Multiple OctoPrint Instances on a Single Device

Octoprint is an excellent tool that allows you to use a device like Raspberry Pi to control your printer, but out of the box, its really only meant to be able to control one printer at a time. If you want to fully control multiple printers with a single device, you will need to have multiple Octoprint/OctoPi instances installed. In this video, I’m going to show you how to run multiple instances of the latest version of OctoPi (0.18 at the time of this recording) on a Rasberry Pi. I walk through the entire setup process and include tips/tricks along the way.
If you have any questions on the content covered in this video, feel free to leave a comment below with them. I try to reply to all commented within 48 hours.
Resources Cura Profiles: 3dprintscape.com/cura-profiles
Written Instructions: Coming Soon
Hardware
Raspberry Pi 4 Starter Kit (Shown in video) on Amazon: geni.us/GlVW
Raspberry Pi 3 Starter Kit (Slightly cheaper) on Amazon: geni.us/B1Oq
Raspberry Pi Camera on Amazon: geni.us/oc5qiG3
USB Cable A-Male to Mini-B on Amazon: geni.us/u7uf
USB Cable A-Male to B-Male on Amazon: geni.us/BZ5Ak
Ender 3 Pro on Amazon: geni.us/vIAIx
Ender 3 V2 on Amazon: geni.us/ur8YHM
HATCHBOX Filament on Amazon: geni.us/BJx0Gdj
Links
Octoprint: octoprint.org/download/
Rufus: rufus.ie/en_US/
Putty: www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~s...
Videos
Octoprint with Webcam - Setup Guide: • Octoprint with Webcam ...
Commands Used *I will move these over to the written instructions when they are done
cp -R /home/pi/.octoprint /home/pi/.octoprint2
sudo su root
cd /etc/systemd/system/
cp ./octoprint.service ./octoprint2.service
sudo sed s/127.0.0.1/0.0.0.0/ (less than sign) octoprint.service | sed s/5000/5001/ | sed s/--port=\${PORT}/--port=\${PORT}\ --basedir=\\/home\\/pi\\/\.octoprint2/ (greater than sign) octoprint2.service
systemctl enable octoprint2 - adds to startup
systemctl start octoprint2 - starts service
tail -F /var/log/messages
sudo nano /etc/udev/rules.d/99-usb.rules
Default
SUBSYSTEM=="tty", ATTRS{idVendor}=="1", ATTRS{idProduct}=="", ATTRS{devpath}=="", ATTRS{serial}=="", SYMLINK+=""
With Values
SUBSYSTEM=="tty", ATTRS{idVendor}=="1a86", ATTRS{idProduct}=="7523", ATTRS{devpath}=="1.3", SYMLINK+="Ender3-1"
sudo reboot now
Need Assistance?
Join us on Discord: / discord
Please consider helping support the channel through Patreon so we can continue to develop new content. / 3dprintscape
Our Site
3dprintscape.com
*This channel is owned and operated by 3D Printscape. 3D Printscape is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

[@3DPrintscape]

I hope you found this overview helpful! If you have any questions or would like other tips/tricks, just let me know in the comments or join us on Discord.

[@Chungus75]

This is really excellent. I've got a 25 printer farm and all those pi's are expensive and a bit of a headache to manage.. I'm thinking an intel NUC with some usb expansion boards could replace my raspi's. I'm guessing seeing as the the ports are used to define the octoprint instance, Octofarm can still connect to these different instances...??? I'll probably host Octofarm on separate hardware.. as I was watching this i thought a wizard would be great, but a script is just as good - I'd love one. Liked and subscribed!

[@slungshot9749]

Thank You! Everything went just as you described. I now have both my printers running great.

[@3DPrintscape]

You're welcome!

[@tiemanowo]

Really nice tutorial. Thank you for your effort.

[@3DPrintscape]

You're Welcome!

[@ghubensg7314]

great video, exactly what i was searching!!

[@3DPrintscape]

Glad I could help!

[@dovy4729]

Very nice video. Short and to the point.

[@3DPrintscape]

Thanks for the feedback.

[@printing3d722]

“I finally got a webcam, so i will try to do a video on it.” I am definitely interested in the multiple webcam setup. Thanks much for your videos. They are really good!

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. Cool, i will try to record that video in the next couple of weeks. I have had a lot of people ask for it.

[@suryamanian8492]

keep doing the great work man 👍

[@3DPrintscape]

Thanks, will do!

[@trostonfernandes6953]

Great tutorial, very detailed.

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. Thanks for the feedback:).

[@AndrewAHayes]

Great tutorial, Thank you!

[@3DPrintscape]

You are welcome!

[@djtriggerfinger]

Fantastic tutorial man, I wouldn't mind the script since at some point I will want to set up a print farm.

