Can you display Webcontrol screen from Rasp Pi when using another computer to control the Router

I can confirm that running the minimal desktop version of RaspiOS on a Pi 4b works well, especially with the 8gb version. It seems to handle the WebControl on Firefox fine. At least I haven’t had any problems. I was running this set up as my primary display and interface for a while. However, i would highly recommend active fan cooling with the 4b’s. Running ANY desktop really makes them warm and then you’ll run up against CPU throttling. I would also consider a lower resolution monitor since there is no reason for a high def display for Maslow.

When i was doing this my CPU load on a RPI 4b was around 45% to 55%. Now that im running it headless, with RaspiOS lite and just as a web server, its down to 24%. My point is @dlang is correct regarding the Pi 4. If you want to run a the WebControl server and graphical WebControl display, you’ll need to use one of the two desktop versions of RaspiOS. This is asking a lot of the Raspi 3’s and you really should consider a Raspi 4b for this purpose.

I realize this is a bit awkward but an option is to use a second Pi, just as a local thin client that drives a display that has the WebControl running in full screen mode. Again, its a bit redundant to have to use two Pi’s. But it will get you a heads up display.

I admittedly didn’t ferret out all of the options with this as i mostly used the browser on my phone or ipad as my local display anyway. I use my laptop as my primary control device as it also has my CAD/CAM package which is incredibly convenient for my workflow. Thats why I converted my PI to web server only. Once I did this i stopped having to play around with it as there wasn’t any point.

Thanks David! I sort of figured this may be the case. May try it, working on the Raspbian portion now

thank you jonatpridesleap! I do have an 8 gb and 4 Gb pi 4, both with fans, maybe I will use the 8 Gb instead. Only used a pi 3b+ as I had one kicking around, saving the 4’s for some Windows ARM tests. I will use the 8Gb ram with my fan and see how she runs. If not good I may be inquiring more into the 2 Pi option, never tried that. Thanks for the information! Bryan

hey gang, I am trying to follow the directions to download the latest image into Raspbian. The directions on GitHub for “Raspberry Pi”. it says to update to latest version, which I thought was .94. I get errors when pasting the text, and changing the .92 to .94. Should I be leaving the .92 alone? Thanks for anything you can offer. Also, Orob you were correct, the premade is a lite version.

Update: The version in the code says .920. You cannot replace with .940, it has to be .94 (remove 0) I entered the code, now need to see if I can figure out how to launch.

Hi jonatpridesleap. I have read through all of everyones excellent info. Webcontrol is extracted and will launch on the Pi4. I want to try running the SD card in the 8bg Pi, use as interface and display through browser. If the usage % is to high, will drop to 2 pi option (I have plenty kicking around). That said, can you explain to me how you did this? Do I just research how to run Webcontrol in Kiosk mode? Then is there a way to autolaunch the browser w/ the IP address:5000? thanks for anything you can offer!

I’ll look to see if I still have the script from when I did it.

Thanks Orob! Great news, I swapped out to the 8bg pi 4 now. grabbed the new IP address. Good to Putty in. Pulled the pi and went to workshop, and I was able to set the com port! Connected up all green, tested one step left and Ardriuno knows it is not my other pi (as I loaded the groundcontrol.ini for the maslow settings. Will figure out how to get that into the Pi ( need to move the file here I saved). Then can work on the Kiosk and running service on startup. If you have anything to help, fantastic, if not will try tackling in the am. Think I am getting there, thanks :slight_smile:

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ok I found the notes in a text file I made as I walked through it. I hope it is helpful:

GUIDE: Raspbian Lite with RPD/LXDE/XFCE/MATE/i3/Openbox/X11 GUI - Raspberry Pi Forums
Followed instructions here^^ to add desktop autologin on top of docker image for webcontrol

sudo apt-get install chromium-browser

  1. Set home screen to be local webcontrol site
  2. set startup page to 192.168.1.7:5000
  3. installed user-agent switcher
  4. set to android kit-kat
  5. rotated screen output to 90 degrees
  6. rebooted

auto run chromium-browser

copy to ~./config/autorun

make ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/ folder

edit the new autostart file:

nano /home/pi/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart

file contents:

