ive been wanting to get into octoprint for over a year now and this video just made it happen for me! Tons of android phones laying around waiting for a second chance.
I have as well, and the dongles...but also have like 6 rpi's here so Ill use that as I dont love the idea of batteries in a heated chamber. I do think this is a great solution to use old phones though, as there isnt many use cases for them and if you are like me you have a bunch of them.
I just recently got a 3d printer and wanted to have octoprint but i dont have a raspberry pie, i have so much faith of people believing there might be already a solution that you can use android phone as an alternate, so i searched the keywords, android phone octoprint and here i am. A big thank you to you sir for creating this video and the developers behind this!.
What a gem this guy is, I discovered Tom a while back, but only now realise how amazing his content is, useful, innovative, novel, fast, comprehensive and to the point. Really enjoy listening, very good and humble teacher and also very fair on and subtle with sponsers and never in your face to support him. Amazing 3D printing channel, subscribed and hopefully will try support you somehow. Keep up the amazing work, we really appreciate it!
ohh man, I have wondered if a phone could be used for several years. I thought I would have to root it and install something complex. This is ground breaking for me. Amazing video
For benchmarking the UI load time over an other browser, I recommend to time it after the login screen. The login screen has been optimised to take the least resources possible. Speaking as a dev who works with OctoPrint on the daily. Great vid and eye opener. Really enjoy it whenever people can repirpose their old hardware
Honestly, thanks for doing this. I was looking into ways of running RasPi apps virtualized in Android and this video popped up in my suggested a few days later, this is literally perfect. As a few folks have said below, for Creality printers that have backpower issues, cover the fourth pin (5V) on the USB-A connector (host side plug, one that will go into the hub or adapter) with a small bit of electrical tape as well to take some of the strain off these older batteries. Have it working now, and I thank you and the Dev behind this app, for putting in great work!
Now this was a very useful video. What to do with your old phone once you upgraded to the new contract phone. And no need for HDMI cables to a monitor you are using on your PC. Very nice. Thank you Tom for always coming up with a relavent topic for your videos. FYI, your 18650 battery video. I pay 1.5 Euro's for a brand new battery. So you paying 1 Euro each is a massive saving when you need hundreds of them.
4:20 I used one of these on my trip to Japan. I used my phone to take tons of pictures. When it was full I used this to move the pictures to a flash drive, then went right back to taking pictures.
I actually just reorganized my game room and actually found my Galaxy S3. I thought about just formatting it and tossing it out but I'm super glad I kept it now. I even have the USB dongle it came with as well so all I need is a splitter. Great video, thank you!
For you and for everyone: I waited a few weeks to write my opinion. After then I can confirm Octo4a works very well for me. I tested it on more smartphones. It worked also on a quite old Huawei P8 Lite. It runs now on a Huawei P20 Lite without any performace problem. I was able to set the energy management easyly. I made an "Y" cable, but it didn't work for either. It is currently running only on battery power. It lasts even up to a 24 hour of printing, or more. With a very used battery!! Especially when I turn off the camera server. I ordered a USB multiport hub. It's on the way. I hope it will work. I don't want to modify the phone with an additional battery charging module. The only one issue to me is about the camera focus. When I turn off autofocus, everything will be awful blurry. With autofocus too, but not as much as when it's turned off. I saw on github this is a current issue. So I'm waiting it will be fixed sometime. Overall I'm happy. I installed a BLtouch sensor. I was really scared to modify my printer. I scared about changing the firmware and losing the SD support too. But everything works fine. By the way my printer is Anet A8 Plus.
Have you managed to get charging to work with the hub you mentioned? I have a p20 lying around with information regarding simultaneous charge with otg scarce for whatever reason. I'm curious if you got it going and if you did, could you share the model of the hub?
@@rigormoritz Same issue, bought a otg cable from the link thomas provided but my one plus one doesn't charge while connected to the printer. thus the printer gets usb "power" from the connector of the charger....
UI Customizer plugin also gives a better responsive mobile experience for loading the interface on the phone directly and is still actively developed where TouchUI has several plugin conflicts and doesn't seem to be maintained anymore.
As a returning 3D printer user I wanted to set up octoprint but I did not want to buy new hardware so I installed it on an old Raspberry 1B(!) I had lying around. Everything worked fine, even a webcam, but it was incredibly slow. Inspired by your video I converted my old Xiaomi Mi A1 (Android 9, LineageOS) to an octoprint server and everything works flawlessly and the UI is really snappy. Filip did an amazing job on the Android port, thank you very much for bringing it to my attention. To be honest I kept my old phone exactly because I was thinking about an application like this and I couldn't think of a better way to repurpose my old phone.
been looking for a raspi 3 for th last 2 weeks now and havent found any in stock that werent just too expensive for my use. Have phones just lying around, this was super easy to set up and looks to be working great :D Thanks for the video!
I had several usb connection lost issues with my odroid xu4 running octoprint and I was just about to order a raspberry. After I had seen this video, I hooked up my Nexus 7 (from 2012!) and gave it a shot. It is not only running more reliable now, but having octoprint acessible right next to the printer on a big touchscreen is such a treat.
Thanks Thomas for the info! Yesterday I was finally able to convert my old android phone without a battery to a printer support! I've removed the battery, soldered wires to the test pads (fortunately there were 3 of them for each traces!), added a LM2596s module and a 10k resistor as a thermistor. Without a resistor the phone won't turn on. Previously I've tried several Y microusb OTG cables but the phone stopped charging after a few seconds. This way I can use it until the charger is plugged in.
Okay, tried printing a few models now and have some trouble maintaining stable connection. I'm getting timeouts randomly and that causes the printer to pause for a few seconds. Sometimes the motherboard disconnects completely and the printer fully stops. I'm not sure if it's some kind of noise, but I'll check with a raspberry pie soon.
I'm trying something different myself. I grabbed a trash tier Galaxy J3 and made it charge between 40 and 60 percent through software (AdvancedChargingController). Less risk than a constant 100% charge. Making it work through a usb cable without battery is possible, but it's too much of a hack job.
@@MiGujack3 Totally agree with you! I wanted to go this way, tried like 3 or 4 different OTG + charging cables (for micro usb port), but I gave up. I wasn't be able to charge it while using as a host.
