Raspberry Pi Zero W (Wireless)
$17.95 plus $3 shipping
This is great if you want to set it up as an octoprint server for your 3D printer WITHOUT video/camera streaming, otherwise it will struggle
Seems pretty decent considering everyone is out of stock
Link to a simple Octoprint tutorial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeHPX_OV8gY
I wouldn't recommend it. I use a Pi Zero W as a RasPlex client and even streaming media off my home server it isn't an overly smooth experience. I don't imagine it would be any better if it had to manage media files as well.
Its great for pihole. Plex server no way
I was thinking of running Pihole using this too but then I learned about running Home Assistant with Pihole. So this wouldn’t be sufficient right? Home Assistant with Pihole averages around 1.2-1.5GB of RAM.
The Pihole add-on in home assistant is deprecated, so I don't know if there is any way to install it anymore. Adguard Home add-on is available and it serves pretty much the same purpose.
@Davesday: Haven't had enough time to mess around with my hass installation as much as I have wanted to, so I don't know enough to tell you how viable this would be :p
idk but pihole is wicked with good lists.
@HKS: Yeah I experimented with Pihole on a Raspberry Pi which I am dedicating as a network music streamer. I found a repository of very good lists and it has been excellent.
@HKS: I am pairing the Raspberry Pi 4 with HiFiBerry Digi2 Pro HAT running on Volumio2. The HAT takes data from the GPIO (I2C) and then sends the digital audio data via Digital Spdif coaxial or Digital Toslink. From there it goes to my Burson Conductor 3XP. This way I can have Tidal, Spotify Connect, Apple AirPlay, streaming local library, etc. My amp does take Bluetooth wireless but it is not lossless. You can technically skip the HAT and do USB direct but the Raspberry Pi probably not optimised with USB jitter, etc. Although it is less of a problem if your amp is very good at jitter rejection and you're running on balanced XLR.
The benefit of this setup is I don't need to run my computer to feed the amp every time I want to listen to music. This allows me to setup a dedicated music listening station away from my home office. Plus I don't need to run the computer which sucks >100W on idle (its a gaming rig lol)…
If you prerender this could serve your files, but no plex
Also a fun little side project to turn into a security camera that automatically uploads to your google drive upon motion detection. Just need a camera (webcam with microUSB adapter works) and power, no soldering required.
You could also use an ESP32-CAM for that. About $10 and camera included!
They can be very temperamental and not robust.
Heating and reliability is an issue in these
I tried this, didn't work well at all — needs more grunt.
What software were you using? It is a low power platform. Don't expect face-recognition.
@bargaino: I was doing an RSTP stream, of course it can't do facial recognition on the device, it was broadcasting to my Zoneminder instance. It was very flaky, unable to maintain a video stream over any length of time.
I tried a few implementations including:
https://github.com/circuitrocks/ESP32-RTSP
and the instructables post that brought a lot of people to the concept:
https://www.instructables.com/9-RTSP-Video-Streamer-Using-th…
And one more that I can't find. One was far better than the others, but I don't remember which one, I don't think it was the instructables version.
@algy: Thanks for the info. I'm not surprised it struggles with streaming.
I got one for my mailbox, and was just planning to upload static images. Running on battery is also a factor.
In order of compute….
I'm not sorry about =upsetting the Uno/8266 because not only have u seen it for myself but there's a many myriads of experts in their fields who've applied direct research time investigating the pros/cons 0f these systems, with minds much greater than hours and using greater criteria such opinion.
Any links to this?
https://randomnerdtutorials.com/install-motioneyeos-on-raspb…
You basically install a dedicated OS called MotionEYE os onto the pi zero w, hook it up to your wifi, and then throw in a camera.
If you have a spare webcam already, I would recommend just buying an OTG adaptor (USB> MicroUSB) from ebay for $1 and a power supply (phone charger + long microUSB cable works)
Oh and having a small microSD card (8gb) will be fine since you upload to the cloud anyway.