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. Thanks for the feedback and i will see what i can do.

[@nikitos6487]

Thanks man! Your video helped me.

[@3DPrintscape]

You're Welcome

[@Ericwd561]

Great video, very helpful! I got the 2 instances running, however I'd like to add a few more. I followed the same steps, but my additional instances are failing to activate. Any ideas? Id be happy to share the systemctl status if that may help.

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. This may be had to troubleshoot over YT. Can you join my discord server? Link is in the video description.

[@Invaderjason123]

Are there any issues running 2 instances at the same time on a pi 4? Like, does running bog down or effect print quality? I have 1 pi ribbon camera and 1 usb camera I'd like to use too.

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. I haven’t had any issues at all. I want to try to map the cameras the same way as well, just haven’t gotten there.

[@battleborngrafix4640]

This guide was great. Straight forward and easy to complete. On my first instance, my USB webcam works. However, I cannot figure out how to get the second USB webcam to load onto Octoprint. Any suggestions?

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, i dont have any suggestions for this because i only have one webcam to test with.

[@justincanino8521]

Thanks for the great advice I’m going to try this out.. were you successful with creating the script??

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi, honestly I haven’t had enough interest to work on it. I may try to just do it anyway.

[@justincanino8521]

@@3DPrintscape all good mate i went through the steps last night and it all worked and the only thing i had that didn't work is the custom usb mappings didn't show up in the connection window

[@eltito2596]

Hey Rob, thanks for all your helpful videos as they have been my go-to guides for getting better at 3D Printing. This guide is awesome but ran Into some trouble with it as what I have set up makes following it slightly awkward for me. I used your guide for installing Octoprint on Linux using my Raspberry Pi 4 which I currently have as touchscreen tablet. I have Raspberry Pi OS installed so I have access to the desktop environment and an internet browser with an octoprint service is running in the background. Therefore, this makes the beginning part of this guide confusing for me. My question is where exactly do I start to create a second service since I can just bring up the terminal, making PUTTY and rufus unnecessary. Thanks for all that you do and I hope to hear from you

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. The first set of commands i have in the video description is what's making the second instance. I find connecting with putty is easier than doing everything at the terminal because you can copy/past stuff in.

[@jackharvest1]

I've been running this way for a year now. They just announced the end of Python 2 support in the next release of Octoprint, so now I'm trying to figure out how to upgrade Octopi to 0.18 as well as Python 2 to 3, but do it for BOTH instances, not just the default one. :\ Thoughts?

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. Im not sure teh best way to go about doing this off hand. It will be trail/error when i go to do the upgrade.

[@TableTopBiker]

Is there a way/tutorial on how to have different octopi's (as in different devices) up on the same network?

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. I dont have a good guide covering this but there are two options. 1) setup the first octoprint and change the url in the settings once its online, that will allows the second one to use the default address 2) use the ip address to connect to them, you can get the IPs from your router.

[@nwstraith]

I've followed your steps and all seems well, but I've run into a small snag. One of my printers is the CR10S and the other device is a desktop CNC SainSmart 3018 Prover. I've installed the Better GRBL Support plugin thinking I can control the 3018 with it and do normal 3D printing for the CR10S. However the UI is showing GRBL for both and if I disable the plugin then it goes away for both. Is it possible to run OctoPrint in this way?

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. The installation files/plugins are shared between both instances. Its possible to copy them and create a fully dedicated instance but that goes beyond this video.

[@nwstraith]

@@3DPrintscape Thank you for taking the time to provide an answer!

[@3DPrintscape]

@@nwstraith You're welcome

[@slungshot9749]

sir, I have one issue. About 75% of the time, octoprint2 service is not starting automatically after a reboot etc. I have to manually log back into putty and run the "systemctl start octoprint2" before it will let me log back into the 5001 port. Is there a way to make this service start on its on after a reboot or power outage? Thank you!

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. systemctl enable octoprint2 should make the server start after a reboot. If that isnt working, you may be able to make a cronjob to start it as well.

[@slungshot9749]

@@3DPrintscape I get this error when trying to run systemctl enable octoprint2 "update-rc.d: error: cannot find a LSB script for octoprint2"

[@3DPrintscape]

@@slungshot9749 Sounds like one of the commands may have failed to run. If you copied them from there, I would put them in something like notpadd++ to see if it changed any characters. Then rerun the commands.

[@electronic7081]

After "sudo systemctl status octoprint" exit by pressing q tail -F /var/log/messages exit by pressing ctrl and c

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. Thanks for the tips.

[@Phaeethon]

How can we connect seperate webcams for octoprints?

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. It would be the same process with mapping the port to the instance. I finally got a webcam, so i will try to do a video on it.

[@printing3d722]

@@3DPrintscape I have the same question. Thanks!

