Pi Camera V2.1
I have a Pi 4b was running a Pi camera V1 all fine changed yesterday to V2.1 started a print it was struggling to keep up showing the movement then it froze and now octoprint just shows webcam streaming i am waiting for the print to finish then i will reset but has anyone encountered this before or are their any settings i need to change?
using current Octoprint release
Which webcam settings are you using?
How is the pi connected to your network?
Hi
All default settings for webcam and Pi connected over home network sitting in the same room as the wifi router (full signal)
Did u ever figure it out? I just installed an 8 gig Pi 4B with Pi Cam v2.1 and I’m getting “request error. HTTP response: 503”. For a brief second I had a picture then it disappeared forever.
What OctoPi OS are you using? I know there were problems with the Pi Cam on 64 bit versions, if you're using that try the 32 bit.
This is the very latest version of the Raspberry Pi-the 8 gig 4B. Octoprint .17 wouldnt run on it. There’s a thread on this forum discussing it and a programmer has written a beta version he offers for download. It runs octoprint fine but not the webcam. Maybe I will ask on that forum
OctoPi 0.17 will not run, no, but you still have a choice between 32 and 64 bit - try the 32 bit version. It has way less bugs than 64 does, when it was first released the camera didn't work at all.
Thanks. Changing the ribbon cable seemed to get the camera going. So far so good. I downloaded the Arc Welder plugin. It seems hit or miss. Sometimes it will cause the printer to fault in the middle of a print. Not sure, in the cases where the print completed if I can tell any difference in quality
Arc welder is best used with recent versions of Marlin (2.0.6+) since it was a chicken - egg situation, not many people used arcs (bugs in implementations) so didn't bother fixing the bugs. Then it becomes an option (AW was first a thing back at the start of this year iirc), so the firmware was fixed and arc welder was released.
Thx. So now I need to see what my version of Marlin is. That would be on the stock Ender 3 mainboard. When I installed Octoprint on the RPi4 and connected it to my printer it automatically updated some firmware but I’m not sure if it was RPi stuff or Ender 3 mainboard stuff. Time to do more googling...
Printer firmware never automatically updates, that was likely OctoPrint prompting for that update. Stock Ender 3 probably was early Marlin 2.0, if it was bought recently. If not, maybe not even Marlin 2. I wouldn't recommend Arc Welder unless you have updated the firmware yourself.
Thanks for the recommendation. Updating Marlin firmware seems somewhat involved for the novice. Some people say they can’t tell much difference in print quality with or without arc welder. What is your opinion? Is there any reason why I should attempt updating the Marlin firmware?
Yes. Apart from being able to use something like Arc Welder, stock firmware on Creality boards is usually riddled with bugs and I wouldn't touch it with a ten foot pole.
Thank you for replying. Looking on YouTube it seems there are several sources for the upgrade software. Do you have a preferred source? Also most people indicate the need to first burn a boot loader to the board. Several use an arduino board while one used software downloaded to a PC that enabled uploading the boot loader via usb with no need for arruino board. Is one way better? Lastly one gentleman mentioned possibly running out of memory updating the firmware if too many features are activated with the née firmware. Is this likely? If so am I better off deactivating certain features or getting a new mainboard with more memory? Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions
It depends a bit on which board you have - the earlier Ender 3 boards didn't have the bootloader flashed, the later ones had it.
If you try to flash a new firmware via usb and it doesn't work you probably don't have a blootloader on your board.
I personally would suggest you upgrade to a newer 32 bit board (the Ender 3 Pro comes with an 8 bit board).
The 32 bit boards do not only come with more cpu horsepower, they also got more memory so you can use all marlin features and don't have to disable some to squeeze the firmware into your board.
Also you're able to use newer stepper drivers, which come with great features like silent printing and sensorless homing.
I bought an BigTreeTech Skr 1.4 turbo board because I want to be able to switch drivers if I want to, but if you're looking for a simple replacement board which fits into your printer without having to change anything you should get a BTT SKR MINI E3 V2.0. I use the same drivers (TMC2209) and I'm really happy with them.
Now to the firmware part.
With this newer boards you don't have to flash anything via usb anymore. Just copy the firmware on an sd card, insert it into the board, power the printer on and it will flash it in a few seconds.
You could use a precompiled firmware but since you like to tinker with electronics, why not make your own 
?
Download the Marlin firmware from here and example config files from here
You don't have to change anything in this config - but you can if you like to. The config was made for your printer and the BTT SKR MINI E3 V2.0 board and the latest marlin stable release.
Here is a youtube guide on how to build the firmware with Visual Studio Code
Thank you. That is really helpful. I bought my E3Pro a month ago but who knows when it was made. It could have sat in a Warehouse for years. The version of Marlin it is running is 0.0.6?!? I have to assume it’s much older than the current version. Since I already have the 8 gig Pi 4 it makes sense to upgrade the mainboard. I was looking at BTT v creality. I’ve heard good things about BTT. The turbo requires a total rework of the enclosure so I’ll probably stick with the mini. I’m a part time tinkerer who gets frustrated when the project gets overwhelming. Probably will upgrade the display to touchscreen while I’m at it.
Once again, Creality like to break stuff. IIRC that's Marlin 2, but to Creality its 0.0.6...
I am confused. Are you saying I have the latest version of Marlin?
Not quite, since Creality fork the firmware, develop their own bugs and then ship it with their printers, they decide to mess with the version numbers too. It is at least from the last year, not 10 years ago that official 0.x versions would have been released. I would still recommend updating.
Thanks. I ordered the BTT SKR Mini E3 V2.0 w/ touch screen. Should be here by the weekend and I'll have my next project. Compiling marlin seems to involve many steps I'll have to review the above video carefully. My programming skills are very rusty and the languages they have these days are pretty foreign to me. I do recall you can write a program 99.9% perfectly but that .1% error will keep if from working 100%.