Stick it on the window frame and boom! cloud based video surveillance that you dont need to pay a monthly subscription for (like the $200 solutions out there)
You could also get more fancy by installing it outside using the shell of a 'fake security cam' you can buy off ebay for $10 or so.
Thank you!
I would recommend looking at Shinobi cctv. It can be configured to offload the motion detect to the IP camera (assuming you use a hikvision , etc) and runs very light in comparison to MotionOS and Zoneminder.
I have a Pi 3b setup with 4 streaming cameras the CPU usage is about 4% most of the time.
@beebul: A mish-mash of cheap IP cameras I bought over the years (Escam, etc). All of them have a basic motion detect option in the interface. If the cameras can email or ftp when triggered, you can set this up to trigger Shinobi to to record on motion.
If it provides an RTSP stream, you can use it with the software.
Would this make a good pi-hole?
That's exactly what I use mine for. Grabbing another cause why not
does pi hole geo block too?
Are you asking if pi-hole restricts access to Internet content based on your geographical location? Or are you asking if pi-hole can help you defeat geo blocks, for instance with Netflix?
The answer to both questions is no, pi-hole does not do either of those things. Pi-hole blocks adverts (and can block access to particular web sites if you want it to).
@pjetson: I used to use pihole to DNS redirect services such as netflix network wide. I still do it but have migrated to ad guard.
You just need to feed it a dnsmasq file or hosts format .txt list and redirect to your DNS providers servers.
@pjetson: I assume he's comparing PiHole to something like PfBlockerNG that has some similar features to PiHole but can also block connections (inbound and outbout) based on the MaxMind GeoID Database.
Thanks :)
Throw https://dietpi.com/ on and then pi-hole goes on top no problem
I also use a Zero W for https://flightaware.com/adsb/piaware/ on top of dietpi
Pihole is far from dead - just look at how often they've been releasing updates and bug fixes
What can Pihole do that AdguardHome can’t?
@askbargain: yes, but most of the lists, APIs etc all go via a company. While you could fork it and change that, at that point just use PiHole…
APIs etc all go via a company
Oh no, it’s almost there’s a custom list function and it’s almost as if that people use that instead.
@askbargain: Not to mention the default lists all point to Github repos that literally everyone in the world can see.
@askbargain: Fair enough. The readily accessible info on it indicated otherwise, I'm honestly glad to be wrong. Sorry for the misinformation, it wasn't intended.
@Zorlin: You don’t have to fork a thing. The same lists you load into PiHole can be loaded into Adguard Home. Otherwise everything runs locally on your own hardware, not in the cloud.
Adguard DNS is hosted by the company and goes via them. Adguard Home is exactly the same thing as PiHole however.
If “being a company” is a concern then note that PiHole is developed by PiHole LLC too (a limited liability company of 1 person). Not that I think that matters for open source products.
That said, if people like PiHole then that’s fine. Both are absolutely fine products with active development. I personally prefer the PiHole UI but use Adguard Home as the HomeAssistant PiHole addon was depreciated and both products ultimately do what I need, so I was happy enough to swap.
@Smigit: No issues with companies, even if they need to make money that's okay and that's life. I was misled by the first discussions I found when researching the difference, people were saying stuff about Adguard being able to censor stuff.
Next time I'll research for longer before opening my mouth.
@Zorlin: AdGuard have many products. AdGuard DNS I mentioned is a hosted solution, unlike AdGuard Home. It’s possible some people had concerns about that product instead. Given it’s not self hosted you have to put faith in them.
@Smigit: Yeah I'm fairly sure that's what it was. I feel like having "Home" in the name of a product makes it harder to land on reliable information… reliably :P when googling it.
I tried using this as Pi-hole a few years ago and I started getting drop outs. I would just randomly lose internet on my devices. I think the Pi zero was not able to cope up. I ended switching it off, but it worked great when it did.
This was a few years ago though and Pi-hole may have made performance improvements and it might work now. Also, it may be that I had too many devices connected.
It’s definitely worth a try though!