@@adamhun994 I will do a custom cable myself and report back. One of the pins should be disabled to prevent power going to the printer board. As in, full lines go to the phone but only 3 go to the printer board.
Are you a scorpio Tom? This is awesome i do not have many heros but you are definitely one of those heros bro. You made a huge impact in the 3d printing community and i can honestly say you always have been legit . Thank you
THANK YOU... I've been wanting to look more into OctoPrint, but since I've only had my 3D printer for a couple months I thought it could wait until I figure a few more things out. Now this might open up a whole new realm of possibilities. I have few old phones lying around (like everyone else) and even a couple tablets that I might be able to re-life as a print server :)
I've tried this, ended up getting a used 3b anyways. It's near impossible to find a dongle that will charge and transmit data simultaneously, and even if I got that working, running my old androids for more than 15 mins could probably let me print abs on the glass
I always wanted to use octoprint but never got around to it but now that it's so easy to get it going I will definitely give this a try with my spare samsung galaxy S9+ hope it will work well. Thanks Tom for this video and many other videos this is why I sub to your channel over 4 years ago. Your videos are always packed with useful information.
Wish I'd seen this a few months ago, before I bought a Raspberry Pi 3B. I managed to find a decent deal, but I will definitely be using Octo4a for my next OctoPrint installation!
Great idea! I have my three old android phones stacked in a box and haven't got around to adding a webcam to my Cr10SProV2+Octoprint+RPi2+Klipper yet :) Now I won't need to hunt around for a probably at most 720p webcam for the pi at a probably not cheap price :D
Simplish webcams are affordable again. I could buy a 1080p30 webcam with a very wide angle lens and fixed focus and terrible IR rejection and slightly wonky colour at Conrad for only 15€ (regular price for this sort of thing hovers around 30€) just a couple weeks ago. But it is actually super sharp and actually 30fps in MJPEG mode.
I'm glad that you are advertising a PCB company because I might need to get a PCB made with parts soldered soon. I just added to favorites. I have a few companies that do PCB in favorites and I will compare to see who is cheaper.
Thank you for this! I am glad to have a use for my old devices and having a camera built in is great. Also noticed that when uploading print files on octoprint it is much faster than my rasp pi setup
It is also possible to re-use old android tv box and either install fully featured Armbian or in worst case just run android octoprint. There are so many other arm devices around that can be reused instead of buying rpi's. The only downside is lack of gpio. But that can be cured with usb hub + arduino.
But you also need a display device than if you want a permernent display on your printer. An old TV would be a little bit overcized on a prusa mini. Also a tv box mostly has no webcam (but you always can use an ESP32 cam)
@@oleurgast730 neither an rpi has a built-in display. If you don't care about timelapses (and most users don't) it makes zero sense to buy webcam for rpi as well. Much more logical is to get IP cam. They have 100 times more features for same price.
I'd just like you (and your sponsor) to know that I was just looking at getting a PCB printed and the sponsor message couldn't have come at a better time. Plus, I suddenly find myself with a spare Android phone and OTG connector I was almost retiring. Spooky good timing
everything has worked out great so far, only thing is, I cant connect my prusa since it is not able to find a fitting baudrate. That was a couple of seconds ago, found the cause: disable the rpi setting within your prusa printer settings.
My RPi4 just died, and orders for a replacement are at least a year out (14 months for me). Found this while looking for alternatives, and this appears to be a really good one and has me hopeful to get my printer back up and going.
I'm still amazed it's so hard to find a phone sized for actual daily carry and real human hands out there. The only flagship I can think of is the Asus Zenfone 8 (non-flip) - which imo is the best Android phone on the market right now imo. That said - I'd still rather use a Raspberry Pi for Octoprint, but that's just my preference.
I miss my original LG Nexus 5. 4" screen is perfect in the hand, we don't need all this glass and aluminum. New phones are ridiculously large and heavy.
Dear Thomas. Your explanation is impeccable, very detailed and easy to understand. I had been wondering if there was a way to replace the Raspberry Pi with an Arduino nano or uno (looking for a cheaper option since PI is very expensive where I live)...and suddenly, you came up with this great video and explanation. I just started 3D printing and the truth is that there are interesting things to learn. I have already subscribed to your channel. I send you a big greeting from the South of Argentina!
There are a couple RCA tablets at Walmart that are under $80 and you can charge them with a little 5 volt plug and they have a full size USB and mini USB output so you don't need the little dongle
Today i upgradet my pi zero w with an pi zero 2 w for my octoprint setup and it works so much better. i dont even need a more powerful pi so for 15 € its the best you can do.
The Zero W was perfect for my application. Everyone else seemed to have problems with it but, for sending files over the network and controlling the printer it worked great. Good to know that the Zero W 2 works even better.
On the phone clamp: Edelkrone has a phone clamp in their partially 3d printable line of products. Granted, the non-printable parts still cost more than the clamps you linked to. But printer cred! :D
This is great - I just recycled an old Nexus 6 that has been sitting in a drawer. The only thing I'll say is, you should probably get one of those things that strips power transmission out of the USB connection - on my Ender 3 (and this seems to be a common Ender problem), the USB connection powers the screen on the printer. I didn't have one of those split connectors on hand that allowed me to charge at the same time, either, so I turned off my printer and didn't think about it. It drained my phone completely in less than an hour.
you could just put electrical tape on the Vin of the USB male port, that way you disable delivering power to your printer. Thats also what I did when running octoprint on my pi 3b+
That triagonal mosaic is so beautiful! BTW, it's probabably best to remove the battery because of potential fire hazard. There are some workarounds for the missing battery.
Something to consider while using a phone/tablet : If it's plugged continuously (like 24/7) for a long period of time (like months) the risks are way higher that the battery inflates, so big risk of fire. I learned that by experience and bunch of other folks had the same issue trying to recycle their old phone
@@nobodyontheinternet784 consider to check voltages. It is fine to apply 3.7-4V constantly. But very cheap charger boards are not that precise often. If they apply like 4.3V to a battery then yes battery can easily inflate or just die.
