In less than a decade, Raspberry Pi (Rpi) has caught the imagination of 3D printing enthusiasts the world over. It has enabled makers like you to monitor and control 3D printers remotely. OctoPrint and Raspberry Pi, paired together, is a deadly combination and gives you an unprecedented control over your entire 3D printing process.
Sadly with so many versions of the credit-card sized computer available on the market it becomes difficult for enthusiasts to choose the best Raspberry Pi for OctoPrint. And yes, the choice will determine the performance of your 3D printer and the amount of control you have on it.
So read along as we bring you a guide to help you solve this very conundrum of choosing the right Raspberry Pi model for your needs and requirements.
OctoPrint is usually installed on a Raspberry Pi, which is connected to your local network. Once connected, you can access OctoPrint from any web browser or mobile app on your smartphone. If you want help in getting started with OctoPrint, refer to our guide on how to setup OctoPrint.
OctoPrint is compatible with a wide range of operating systems and platforms. All it needs is a suitable Python environment. It can also run on a regular computer and different operating systems, but it takes a few more steps than simply installing it on a Raspberry Pi. Also, since you probably want it to run all the time, the Raspberry Pi is one of the most power-efficient and cost-effective ways to run it.
Due to their open source nature, strong community support, and ability to integrate with a variety of platforms, OctoPrint and the Raspberry Pi make a fantastic pairing to efficiently operate your 3D printer.
Right now, Raspberry Pi is available in at least a half a dozen different configurations, if not more. The processing speed, memory, and wireless and Bluetooth connectivity of each vary. Finding a Raspberry Pi model that works well with OctoPrint can be challenging. For instance, you run a higher risk of getting low-quality prints and longer loading times when using an older model, especially if a webcam or other plugins are active.
Thankfully, we did the research making it simpler for you to select the best Raspberry Pi for OctoPrint.
OctoPrint is open-source software that gives you an easy way to monitor and control your 3D printer from your computer. With it’s robust plugin structure, you can expand it’s functionality so you can monitor and control your printer from anywhere, get added peace of mind with AI failure detection and much more. In this article I will discuss five ways Obico for OctoPrint can enhance your 3D printing experience. Lets get started.
Obico, formerly The Spaghetti Detective is an open-source software that streamlines your 3D printing workflow, gives you the ability to monitor and control your printer from anywhere and added peace of mind with AI faiure detection. Obico now works for 3D printers with klipper firmware running fluidd or mainsail, but in this video we will focus on Obico for OctoPrint.
As you may have noticed, it can be hard to buy a Raspberry Pi at the moment. In this article, we will share some places where we have seen success purchasing a Raspberry pi without paying the astronomical prices seen on secondary retailers like Amazon. Today, many of them are over $100 for just the board and over $200 for a kit!
Prusa, a leading 3D printing company, is the inventor of DIY desktop FDM (and, more recently, SLA) 3D printers. It is a well-known brand in the industry, synonymous with dependability and quality.
Prusa has produced numerous award-winning 3D printers over the years, none more so than the Prusa i3. The Prusa i3 is the company's most popular printer, and the MK3S+ is the most recent variation on the i3 model.
The Prusa is a solid 3D printer, but it lacks some features that OctoPrint can provide. OctoPrint gives you the ability to remotely monitor and control your 3D printer. And this is one feature that improves your printing experience regardless of how good your 3D printer is.
Let me introduce myself first. I’m Mitch, a team member of Obico and I’m in this world for 25 years now. I live in Belgium and I like longboarding, riding with my motorcycle and hanging out with my friends. I’m also interested in formula one, MotoGP, DnD and 3D printing. I am very into technology to make my life easier. You could call me a geek although my friends prefer the word nerd because I’m also a big superhero fan. The word nerd isn’t as offensively used anymore then back in the days anyway so I’m cool with that.
If you have previously installed The Spaghetti Detective mobile app, we have made moving to Obico extremely easy for you.
If you have your phone settings to automatically update all apps, you don't have to do anything. When your phone update The Spaghetti Detective mobile app to the latest version, it'll change it to the Obico app! You don't even have to log in again!
So when you see the new Obico app icon on your phone, don't be surprised!