Get a micro usb to ethernet adapter and run as poe
Wait.. What? How are you sending POE back to the Pi via usb?
@ryang: May not be exactly what they are referring to, but I use something like this: https://www.amazon.com.au/UGREEN-Network-Adapter-Chromecast-…
Isn’t using PoE, but it takes Ethernet and injects power via the USB-A plug and then the micro USB port can supply both power and Ethernet to my Raspberry Pi via a single port.
Works well.
I tried using this as Pi-hole a few years ago and I started getting drop outs. I would just randomly lose internet on my devices. I think the Pi zero was not able to cope up. I ended switching it off
(Please take this as a bad pun and joke. I don't know personally and I'm not trying to insult you).
Ladies and gentlemen there you have it: Conclusive proof that at lead one OzBargainer is capable of shutting his pihole. Even if it did take years.
Been running on one for a few years now, never skips a beat, running directly off a USB port on my router. I have switched to a micro usb > Ethernet plug just to be sure there is no WiFi problems, even on WiFi it wasn’t a problem. I also run a WireGuard server on it as well with just the regular headless OS.
it's a bit slow for octoprint I found.
but works great for pi-hole
Can confirm about pi-hole.
I am using a similar setup, but no wireless, just because I wanted the reliability & slightly lower latency of ethernet, plugged straight into my modem/router. These are the components, with links and prices:
Total = $26.68 delivered for network wide ad-blocking on all devices. Bargain.
And if you want to make it cheaper still, replace the case with something cheaper.
Great post.
Power supply?
pi zero requirements are pretty modest and can even be powered from a PC USB port, so any odd phone charger will do fine.
@auMouth: I power mine with my shortest micro usb cable plugged straight into the usb port on my modem/router. So my modem/router is the only thing that the pi-hole is connected to, once for Ethernet network, and once for power via usb - which just goes to show that it's effectively providing a network feature that should be in modem/routers, but that they're missing - at some point I'll probably stick the pi-hole to the back of it with removable Velcro stickers. Works fine, it draws very little power. Sorry, should have included this in the list of hardware above.
You have convinced me to finally bite the bullet and build a pi-hole using the stuff you listed
Big ups to you
I originally tried with one of these ebay micro USB ethernet dongles, it was absolute trash. Barely was able to install pihole as it would drop out or go down to almost 0 transfer rates then spike randomly up to normal speeds.
Tried working with it for a few weeks before realising it was the issue and not my config or install. I paid the extra and got a highly recommended one from Amazon for about triple the price, but it works perfectly.
Buyer beware!
I haven't had that issue, but can you please post they link to the recommended Amazon one you bought so that people can decide for themselves? (or even if I ever run into that issue myself)
still rocking my RP2 (just for plex and torrents). works great for 1080P streams.
Even the octoprint guys don't recommend this for octoprint - it's too slow.
See: https://octoprint.org/download/
"Please note that the Raspberry Pi Zero W is not recommended explicitly since severe performance issues were observed, caused by the WiFi interface when bandwidth is utilized (e.g. the webcam is streamed), negatively impacting printing quality."
It will run fine if you don't plan to hook a camera to it
You wouldn't use wifi for streaming video anyway even on the pi 2/3/4
"Please note that the Raspberry Pi Zero W is not recommended explicitly since severe performance issues were observed, caused by the WiFi interface when bandwidth is utilized (e.g. the webcam is streamed), negatively impacting printing quality"
Is it really worth risking large prints over a few dollars though? Plenty of reports out there of issues even without cameras.
If you want a decent print solution that definitely runs on a Pi ZeroW then you should look at Mainsail.
Mate its $20 bucks with a few cents worth of pla
You've gotta take risks in life or you won't get wins
@AliG: There's a diff between risks and calculated risks. Why take the risk of failed prints over a few extra bucks on a normal Pi? I prefer my wins to be proper prints and no wasted time.
And if we're being serious here it's not a few cents of PLA for large prints is it? You can easily print 500g of filament in one go and if it (profanity) up towards the end you've wasted it.