@@Oddman1980 Thans for the reply. I have an amazon branded X4 and it keeps crashing when installing the dependencies, any ideas? Also, can you tell me which Y cable you purchased? or how you are powering the phone?
@@bjohnrini I have an old USB-C laptop dock plugged into the phone to both power it and give me a connection to the printer. My phone is a Google Fi phone I bought in 2017.
Beware of Y-Cables or -Adapters with USB-C, they can be dangerous to the attached printer. If it’s just a dumb Y-Cable and the phone negotiates a higher charging voltage using USB Power Delivery, Quickcharge or similar, the higher voltage might end on the VCC pins of the attached devices, which can lead to the magic smoke beeing emitted from the connected USB devices, including a connected printer mainboard, especially if it has a USB backpowering problem (looking at you, Creality *sigh*). USB-C-Dongles with a dedicated USB-PD-Charging-Port are probably safer.
The USB 5v line to the printer board should always be blocked by tape, a blocking dongle, or the wire cut. I have black tape on mine from the Pi since it almost never gets unplugged.
@@derekhawley9660 cut a thin sliver of insulation tape and put it over the right hand pin in the usb plug, the one that plugs into the pi (or computer) It is the right hand pin when the pins are at the bottom and you are looking down at them...
This is great. I have an old Samsung Galaxy S7 that's been sitting in a box under my TV for a year. I was going to try and sell it, but it looks like it's going to get a new lease of life with me. Cheers.
Wish this had come out sooner. I've been using an old 2008 iMac I bought from a local school for about a year now. Works perfectly fine, but it takes up a lot more room.
Nice, informative video - one thing to note is that currently I can only find one reputable company (or a company at all) that provides simultaneous charge with otg, that being Lava, but they happen to be very expensive, at about $30-40 apiece.
Hi Thank you for the videos, it gave me the idea of putting Pi OS on Window Surface RT tablet I had collecting dust. Then I put OctoPrint and OctoDash on it. Now I can use the RT tablet for controling my 3d printer. The touch screen works great and it has a big screen.
Thank you very much, this works great, been looking at the Pi's and didn't want to spend that for one. I only had to go to git issues to fix the failed install on the phone, but this is a very good solution.
Borrowed a friends old galaxy s8 and it works well. Big problem, now I want one for each printer and I have to learn octoprint now….. Great solution and great video!!!
I've tried this in the earlier stages about 6 months ago, but not much since then. much has probably changed since I used this. It's a great piece of software if you're in a pinch and want to try it out, but don't forget an old PC with an installation of linux can run octoprint just the same (plus there's a longer development trail, so it would be generally more reliable.). Great option though for quick setup (except for maybe designing the phone holder). Great Concept though and I bet it will only get better!
I use Octoprint on a RP with Polymer on the phone, works for years now. Can work also over internet with a VPN connection. This looks like a lot of work to get it right... And be careful with the batteries of the phones, especially with the lithium polymer, a fire in your house is really possible. This type is also very popular with drone owners and has already caused quite a bit of trouble.
Definitely giving this a go. I have two printers, would you have any recommendations/advice on getting a dongle that can power the USB C and two USB Y slots?
So i recently got back into Printing and this kinda was a tedious task that made it much more fun. I dont print often but now i have a way to do it without switching sd cards and spending money on a new piece of Hardware that might become obsolete in 5 to 10 years. I just wish there was more support for it. I would like to post my results whever i get some time (maybe also in 5 years) but I did mine using an old Oneplus 6 and an Ender 3 Pro 1.5v (4.2.2) Marlin 2.1.x. I learned a lot about more about the printer and code and i feel a little more satisfied with myself now that its almost finished.
Saving this. I have a couple old android phones and was wondering if there was a way to connect them straight to the raspberry pi. This is even simpler. Thanks! You have a new subscriber.
I run octoprint on a 20 year old laptop, running linux. Works great, it's nice to have a big screen for control and monitoring, but mainly it's just what I used prior to octoprint. A linux install of octoprint is a bit more involved than just running the octopi image, but I had no prior Linux experience when I started and there are guides. You can also run octoprint on windows, but it's not quite ideal compared to Linux apparently.
I just tried this with stuff I had laying around and it worked flawlessly! Unfortunately my wireless charger can't keep the battery from dying so I will have to buy an otg cable but very cool.
Even two years later this makes more sense over a Raspberry Pi. With a phone you get all you need, the processing platform, a camera, power source, power backup (at least for the OctoPrint instance) and internet backup (WiFi and 4G or 5G). Additionally, in some setups you need an additional display since some displays can't be connected reliably to a Raspberry Pi.
Just got my first 3D printer up'n'running (Prusa i3 MK3S+, haven't even installed the MMU2S I got with it yet) and was going to get a PiZero 2W and plug it onto to printer's board. This seems to be a better solution for me, with no cost for connection and camera since I already have a couple of Mobiles and OTG-cables. Subbed to get more goodies 😁😁
I brought a cheap £100 mini PC and use that for my print server. I run RepetierServer as I like the interface more than Octo's (which I found a little cluttered). As means I can have a large HDD/SSD built in as well so no SD Cards to wear out.
I had really high hopes for this as a raspberry pi alternative, I have 2 pi's running on printers and was hoping to add a few this way. I was able to get it set up and running on a tablet with Android 10, I bought an android phone to set up a 4th and it came with Android 11 and it broke everything. Can't even get the apk to install properly. There are a ton of people in the same situation I am according to github. we all purchased phones and otg cables that were recommended on youtube, to get this up and running and now with newer versions being released everything is broken.
I'm trying to find a micro usb adapter like that, but they all say that wont charge a phone (but they will power a streaming stick). Even the one in the link put by Thomas in the description of the video, claims "(This OTG Cable will NOT charge phones or tablets but can power on streaming sticks)" is that correct? how can I find one that does charge the phone connected to it?
Same for me: tried 3 Y cables, none of them charge the phone. I'm searching for a solution (including soldering an extra micro USB type B). I'm interested if you found a solution already!
Thanks Thomas! been trying to get OctoPrint for my printers and i didnt want to spend like $100 on a Pi, and my old phones been sitting here gathering dust for a yr and a half lol
I thought I was wasting money last year when I bought several Pi 4's to use for emulation. Now all of my enclosures have been gutted and I'm definitely glad I grabbed them when I did.
