6 ms·

It seems I'm the minority here, but I dont like OctoPrint. My main issues: - Terribly slow startup and load times. - no support for mobile devices just with s

by sydd 6y ago

It seems I'm the minority here, but I dont like OctoPrint. My main issues: - Terribly slow startup and load times. - no support for mobile devices just with some app. - While it can do lots of things with plugins they tend to kill performance which might cause artifacts on the print. - slow on updates, they ware on Python 2.x until this year. I'm currently migrating to mainsail (https://github.com/meteyou/mainsail https://github.com/meteyou/mainsail), which looks much better.

johnboiles 6y ago
Does it only work with the Klipper printer firmware or can it work with Marlin?
- quux 6y ago
  Works great with Marlin based printers.
- jvolkman 6y ago
  There are more modern Klipper-specific frontends now. Check out Mainsail and Fluidd.
  - sydd 6y ago
    ?? I linked Mainsail
leipert 6y ago
I think they handled the python upgrade professionally, the author even went and fixed some of the communities more popular plugins to be python 3 compatible. When the python 3 update didn’t work for me, the rollback scripts worked great and a few months later I just upgraded to python 3. All in all the main maintainer, which is working full time on it, is communicating well with the community. The iteration cycle has become faster during this last year, and updates seem to be rather stable. Regarding the performance killing plugins, never had a problem on a RPi 4. What are you using?
_jal 6y ago
I have a 3D printer, and I don't get it at all. I have yet to need to print something remotely, and can't think of a scenario in which I would want to. I guess if you have reason to want process pictures?
- AdamTReineke 6y ago
  I like being untethered from my PC or SD card. Drag and drop the gcode into the web UI and click print. My printer sits in the room adjacent to my office so then I can monitor it remotely using phone apps (OctoPrint provides a mjpeg stream). Edit: plus visualization for auto-bed leveling is amazing trying to fine tune the printer bed.
- angryasian 6y ago
  It does much more than this, though. Printing directly from cura, gcode viewer, bed levelling visualizer, notification when done and emergency stop. These are the plugins I love so far. I guess it depends on which printer you have but these are all amazing for my uses.
- serf 6y ago
  two reasons for me; these apply to any remote administration suite for printing and not just octoprint. 1) It isn't pleasant to be near many industrial machines. Chemical vapor/off-gassing can be a real problem, so on top of the usually loud metal-component motion systems/gantries you have loud evacuation/exhaust fans. One place to deal with webcams/remote features on many machines at once is convenient. 2) Real time notifications create less machine downtime. A thermistor failed so a machine stopped mid-print? This time can be salvaged by a notification to browser or mobile for quick repair rather than discovering the issue by returning to the machine at the supposed end-time and being greeted with a non-finished print.
- xuki 6y ago
  Inserting and removing the micro SD card gets old real quick.
- foxylad 6y ago
  My first printer was an Anet A8, which lived in the garage due to the noise. I used Octoprint with a webcam to keep an eye on progress, both to abort bad prints and to know when it was done. I now have a Prusa Mini, which is quiet and small enough to live in a cupboard in my office. It's far more reliable and the print time estimate is so accurate that I don't need Octoprint any more. It also has a USB port instead of SD card, so walking across my office with a USB stick is a viable alternative to sending jobs directly from my desktop browser. So I guess it depends on your printer - if it's noisy, large, unreliable or you have lots of them, Octoprint is a godsend.
InvertedRhodium 6y ago
To counter your example, I run a Prusa Mk3s and recently bought a mini and have quite literally never run either printer without OctoPrint. I've got no interest in shuffling around sd cards in order to print models, nor do I want it connected to my primary pc that gets rebooted regularly. And in their defence, I've been running OctoPrint for about 3 years and never had an issue with it across any updates.
zshift 6y ago
OctoPrint only has a single main developer. They also spend a lot of time triaging bugs (https://github.com/OctoPrint/OctoPrint/issues https://github.com/OctoPrint/OctoPrint/issues). I'm sure they'd appreciate any help they can get.
thetinguy 6y ago
Are you using an old raspberry pi? Going from the 3 to 4 helped loading time immensely. Although you still have to get a new board.
thendrill 6y ago
You forgot to mention Klipper which is an amazin project and firmware.
- serf 6y ago
  Input shaping is revolutionary. as an RRF user I hope to see those features move over one day.
  - ThatPlayer 6y ago
    https://github.com/Duet3D/RepRapFirmware/issues/443 https://github.com/Duet3D/RepRapFirmware/issues/443 It's planned. I'm unsure if I like RRF or Klipper more, so kinda keep up with both.
- StavrosK 6y ago
  What's good about it?
  - serf 6y ago
    I'm not who you asked, but since i'm preaching about it elsewhere anyway : input shaping allows one to get rid of mechanical resonances without re-engineering the motion system on a printer. It's pretty unique to klipper -- but it's one of those features that I suspect is brilliant enough to where the other groups who develop such software will probably follow-up with their own variations. https://www.klipper3d.org/Resonance_Compensation.html https://www.klipper3d.org/Resonance_Compensation.html
    - StavrosK 6y ago
      Oh huh, nice! I think the latest Pruša firmware versions have something like this too, no?
      - serf 6y ago
        Not sure, I haven't been following Prusa too much lately. I've spoken to a few people on klipper who are inputing the variables for compensation in directly from an attached accelerometer on the printer frame. That'd be the way i'd want to go rather than taking a pair of calipers to the ringing artifacts on the print itself.
tomn 6y ago
Duet controllers are another good option of OctoPrint doesn't appeal. Having everything integrated into one board makes a lot of things easier, and from a safety perspective it feels a lot more trustworthy than random cloned driver boards.
- mech422 6y ago
  I just wish there was a good octolapse-alike for the Duet. I'm gonna try https://github.com/kriechi/DuetRRF-timelapse https://github.com/kriechi/DuetRRF-timelapse but really wish the was a more 'native' solution...
franga2000 6y ago
Idk what you mean about plugins and performance. Yes, the UI and startup get slower, but print performance? I ran it on an OrangePi Zero (== one of the jankiest SBCs out there) with a bunch of plugins and one webcam without a single OctoPrint-related failure for more than half a year. I ended up switching to something powerful only because of power supply issues (OrangePi are even more voltage-sensitive than RaspPi).
lukami 6y ago
I agree, OctoPrint is very slow to load with the default settings. I disabled these plugins and now it loads very quickly: - Action Command Notification Support - Action Command Prompt Support - Announcements Plugin - Anonymous Usage Tracking - Discovery - Error tracking - File Check - Firmware check - Logging - Pi Support Plugin
ehnto 6y ago
No app is a feature for me. It's a fairly big ask for a free open source project to navigate the Google Play and Apple stores too, I feel app stores have no place in the open source ecosystem. I wouldn't wish that headache on any project trying to provide something for free.
- vorpalhex 6y ago
  The TouchUI plugin gets the web interface very usable on mobile.
  - peterrus 6y ago
    Agreed, TouchUI is great! And there is an unofficial app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kabacon.octoremote&hl=en&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kabacon.oc...
vorpalhex 6y ago
What device are you running it on that you are seeing slow startup and load times? Even on a Pi 2 with a plugin heavy instance (TouchUI with custom theme, octolapse, etc) the web interface loaded acceptably fast enough. Python 3 support was in Beta/RC for a very long time intentionally so plugin authors could update.
- londons_explore 6y ago
  The initial systemd service startup takes about 6 minutes on an original Pi. I spent a while wondering why octoprint wasn't responding to http requests before sshing in and seeing python using 100% CPU.

