RS in Laptop o RPi? GPIO in laptop?
Hello! I am an RS Pro user, I currently have 7 printers. 4 connected to a RaspberryPi3b and another 3 connected to another similar Raspberry. This week I will have to buy 2 more printers and I have a problem.
Previously when I went from 4 printers to 5 I connected the printers to a single RPi with a HUBusb and had a lot of problems with random disconnections so add another RPi.
Currently I will have to buy ANOTHER Raspberry to connect the 9th and I want to analyze what other options I have.
I have an old laptop, with an AMD Phenom X4, 4gb, ssd and ATI5770 that I don't use, if I install RepetierServer there could I run a single instance and run all 9 printers there? I would have to use USB HUB as well but I think the laptop will be less sensitive to EMF.
If I do this I would lose the GPIO ports, where I have the filament sensors connected.
Is it a good idea to run RepetierServer on Windows or Ubuntu? I would use that PC just for that. Is there any way with additional hardware to have something like GPIO ports but on a PC? If you had to choose between Windows and Ubuntu, which would you choose to run RepetierServer? (I still have to install an OS because the laptop currently has an AndroidTV, so I ask what would be the ideal)
I am open to any advice. Thank you very much!
Comments
Notebooks have no GPIOs you can use, so that requires a different solution.
I can not say how much printers you can connect - as you already noted at some point emi starts making problems. CPU wise just sending data it is no issue. It gets harder if you start having webcams as well as they use lot of usb bandwidth
Another thing that worries me is if I will not have problems with the USB Hubs on the laptop, do you know of anyone who has had these problems?
I don't use a webcam, only one eventually to make a TimeLapse for some video for my business's social networks, but I really don't need it
It is possible of course using our api. You could write a script that monitors your GPIO and calls the web api to tell server that pin has changed and you should pause script. See for example this script which does exactly that:
https://github.com/Raabi91/filament_runout_Repetier
However you can store gcode in projects and start prints also from project. Here all instances can access same project if the server containing the project is listed in global config->connectivity.
In case of both closing I see both got end of file signal from os, so closing it is ok. Question is why they close. Are you using /dev/ or /dev/serial/by... for ports? Also I think once assigned they should not renumber. But maybe syslog shows why e.g. both same reason as they shared something or were too close together.
How are usb cable length with new solution? Longer usb cables make it harder to get correct communication also 1.5m is normally no problem.
Is the printer connected to a hub? disabled by hub (EMI?) is what happened. This hub can also be inside your laptop. See usb devices as tree
lsusb -t
then it is clear. Anyhow, that is why you get the disconnect. Not sur eif hub or the printer is here more sensitive. It really differs between hardwares. Even on pi I think the usb 2 is less sensitive then usb 3 ports.
lsusb -t
to see the structure. Anyhow one of the components was not happy and did disconnect for a short period. Other usb cable can maybe make a difference - really depends where the interference comes from.
this returns me the command
I'll try with other cables too. Thank you
It can also be a heater or motor cable coming too close to some communication part inside printer or what I also have heard problems with grounding inside printer when usb ground had contact to the printer housing. Then housing can catch up all the noise with inductions and transmit to usb. At least that is how I understood it from a user who found it. Electronics is not really my field.
You can only share folder inside one server. We are checking for a better solution on V2 when we can add incompatible changes, but in V1 structure I don't see it coming except the project solution.
Raspberry Pis are good for a few reasons: cheap, low power, small form factor, GPIO headers, and community support.
If you don't need any of those features, then by all means just use your existing PC.
You can also use the import function to import files form a nas that all have accessible. What does not work is having them imported and shared as we compute extra data from gcode, images etc. plus we give them extra numbers to be unique even with same name. That would break and other instances won't see changes.