I love the idea! So I grabbed my old Oneplus 3, throwed the latest LineageOS on it, and installed the Octo4a. Works really nice first! But then I realized that there is no way for me to charge and using the USB port for connecting my printer at the same time. Even with a USB-C "docking station" it either charges or connects to the printers serial port. My phone is unlocked/rooted, so if someone can give me a hint how to work around that (without welding in the gutts of my phone) I would appreciate that! Another disadvantage of this solution is the camera server that lets the camera getting very hot and sucks the sweet battery juice like a hungry baby elephant. I was able to print a little low poly cat for 40 minutes or so, as my phone died and left the cat headless.
@@SpitFirePipe Same here, I've tried 4 different OTG splitters. 3 of them DO charge the phone but stop charging as soon as I plug something in to the USB port on the OTG cable. I measured the amps and it turned out that there is still power going through but it's probably being redirected to the print instead of the phone
Nice, given Octoprint is actually platform agnostic, you can install it on anything that has sufficient specs, pretty much regardless of architecture. In fact you can install it on a PC even, re purposing an old laptop that is just sitting unused is an interesting usage for that, at work we have a printer that has it's own "terminal" PC to run it, tho given it's weird old software needed I dunno if Octoprint could handle it, but a motherboard upgrade sure is on it's way.
IIRC octoprint runs incredibly well on x86, really smashes through some of those g-code/slicer visualizations that can be really heavy even on a 4/8GB Pi4B.
If you plug a USB hub into a newer phone do you think controlling multiple printers would work fine? If so I am 100% sold on this. I might buy an old phone on ebay either way to try this out as the setup seems way easier than with a pi
@@TheMidnightSmith I have 2 S7s I was legit about to bring in to recycle with a pile of other electronics so I'm happy to use them. I did score a pi4 on Chicago electronics supplier for my voron build though.
Excellent work! Thank you for the thorough and thoughtful breakdown of such an interesting project. One small complaint I have, which I assume was an accidental omission, has to do with the charger splitter. You mentioned in the video that you just need to make sure it’s a splitter that allows the data and charging at the same time. You also mentioned that you’ll link to the hardware. However, the link to the y splitter is actually just a link to a search in amazon. That would be fine, except all of the items that come up in the search explicitly call out that they will not charge a cell phone or a tablet. I’ve resurrected an old Samsung Galaxy S3, and got octo4a running on it, but now I’m stuck without a way to charge the phone while it’s connected to the printer. I would love information about the Y splitter that actually allows an old Samsung like the one you tested to charge and print at the same time. It seems it’s actually a rare item, so a little more detail would be awesome and appreciated.
A man, then the one I used must have been replaced or went out of production. They're fairly tricky to find, and ultimately, I just ended up searching around and digging through a bunch of listings, too.
or you can just run octoprint from any PC, IDK about everyone but I keep a PC near the printer and you can select different COM ports for different printers. installing multiple "servers" is just a matter of installing them on different folders, you could also run VMs and run the "server" on individual VMs.
ive been wanting to get into octoprint for over a year now and this video just made it happen for me! Tons of android phones laying around waiting for a second chance.
I have as well, and the dongles...but also have like 6 rpi's here so Ill use that as I dont love the idea of batteries in a heated chamber. I do think this is a great solution to use old phones though, as there isnt many use cases for them and if you are like me you have a bunch of them.
You can use an old Laptop aswell. But to use a Phone is 1337
I am glad that i dont have to solve this "Cheap" Problems this old phones produce
@@francistaylor1822 remove the battery and in it's place solder a capacitor.
@@jurgislll can you elaborate on that one?
I just recently got a 3d printer and wanted to have octoprint but i dont have a raspberry pie, i have so much faith of people believing there might be already a solution that you can use android phone as an alternate, so i searched the keywords, android phone octoprint and here i am. A big thank you to you sir for creating this video and the developers behind this!.
+1 for the TempleOS computer! 😂👍
The os that shall not be mentioned.
@@rjanderson4207 The OS that should be ran on all computers
Temple OS is a great OS for Octoprint! Been running it since 300 BC
Terry indeed was the smartest programmer that ever lived
I chuckled about sideloading on MacOS and then I was like "wait wha-?"
What a gem this guy is, I discovered Tom a while back, but only now realise how amazing his content is, useful, innovative, novel, fast, comprehensive and to the point.
Really enjoy listening, very good and humble teacher and also very fair on and subtle with sponsers and never in your face to support him.
Amazing 3D printing channel, subscribed and hopefully will try support you somehow. Keep up the amazing work, we really appreciate it!
Welcome aboard!
@@MadeWithLayers thanks Thomas!
ohh man, I have wondered if a phone could be used for several years. I thought I would have to root it and install something complex. This is ground breaking for me. Amazing video
For benchmarking the UI load time over an other browser, I recommend to time it after the login screen.
The login screen has been optimised to take the least resources possible.
Speaking as a dev who works with OctoPrint on the daily.
Great vid and eye opener. Really enjoy it whenever people can repirpose their old hardware
Honestly, thanks for doing this. I was looking into ways of running RasPi apps virtualized in Android and this video popped up in my suggested a few days later, this is literally perfect.
As a few folks have said below, for Creality printers that have backpower issues, cover the fourth pin (5V) on the USB-A connector (host side plug, one that will go into the hub or adapter) with a small bit of electrical tape as well to take some of the strain off these older batteries.
Have it working now, and I thank you and the Dev behind this app, for putting in great work!
Now this was a very useful video. What to do with your old phone once you upgraded to the new contract phone.
And no need for HDMI cables to a monitor you are using on your PC. Very nice. Thank you Tom for always coming up with a relavent topic for your videos.
FYI, your 18650 battery video. I pay 1.5 Euro's for a brand new battery. So you paying 1 Euro each is a massive saving when you need hundreds of them.
Been looking at the Octo4a the past few days. Thanks for clarifying everything runs smooth. Thank you.
Amazing work man and thanks to octoprint 4a crew too👍
You were and still are a great tutor for whole 3d printing community.
Awesome! Anything to keep the phones out of landfills, but huge bonus that the re-use is such a great application.