If you don't have the automatic app update enabled, follow these 2 simple steps:
Delete The Spaghetti Detective app from your phone.
Open the app store on your phone. Find the "Obico" app and install it. You will have to login in with your The Spaghetti Detective login credentials.
Since releasing The Spaghetti Detective in 2019, it has grown to become the most popular software for 3D printing failure detection. If you have been using The Spaghetti Detective for some time, you already know we do much more than failure detection.
Why did you change the name? I liked The Spaghetti Detective
Over the past couple of years, failure detection has remained at our core, but we have also added new features driven by user feedback such as a mobile app for monitoring and controlling your 3D printer from anywhere, OctoPrint Tunneling, and more. As we have expanded the software, we felt that our name, “The Spaghetti Detective” wasn’t quite able to describe all of the great features that our users have come to appreciate.
We think Obico will better reflect our mission to build software that makes 3D printers smarter and empowers makers like you to use 3D printers to their fullest potential.
Call it what you want, but we are talking about connected devices. Speakers, watches, and even toasters are smart devices these days. We think 3D printers should work for you not against you, and making them smarter is a great way to start! In that regard, not much has changed. Part of our mission has always been to make 3D printers easier and more accessible for makers and hobbyists, and we will continue with that mission.
Our goal is to make the best 3D printing software available to as many makers as possible. In the past, we focused on making The Spaghetti Detective compatible with OctoPrint, but many users told us that they were now using Klipper.
A few months ago, we released the alpha version of our moonraker integration, and despite how raw it was, many users let us know that we were headed in the right direction. So, we are excited to announce that with the launch of Obico, also comes the launch of our Obico for Klipper Beta. You can now remotely monitor and control your Klipper-connected 3D printer from anywhere and get 3D printing peace of mind with AI failure detection.
Some of you may not already know that much of The Spaghetti Detective was already open-source since day one. Obico will remain 100% open-source, and because we are huge believers that the open-source model and community-built projects are the best way to make 3D printers better, we are putting open-source upfront. We have completely revamped our open-source documentation and added new features such as a public API, a customizable user interface, and more.
Many of you have asked us if/when we will open-source the mobile app. We are working on it! Open-sourcing a mobile app is trickier than a web app because mobile apps don’t have an easy way to separate API keys and other credentials from the code the way that web apps do. But we are pretty close. Add support@obico.io to your contact list When the open-source mobile app is ready, we will announce it in our monthly newsletter.
Many hardworking, 3D printing lovers in our community have already contributed to the project in the past. We are hoping more of you will contribute as the Obico smart 3D printing platform grows. Learn more about how to contribute.
As a community, you have communicated your message loud and clear: you want us to open the public APIs so you can build fun projects by talking directly to the server or automating your print farm workflow. Now you've got it!
For those of you who have been itching to self-host your own Obico Server, but struggled to do so because of a lack of good documentation, we’ve got good news for you. We have rewritten many of the documents for self-hosting and reorganized them so they are easier to follow.
Yes! You heard it right. The Obico Server now supports plugins! This means the maximum flexibility to customize your self-hosted server. It also makes it easier for everyone to contribute to the source code. Win-Win!
Does the Obico Cloud have a different pricing plan than The Spaghetti Detective?
The Obico Cloud keeps the same Pro pricing as The Spaghetti Detective. The only change we made was to remove the “Shop Plan”. Although the Shop Plan would deliver more revenue per customer for us, it has distracted us from making the app better for hobbyists. Plus, most print farms are perfectly happy with the Pro plan.
What does the transition mean for current users of The Spaghetti Detective?
We have done the plumbing work to make moving to Obico as smooth as possible for you. All your current settings in your The Spaghetti Detective account have been migrated to Obico.
Based on your current setup, you may need to make the following changes:
No changes are needed: The Spaghetti Detective mobile app has been transitioned to the Obico App for both iOS and Android. If you haven’t already, update The Spaghetti Detective app in the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store, and you will have the sleek new Obico mobile app.
No changes are needed: We have seamlessly transitioned your account and payment processing information. Payments are processed by Chargebee as they have been in the past.
