OctoWrt

A guide to install OctoPrint on the Creality WiFi Box or similar OpenWrt devices.

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What is the Creality Wi-Fi Box?

Click to expand info!

= A router box device released by Creality meant to add cloud control to your printer. Comes with closed source and proprietary software. However, some people might not like that.

Specifications:

(taken form figgyc's commit)

• SoC: MediaTek MT7688AN @ 580 MHz

• Flash: BoyaMicro BY25Q128AS (16 MiB, SPI NOR)

• RAM: 128 MiB DDR2 (Winbond W971GG6SB-25)

• Peripheral: Genesys Logic GL850G 2 port USB 2.0 hub

• I/O: 1x 10/100 Ethernet port, microSD SD-XC Class 10 slot, 4x LEDs, 2x USB 2.0 ports, micro USB input (for power only), reset button

• FCC ID: 2AXH6CREALITY-BOX

• UART: test pads: (square on silkscreen) 3V3, TX, RX, GND; default baudrate: 57600

Demo:

Click to expand demo video!

demo_video.mp4

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Automatic:

Expand steps!

1. Flash Openwrt following guide here:

   Once flashed setup internet access on the box (either Wi-Fi client or wired connection)

Expand Internet setup!

• Make sure you've flahsed/sysupgraded latest .bin file from /Firmware/OpenWrt_snapshot/ or from latest release.

• Connect to the OpenWrt access point

• Access LuCi web interface and log in on 192.168.1.1:81

• (optional but recommended) Add a password to the OctoWrt access point: Wireless -> Under wireless overview EDIT the OpenWrt interface -> Wireless Security -> Choose an encryption -> set a password -> Save -> Save & Apply

• (optional but recommended) Add a password: System -> Administration -> Router Password

• ❗If your home network subnet is on 1 (192.168.1.x), in order to avoid any ip conflicts, change the static ip of the box LAN from 192.168.1.1 to something like 192.168.3.1. To do that access the luci webinterface -> Network -> Interfaces and edit the static ip -> Save -> press the down arow on the Save&Apply button -> Apply Unchecked. You can now access luci on the new ip and continue configureing Client setup.

• Connect as a client to your Internet router: Network -> Wireless -> SCAN -> Join Network -> check Lock to BSSID -> Create/Assign Firewall zone then under custom type wwan enter -> Submit -> Save -> Dropdown arrow -> Apply Unchecked -> Apply Unchecked

• Connect back to your main internet router and find the new box's ip inside the DHCP list.

• ❗ Access the terminal tab (Services -> Terminal) ❗ If terminal tab is not working go to Config tab and change Interface to the interface you are connecting through the box (your wireless router SSID for example) -> Save & Apply.

• Proceed with step 2

2. Execute extroot script:

cd /tmp
wget https://github.com/ihrapsa/OctoWrt/raw/main/scripts/1_format_extroot.sh
chmod +x 1_format_extroot.sh
./1_format_extroot.sh

3. Execute install script:

cd /tmp
wget https://github.com/ihrapsa/OctoWrt/raw/main/scripts/2_octoprint_install.sh
chmod +x 2_octoprint_install.sh
./2_octoprint_install.sh

4. Access Octoprint UI on port 5000

http://box-ip:5000

When prompted use the following server commands:

• Restart OctoPrint : /etc/init.d/octoprint restart
• Restart system : reboot
• Shutdown system : poweroff

For webcam support:

/etc/config/mjpg-streamer is the configuration file. Modify that to change resolution, fps, user, pass etc.

Inside OctoPrint snapshot and stream fields add the following:

• Stream URL: http://your-box-ip:8080/?action=stream
• Snapshot URL: http://your-box-ip:8080/?action=snapshot
• ffmpeg binary path as: /usr/bin/ffmpeg

Manual:

Expand steps!

⤵️ Preparing:

Expand steps!

• OpenWrt: Make sure you've got OpenWrt flashed. Follow guide form here -> Once flashed setup Wi-Fi client or wired connection for internet access on the box

• Extroot: execute this script. Make sure to have a microsd plugged

  cd ~
  wget https://github.com/ihrapsa/KlipperWrt/raw/main/scripts/1_format_extroot.sh
  chmod +x 1_format_extroot.sh
  ./1_format_extroot.sh
  

• Swap:

  opkg update && opkg install swap-utils zram-swap
  

  dd if=/dev/zero of=/overlay/swap.page bs=1M count=512;
  mkswap /overlay/swap.page;
  swapon /overlay/swap.page;
  mount -o remount,size=256M /tmp;
  

  rm /etc/rc.local;
  cat << "EOF" > /etc/rc.local
  # Put your custom commands here that should be executed once
  # the system init finished. By default this file does nothing.
  ###activate the swap file on the SD card  
  swapon /overlay/swap.page  
  ###expand /tmp space  
  mount -o remount,size=256M /tmp
  exit 0
  EOF
  

⤵️ Installing:

Expand steps!

1. Install OpenWrt dependencies:

opkg update
opkg install gcc make unzip htop wget-ssl git-http
opkg install v4l-utils mjpg-streamer-input-uvc mjpg-streamer-output-http mjpg-streamer-www

By default mjpg-streamer comes with username=openwrt and password=openwrt. If you don't want them do:

uci delete mjpg-streamer.core.username
uci delete mjpg-streamer.core.password

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• Python 3:

⚠️ It is recommended to use the python 3 approach since python 2 got deprecated since January 1st, 2020. However, if you want older versions of Octoprint, python 2 approach might be the only way.