4:20 I used one of these on my trip to Japan. I used my phone to take tons of pictures. When it was full I used this to move the pictures to a flash drive, then went right back to taking pictures.
I actually just reorganized my game room and actually found my Galaxy S3. I thought about just formatting it and tossing it out but I'm super glad I kept it now. I even have the USB dongle it came with as well so all I need is a splitter. Great video, thank you!
you dont even need that! the s3 has pins for wireless charging under the shell where you could connect a charger
@@bullzebub I actually realized its not an S3, its an S7 haha. I already ordered the cords anyway so it's no biggie.
For you and for everyone:
I waited a few weeks to write my opinion. After then I can confirm Octo4a works very well for me. I tested it on more smartphones. It worked also on a quite old Huawei P8 Lite. It runs now on a Huawei P20 Lite without any performace problem. I was able to set the energy management easyly. I made an "Y" cable, but it didn't work for either. It is currently running only on battery power. It lasts even up to a 24 hour of printing, or more. With a very used battery!! Especially when I turn off the camera server.
I ordered a USB multiport hub. It's on the way. I hope it will work. I don't want to modify the phone with an additional battery charging module. The only one issue to me is about the camera focus. When I turn off autofocus, everything will be awful blurry. With autofocus too, but not as much as when it's turned off. I saw on github this is a current issue. So I'm waiting it will be fixed sometime.
Overall I'm happy. I installed a BLtouch sensor. I was really scared to modify my printer. I scared about changing the firmware and losing the SD support too. But everything works fine. By the way my printer is Anet A8 Plus.
Have you managed to get charging to work with the hub you mentioned? I have a p20 lying around with information regarding simultaneous charge with otg scarce for whatever reason. I'm curious if you got it going and if you did, could you share the model of the hub?
@@rigormoritz Same issue, bought a otg cable from the link thomas provided but my one plus one doesn't charge while connected to the printer. thus the printer gets usb "power" from the connector of the charger....
Thank you, was looking for a pi, but this will be great on a Galaxy Note 8 that sits around collecting dust. Exactly what I needed.
UI Customizer plugin also gives a better responsive mobile experience for loading the interface on the phone directly and is still actively developed where TouchUI has several plugin conflicts and doesn't seem to be maintained anymore.
May i recommend using UI customizer plug-in instead of Touch UI. It's made to be responsive and supports phones, tablets and more
As a returning 3D printer user I wanted to set up octoprint but I did not want to buy new hardware so I installed it on an old Raspberry 1B(!) I had lying around. Everything worked fine, even a webcam, but it was incredibly slow. Inspired by your video I converted my old Xiaomi Mi A1 (Android 9, LineageOS) to an octoprint server and everything works flawlessly and the UI is really snappy. Filip did an amazing job on the Android port, thank you very much for bringing it to my attention. To be honest I kept my old phone exactly because I was thinking about an application like this and I couldn't think of a better way to repurpose my old phone.
haha i remember bugging the dev (politely ofc) on discord to release an update and open source for a few weeks! Glad to see it's actually usable now
been looking for a raspi 3 for th last 2 weeks now and havent found any in stock that werent just too expensive for my use. Have phones just lying around, this was super easy to set up and looks to be working great :D Thanks for the video!
How perfect ist this video rn. I have an old phone with good camera quality and the same Adapters all at home.
I had several usb connection lost issues with my odroid xu4 running octoprint and I was just about to order a raspberry. After I had seen this video, I hooked up my Nexus 7 (from 2012!) and gave it a shot. It is not only running more reliable now, but having octoprint acessible right next to the printer on a big touchscreen is such a treat.
Thanks Thomas for the info! Yesterday I was finally able to convert my old android phone without a battery to a printer support! I've removed the battery, soldered wires to the test pads (fortunately there were 3 of them for each traces!), added a LM2596s module and a 10k resistor as a thermistor. Without a resistor the phone won't turn on.
Previously I've tried several Y microusb OTG cables but the phone stopped charging after a few seconds. This way I can use it until the charger is plugged in.
Okay, tried printing a few models now and have some trouble maintaining stable connection. I'm getting timeouts randomly and that causes the printer to pause for a few seconds. Sometimes the motherboard disconnects completely and the printer fully stops. I'm not sure if it's some kind of noise, but I'll check with a raspberry pie soon.
I'm trying something different myself. I grabbed a trash tier Galaxy J3 and made it charge between 40 and 60 percent through software (AdvancedChargingController).
Less risk than a constant 100% charge. Making it work through a usb cable without battery is possible, but it's too much of a hack job.
@@MiGujack3 Totally agree with you! I wanted to go this way, tried like 3 or 4 different OTG + charging cables (for micro usb port), but I gave up. I wasn't be able to charge it while using as a host.
@@adamhun994 I will do a custom cable myself and report back. One of the pins should be disabled to prevent power going to the printer board. As in, full lines go to the phone but only 3 go to the printer board.
@@MiGujack3 The cable work?
Are you a scorpio Tom? This is awesome i do not have many heros but you are definitely one of those heros bro.
You made a huge impact in the 3d printing community and i can honestly say you always have been legit .
Thank you
THANK YOU... I've been wanting to look more into OctoPrint, but since I've only had my 3D printer for a couple months I thought it could wait until I figure a few more things out. Now this might open up a whole new realm of possibilities. I have few old phones lying around (like everyone else) and even a couple tablets that I might be able to re-life as a print server :)
I've tried this, ended up getting a used 3b anyways. It's near impossible to find a dongle that will charge and transmit data simultaneously, and even if I got that working, running my old androids for more than 15 mins could probably let me print abs on the glass
This is exatly what i had been hoping to do with my old phones :D thank a super bunch bud
I have an old galaxy s5 lying around. You just gave it a new life.
I always wanted to use octoprint but never got around to it but now that it's so easy to get it going I will definitely give this a try with my spare samsung galaxy S9+ hope it will work well. Thanks Tom for this video and many other videos this is why I sub to your channel over 4 years ago. Your videos are always packed with useful information.
any updates on the s9+?
Been waiting for this for literally years!