[@3DPrintscape]

@@printing3d722 ok, thanks for letting me know.

[@TheJibtronic]

I can get the two instances running, however when adding the 99-usb.rules, and the details of the printers including the ports they are on it doesnt seem to show them for either instance. It still just lists the serial ports as ttyUSB0 and ttyACM0 instead of the printer names attached to those ports. Not sure if it makes a difference but when editing the 99-usb.rules file one printer had a serial so I added that in, the other didnt so I just deleted that ATTRS section.

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. I don’t recall having that issue. How did you end up getting it working?

[@TheJibtronic]

@3D Printscape I haven't, like I said the instances work fine. But when loading them I need to select the correct port for the printer ttyUSB0 for one instead of the symlink name "CR10" and "ttyACM0" instead of "MAXZ3". For some reason the Symlink name just doesn't seem to take after rebooting or unplugging and replugging the printers into the same ports.

[@3DPrintscape]

@@TheJibtronic Thats odd. Are you sure the file is actually being saved?

[@chrismcagle]

I just got a 2nd printer (Ender3 S1 Plus) yesterday and followed this video to set up a 2nd instance of Octoprint. I'm having the exact same issue where I've added both lines to the 99-usb.rules file and verified it saved by reopening it and the information is there. However after restarting the system, the printer names do not show up in the connection list. I only get ttyUSB0 and ttyUSB1. Everything works and I can control both printers independently, but I am not getting the actual printer names that I set up in the rules file. Is there any way to get that working?

[@DearmanHome]

@@3DPrintscape if your device doesn't have a serial, delete the section "Serial"

[@TheOoze777]

What about adding a camera to the second instance?

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. I need to go back through and figure out that process. I didnt have a webcam when i made this video.

[@jenguh]

I followed these instructions to a T, and yet I'm unable to connect to the second instance of octoprint. What could I be doing wrong?

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. It sounds like something failed. Did any of the commands come back failed or with anything odd?

[@jltpittman]

When I add image to usb drive it don’t show up in pc, do you need a 32gb flash drive for it to work?

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. It hides the main image and only shows the config files that you can edit on a different partition. Is that what you are seeing?

[@jltpittman]

@@3DPrintscape when I go to pc to get flash drive to edit it for the Wi-Fi flash drive says u it’s not there at all Do u need a certain size flash drive I was using 8gb

[@3DPrintscape]

@@jltpittman It should have one of the partitions there. if not it may not have flashed right. I think the min size is 4gb, so your 8gb card should be fine.

[@ziqtkd8588]

hey rob, can you make a tutorial for klipper?

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. ya, i have that on my backlog. I hope to start getting to those videos mid-april.

[@CarlosXRijo]

Hi, can u help me... Why when i run "tail -F /var/log/messages" the echo only shows something like "octopi MJPG-streamer [...." Best Regards

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. I would need more info to help out. That output doesnt really tell me much.

[@afslayer]

@@3DPrintscape I have the same issue, it just keeps trying to start the usb webcam over and over. Init video in failed

[@3DPrintscape]

@@afslayer Can you try to send over the logs? My email is [e-mail]

[@minamikhael88]

@@3DPrintscape What is solution for this?

[@Top837]

Does anyone know the solution to the issue? I'm having this same exact problem.

[@protechnh]

Do you just plug in both printers via USB to one Pi?

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. Ya you can control multiple printers off a single pi.

[@robbie523]

A little late, I got to the part where you change the port for the octoprint service but it just stops working. I can still type but it doesn't even have the "root@octopi:/etc/systemd/system#" its just blank space. When I try to do the cat thing and see the Info on the octoprint2.service file it runs fine (No error message) but it doesnt open up anything it just moves down a line. How would I fix this?

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. That means the file doesnt exist or is blank. Did the first three steps work properly?

[@robbie523]

@@3DPrintscape Apparently the service file is empty even the first one was empty

[@3DPrintscape]

@@robbie523 Were you able to get it working?

[@robbie523]

@@3DPrintscape No but we think the file was corrupted were trying to try again is the best way to put it.

[@robbie523]

Well I tried it at home and It worked must have been something with something at the school. I was wondering If I wanted 3 printers would I just do it again and make sure the port and name is different? Also thanks for the help earlier not a lot of people would have taken the time to do that and It made the prosses a bit better.

[@AleksR]

Hey, When I enter enable octoprint 2 I get this issue: update-rc.d: error: cannot find a LSB script for octoprint2 Can you help me? And P.S: Great video🔥

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. It sounds like a previous step failed. Try to type the commands instead of copy/paste as that adds/modifies characters sometimes.

[@AleksR]

@@3DPrintscape thanks, i didn’t try it, I just kept on and in the end it worked fine👍🏻

[@SeanandBeckyHaylett-th3hz]

How do i run 2 raspberry pi and ocotpi on one wifi network?