by sydd 6y ago

johnboiles 6y ago

Does it only work with the Klipper printer firmware or can it work with Marlin?

quux 6y ago
Works great with Marlin based printers.
jvolkman 6y ago
There are more modern Klipper-specific frontends now. Check out Mainsail and Fluidd.
- sydd 6y ago
  ?? I linked Mainsail

leipert 6y ago

I think they handled the python upgrade professionally, the author even went and fixed some of the communities more popular plugins to be python 3 compatible. When the python 3 update didn’t work for me, the rollback scripts worked great and a few months later I just upgraded to python 3. All in all the main maintainer, which is working full time on it, is communicating well with the community. The iteration cycle has become faster during this last year, and updates seem to be rather stable. Regarding the performance killing plugins, never had a problem on a RPi 4. What are you using?

_jal 6y ago

I have a 3D printer, and I don't get it at all. I have yet to need to print something remotely, and can't think of a scenario in which I would want to. I guess if you have reason to want process pictures?

AdamTReineke 6y ago
I like being untethered from my PC or SD card. Drag and drop the gcode into the web UI and click print. My printer sits in the room adjacent to my office so then I can monitor it remotely using phone apps (OctoPrint provides a mjpeg stream). Edit: plus visualization for auto-bed leveling is amazing trying to fine tune the printer bed.
angryasian 6y ago
It does much more than this, though. Printing directly from cura, gcode viewer, bed levelling visualizer, notification when done and emergency stop. These are the plugins I love so far. I guess it depends on which printer you have but these are all amazing for my uses.
serf 6y ago
two reasons for me; these apply to any remote administration suite for printing and not just octoprint. 1) It isn't pleasant to be near many industrial machines. Chemical vapor/off-gassing can be a real problem, so on top of the usually loud metal-component motion systems/gantries you have loud evacuation/exhaust fans. One place to deal with webcams/remote features on many machines at once is convenient. 2) Real time notifications create less machine downtime. A thermistor failed so a machine stopped mid-print? This time can be salvaged by a notification to browser or mobile for quick repair rather than discovering the issue by returning to the machine at the supposed end-time and being greeted with a non-finished print.
xuki 6y ago
Inserting and removing the micro SD card gets old real quick.
foxylad 6y ago
My first printer was an Anet A8, which lived in the garage due to the noise. I used Octoprint with a webcam to keep an eye on progress, both to abort bad prints and to know when it was done. I now have a Prusa Mini, which is quiet and small enough to live in a cupboard in my office. It's far more reliable and the print time estimate is so accurate that I don't need Octoprint any more. It also has a USB port instead of SD card, so walking across my office with a USB stick is a viable alternative to sending jobs directly from my desktop browser. So I guess it depends on your printer - if it's noisy, large, unreliable or you have lots of them, Octoprint is a godsend.