Wish I'd seen this a few months ago, before I bought a Raspberry Pi 3B. I managed to find a decent deal, but I will definitely be using Octo4a for my next OctoPrint installation!
Great idea! I have my three old android phones stacked in a box and haven't got around to adding a webcam to my Cr10SProV2+Octoprint+RPi2+Klipper yet :) Now I won't need to hunt around for a probably at most 720p webcam for the pi at a probably not cheap price :D
Simplish webcams are affordable again. I could buy a 1080p30 webcam with a very wide angle lens and fixed focus and terrible IR rejection and slightly wonky colour at Conrad for only 15€ (regular price for this sort of thing hovers around 30€) just a couple weeks ago. But it is actually super sharp and actually 30fps in MJPEG mode.
I'm glad that you are advertising a PCB company because I might need to get a PCB made with parts soldered soon. I just added to favorites. I have a few companies that do PCB in favorites and I will compare to see who is cheaper.
Thank you for this! I am glad to have a use for my old devices and having a camera built in is great. Also noticed that when uploading print files on octoprint it is much faster than my rasp pi setup
It is also possible to re-use old android tv box and either install fully featured Armbian or in worst case just run android octoprint. There are so many other arm devices around that can be reused instead of buying rpi's. The only downside is lack of gpio. But that can be cured with usb hub + arduino.
But you also need a display device than if you want a permernent display on your printer. An old TV would be a little bit overcized on a prusa mini. Also a tv box mostly has no webcam (but you always can use an ESP32 cam)
@@oleurgast730 neither an rpi has a built-in display.
If you don't care about timelapses (and most users don't) it makes zero sense to buy webcam for rpi as well. Much more logical is to get IP cam. They have 100 times more features for same price.
@@oleurgast730 I just use my computer. like with my pi 4. like I did with my pi zero. No biggie. I hardly use a camera.
I'd just like you (and your sponsor) to know that I was just looking at getting a PCB printed and the sponsor message couldn't have come at a better time. Plus, I suddenly find myself with a spare Android phone and OTG connector I was almost retiring. Spooky good timing
And in fact I was about to retire EXACTLY that Samsung Galaxy Nexus!
7:22 That one caught me off guard! I wish I could upvote twice!
Thank you, this literally took me under 5 minutes to get this fully working on my old Galxaxy Note 10+, really amazing.
Thanks!
Thank you!
everything has worked out great so far, only thing is, I cant connect my prusa since it is not able to find a fitting baudrate.
That was a couple of seconds ago, found the cause: disable the rpi setting within your prusa printer settings.
My RPi4 just died, and orders for a replacement are at least a year out (14 months for me).
Found this while looking for alternatives, and this appears to be a really good one and has me hopeful to get my printer back up and going.
That segway into the Sponsor Spot was awesome!
I'm still amazed it's so hard to find a phone sized for actual daily carry and real human hands out there. The only flagship I can think of is the Asus Zenfone 8 (non-flip) - which imo is the best Android phone on the market right now imo. That said - I'd still rather use a Raspberry Pi for Octoprint, but that's just my preference.
I miss my original LG Nexus 5. 4" screen is perfect in the hand, we don't need all this glass and aluminum. New phones are ridiculously large and heavy.
I got the Sony Xperia 5 km3 it's slimmer due to the 21:9 aspect ratio. I can easily reach across with my thumb 👍🏻
S10e? It's on the bigger end but still fits in my hand. They're very well priced on the used market though.
I believe you're looking for more of a _bannerboat._ What you request is rarely compatible with a _flagship._
@@fabianweihe8702 I second the xperia 5 (mine's a mkii) - the narrower screen makes it much easier to single-hand
Dear Thomas. Your explanation is impeccable, very detailed and easy to understand. I had been wondering if there was a way to replace the Raspberry Pi with an Arduino nano or uno (looking for a cheaper option since PI is very expensive where I live)...and suddenly, you came up with this great video and explanation. I just started 3D printing and the truth is that there are interesting things to learn. I have already subscribed to your channel. I send you a big greeting from the South of Argentina!
I plugged my tv box Formuler Z10 PRO into my printer. I installed octo4a on it... less complicated than installing it on an old cell phone... it works
Fricking amazing! I'm definitely going to use this. This sounds so much easier than using a pie. And it even saves e-waste! Good job OctoPrint!
I tried couldn’t get it to work
I just posted on Reddit a few days ago looking for alternatives. Thanks Tom!
I'm using an old netbook which is another cheap alternative.
There are a couple RCA tablets at Walmart that are under $80 and you can charge them with a little 5 volt plug and they have a full size USB and mini USB output so you don't need the little dongle
Today i upgradet my pi zero w with an pi zero 2 w for my octoprint setup and it works so much better. i dont even need a more powerful pi so for 15 € its the best you can do.
The Zero W was perfect for my application. Everyone else seemed to have problems with it but, for sending files over the network and controlling the printer it worked great.
Good to know that the Zero W 2 works even better.
Got an old tablet I've had for a while. Going to give this a bash and see how it goes!
Thanks for the great video...
On the phone clamp: Edelkrone has a phone clamp in their partially 3d printable line of products. Granted, the non-printable parts still cost more than the clamps you linked to. But printer cred! :D
Thank you for this. I am new to 3d printing and after looking at prices, my Note 5 will be revived.
Finally someone using an "old" smartphone for a video like this
This is great - I just recycled an old Nexus 6 that has been sitting in a drawer. The only thing I'll say is, you should probably get one of those things that strips power transmission out of the USB connection - on my Ender 3 (and this seems to be a common Ender problem), the USB connection powers the screen on the printer. I didn't have one of those split connectors on hand that allowed me to charge at the same time, either, so I turned off my printer and didn't think about it. It drained my phone completely in less than an hour.
you could just put electrical tape on the Vin of the USB male port, that way you disable delivering power to your printer. Thats also what I did when running octoprint on my pi 3b+
That triagonal mosaic is so beautiful!
BTW, it's probabably best to remove the battery because of potential fire hazard. There are some workarounds for the missing battery.
Got lucky and grabbed a Pi0 2W for $15 the day they came out. It’s running octoprint and a camera just fine!
Something to consider while using a phone/tablet :
If it's plugged continuously (like 24/7) for a long period of time (like months) the risks are way higher that the battery inflates, so big risk of fire.