If you are using OctoPrint, you will need to uninstall The Spaghetti Detective Plugin (keep data) and install the new Obico Plugin. Once you restart OctoPrint, your curent settings in The Spaghetti Detective Plugin will be automatically migrated to the new Obico plugin.
Find more details in this guide in case you run into problems.
If you are using Klipper with Mainsail and Fluidd, you can follow this guide to get started with Obico for Klipper. Remember, it is a beta release, so providing feedback and reporting any bugs is greatly appreciated!
I am running a self-hosted The Spaghetti Detective server. What should I do?
cd TheSpaghettiDetective git remote remove origin git remote add origin https://github.com/TheSpaghettiDetective/obico-server.git git fetch git checkout release docker-compose up --build -d
We have deferred some of your feature requests because Obico is still a tiny team. The good news is our users’ enthusiasm has allowed us to grow at a rapid clip. Now our cash flow is at a point that allows us to hire 1 full-time engineer or 2 part-time ones.
If you are a talented programmer, and you feel that you are wasting your time being a cog in a big wheel, come join us!
What you will get:
An environment in which you can not only decide how you want to do things, but also what should be done. Yes, we mean it. It’s not a stretch for anyone in the team to say “Changing the name to Obico was a dumb idea. Let’s switch back to The Spaghetti Detective!”. There is no taboo in Obico.
Work with people who are makers. Build a product that are loved by makers. Hear from our users on regular basis: "Oh I love Obico! I can't 3D print with it. Let me support you with my subscription. And tell me how else I can help you succeed!".
Tons of challenges that are unimaginable even for a much bigger team. How can we process 5TB data a week while providing a sub-150ms server response time? How can we maintain the server available at four 9s? How can we do that at a budget that is a fraction of what most other team will need to pull it off?
Market-average cash income. Through-the-roof fun!
Above all, the possibility of leaving a dent on the journey toward Smart 3D Printing!
What you won't get:
Cash compensation that is a lot higher than your local market. If you look for money, don't join Obico! But you will have a good chunk of Obico's equity, and tons of influence on how Obico should be built.
People telling you what to do. You are expected to be extremely autonomous. We hope you won't mind that. ;)
Wasting your time on the things that you don't believe in. If you don't believe in meetings. Don't come to the meetings. If you don't believe in documentations, don't do it. You just need to be accountable for the consequence of your action.
Write to us if you feel this is the right calling. Don't send us your resume. We don't read those things.
Over the past couple of years, we have grown from a community of a couple of thousand 3D printing hobbyists into a much larger one with over 100,000. We are extremely grateful to everyone that has supported the project up until this point, and we are excited to continue to grow Obico into a powerful all in one smart 3D printing platform. As always, we welcome any and all feedback and suggestions from the community, so if you have any feedback or anything else to say, please let us know!
Creality Ender 3 desktop FDM 3D printer/Courtesy: Creality
The Creality Ender 3 is a fantastic 3D printer. It is the ideal balance of quality and affordability. The Ender 3 has many features, but there is one that can make it even more feature-rich. The addition of OctoPrint (OctoPi) has the potential to take it to the next level.
OctoPrint empowers you by allowing you to control your 3D printer from a remote location. If your Ender 3 is linked to OctoPrint, you will be able to extract even more value from this already great machine.
If you're not sure how to set up OctoPrint on the Ender 3, follow this step-by-step guide to get started.
Prefer to watch a video to guide you through the process? Check out our video on setting up OctoPrint and getting started with OctoPrint plugins!
OctoPod is a popular iOS mobile app for accessing your OctoPrint connected printer with your phone so you can now use the app from anywhere for free! Learn more about the integration below:
The Creality Ender 3 is a popular and widely used desktop FDM 3D printer. It is ideal for beginners, students, hobbyists, and makers, especially given the features it offers for the price. It consistently produces high-quality prints with dependable precision.
However, there is a significant disadvantage to this printer. It is not a powerful 3D printer right out of the box. To compensate, you can upgrade your Ender 3 with the appropriate mods that will improve your 3D printing experience. The mods are an excellent way to boost overall performance and bring your 3D printer up to the level of premium printers at a fraction of the cost.
In this article, we'll discuss the following Ender 3 upgrades:
Creality Ender 3 desktop FDM 3D printer/Courtesy: 