@Tacooo: Look mate, have you had any first hand experience using a pi zero for this scenario?
If not you're just parroting what you've seen on the internet
You're not connecting a hamster to your 3D printer. This is a capable unit which will run fine as a basic octoprint server. Worse case scenario if you experience issues with it and your 3D printer you could use it to as a learning tool or repurpose it for a different project
@AliG: Got it running, couldn't too run many addons with Octoprint and wasn't impressed with response time.
Moved away to a 4B and run a few other things on them as well. Upgraded to 2x FHD cameras as well since I had the capacity for it then.
Also 4B was the choice because I decided I wanted to use USB-C, Ethernet and micro-HDMI.
@Tacooo: Good for you
But just because you couldn't get it working doesn't mean it won't work well for someone who's looking for a basic 3d print server and doesn't want to drop $ on the latest pi
Besides I don't believe you've had 1st hand experience with the pi zero because you referred to it as a "RISK"
@AliG: I can show you the posts on OCAU where I sold off my Zeros if you want? Or we can just accept that some will find it good, some won't.
@Tacooo: That is more rational and better then making blanket statements
People can try and decide for themselves. Some are easily influenced by other's comments and might avoid something that may have served them well
@AliG: it did work ok when I ran OctoPrint but it was slow to copy files.
Running a print was fine and reliable though.
Now, I'm running it from a docker on my server and it's blazing fast.
You wouldn't use wifi for streaming video anyway even on the pi 2/3/4
I do that on a 3b+ though only 720p and 15fps. Works fine but I'm having other issues with Octoprint on it so am going to try a 4 soon instead.
Did you read the OP comments about not streaming.
I have read the developers comments about the issue and IMHO they were lazy and didn't fully investigate the issue.
Seriously, the Octoprint guys created the best 3d print server for FREE and you are accusing them of being lazy just because they won't investigate why it doesn't run well on the lowest possible hardware.
Actually it's not a bunch of guys but one talented lady, Gina Häußge. If anyone does use Octoprint I would encourage them to support Gina via Patreon.
I use a zero OctoPrint and have for years. Works fine. Can be a bit slow to respond but still usable. No streaming.
I used a pi model b+ (similar to a pi zero performance wise) for a few years but yes it was slow to load and g code viewer chokes on large files. Much happier now with a pi 3 (pi 4 is overkill IMO).
Honestly I've never had G Code viewer issues and I use it a fair bit.
Agree Pi3 could be ideal but honestly I'm happy to know that I'm maxing out a 1 rather than leaving something newer largely under-utilised :)
I just bought this from core electronics today! Beofre seeing this post thought the price was normal.
Anwyays will be using to create TV amblight YouTube it looks great.
Got a link for the project?
That's a pretty cool project, thanks for bringing it to my attention.
@Tacooo: I've been flicking through that site and there's some really good ones that I think I'm going to give a shot over the next few months.
Can you link to a some more that are just as cool if not cooler? I got a 3D printer not that long ago so if there's any you like that can use 3D printed parts that would be a big plus :)
@studentl0an: wouldn't recommend a Pi0 for hyperion/Kodi combo. Even my 3B struggles at times for beefier 1080P files. 4K would just crash Kodi.
@nokia3660: I tried it before on pc with pi0 basic model not wireless worked well for small size monitor.
Here is sample
https://imgur.com/a/QhsyG2r
Was quick dirty test without sticking it behind montior etc so excuse bit of offset after sticking it synced very well
@newbiesh: you mean you had kodi & hyperion installed on the Pi0? As I said it might work okay for light videos but you will run into heat & cpu issues for heavy videos. This is primarily due to resource requirement for kodi, hyperion by itself should not be a problem
@nokia3660: plus hyperion will not work well if you are using HDR (search for the hyperHDR project for how that guy does some pretty decent colour translation though)
Also all cheap capture devices will only do up to 4k30 and can't pass through the video. The only real option if you are after proper fidelity is to use HDFury gear (but $$$$)
How would this perform as a plex server?
EDIT: not good