I learned that by experience and bunch of other folks had the same issue trying to recycle their old phone
Battery can be thrown away. Just use step-down board with good 5V power supply.
@@D9ID9I definitely, but it is something important to consider
@@nobodyontheinternet784 consider to check voltages. It is fine to apply 3.7-4V constantly. But very cheap charger boards are not that precise often. If they apply like 4.3V to a battery then yes battery can easily inflate or just die.
I do love it when I find something to add to my printer that I already have the materials for. Currently setting my old Moto X4 up for this.
Did it work for you with a X4? I'm trying and it just keeps crashing installing dependencies
@@bjohnrini I've been using my x4 for a few months now, no issues.
@@Oddman1980 Thans for the reply. I have an amazon branded X4 and it keeps crashing when installing the dependencies, any ideas? Also, can you tell me which Y cable you purchased? or how you are powering the phone?
@@bjohnrini I have an old USB-C laptop dock plugged into the phone to both power it and give me a connection to the printer. My phone is a Google Fi phone I bought in 2017.
@@Oddman1980 You have a link or info on the dock you are using?
Beware of Y-Cables or -Adapters with USB-C, they can be dangerous to the attached printer. If it’s just a dumb Y-Cable and the phone negotiates a higher charging voltage using USB Power Delivery, Quickcharge or similar, the higher voltage might end on the VCC pins of the attached devices, which can lead to the magic smoke beeing emitted from the connected USB devices, including a connected printer mainboard, especially if it has a USB backpowering problem (looking at you, Creality *sigh*). USB-C-Dongles with a dedicated USB-PD-Charging-Port are probably safer.
ah yes
I love how my cr-10 control board stays powered until I unplug my raspberry pi
The USB 5v line to the printer board should always be blocked by tape, a blocking dongle, or the wire cut. I have black tape on mine from the Pi since it almost never gets unplugged.
@@OldCurmudgeon3DP Hi, can you please explain the tape thing? Thanks
@@derekhawley9660 cut a thin sliver of insulation tape and put it over the right hand pin in the usb plug, the one that plugs into the pi (or computer)
It is the right hand pin when the pins are at the bottom and you are looking down at them...
@@AkiraFurball Thanks Louise
This is great. I have an old Samsung Galaxy S7 that's been sitting in a box under my TV for a year. I was going to try and sell it, but it looks like it's going to get a new lease of life with me. Cheers.
I never sell my old smartphones, usually cuz Im worried I'll break mine new device. Now I finally have a use for my old tech....THanks!
Wish this had come out sooner. I've been using an old 2008 iMac I bought from a local school for about a year now. Works perfectly fine, but it takes up a lot more room.
Innovative, informative, knowledgeable person, keen to share, and very detailed content. It is sufficient for anyone like me to get started.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing this! I don't have any spare pi's, but I've got a phone that should work perfectly for my ender 3!
Nice, informative video - one thing to note is that currently I can only find one reputable company (or a company at all) that provides simultaneous charge with otg, that being Lava, but they happen to be very expensive, at about $30-40 apiece.
This dude just described my situation perfectly
Hi Thank you for the videos, it gave me the idea of putting Pi OS on Window Surface RT tablet I had collecting dust. Then I put OctoPrint and OctoDash on it. Now I can use the RT tablet for controling my 3d printer. The touch screen works great and it has a big screen.
Thank you very much, this works great, been looking at the Pi's and didn't want to spend that for one. I only had to go to git issues to fix the failed install on the phone, but this is a very good solution.
Borrowed a friends old galaxy s8 and it works well.
Big problem, now I want one for each printer and I have to learn octoprint now…..
Great solution and great video!!!
I've tried this in the earlier stages about 6 months ago, but not much since then. much has probably changed since I used this. It's a great piece of software if you're in a pinch and want to try it out, but don't forget an old PC with an installation of linux can run octoprint just the same (plus there's a longer development trail, so it would be generally more reliable.). Great option though for quick setup (except for maybe designing the phone holder). Great Concept though and I bet it will only get better!
I think I'll try my old netbook first but I'm very happy to have an alternative now!
Thanks!
Finally i have a use for my old phones, thanks!
I use Octoprint on a RP with Polymer on the phone, works for years now. Can work also over internet with a VPN connection. This looks like a lot of work to get it right... And be careful with the batteries of the phones, especially with the lithium polymer, a fire in your house is really possible. This type is also very popular with drone owners and has already caused quite a bit of trouble.
Definitely giving this a go. I have two printers, would you have any recommendations/advice on getting a dongle that can power the USB C and two USB Y slots?
"...and It is essentialy the same as running some software you downloaded onto your [...] Temple OS computer" cracked me 😂
good one!
So i recently got back into Printing and this kinda was a tedious task that made it much more fun. I dont print often but now i have a way to do it without switching sd cards and spending money on a new piece of Hardware that might become obsolete in 5 to 10 years. I just wish there was more support for it. I would like to post my results whever i get some time (maybe also in 5 years) but I did mine using an old Oneplus 6 and an Ender 3 Pro 1.5v (4.2.2) Marlin 2.1.x. I learned a lot about more about the printer and code and i feel a little more satisfied with myself now that its almost finished.
Saving this. I have a couple old android phones and was wondering if there was a way to connect them straight to the raspberry pi. This is even simpler. Thanks! You have a new subscriber.
I run octoprint on a 20 year old laptop, running linux. Works great, it's nice to have a big screen for control and monitoring, but mainly it's just what I used prior to octoprint. A linux install of octoprint is a bit more involved than just running the octopi image, but I had no prior Linux experience when I started and there are guides.
You can also run octoprint on windows, but it's not quite ideal compared to Linux apparently.
5:20 those Y cables won't work on most (I think on all) micro USB devices.
I just tried this with stuff I had laying around and it worked flawlessly! Unfortunately my wireless charger can't keep the battery from dying so I will have to buy an otg cable but very cool.
Even two years later this makes more sense over a Raspberry Pi. With a phone you get all you need, the processing platform, a camera, power source, power backup (at least for the OctoPrint instance) and internet backup (WiFi and 4G or 5G). Additionally, in some setups you need an additional display since some displays can't be connected reliably to a Raspberry Pi.
