Hello all and thanks for taking the time to read this. I'm getting an omtech 80watt co2 laser cutter and I'm interested in Mr beam but am not finding much about it. If anyone uses it let me know how well it works compared to octoprint. I have 2 years experience with octoprint so I'm confident I'll be able to use it but I have ideas I'd like to research before investing
The MR Beam software is actually OctoPrint under the covers with a plugin to modify the UI for the purpose of use with their laser engravers.
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Thats great to hear, next question is if I'm running octoprint on my rasp.pi and I have my 3d printer hooked up, would I be able to operate the cutter and printer off of one machine or would it be best to add a pi(3b+ could do the 4 if the bugs are worked out) to the cutter?
I recommend one RPi per printer. While there is probably enough (average) compute power in an RPi 3 or 4, the USB ports share hardware and there are times that the USB port is at 100% utilization feeding one device. IMO, the added cost in hardware is insignificant compared to the software complexity and maintenance of a non-standard configuration.
While MR Beam software is OctoPrint under the covers, It is not the "current version" of OctoPrint. Getting two different versions of OctoPrint running at the same time on a single RPi would be a challenge even the best of us would probably not undertake.
Thank you so much for this information. After the expense of the cutter a new pi isn't to out if the question. @b-morgan I'm getting the impression you have a good amount of experience with Mr beam software. May I ask how the functionality of Mr beam compares to octoprint? I unfortunately can not find video references to Mr beam on youtube. I can tell you im planning to use lightburn with a Webcam, I am looking to be able to monitor my progress like I do with octoprint and upload files to the cutter.
Well, I can say they are one of the OctoPrint supporters and their plugin is still being actively developed, so there's a good chance it still works with the current version of OctoPrint. Here are all the releases for the plugin.
Sorry to disappoint but my Mr. Beam experience consists of a few minutes using google (which I do have a lot of experience with).
Quoted from https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mrbeam/mr-beam-ii-the-desktop-laser-cutter-and-engraver:
Mr Beam II comes with a customized version of the fabulous 3D-printer software OctoPrint, adjusted to the specific needs of a laser cutter and engraver. It runs on a Raspberry Pi 3 inside Mr Beam II - the best thing about this: You don’t need to install anything on your computer, tablet or phone.
From https://github.com/mrbeam/OctoPrint:
This branch is 525 commits ahead, 4936 commits behind OctoPrint:master. Last commit date on Jan 20, 2017.
This software may be "actively developed" but based on my investigation, I don't think that equates to
a good chance it still works with the current version of OctoPrint
Hello @Galvatron_Ravage , quick intro of myself - I founded Mr Beam Lasers.
Our Octoprint plugin replaces the UI of completely and is currently only working with Mr Beam Lasercutters. In general it would be possible to drive any lasercutter out there which is fed by GCode, but it will require several modifications. Unfortunately we don't have the resources for that at this time - but hey, we're hiring.
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@Teja maybe you can answer the question then if the plugin works with the current version of OctoPrint or does it require using your fork? Even if it does only work with your devices, it would be good to know this information.
Our plugin requires our fork right now. The changes are limited (mainly some changes in the filemanager). But right now it only works with v1.3.6. We're working on an upstream merge, but this is delayed due our limited resources.
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@Teja if you have anyone interested in your team that wants to bring this forward to other cutters im willing to help in whatever way I can as I think this would be great for people to get into as well
I also would be willing to help on the plugin side if there's anything I can do to migrate over to a plugin only install in OctoPrint as well. Unfortunately, I don't have a laser cutter though so wouldn't be able to test too much.
@jneilliii I have a 60watt omtech laser cutter arriving this week its been purchased yesterday and shipped today. I can have a new raspi in a matter of days for the project
Of course if you're building your own thing one of these other plugins may fit the bill too.
https://github.com/search?q=octoprint+laser
Thank you! Your dedication to my post and getting me help has been above and beyond my expectation.
I don't like the quality of Omtech; it often breaks down, and their customer service is difficult to deal with. That's why I decided to replace it, and I chose to use Monport. The Monport machine is very good and of high quality. I will recommend it. https://monportlaser.com