1 Topic by lawsy

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Topic: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

Hi all,

Been working on this over the last week or so. Basically it's a 3D printer server that runs on a low power device such as a Raspberry Pi, Pengpod tablet or even a normal computer. The basis comes from dronus, which I have built upon.

Once running, any computers on the network (including the host device) can connect through a browser and start prints, monitor print progress, control the printer, etc.

I have replaced my Panelolu with a Pengpod700, running this, as seen below:

http://img541.imageshack.us/img541/5526/06inplace.jpg

I can still connect to the printer from my laptop wirelessly, so basically it replaces the Panelolu and SD card printing in one.

Screens of browser GUI

Disconnected:
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/4708/01offline.jpg

Controls tab:
http://img59.imageshack.us/img59/9757/02controls.jpg

3D g-code tab:
http://img39.imageshack.us/img39/8515/05printing.jpg

Console tab:
http://img849.imageshack.us/img849/6387/04console.jpg

Mid-print:
http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/8515/05printing.jpg

Download

https://github.com/mlaws/VisPrinter

Detailed instructions and features are provided in the github link readme.

Please let me know if you give it a try and/or if it works for you.

lawsy's Website

2 Reply by wolfmanjm (edited by wolfmanjm 2013-04-27 07:33:06)

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

hI nice work. I am trying this on a pengpod 1000.

What are all the dependencies? I cloned the git repo, and when I run visp.sh I get this error...

[2:2:84121785153:ERROR:nss_util.cc(715)] Failed to load NSS libraries.
[5:5:84123365156:ERROR:nss_util.cc(441)] Error initializing NSS without a persistent database: libsoftokn3.so: cannot open shared object file: Permission denied

So I am missing some dependency I guess

BTW I don't use samba as I only have Linux servers on my network so hopefully Samba is not a requirement.

3 Reply by lawsy

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

As far as I know I covered everything I installed in the readme.

Perhaps you can try manually executing webserver.py and then pointing your browser to the web address?

lawsy's Website

4 Reply by wolfmanjm

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

Ok that worked, thanks

5 Reply by lawsy

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

Did a quick google and the error comes from Chromium. Personally, when launching Chromium on the command line, I get errors but it still loads.

Please give some feedback when you have played for a bit.

lawsy's Website

6 Reply by adrian

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

Great stuff lawsy! If I ever find my RepRap Discount Smart LCD starts having encoder-creep issues like your Panelolu did, then I'll definately consider this. I have more than enough dev-boards from tablets to do the job and a collection of HDMI touch screens... but gotta say... I just am not doing nearly as much 'headless printing' to bother with it over the LCD setup I have.

But its fantastic that there is an option out there for a rainy weekend if I so desire! Keep up the excellent work! smile smile

Adrian

7 Reply by Rincewind

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

Excellent work Lawsy! I will give it a try! Just FYI, Pronterface also has a web interface (that I never used, so I can't comment on its usability)

8 Reply by nickythegreek

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

Lawsy,

This looks gorgeous! What a nice clean interface.  Now I got a fun project for my rPi. I'll let you know how it works out.

9 Reply by lawsy

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

I did an update yesterday so now the GUI will work on older browsers that don't support webGL.

This means you can now control your printer from most mobile phone browsers.

Next test will be running the server on a Raspberry Pi.

lawsy's Website

10 Reply by lawsy

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

Also investigating the possibility of connecting to the printer outside the local network, as well as using a webcam to snap a picture of the print progress in this situation.

lawsy's Website

11 Reply by solijohn

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

lawsy wrote:

Also investigating the possibility of connecting to the printer outside the local network, as well as using a webcam to snap a picture of the print progress in this situation.

Very nice Lawsy. You did some very use friendly edits and bug fixes.

Former Solidoodle employee, no longer associated with the company.

12 Reply by lawsy

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

Cheers.

The external connection thing can't really happen securely, and although I got it working from the browser, camera control really has to come from python so it can utilise the camera plugged into the server.

Just added some HTML5 localStorage features, so that settings are persistent across sessions.

