Use Raspberry Pi to print with your 3D printer via WiFi and 3DPrinterOS!
Currently, common 3D printing transfer methods still involve using an SD card or USB connection. If you connect your 3D printer to a computer via USB, it inevitably affects the computer's performance. Moreover, if the computer crashes, hours or even tens of hours of work could be lost in an instant. Using an SD card requires you to walk to the machine, remove the card, slice the model, save the file, and then walk back to the machine to reinsert the card. If you have 5 or 10 machines to use... oh dear, my feet are getting heavy! Why can't I just sit in front of my computer and control the 3D printer remotely? You're in luck! I have a solution here. With 3Dprinter OS, you can easily control and monitor your 3D printer remotely! This article will guide you step-by-step on how to use Raspberry Pi 3 and 3DPrinterOS to enable your 3D printer to print via WiFi!1. Go to the official website of 3Dprinter OS.
www.3dprinteros.com
2. Create your account.
3. Log in to your account.
4. Go to "Download" and click "Request RaspberryPI image".
5. Your email inbox will receive the download link for the "RaspberryPI image".
6. Download the .zip compressed file and extract it to any folder.
7. In this guide, we will demonstrate how to create a Raspberry Pi image on a Windows operating system. Mac users can check here.
First, download Win32 Disk Imager from the link below:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/
8. Insert the MicroSD card into your computer (you'll need a card reader with a MicroSD port) and open Win32 Disk Imager.
For "Image file", select the ".img" file you extracted.
For "Device", select your MicroSD card.
Then click "Write".
9. Once you have successfully written the image file to the Micro SD card,
insert your Micro SD card into the Raspberry Pi slot.
Connect your Raspberry Pi 3 to power,
connect it to any available monitor via an HDMI cable.
Connect a keyboard to the Raspberry Pi 3 via a USB cable.
When the Raspberry Pi 3 starts up, you will see the following screen:
10. Enter your username and password (user information can be found in your email).
Tip: It's normal for no letters or numbers to appear when you enter your password. This is for the security of your account.
After entering the password, press Enter.
11. If your username and password are correct, you will see the following screen:
12. Please enter "sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf".
Press Enter again, and you will see:
13. Enter your WiFi name and password in the following format:
network={
ssid="yourWiFi name"
psk="yourWiFi password"
}
14. Then, press Ctrl+X on your keyboard.
Then press "Y".
Finally, press Enter.
15. Enter "sudo reboot" and press Enter:
16. After your Raspberry Pi 3 restarts, enter your username and password again:
17. Enter "ifconfig wlan0" to confirm if you have successfully connected to the Wifi network.
Press Enter and you will see:
If you see an IP address under "Inet addr" – it means the Raspberry Pi has successfully connected to Wi-Fi.
18. At this point, you can disconnect your monitor and keyboard from the Raspberry Pi 3.
Connect your 3D printer to the Raspberry Pi 3 via a USB cable.
And also connect a USB camera and power cable.
19. Log in to your 3DPrinterOS account on the web and select "Printers".
You should see the IP address linked to this device.
20. Click "Tools" -> "Printer Settings".
21. You can now enter the name and type of your 3D printer! For example, we entered Ultimaker2+.
22. Now you can start your first Wifi print!
Upload your STL file and click "Save and go to my files" to save your file to the cloud.
23. When you see that the file has been successfully uploaded, click "Slice" to configure the slicing settings.
24. Select your relevant slicing settings according to the STL. Then click "Slice" to slice.
25. After slicing is complete, you will see that the Gcode is in the queue, waiting to be printed. You just need to click "Print".
26. Select the 3D printer you want to use (if you have many) and click "Print" to start printing.
27. Now you can track the status of your 3D print in real-time.
24. Congratulations! You have completed your first WiFi print!
With the above tutorial, I believe everyone can easily print via WiFi! From now on, you won't have to run around or worry about unstable computer conditions!