OctoPrint as root!")/pass/g' /root/OctoPrint-1.5.2/src/octoprint/server/__init__.py

    8. Run Octoprint Server

    octoprint serve --iknowwhatimdoing &

    Wait several minutes for server to start
    Use browser to connect

    http://omega-[your id].local:5000

    Go through the setup wizard and change settings as needed for your printer

    You might want to update Octoprint and/or install some plug-ins. Future updates might not work, so you risk messing up your Octoprint install, do so at your own risk. Same goes for plug-ins, some of them might not install on the Omega2 or break something, but the ones I tried worked fine.

    9. Set to automatically start Octoprint on boot

    In the file /etc/rc.local, add this right above the exit line

    octoprint serve --iknowwhatimdoing

    or, for debugging purposes, to log Octoprint's console output, instead add

    octoprint serve --iknowwhatimdoing >> /tmp/output.txt 2>&1 &

    If you want to be able to update, or possibly to install certain plugins, you might want to use the swap file and expand /tmp. I don't know if this has any performance implications or if there's some reason not to, I'm still a beginner with Linux, but I have some experience. If you want to do this, in the same file /etc/rc.local, add the following above the Octoprint line

    ### activate the swap file on the SD card
swapon /rom/overlay/swap.page

### expand /tmp space
mount -o remount,size=200M /tmp

    And that's it! Happy printing!

    Let me know if you have any problems or questions or comments.

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  • D

    Another note. If you don't do the last optional step, you can delete /rom/overlay/swap.page to save space

    rm /rom/overlay/swap.page
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  • D

    I've been testing this setup with my Prusa i3 MK3S, and I get really bad prints compared to printing directly. Looks like the layers are offset from one another and it's possibly overextruding. I don't know if it's the Omega2+/Octoprint setup (probably), or if there are some settings that aren't right. So it seems like the Omega2+ isn't powerful enough to run Octoprint. Probably have to spring for a Raspberry Pi. They say it doesn't work with the Raspberry Pi Zero W, so probably has to be one of the higher end ones. And the Omega2+ doesn't have anywhere near the specs.

    Does anyone have suggestions on how to make it work? If not, then I don't think Octoprint works well enough with the Omega2.

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  • C

    I can try this setup with my Wanhao Duplicator i3 Plus when I get some time during xmas. I'm using Octoprint with a Raspberry Pi 3 at the moment, but I only use it to monitor the print. The print itself is running "internally" using the SD card slot and the onboard logic. The Pi is just for print monitoring purposes. Maybe the Omega is powerful enough to do that at least, i.e. just offering the web interface and monitoring the print?

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  • C

    @dude8604 I will try on my Flashforge Guider IIS, give me a few days to find some time.

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  • D

    @chrizree Yeah, probably. And I guess it could just send the Gcode to start a print directly from the SD card in the printer. That should work without interfering with the print. I'll try that.

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  • N

    Thank you sharing the Gcode on how start printing directly from the SD card. Lets hope that the code is accepted and my Omega2+ printer starts printing directly from my SD card.

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3d print 8 octoprint 4 3dprinting 2
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