Install python 3 packages

opkg install python3 python3-pip python3-dev python3-psutil python3-netifaces python3-pillow
pip install --upgrade setuptools
pip install --upgrade pip

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2. Install Octoprint:

pip install Octoprint==1.8.1

3. Create octoprint service:

Expand

cat << "EOF" > /etc/init.d/octoprint
#!/bin/sh /etc/rc.common
# Copyright (C) 2009-2014 OpenWrt.org
# Put this inside /etc/init.d/

START=91
STOP=10
USE_PROCD=1


start_service() {
    procd_open_instance
    procd_set_param command octoprint serve --iknowwhatimdoing
    procd_set_param respawn
    procd_set_param stdout 1
    procd_set_param stderr 1
    procd_close_instance
}
EOF

4. Make it executable:

chmod +x /etc/init.d/octoprint

5. Enable the service:

service octoprint enable

6. Reboot and wait a while

reboot

▶️ Note!
Booting on the last versions takes a while (~5 minutes). Once booted however, everything works as expected. If you care that much about this you can install older versions (v1.0.0 for example) that are much lighter but are not plugin enabled. Only Temps, Control, Webcam and Gcode preview.

7. First setup

Expand steps

Access Octoprint UI on port 5000

http://box-ip:5000

When prompted use thefollowing server commands:

• Restart OctoPrint : /etc/init.d/octoprint restart
• Restart system : reboot
• Shutdown system : poweroff

For webcam support:

/etc/config/mjpg-streamer is the configuration file. Modify that to change resolution, fps, user, pass etc.
Inside OctoPrint snapshot and stream fields add the following:

• Stream URL: http://your-box-ip:8080/?action=stream
• Snapshot URL: http://your-box-ip:8080/?action=snapshot

If webcam not showing, unplug and replug it.
If you don't want webcam authentication you can comment or delete the user and password lines inside mjpg-streamer config file. Make sure to restart it after that: /etc/init.d/mjpg-streamer restart

8. Timelapse plugin setup

• ffmpeg packages

  Expand steps

  Before installing these ffmpeg packages delete opkg list :

  rm -rf /tmp/opkg-lists
  

  To download the packages use the following commands:

  mkdir /root/ffmpeg;
  wget https://github.com/ihrapsa/OctoWrt/raw/main/packages/ffmpeg/Packages -P /root/ffmpeg;
  wget https://github.com/ihrapsa/OctoWrt/raw/main/packages/ffmpeg/Packages.gz -P /root/ffmpeg;
  wget https://github.com/ihrapsa/OctoWrt/raw/main/packages/ffmpeg/Packages.manifest -P /root/ffmpeg;
  wget https://github.com/ihrapsa/OctoWrt/raw/main/packages/ffmpeg/Packages.sig -P /root/ffmpeg;
  wget https://github.com/ihrapsa/OctoWrt/raw/main/packages/ffmpeg/alsa-lib_1.2.4-1_mipsel_24kc.ipk -P /root/ffmpeg;
  wget https://github.com/ihrapsa/OctoWrt/raw/main/packages/ffmpeg/fdk-aac_2.0.1-4_mipsel_24kc.ipk -P /root/ffmpeg;
  wget https://github.com/ihrapsa/OctoWrt/raw/main/packages/ffmpeg/ffmpeg_4.3.2-1_mipsel_24kc.ipk -P /root/ffmpeg;
  wget https://github.com/ihrapsa/OctoWrt/raw/main/packages/ffmpeg/ffprobe_4.3.2-1_mipsel_24kc.ipk -P /root/ffmpeg;
  wget https://github.com/ihrapsa/OctoWrt/raw/main/packages/ffmpeg/libatomic1_8.4.0-3_mipsel_24kc.ipk -P /root/ffmpeg;
  wget https://github.com/ihrapsa/OctoWrt/raw/main/packages/ffmpeg/libbz21.0_1.0.8-1_mipsel_24kc.ipk -P /root/ffmpeg;
  wget https://github.com/ihrapsa/OctoWrt/raw/main/packages/ffmpeg/libffmpeg-full_4.3.2-1_mipsel_24kc.ipk -P /root/ffmpeg;
  wget https://github.com/ihrapsa/OctoWrt/raw/main/packages/ffmpeg/libgmp10_6.2.1-1_mipsel_24kc.ipk -P /root/ffmpeg;
  wget https://github.com/ihrapsa/OctoWrt/raw/main/packages/ffmpeg/libgnutls_3.7.2-1_mipsel_24kc.ipk -P /root/ffmpeg;
  wget https://github.com/ihrapsa/OctoWrt/raw/main/packages/ffmpeg/libnettle8_3.6-1_mipsel_24kc.ipk -P /root/ffmpeg;
  wget https://github.com/ihrapsa/OctoWrt/raw/main/packages/ffmpeg/libx264_2020-10-26-1_mipsel_24kc.ipk -P /root/ffmpeg;
  wget https://github.com/ihrapsa/OctoWrt/raw/main/packages/ffmpeg/shine_3.1.1-1_mipsel_24kc.ipk -P /root/ffmpeg;
  

  Files will download to /root/ffmpeg
  To install them:

  cd /root/ffmpeg
  opkg install *.ipk --force-overwrite
  

• ffmpeg bin path

  Expand steps

  In octoprint settings set the ffmpeg binary path as:

  /usr/bin/ffmpeg
  

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🔝 Credits:

Gina and co. for creating and developping OctoPrint
George a.k.a figgyc for porting OpenWrt to this device