#@xscreensaver -no-splash # comment this line out to disable screensaver
@xset s off
@xset -dpms
@xset s noblank
@chromium-browser --incognito --kiosk http://192.168.1.7:5000/ # load chromium after boot and point to the localhost webserver in full screen mode

(works with http://localhost:5000/ also)

These are somewhat cryptic but might get you pointed in the right direction. good luck. I would have posted the instructions if it ended up being a long term solution for me, but I didn’t like how it formatted the screen, but I was trying to interact with it on the touch screen rather than use it as an information only display, which is how I used it now, but it is only text.

Orob, thank you!! This is great info and appreciate you putting this together. First thing will tackle tomorrow. If can get it up and running as planned will post my results. I sort of tested the connection as a service w/ a screen connected logged into Webcontrol on the pi4 8 Gb, was about 60% usage. Will see the usage w/ Maslow running some test shapes I made and let you know how she goes. My last test, which was first time running, had an issue with first pass taking out .80 (the whole board) instead of 1/8 passes, so tried to figure that out in Estlcam (which new code has). I have a bunch of custom arcade parts from my wallmount already setup in Gcode ready to go, so that’s next if the pi can handle both. More to come and thank you so much! I built Maslow last March beginning of Covid here in CT (scrambling for parts as you saw if Covid creeping in from NY day by day), so this test run is a long time coming for me, very excited! :slight_smile:

great news sort of. I can connect with iphone, moving Maslow around. I see what you mean how it mirrors the pi. Fantastic! Now getting Z axis errors and my motor will not move. That I need to figure out somehow, then moving on to your walkthrough Orob. I know this should all be straight first before I put into service mode. more to come

Hi all. I am having trouble getting Webcontrol to run as a service upon startup. My son and I added the test from the github page. Even tried using sudo in the service script/ Are we doing something wrong, I cannot seem to find anything on how to fix this. The Z axis is working, so its really get this to run as a service…then get cromium to launch on startup (which we tried, and thus far a bust) Thanks for anything you can offer.

What does it say when you ask for the service status?

sudo systemctl status webcontrol

Did you enable the service?

More info here.

Hi Orob. It says “inactive (dead)”

My son redid this based on what you sent, it worked! We are working on the auto starting chromuim now. Thanks for all your help! One more step to go.

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Hi Orob. I am going to have my 11 yr old Anthony write directions below of how he made WebControl on Raspberry Pi 4 (8 gb ram vers) launch in chromium in kiosk mode with no keyboard required to go to the site once set. This allows you to mount a Pi4 to your maslow, mount a monitor on a Vesa mount hooked up through HDMI, and use it as a secondary monitor to view Webcontrol while you use your phone or laptop to control Maslow. They will all sync up together if done properly.

**You want to make sure you set Webcontrol to run as a service PRIOR to doing this using your directions above (and the from the wiki)

Step 1 - Set Webcontrol to run as a service (If you do not do this first, the Chromium page will not have anything to log into)

Before you move on to part 2, make sure you can log into Putty from you computer, or you will NOT be able to turn Kisok mode OFF (not easily if even possible). In order to turn Kiosk mode OFF someday, you need to be able to remote back into the Pi from Putty. Write down your IP address and these directions below, keep them somewhere safe so you can undo what we are about to do (or do all future coding through Putty):

  1. Open up terminal
  2. Type in this command “sudo nano /home/pi/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart” (don’t put in the quotations) (For those that may not know, Sudo lets you go into files “above Pi” in the folder structure, and Nano means to open a file in text editor).
  3. Now it should show a file, please type in the following commands into the text editor (yes the @ sign is used here as we do not see that often in linux):
    @xset s off
    @xset -dpms
    @xset s noblank
    @chromium-browser --kiosk 192.168.1.1:5000 # this will load chromium after boot and open up the Webcontrol webpage

