Brand New OctoPi Setup - UI Is Very Unreliable Right Out Of The Box - Unusable

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1

I just purchased a brand new Creality Ender 5 Plus for the printer, and order a CanaKit Raspberry Pi 4 Extreme Kit - 128GB Edition (4GB RAM) off Amazon for the OctoPi:

I also ordered the raspberry pi camera module:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07M9Q43MX/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I followed the tutorials for setting it up, which consisted of using Raspberry Pi Imager v1.6.2 and selecting "OctoPi" for the imager. I used the imager to configure the WiFi credentials as well.
I also disconnected the 5V wire in the USB cable to fix the common backfeeding voltage issue.

What is the problem?

octopi_problems
octopi_problems800×1652 170 KB

I am constantly, and randomly, presented with the "This site can't be reached" when trying to access "octopi.local/".

Sometimes it works, most of the time it doesn't. Sometimes I can hold CTRL + clicking browser reload button, but most of the time that does not even work. There was an instance yesterday where I was doing this every time I walked by my computer, probably 10 times over 30 minutes, and it would never load. I opened a new browser and it immediately worked right away. Maybe coincedence? I don't know. Now I am constantly trying to open a new browser window to get it to load and 9 out of 10 times it does not load.

If I am lucky enough to get OctoPi to load in my browser, when I navigate to "Control" to view the camera feed, I am always presented with "Webcam stream loading" (see image above)

Usually it takes several minutes to load. If it loads, it works for a few minutes, and then goes back to "Webcam stream loading". At this point it will never load again unless I refresh the page, at which point I am presented with the "This site can't be reached". Someties the camera will never load, and I am presented with "Webcam stream not loaded": (see image above)

At this point, OctoPi is basically unusable. I was hoping it would save time to not have to mess with swapping SD cards back and forth between my computer and the Ender 5 Plus, but at this point I am about ready to switch back to the SD cards.

What did you already try to solve it?

I have been searching through the octoprint community to try and find an answer, and while I have found a ton of similar posts, they are never resolved. I also pulled up the device manager inside my router, and it shows the OctoPi connected with "very high signal strength".

If I can actually get the UI to load, it connects to the printer just fine, and the uploading and printing of files works perfectly without a hitch. While its printing I would like to check in to see the progress, but I get the issues I mentioned above, if its printing or not printing, it does not matter. The timelaps videos also work even though I can never get the UI to load.

I also want to mention that I am a complete noob with this raspberry pi stuff. I thought I could follow a tutorial and it would just work. So I don't understand how to troubleshoot this stuff now.

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

2

Hello @Mahonroy !

Please try http://octopi.local/

3

Its the same thing. Google Chrome automatically puts the "http://" in front of it. And like I mentioned sometimes it works. If I didn't have the URL right it would never work. I don't think that is the problem.

4

but it's without the www, yes?

5

Yes thats correct. No "www". It would of never worked if I used "www" and like I mentioned previously, it sometimes works. The URL is not the issue.

6

So then please, when you have connection, share the systeminfo bundle

7

While the router says "very high signal strength", that may not be what the RPi sees. Can you download an app like "Wifi Analyzer" on a cell phone and then check the signal both near the router and near the RPi. Sometimes using a different WiFi channel will reduce the interference and get a more reliable connection. Move the RPi around if necessary.

Last option is to switch to a wired, ethernet connection.

8

Is the IP address more reliable? I'm not sure the Pi would randomly disconnect and reconnect if the signal strength is good enough - it's usually Windows being unreliable resolving the hostname. I can get the hostname to work on my laptop most of the time, never works on my phone really. IP address always works to access it.

9

So then please, when you have connection, share the systeminfo bundle

Thanks again for the help.
Ok, attached here is the systeminfo bundle octoprint-systeminfo-20220117224037.zip (28.0 KB)

10

While the router says "very high signal strength", that may not be what the RPi sees. Can you download an app like "Wifi Analyzer" on a cell phone and then check the signal both near the router and near the RPi. Sometimes using a different WiFi channel will reduce the interference and get a more reliable connection. Move the RPi around if necessary.

Here is the signal strength a couple feet away from router, and a foot away from OctoPi (Red is my wifi):

image
image865×775 116 KB

11

From the systeminfo bundle it looks like it could be struggling with network connection a bit. There's several instances where the connectivity check switches from online to offline, then it comes back online some time later - sometimes it's a short one, sometimes a longer one. This is one example from the end of the file:

2022-01-17 21:40:06,099 - octoprint.server.util.sockjs - INFO - User Mahonroy logged in on the socket from client ::ffff:192.168.1.34
2022-01-17 21:52:05,547 - octoprint.util.connectivity.connectivity_checker - INFO - Connectivity changed from online to offline
2022-01-17 21:52:05,549 - octoprint.util.connectivity.connectivity_checker - INFO - Connecting to 1.1.1.1:53 is not working
2022-01-17 21:52:05,549 - octoprint.util.connectivity.connectivity_checker - INFO - Resolving octoprint.org is not working
2022-01-17 21:52:06,634 - octoprint.server.heartbeat - INFO - Server heartbeat <3
2022-01-17 22:07:05,720 - octoprint.util.connectivity.connectivity_checker - INFO - Connectivity changed from offline to online
2022-01-17 22:07:05,782 - octoprint.plugins.pluginmanager - INFO - Loaded plugin repository data from disk, was still valid
2022-01-17 22:07:06,639 - octoprint.server.heartbeat - INFO - Server heartbeat <3
2022-01-17 22:07:06,958 - octoprint.plugins.pluginmanager - INFO - Loaded notice data from disk, was still valid
2022-01-17 22:13:15,224 - octoprint.server.util.sockjs - INFO - Client connection closed: ::ffff:192.168.1.34
2022-01-17 22:15:04,545 - octoprint.server.util.flask - INFO - Passively logging in user Mahonroy from ::ffff:192.168.1.34
2022-01-17 22:15:04,546 - octoprint.access.users - INFO - Logged in user: Mahonroy
12

You could try switching to channel 8 or 9 and see if that helps any.

13

Thanks for the suggestions so far. So it seems the general consensus is that the wifi signal is not very strong?
I ordered a powerline wifi extender to try:

This way I can plug the raspberry pi into ethernet and bypass the wifi all together. Keeping my fingers crossed that it works.

14

I wanted to report back, that the powerline adapter wifi extender 100% fixed the problem. Octopi loads within seconds, as well as the camera feed, and never fails now. So I guess it turned out the wifi signal was not as strong in the garage as I thought.

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