InvertedRhodium 6y ago

To counter your example, I run a Prusa Mk3s and recently bought a mini and have quite literally never run either printer without OctoPrint. I've got no interest in shuffling around sd cards in order to print models, nor do I want it connected to my primary pc that gets rebooted regularly. And in their defence, I've been running OctoPrint for about 3 years and never had an issue with it across any updates.

zshift 6y ago

OctoPrint only has a single main developer. They also spend a lot of time triaging bugs (https://github.com/OctoPrint/OctoPrint/issues https://github.com/OctoPrint/OctoPrint/issues). I'm sure they'd appreciate any help they can get.

thetinguy 6y ago

Are you using an old raspberry pi? Going from the 3 to 4 helped loading time immensely. Although you still have to get a new board.

thendrill 6y ago

You forgot to mention Klipper which is an amazin project and firmware.

serf 6y ago
Input shaping is revolutionary. as an RRF user I hope to see those features move over one day.
- ThatPlayer 6y ago
  https://github.com/Duet3D/RepRapFirmware/issues/443 https://github.com/Duet3D/RepRapFirmware/issues/443 It's planned. I'm unsure if I like RRF or Klipper more, so kinda keep up with both.
StavrosK 6y ago
What's good about it?
- serf 6y ago
  I'm not who you asked, but since i'm preaching about it elsewhere anyway : input shaping allows one to get rid of mechanical resonances without re-engineering the motion system on a printer. It's pretty unique to klipper -- but it's one of those features that I suspect is brilliant enough to where the other groups who develop such software will probably follow-up with their own variations. https://www.klipper3d.org/Resonance_Compensation.html https://www.klipper3d.org/Resonance_Compensation.html
  - StavrosK 6y ago
    Oh huh, nice! I think the latest Pruša firmware versions have something like this too, no?
    - serf 6y ago
      Not sure, I haven't been following Prusa too much lately. I've spoken to a few people on klipper who are inputing the variables for compensation in directly from an attached accelerometer on the printer frame. That'd be the way i'd want to go rather than taking a pair of calipers to the ringing artifacts on the print itself.

tomn 6y ago

Duet controllers are another good option of OctoPrint doesn't appeal. Having everything integrated into one board makes a lot of things easier, and from a safety perspective it feels a lot more trustworthy than random cloned driver boards.

mech422 6y ago
I just wish there was a good octolapse-alike for the Duet. I'm gonna try https://github.com/kriechi/DuetRRF-timelapse https://github.com/kriechi/DuetRRF-timelapse but really wish the was a more 'native' solution...

franga2000 6y ago

Idk what you mean about plugins and performance. Yes, the UI and startup get slower, but print performance? I ran it on an OrangePi Zero (== one of the jankiest SBCs out there) with a bunch of plugins and one webcam without a single OctoPrint-related failure for more than half a year. I ended up switching to something powerful only because of power supply issues (OrangePi are even more voltage-sensitive than RaspPi).

lukami 6y ago

I agree, OctoPrint is very slow to load with the default settings. I disabled these plugins and now it loads very quickly: - Action Command Notification Support - Action Command Prompt Support - Announcements Plugin - Anonymous Usage Tracking - Discovery - Error tracking - File Check - Firmware check - Logging - Pi Support Plugin

ehnto 6y ago

No app is a feature for me. It's a fairly big ask for a free open source project to navigate the Google Play and Apple stores too, I feel app stores have no place in the open source ecosystem. I wouldn't wish that headache on any project trying to provide something for free.

vorpalhex 6y ago
The TouchUI plugin gets the web interface very usable on mobile.
- peterrus 6y ago
  Agreed, TouchUI is great! And there is an unofficial app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kabacon.octoremote&hl=en&gl=US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.kabacon.oc...

vorpalhex 6y ago

What device are you running it on that you are seeing slow startup and load times? Even on a Pi 2 with a plugin heavy instance (TouchUI with custom theme, octolapse, etc) the web interface loaded acceptably fast enough. Python 3 support was in Beta/RC for a very long time intentionally so plugin authors could update.

londons_explore 6y ago
The initial systemd service startup takes about 6 minutes on an original Pi. I spent a while wondering why octoprint wasn't responding to http requests before sshing in and seeing python using 100% CPU.