Tutorial on how to install & configure OctoPi.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lAPXzAahcM
does octo print need to use the pi all the time or can it run as a program and still be used for other things?
Octoprint is just a service. You can run it and use your computer to do other things. I assume octopi is just a Linux distro for the pi that has the service on it.
Especially if you upload the files to print to an onboard sd card, the pi doesn’t have to do that much work.
I should point out that I run octoprint on a dell laptop and start octoprint as needed. I assume you can do the same with octopi
ok
@Ralph_Schaffner That’s correct. Other than being a package that includes octoprint and some other key services, it’s linux.
You could use the same Pi for other things. I don’t only because I want this guy dedicated to one purpose only. It reduces the risk of something going wrong, disrupting your print.
Of course with certain printers you can use Octoprint in tandem with that local machine’s SD card reader, removing the Pi from the equation.
Although you can use the pi to do other things, if it’s a pi 1 you might not want to. I use Octoprint on a pi 1 to enable printing over the network, here even the Octoprint web ui can be unresponsive when it is crunching a file or something like that.