Split octoprint between two hosts (one for usb, other for ui)?

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1

I would love to retire my raspberry pi, for a "normal" server, but i have a slight problem : the printer is currently far from the server, so i cannot connect it directly via USB, cables are too long, even with an USB to ethernet cable adapters, the signal is poor, and the printer is not responding as well as before, so it is not working great.

The obvious solution would be to move the printer near the server, but the printer is currently in a heated space (good for prints) while the server is in a ventilated cold space (good for cooling), so i would like to avoid that solution.

Then i tought : would it be possible to split Octoprint across 2 hosts ?

  • the raspberry pi for the local "usb" stuff
  • the server for everything else

Software wise, is it feasible in any way ?

Thanks in advance for your insights.
And thanks for this great piece of software.
Nicolas

2

Not sure how reliable it would be but it would be possible to do network serial between those two devices with this plugin. You could probably even get away with a smaller device on the printer side using an esp8266/32 chipset and run esp3d on it for the connection with this plugin.

3

usbip might also be an option

4

I guess I don't understand the problem. If you are going to use a Raspberry Pi for the "local usb stuff", then why can't the Raspberry Pi run OctoPrint? Without OctoPrint on the RPi, it would still have to communicate with the "server" and the obvious mechanism for that would be a network (WiFi or wired). This is exactly what OctoPrint is designed for.

My Lulzbot TAZ 6 printer is physically separated from my desktop computer where all the modeling / slicing occurs. It is too far for a USB cable but not too far for an ethernet wire. It is also within range of my WiFi access point so that is my preferred communication path.

5

that's right, i did not state the target goal explicitely

even though prints are very good, i find that the web ui (and interaction with octoprint android app) on my rpi 2b+ is kind of excruciating slow. so, as i have a more powerful server around the house, i would love to speed things up (ui and app). that is the sole reason i am curious if it can be done.

thanks everyone for the great feedback, i'll try your ideas and see how it goes.

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