AstroPrint & Raspberry Pi 3

Astroprint and Raspberry Pi 3

How to Build a Astrobox Gateway with a Raspberry Pi 3 for Wireless 3D Printing

AstroPrint Staff

Introduction

As you know, we have discontinued the pcDuino based Astroboxes and have switched to Raspberry Pi 3 as the primary method of creating an Astrobox Gateway.

Side note: The AstroBox Gateway is different from the AstroBox Touch, which is a premium touchscreen that cannot be built at home. The AstroBox Gateway, on the other hand, is the free, open source version that can be built by anyone (which is covered in this guide). If you are NOT interested in creating your own AstroBox Gateway, you can buy a Raspberry Pi 3 Astrobox Gateway kit directly from us. Also, before you continue with either option, it’s a good idea to check out our printer compatibility page to make sure your printer is compatible. 

This is a brief guide on how to create an Astrobox Gateway using a Raspberry Pi 3.

You can skip steps #2 and #3 if you already bought a pre-flashed SD Card from us.

Let’s get started.

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Astroprint & Raspberry Pi 3

AstroPrint & Raspberry Pi 3 Support

AstroPrint Staff

If you are looking for instructions on How to build your own Astrobox with a Raspberry Pi 3, follow this guide.

AstroPrint currently supports Raspberry Pi 3. You might want an additional WiFi dongle along with the Raspberry Pi 3’s built-in WiFi if you’d like the best ease of setup.

Why would I need another WiFi dongle when the Raspberry Pi 3 has built in WiFi?

The built-in WiFi on the Raspberry Pi 3 cannot maintain a simultaneous network connection to your WiFi network and broadcast it’s own hotspot like we require on our Astroboxes. Therefore, the built-in Raspberry Pi 3 WiFi is not sufficient to give you the easiest plug-and-play experience.

With that said, the built in Raspberry Pi 3 WiFi is still used.

The need for the additional WiFi dongle is mainly to support hotspot functionality.

Note: If you don’t need hotspot functionality, it is possible to use a Raspberry Pi 3 without a WiFi dongle. There’s an alternative method of setting up the box using ethernet and our desktop app explained here.

If you have any questions or suggestions about any of the above, join us on our forums.

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