A piece of universal PCB (costs cents, if you don’t have it already) – Buy.a Raspberry Pi Zero mini PC (~$6) – Buy.Not all steps are explained in the most detailed manner, so use your brain & google if you have doubts 😉 It also requires a bit of Linux tinkering. This project IS NOT for people that have a lack of patience or some soldering skills.

My solution: use the Pi Zero’s UART pins to connect to the printer directly (bypassing the printer’s own USB to UART converter), and use cheap ESP-12F wifi module, connected to the Pi Zero’s SDIO pins.Ĭonnect USB webcam to the now free USB port of the Pi Zero. The Pi Zero has only one USB, so you would need a hub, which adds to the price and to the power requirements (not to mention it adds even more cables hanging around).Įven if you use the newly released Pi Zero W which has built-in wifi, you would still need 2 usb ports. Or more like 3 issues: if you do it “the usual” way, you will need 3 usb ports – one for the WiFi module, one for connecting to the printer itself, and one for a webcam (using the onboard camera interface is not an option – these cameras are far too expensive).

The Pi Zero seemed like the ideal candidate – it’s bare bones, and it has the required processing power. So, I decided to come up with a cheaper solution, although requiring a little more effort to set up (isn’t that always the case) at roughly 1/4 the price. And you end up paying for something you don’t really need or use (like audio output, lan port, bluetooth or display interface…). Also, most of the features you pay for in a RPi 3, don’t have anything to do with the task of controlling the 3D printer remotely. However, RPi 3 costs $40, which is hardly the cheapest solution.

A lot of people are using OctoPring + Raspberry Pi 3 (RPi 3) to remote control their 3D printers via internet or local network.

Octoprint on raspberry pi zero w