Questions about Usage

RickoT

Greetings!

So I am thinking about switching my small farm (3 Ender-3's and 2 MonoPrice Mini's) to repetier.  I am trying to understand the flow of how it all works.

Do I install Repetier Server on a raspberry Pi then connect them to a "master" server?  do I use Repetier-Host on the raspberry pi?  My goal is to have a server that I push prints from to my devices.  

Slicing on the server would be nice, pushing firmware changes, etc would be nice (all devices use marlin 2.0.x bugfix), but my biggest goal is to turn my 1000+ file based mess of an STL library into a usable database like Repetier does

Any assistance would be appreciated,  I am looking for the most optimal solution, but I'm not sure where to start.  From my research, I gathered that I put Repetier server on everything. is that true?

Thanks!
~Rick

Repetier

Every server installation is independent and has it's own list of printers connected.
You can outsource cpu intensive operation or project storage to one of the installations. This is not really a master, but if one has a real hard drive on regular pc that would be better for storing stl files.

G-Codes are stored on the server connected to printer.

Host is not required, but can connect to any server installed to upload generated g-codes and start a print, but you can do the same with regular gui or  Repetier-Server Monitor.

Slicer integration is what we are working towards.

Host is too big for pi,, you use it if you like it on a regular pc and just select server connector to use a server instead of direct printer connection.

RickoT

Thanks for the response, so in my use case would it be best to install server on all the pi's and my "master" server?  Can I control all the printers from one place?  (i.e. the master server) or do I need to connect to each one individually?  If the latter is the case, how does this product differ from octoprint?

Repetier

Each server shows only own printers, but each can handle multiple printer which is where it first differs.
With pro version you can use in addition  Repetier-Server Monitor that can connect to multiple servers same time and bundles all server printers in one interface.
Master server makes sense for projects which seems a main part in your idea and that should be on a quite safe device. sd cards are ok but can get corrupt more easily then real hard drives.

RickoT

So, just to clarify, I should really have one machine that is my server that has all the printers connected to it?  Would a machine like a 4th gen i7 with 16gb of ram be good enough to manage 5 devices, perform slicing, and manage an STL database?

Repetier

Never said that, also a i7 can handle 10 printers alone, no problem. Server is very quick and printing is not high cpu intensive. What I said is to store all projects on a pc with server and connect printers to pis as that is what you wanted. A pi 4 can handle 4 or more printers as well if there is no electronic interference. That server can access the pc server for downloading projects or files from projects. It can also outsource rendering or later when available slicing to pc which is faster and probably has more ram in case of big objects being sliced. For printing gcode size does not matter as it is never loaded completely into ram for printing.

RickoT

I apologize, I must have misunderstood

I really just want to make sure I understand what I am setting up before I do it.  So, I can have my "master" server to host Repetier Server, which will host all of my stl files and act as the slicer (when needed), have my raspberry pi's with repeteir server also, and manage all the devices from the "master" server?  Does that also mean I can push prints to each printer from the one master server?  If so that would be perfection

Sorry if I am overcomplicating this, I just want to make sure I am understanding and planning everything correctly

Repetier

No. There is no master, you need to connect with the server instance connected to the printer. Exception is our monitor which connects to all servers the same time. You only treat the server with safest harddisk and biggest cpu as storage place for projects (stl files) and for accelerating slow operations on smaller devices (if wanted, otherwise they compute it on their own, just a bit slower). Every server instance can connect to multiple servers for outsourcing operations or fetching project files. So this is not a master-slave relationship.

Slicing is a planned feature planned for this year, but currently you need external slicer and upload gcode.

RickoT

Would the best practice be to just have all printers connected to the same device?

Repetier

It is of course the easiest way. But then all printers need to be close to each other. And the more devices you have the more likely you can get hardware problems from using too much current on usb ports to whatever might interfere - some printers make no problems at all and some ... you know:-) With 5 printers it is worth a try and if you get problems you still can split.