Just got my first 3D printer up'n'running (Prusa i3 MK3S+, haven't even installed the MMU2S I got with it yet) and was going to get a PiZero 2W and plug it onto to printer's board. This seems to be a better solution for me, with no cost for connection and camera since I already have a couple of Mobiles and OTG-cables. Subbed to get more goodies 😁😁
this is awsome. i have a raspberry pi but ive not had the time (also i was being lazy) to set this up. but i have like 4 old phones.
I brought a cheap £100 mini PC and use that for my print server. I run RepetierServer as I like the interface more than Octo's (which I found a little cluttered). As means I can have a large HDD/SSD built in as well so no SD Cards to wear out.
Newer phones - especially those with usbc - have indeed working hdmi over usbc! They even allow you to mirror or extend the screen
I love that idea! Cast it to my big screen!
I had really high hopes for this as a raspberry pi alternative, I have 2 pi's running on printers and was hoping to add a few this way. I was able to get it set up and running on a tablet with Android 10, I bought an android phone to set up a 4th and it came with Android 11 and it broke everything. Can't even get the apk to install properly. There are a ton of people in the same situation I am according to github. we all purchased phones and otg cables that were recommended on youtube, to get this up and running and now with newer versions being released everything is broken.
using this since it first released.Its been great ton more power then a pi as well.
I had planned on trying this at some point and now I think I have to do it. Great upload!
I'm trying to find a micro usb adapter like that, but they all say that wont charge a phone (but they will power a streaming stick). Even the one in the link put by Thomas in the description of the video, claims "(This OTG Cable will NOT charge phones or tablets but can power on streaming sticks)" is that correct? how can I find one that does charge the phone connected to it?
Same
Same for me: tried 3 Y cables, none of them charge the phone. I'm searching for a solution (including soldering an extra micro USB type B). I'm interested if you found a solution already!
@@LaurentWiart I havent found a solution either.. if anyone finds a way please share!
Thanks Thomas! been trying to get OctoPrint for my printers and i didnt want to spend like $100 on a Pi, and my old phones been sitting here gathering dust for a yr and a half lol
I thought I was wasting money last year when I bought several Pi 4's to use for emulation. Now all of my enclosures have been gutted and I'm definitely glad I grabbed them when I did.
Appreciate you and your channel! Just discovered you recently and keep watching non stop 👌💯
I love the idea! So I grabbed my old Oneplus 3, throwed the latest LineageOS on it, and installed the Octo4a. Works really nice first! But then I realized that there is no way for me to charge and using the USB port for connecting my printer at the same time. Even with a USB-C "docking station" it either charges or connects to the printers serial port. My phone is unlocked/rooted, so if someone can give me a hint how to work around that (without welding in the gutts of my phone) I would appreciate that! Another disadvantage of this solution is the camera server that lets the camera getting very hot and sucks the sweet battery juice like a hungry baby elephant. I was able to print a little low poly cat for 40 minutes or so, as my phone died and left the cat headless.
May need a custom kernel to support charge + otg.
@@AymanSuleiman do you might now where to find this? I couldn’t find one for my oneplus 3t
DC to DC board set to 4.35 volts and hooked directly to where the battery was (remove the battery)
Were you able to get this working? I was hoping to use my old OnePlus 3 for Octo4A.
@@SpitFirePipe Same here, I've tried 4 different OTG splitters. 3 of them DO charge the phone but stop charging as soon as I plug something in to the USB port on the OTG cable. I measured the amps and it turned out that there is still power going through but it's probably being redirected to the print instead of the phone
Nice, given Octoprint is actually platform agnostic, you can install it on anything that has sufficient specs, pretty much regardless of architecture. In fact you can install it on a PC even, re purposing an old laptop that is just sitting unused is an interesting usage for that, at work we have a printer that has it's own "terminal" PC to run it, tho given it's weird old software needed I dunno if Octoprint could handle it, but a motherboard upgrade sure is on it's way.
IIRC octoprint runs incredibly well on x86, really smashes through some of those g-code/slicer visualizations that can be really heavy even on a 4/8GB Pi4B.
If you plug a USB hub into a newer phone do you think controlling multiple printers would work fine? If so I am 100% sold on this. I might buy an old phone on ebay either way to try this out as the setup seems way easier than with a pi
Currently only one printer is supported, but I should be able to add support for multiple printers with the current architecture
DUDE! Finally a use for my older pixel 2xl and Galaxy tab E. Yes! Thank you!
perfect timing!!! I was just thinking this should be a thing yesterday as I cant find a pi for less than $125 anywhere.. no thanks
PLUS a camera which is equally impossible to find!
@@TheMidnightSmith good point!
@@TheMidnightSmith I have 2 S7s I was legit about to bring in to recycle with a pile of other electronics so I'm happy to use them. I did score a pi4 on Chicago electronics supplier for my voron build though.
Can you please pass me a link to a microUSB power supply board you use at 3:08 for your Poco F2? Thx
Excellent work! Thank you for the thorough and thoughtful breakdown of such an interesting project.
One small complaint I have, which I assume was an accidental omission, has to do with the charger splitter. You mentioned in the video that you just need to make sure it’s a splitter that allows the data and charging at the same time. You also mentioned that you’ll link to the hardware. However, the link to the y splitter is actually just a link to a search in amazon. That would be fine, except all of the items that come up in the search explicitly call out that they will not charge a cell phone or a tablet. I’ve resurrected an old Samsung Galaxy S3, and got octo4a running on it, but now I’m stuck without a way to charge the phone while it’s connected to the printer.
I would love information about the Y splitter that actually allows an old Samsung like the one you tested to charge and print at the same time. It seems it’s actually a rare item, so a little more detail would be awesome and appreciated.
A man, then the one I used must have been replaced or went out of production. They're fairly tricky to find, and ultimately, I just ended up searching around and digging through a bunch of listings, too.
or you can just run octoprint from any PC, IDK about everyone but I keep a PC near the printer and you can select different COM ports for different printers. installing multiple "servers" is just a matter of installing them on different folders, you could also run VMs and run the "server" on individual VMs.