Well, I could have used star shape, too. I ment that all printers need to be around the pi due to the USB connection, so you have a huge amount of cables and the result may look like a spider web or a rats nest 
Ok! I have been looking on Amazon for a Raspberry P1 4. If I buy one, what else do I need to purchase to be able to use the device and set it up. With inflation as such, I need to do this with enough funds that there are not waiting periods to wait through with it sitting at the house in a box. Even things that are free, what else do I need.
Is this for your new etcher? Iām not sure what the requirements for the etcher are but at the very least you will need a SD card & a power supply. Check on the Raspberry site for the PS requirements for a PI4. You will also more than likely need a case but you can 3D print one of those, tons of them on Thingiverse. USB cable to connect it to the etcher.
I have 2 CanaKit kits. They both came with AC adapters designed specifically for Piās.
I spent some time looking around the internet for Raspberry and even the one you mentioned earlier were out of stock and not even taking pre-orders. I watched a video on Amazon involving the Pi and it was being set up as a VPN Server. An interesting idea! The etcher/cutter requires a continuous connection like using Ponterface. I chose to use a pay software which is more powerful than Adobe Indesigh. I own a copy of Indesigh and I set up on Lightburn to make a 11 X 14 page of calling cards and cut them out. I even included under Hobbies Laser Etching which the words were cut out also. Lightburn is twice as fast. Only bad thing is it does not support āCutā and āPasteā between programs in Windows. I have a laser color printer that will spit out about 15 pages a minute. The etcher takes about 20 minutes to do its thing. So, I did the same format in Indesign and it is cumbersome compared to Lightburn. I could give a lot of examples, but one thing I liked was the calling cards had rounded edges instead of square corners. I have a little tweaking, but I will print on a printer and cut them out with Lightburn. I am beginning to love the etcher.
Found a Pi 400 Raspberry Pi 400 Kit ā Vilros.com but donāt know if it will work for you. I think the Pi is built into the keyboard. They were sold out of all the other Pi boards
Well! That was the best offer I had seen. I went ahead and ordered the package. With shipping it was $114.66. I could have gotten free shipping but I would have had to spent $30 more at least. I didnāt see anything I could not have done without. Now to learn.
Let me show you a video to look at. I am not going to do it at this time but, maybe in the long future.
go down to the video which says PIVPN near the bottom of page there are a whole list of videos They are at least a year old because of the prices.
Enjoy!
The link goes to Amazon
Yes, but the video is on that page near the bottom. I tried to extract the video out of Amazon, but I am not that smart.
Note: Its more like half way down
The video was interesting, if Piās were $35 I would consider doing it.
Thanks! Now that I see it can be done, I will learn what you did and I have another link just like it to fix. Thanks again!
I on a MacBook so YMMV, right click on the video and choose āCopy video addressā you should then be able to paste it into a message
An interesting project for sure, all except that itās using openVPN instead of WireGuard. The people who developed WireGuard did so because they felt openVPN could be even more secure. That said, openVPN is still considered to be very safe and, if a Pi can truly handle the traffic load, it would make for an very convenient VPN server. Myself, my UTM provides openVPN built in, so Iām already protected when Iām away from the house.
My Raspberry P1 400 arrived a few minutes ago. I have been gone today with my mother. She is 94 and that creates nightmares for me. She still drives, and when she comes up to a stop sign I close my eyes or I would be a nervous wreck when I get home. We both had errands to do in the city. Neither one of us got everything done.
But when I got home I had a package on the porch. I opened the box and looked everything over. The board is built into a keyboard. It has a usb mouse and a power supply. I do not have a monitor at all. That has been a problem using my etcher and printer. I boxed it back up thinking I would have to order a Pi monitor but then I remembered it had a HDMI out and I have a TV with several HDMIās inā¦ So, since there are no TV programs to watch tonight I will hook it to the TV and see if it can be set up. It came with a nice thick book to teach me how to use it. But, I may still need to get a lot of advice.
It should work right away with the TV. Your only issue should be switching the TV to the correct HDMI port.
Thatās good to know! Be nice if it would interface with the laser etcher that easy.
The etcher uses Gcode, but does not have marlin, is there an app that I need to receive from laptop and send to the etcher?
A quick search about the etcher tells me it was a KickStarter project, and that itās operated using an iOS or Android app. I take it the etcher has a USB port (since you mentioned connecting a laptop to it). You could try connecting to it using Pronterface. After all, I canāt see how it could harm to unit.
After watching several videos, I get the impression that Octopi OS is what I need to install on the Raspberry Pi 400 I have. Therefor, I am going to assume that Octopi will talk to the etcher through its USB port like it would do on a 3D printer. Am I wrong assuming that before I buy another SDcard to place Octopi OS on that is what I must do?
I did hook the Pi up to my TV last night and looked around at some of the features. It says my OS is called āBusterā. I did take all the updates last night. Seems it took close to an hour. It does not seem to have a port for the Pi camera other than USB. The software to control the etcher called āLightburnā does have its own cameras options with 4K, 8K and differences lenses, I ordered when I paid the fee to use the software a 4K with a 90 degree lenses. I am assuming it is USB, and the nice feature about having the camera is that the software uses the picture to frame the print/cut on the material. I will not have to have a template to place material at a certain location. Supposed to same time and material.
I spent about 3 hours last night watching videos trying to install a USB Logitech Webcam. I did everything following as I could and all I got was a couple of jpg images. I kept trying and finally tried VLC and it recognized the Webcam and I finally scanned my room with video. Hurray! I keep making bad choices! the Raspberry Pi 400 does not have a Raspberry camera slot, so the need for USB.
I finally tried the Lightburn forum asking about interfacing the Pi with my etcher and Lightburn. They emphatically say no! Oh Well, more wasted money. Then I watched a video that talked about creating a USB to WiFi using the Pi. Seems maybe that would work, but will I need two Piās, one on each end. Something to check out anyway.