Looking next to add Repetier-like EEPROM setting reading and storing in the future.

lawsy's Website

13 Reply by mark.burhop

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

lawsy,

This is great!  I was just about to ask about setting something like this up. I don't have a Pengpod tablet but do have an RPi and some other random equipment.  Now to find some time to dig into what you are doing. 

I'd like to do some software for my CAD software with a "Print" button that ultimately prints to my Solidoodle on the network.  It looks like I can maybe build on what you have.

Mark

SD2, glass bed, MK5 setup with E3D lite extruder
NX and Solid Edge CAD user
PI, Galileo, and arduino hacker
Code Monkey and Twitter user @burhop

mark.burhop's Website

14 Reply by lawsy

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

I haven't tested on my rasppi because it's dedicated to a media centre duties with my tv but it should would fine. Just install Python and run the webserver.py script.

lawsy's Website

15 Reply by lawsy

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

Just got my hands on a second pi to run this. I've made a custom power cable that powers the pi via the 5v output on the Sanguinololu headers. Will post up more when I've got it running how I want.

lawsy's Website

16 Reply by Bad Coffee

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

beginner questions:
Can I d/l this on my mac and load it on the sd card for the Peng?  Or do I need to boot into Ubuntu and do all the work there? My mac is 2008, and 11.04 is the latest version of Ubuntu I can put on it.  Will this cause problems?

Once it's on the card, how do I get the Peng to boot up from the card?  I've tried a few different suggestions, and it still boots into Android.

Thanks,
B

17 Reply by coleke

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

Hi Lawsy- I am currently testing this on my rPi, and I am able to control everything through the browser gui on my mac. However, I was wondering if you provided support for the lilliput touchscreen lcd, as it displays the console only. Is there a way to run the web interface from the rPI?

Grand Rapids, Michigan
SD2 with Sanguinololu board, glass bed mod, E3d_v5 bowden version hotend (currently direct drive), Lawsy Mk5 jigsaw replacement, octopi printserver, drv8825(tiny troubles)

18 Reply by pretenda

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

Hey Lawsy,

Not sure if this helps you or not, but I use one of these on my printer:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/New-Wireless … amp;_uhb=1

It is cheap as chips, and you just request either a jpeg or mjpeg stream from the IP address of the camera itself. It is a bit big, but it does the job.

19 Reply by lawsy

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

Thanks for the link, I never thought of doing it that way.

lawsy's Website

20 Reply by pretenda

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

No worries. I use them quite a lot for work (remote management of different display systems) and yeah, bang for buck you can't go wrong. You can also load a URL to change where the camera is pointing based on presets. Might be handy for checking different things, filament spools, what's going on on the pengpod, etc.

21 Reply by COASTER19 (edited by COASTER19 2013-12-21 17:04:57)

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Re: VisPrinter Lawsy Fork - New Host Software

Lawsy, is it possible to modify this in some way to work with the Solidoodle 3?  If so, how?  (I've seen that the bed size can effect the ability to pause a print)

This is one of the best ideas I've seen for the solidoodle, but I'd be curious to know if it would work before investing $110 dollars.

Thanks for you're work on the Solidoodle!


Edit: I eventually decided to get one, and I can confirm that it does work with the Solidoodle 3.

A few simple changes I made to speed up the experience a little:

1: For this to work on the SD3 a powered usb hub MUST be used.  The x-stepper will miss steps otherwise and the layers won't line up


2: The launch script visp.sh launches webserver.py in lxterminal by default, which made the interface very slow to use on the installed version of chromium.  I found that editing visp.sh to run webserver.py directly in python (replace lxterminal -e /home/linaro/visp/webserver.py with python /home/linaro/visp/webserver.py) led to an enormous increase in the responsiveness of the interface.


3: I decided to switch to midori for using this solely because it is about twice as fast to start up.  In visp.sh change
chromium-browser "the original local url" &
to midori -e Fullscreen -a "the original local url" &

Overall I am very happy with the purchase and this amazing piece of software!