Setup Bambu Connect For Bambu Lab 3D Printers On A Raspberry Pi

OctoEverywhere’s Bambu Connect provides free and unlimited remote access, advanced AI failure detection, real-time printer notifications, P1 and A1 full frame rate webcam streaming, and more for all Bambu Lab 3D printers. The setup process is easy, even for non-technical users!

There are two ways to install Bambu Connect:

1. Bambu Connect CLI – on any Debian Linux based OS.
2. Bambu Connect in Docker – on any Mac, Windows, or Linux device.

This guide covers the Bambu Connect CLI setup process, which can be used on an Debian Linux or Windows WSL device. This includes any Raspberry Pi, Mainsail OS, PiHole OS, and more.

If you want to install Bambu Connect using Docker, follow this guide instead.

Required Hardware

OctoEverywhere’s Bambu Connect needs a device beyond your Bambu Lab printer to run on. We recommend using a Raspberry Pi 4 since they are powerful, have amazing community support, and have a low price point. You can even run multiple copies of Bambu Connect on a single Raspberry Pi 4 if you have multiple Bambu Lab 3D printers.

🔥 Special Promotion – Get a FREE $25 credit when you setup your first Bambu Connect plugin. This is a limited time offer, so act quickly!

Here’s where you can get Raspberry Pi 4:

• Amazon is a great place to buy them, with fast shipping.
• The official Raspberry Pi website also has links to many official international resellers.

You will need a microSD card and a power supply for your Raspberry Pi. If you want to set up an external webcam for Bambu Connect, you will also need a USB webcam. You can use any USB webcam you have laying around or buy one from just about anywhere.

Install The Rasberry Pi OS

Once you have a Raspberry Pi, the next step is to install the Raspbian operating system on the MicroSD card. To do so, first put the MicroSD card into your computer.

Download the Raspberry Pi Imager installer, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Run the Raspberry Pi Imager and do the following:

• Select “Choose OS”
  • Select “Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit)”
• Select “Choose Storage”
  • Select your MicroSD card
• Click the gear icon to configure settings.
  • Enable “set hostname” and give your device a name.
    • Remember this to connect later!
  • Enable “SSH” and select “Use password authentication”
  • Enable “Set username and password” and enter a username and password.
    • We recommended the username “pi” and a strong password.
    • Remember the username and password!
  • Select “Configure wireless LAN”
    • Enter your home WiFi network details.
    • If you’re using an ethernet cable, you can skip this.
  • Press Save
  • Press “Write”

The Raspberry Pi Imager will tell you when it’s done. Then, you can remove the MicroSD card from your computer and put it into the Raspberry Pi.

Attach The USB Camera (Optional)

OctoEverywhere’s Bambu Connect plugin will use the webcam built into your Bambu Lab 3D printer for remote access, AI failure detection, notifications, and more.

You can also setup an external webcam that will stream at full 15 FPS. An external webcam is really helpful for the A1 and P1 printers, since the built-in camera steams at 1 FPS.

If you want to set up an external webcam, simply plug the USB camera into any USB port on your Raspberry Pi.

SSH Into Your Raspberry Pi

To install Bambu Connect, you need to SSH into your Raspberry PI. To SSH, you need a terminal, such as MobaXterm on Windows or the Terminal app on a Mac. Here is an excellent guide for downloading and using MobaXterm.

When you have your terminal set up to SSH, use the following command:

ssh pi@<your device hostname>.local

Use the hostname set in the Raspberry Pi Imager settings when you flashed the MicroSD card. You will also need to use the password you set to login. If you used a user name different than “pi” replace “pi” with your user name.

Setup The Webcam Software (Optional)

For the webcam software, we will use camera-streamer, an open-source project on GitHub. To install camera-streamer, follow the directions on their release page here.

After you have camera-streamer installed, make sure you enable one of the webcam profiles. We recommend you use the “camera-streamer-raspi-usb-cam.service” profile. To do so, run the following commands:

sudo systemctl enable /usr/share/camera-streamer/examples/camera-streamer-raspi-usb-cam.service

sudo systemctl start camera-streamer-raspi-usb-cam

Install OctoEverywhere Bambu Connect

To install OctoEverywhere’s Bambu Connect on your Raspberry Pi, simply run this command in your terminal connected via SSH.

bash <(curl -s https://octoeverywhere.com/bambu.sh) 

The installation will guide you through a few setup questions, and you will be done!

Setup Your External Webcam In OctoEverywhere

If you want to set up your external webcam with OctoEveyrwhere, you need to tell OctoEverywhere the local webcam server details. Do the following:

• Go to your OctoEverywhere dashboard.
• Click the gear icon on the Bambu Lab printer you just added.
• Use the toggle at the bottom to enable the “Alternative Webcam” feature.
• For the Snapshot URL, enter:
  • /webcam/snapshot
• For the streaming URL, enter:
  • /webcam/stream
• Select the “Alternative Webcam” as the default webcam at the top of the settings page.

Done! 🎉

That’s it! You can now fully utilize your Bambu Lab X1, P1, or A1 3D printer with OctoEverywhere. Remember to check out all of OctoEverywhere’s free and unlimited features, such as remote access, AI failure detection, print notifications, live streaming, and more!

If you have any questions or get stuck, join our Discord community – we are happy to help.

Happy Printing!