Where to place a Raspberry Pi?

Hi,

I plan to attach a Raspberry Pi + Pi-Camera + OctoPi on my printer. (It's on the way to me since yesterday - I'm very exited!) Has anyone else this already done? Could you tell me where the best place would be to place the Pi and the camera so that the camera ribbon cable does not raise troubles and the build process could be watched nicely.

Thx!

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MfG / Regards

Stefan

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Blog / Gallery / Wiki / Mendel90 kit since Sep 2013 from Nophead / Original Prusa I3 MK3 since Feb 2018 /
OpenScad Workshop: Kursdateien
Octoprint Patron since April 2016

There's room behind the right spool holder (when looking from the front) just on the other side of the buttress plate from the Melzi.
You'll need a powered hub if you're running a webcam *and* wifi, and a 5V feed for both. Just tap into the 5V lines from the PSU that you put heat-shrink over during the build...

EDIT: Oh hang on, you're running a Pi-Cam. Is the Pi a model B? If so then you won't need a separate hub as it'll have two USB ports already....

Just a qick question: Is it safe to use the +5V and GND cables coming from the PSU directly to power the Raspberry Pi?

Yup. The ATX PSU is more than capable of supplying the current we need for the Pi and as many peripherals as you can think of.

If you're worried about voltage drops you could try using a buck/boost regulator across the 12V instead, but I don't know if that would be more or less problematical due to the extra ripple...

If someone is interested, I modified a thingiverse case and added 2 mounting holes to it, so the raspberry can be mounted on the opposite side of the melzi board using the lower two melzi screws. Just remove the nylonic nuts, add the raspi case and rescrew the nuts.

Hi,

muelli Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If someone is interested, I modified a thingiverse
> case and added 2 mounting holes to it, so the
> raspberry can be mounted on the opposite side of
> the melzi board using the lower two melzi screws.
> Just remove the nylonic nuts, add the raspi case
> and rescrew the nuts.

very good! But for the RasPiCam ribbon cable I need a slot. Are there any top cases on thingiverse which might fit on your base? What thing was your inspiration?

Btw - I printed 3 Raspberry cases and 2 RasPiCam cases for friends this weekend.

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MfG / Regards

Stefan

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Blog / Gallery / Wiki / Mendel90 kit since Sep 2013 from Nophead / Original Prusa I3 MK3 since Feb 2018 /
OpenScad Workshop: Kursdateien
Octoprint Patron since April 2016

Hi all,
where do you place the PiCam to watch the printer doing it's work?
I've got the pi upand running octoprint/webcam/relais board but have to build the M90 still.


Cheers, Ralf

Hi,

the plan is to use a gooseneck mount.It should be delivered today so please wait until I have pictures from the mounted situation.

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MfG / Regards

Stefan

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Blog / Gallery / Wiki / Mendel90 kit since Sep 2013 from Nophead / Original Prusa I3 MK3 since Feb 2018 /
OpenScad Workshop: Kursdateien
Octoprint Patron since April 2016

@bastard:
the flex cable passes through the hole for the network port. that is why I picked this case, it is one of the smallest I have ever seen and does not cover the connectors.

@ralfsteck:
I use a wifi adapter and therfore have a holder for the camera that is placed in the ethernet socket. onto this holder I can stick the pi camera in a case and it then films directly at the heatbed.
flex cable is no problem, its long enough for that.

Hi all,

thanks for the answers. I'm thinking about placing the cam at the rear edge of the M90's chassis so it can film from slightly down and at the whole Y axis travel. I first thought about mounting it on the X motor carriage but I fear this is not good for the cable because of the motion. OTOH it would be perfect for looking at the "work zone". Would need a longer cable but these are avilable up to 30/50cms. But I fear 50cm is too long.

Cheers, Ralf

I just read that 1-4m cables seem to be working.
But I have interference with the original cable, so longer is not better....

btw: this is my camera holder and case. I modified the case to have a cylinder with hole in it to fit to the holder.

case: [www.thingiverse.com]
holder: [www.thingiverse.com]

Sorry for the late reply to this...

Here is my setup, running a Pi (512Mb) Logitech C270 Webcam - hosting 720p HD webstream in OctoPrint!

Pictures show... Pi location (as QuackingPlums has said - Right hand side from the front behind the spool holder) - this is stuck on with double sided tape.

Webcam location (front corner pointing to the back - head can be angled up and down easily) mounted on my own basic print stand-off.

Hub location (under the side fan mounting hole) again double sided taped on...

The Pi and the Hub are powered directly from the PSU, the Hub is plugged into one of the Pi USB ports the Melzi into the other... then the webcam and WiFi dongle are located in the hub.

Cheers,
Terry.

I attached my RPi on top of the PSU using this thing which I modified from an original design by Halley: [www.thingiverse.com]
This arrangement keeps all of the electronics in one place. I am not using a USB hub but have the network connection over ethernet via a powerline adapter which frees up the two USB sockets on the Model B Pi for use with the webcam and the MELZI connection cable.

Chargenut - Love the stand you have for the webcam - can you post the STL and/or design files please as I have been using all sorts of rubbish to support my webcam over the recent week.

Alan

Of course!!! Very basic design this and I could have made the hole for the webcam to sit in more lozenge shaped to match the camera, but was being lazy, it holds fine though. The bottom has a hole for a 3mm bolt, no captive nut in there, it just relies on the bolt cutting it's own thread after all it's just to stop the bracket from turning... You have to drill a 3mm hole in the base plate to mount it (or you could stick it on with glue/double sided tape).

Sketchup SKP and STL file attached... Enjoy!

Terry.

Hi,

muelli Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> If someone is interested, I modified a thingiverse
> case and added 2 mounting holes to it, so the
> raspberry can be mounted on the opposite side of
> the melzi board

I had difficulties to slice it. Skeinforce gave me lots of errors - the last one is

ZeroDivisionError: complex division by zero

I think the slicer is crashed.

Slic3r exported "something". The case top had no top cover ... and running the gcode in gcode simulator gave me first the bottom case up to layer 40 and then the top cover up to layer 75. Very weird. I did not print it.
Additionally I want to have the mounting holes at the other end, because my ethernet cord comes from below and the power cord comes from top.

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MfG / Regards

Stefan

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Blog / Gallery / Wiki / Mendel90 kit since Sep 2013 from Nophead / Original Prusa I3 MK3 since Feb 2018 /
OpenScad Workshop: Kursdateien
Octoprint Patron since April 2016

@Chargenut - Thank you. When trying to design something, it is always easier if you have something to start with, other than a blank piece of paper

Alan

uh? very strange, i sliced it with the latest slice3r without any problems. did you try running it through a cleaning service?