Please note for newbies, the comments I made after the # are just comments placed into that file so you know what it does if you were to open that file at another date. As far as coding goes, anything after a # is free form text to say what you want

Also, the IP-Address right after the “–kiosk” will change depending on the IP of your pi (don’t type this IP address in above, your IP address should be different. Type in your IP address of your pi, and don’t forget to add the port after it :5000). If you forget the :5000 after your IP, it will not work. You can always find your Pi’s IP address in your router app (look at connected devices if you forget the numbers)
5. Press Control-O and write/save to the file, then press Control-X to exit the text editor
6. Now close out of the terminal and reboot

This should now launch the pi into full screen WebControl. If you want to turn OFF the kiosk mode you must follow these instructions:

  1. Open up PuTTY and connect to your pi, login, and then proceed
  2. Now open a Terminal and type into the following:
    “sudo nano /home/pi/.config/lxsession/LXDE-pi/autostart” (do not include the " " marks)
    3 . Remove the commands typed in at step 3 and save using Control+O and exit using Control+X
  3. Now type “sudo reboot” and the pi should reboot back into the normal desktop (do not include the " " marks around sudo reboot)
  4. If later you want to turn back on, the file will still exist (don’t create another), and all you have to add back in is the line you removed.

**Alternate step 3 to turn OFF kiosk mode: You can also add a # in front of the commands in step 3, that may be easier for those that understand how # works. Make sure you write out file to save, and exit.

There you go Orob, hope this helps :slight_smile: Also thanks for all your guys help in setting this up!! Virg and Anthony

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Virgs1, sorry, i just saw this. What i was saying was you could use the second PI and a monitor as an operator display by running a PI with a desktop OS and browser on it. You would open the browser, point the address to your other PI running the webcontrol server and leave it there. If you put the browser into full screen mode then you should end up with a full screen display of webcontrol.

You would be splitting the load of both running the webserver AND driving the display across two PI’s. One for the webserver and another for the display. I mentioned its a bit redundant before because with webcontrol, you could also use a mobile device or devices for the same function.

yes, but even better only 1 pi is needed :slight_smile:

Ihave the pi4 8gb connected to the Arduino. It boots Webcontrol automatically. So either way it runs the Webcontrol as a service for any other computer to log in. Then, the Pi also boots to the IP address through Chromium, and displays the Webcontrol. If you mount this to a monitor ( and a Walmart cheap 13-24 inch mount or whatever the size is that articulates) you can view what you control from the other devices. This way if using the phone to control, you can keep you computer which has the G code far from the potential sawdust, yet as Maslow cuts still see the movement. This will be nice I will assume to see the board as you move to clean areas to cut using the cell phone or tablet (and why I wanted the monitor, just look up on the the larger display to see it). You can asso connect a keyboard and mouse (I would suggest the combo which I happen to get from walmart for cheap…even though I usually get them from Amazon), and still use the already launched ground control without a secondary and computer or phone or tablet. When I mount the monitor, will send some pics so you can see what I mean. Does this help?

I love cell phone and tablets, but hard to see clearly with my eyes ( I have a mac- degenerative eye disease). Yes I am young, but each year the old vision gets worse and worse, so for me BIG display…all about it!! I do love fine woodwork though (believe it or not I am only half an engineer, no coding experience, more a finance guy working for an insurance company YOU ALL know who’s going to get you all vaccinated VERY soon if you are in the US! on a side note!!!). I rather look up above the Maslow cutting area while it’s running to see what’s going on, but keep the phone in hand or be near computer way from the sawdust to move Maslow. Now you all know I am new to this, extremely new, but I am all about the perfect plan before implementing a perfectly setup CNC. Do it once, know what you want, do it right the first time, it’s a project manager curse. I will send pics when done, but I built a pretty cool wall mount that can in seconds fold into the wall so you can park a car in garage if you like. The monitor will be mounted (and the pi) to the frame.