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. You would end up having to connect via IP or change the DNS settings.

[@SeanandBeckyHaylett-th3hz]

One more question I am at a loss. How do I set up a Pi camera on the Raspberry Pi? I'm new to the pi stuff. I got the two raspberry pis up and going

[@3DPrintscape]

@@SeanandBeckyHaylett-th3hz If its connected, it should auto passthrough to the first instance, assuming the streaming services were setup right at the end of the install.

[@SeanandBeckyHaylett-th3hz]

@3DPrintscape I have no clue if it was. I'm pretty new to all the 3d software and coding.

[@3DPrintscape]

@@SeanandBeckyHaylett-th3hz I would try to reinstall the last section. Pay attention for errors.

[@franciscoplazafreire5908]

Hello, great tutorial, it works almost fine for me, but i have this error when i enable octoprint2 root@octopi:/boot# systemctl enable octoprint2 Synchronizing state of octoprint2.service with SysV service script with /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install. Executing: /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable octoprint2 update-rc.d: error: cannot find a LSB script for octoprint2 after that i can start the service and it works fine, but i restart my pi and octoprint2 stop working i have no idea of linux, but i supose that with this tutorial y can have when i turn on my pi, 2 instances of octoprint, but i must enter ssh and enable and start secont one, i also supose that happens because of the error, i´m very lost xD, any help please??

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. Did you copy paste the script or retype it? If you did a copy paste, it may have brought in bad formatting from windows.

[@bradhazeldine3240]

anyone want to send me an image of their setup working :)

[@3DPrintscape]

LOL, you running into issues getting it working?

[@3dprintnoob381]

Written instructions are where? None of this worked for me - and "coming soon" was about a year ago.

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. Honestly i forgot to write them up for this. Are you having issues with the setup?

[@3dprintnoob381]

@@3DPrintscape Yeah, I am. I only have two FDM printers, so I only tried creating `octoprint2`. None of the `sed` commands worked - they created empty files. Do I need to be in the `venv` when I run those? Eventually, I just cp'd them and edited them but the service won't start with this error: lines 1-16/16 (END) ● octoprint2.service - The snappy web interface for your 3D printer Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/octoprint2.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2022-05-03 16:41:02 UTC; 3s ago Process: 1755 ExecStart=/home/davemednick/OctoPrint/venv/bin/octoprint (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE) Main PID: 1755 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE) May 03 16:41:02 ubunutu2204 octoprint[1755]: self._start_intermediary_server() May 03 16:41:02 ubunutu2204 octoprint[1755]: File "/home/davemednick/OctoPrint/venv/lib/python3.8/site-packages/octoprint/server/__init__.py", line 2486, in _start_intermediary_ser> May 03 16:41:02 ubunutu2204 octoprint[1755]: self._intermediary_server.server_bind() May 03 16:41:02 ubunutu2204 octoprint[1755]: File "/usr/lib/python3.8/http/server.py", line 138, in server_bind May 03 16:41:02 ubunutu2204 octoprint[1755]: socketserver.TCPServer.server_bind(self) May 03 16:41:02 ubunutu2204 octoprint[1755]: File "/usr/lib/python3.8/socketserver.py", line 466, in server_bind May 03 16:41:02 ubunutu2204 octoprint[1755]: self.socket.bind(self.server_address) May 03 16:41:02 ubunutu2204 octoprint[1755]: OSError: [Errno 98] Address already in use May 03 16:41:02 ubunutu2204 systemd[1]: octoprint2.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE May 03 16:41:02 ubunutu2204 systemd[1]: octoprint2.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

[@3dprintnoob381]

also - tail-ing syslog only gave me vendorId and the productId, no serial numbers

[@3DPrintscape]

@@3dprintnoob381 You had to be in cd /etc/systemd/system/ for the first sed command. Did three commands run properly?

[@3dprintnoob381]

@@3DPrintscape that detail is not in the docs - and no, I got "doesn't exist" - but it's all good - I used octoprint_deploy and it worked perfectly. thanks

[@geoman6079]

Text is WAY too small. Unwatchable on my screen.

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. Sorry about that but thanks for the feedback.

[@kearo]

Hello there , great video , i was able to configure my second instance BUT im not able to add the service on boot , i have the following error , hope you can help me to troubleshoot. root@octopi:/boot# systemctl enable octoprint2 Synchronizing state of octoprint2.service with SysV service script with /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install. Executing: /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable octoprint2 update-rc.d: error: cannot find a LSB script for octoprint2 i have not issues with starting the service, i have to do it everytime i reboot the pi , but how can i add it to start automatically hope you can help me thanks :)

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. It looks like one of the previous copy commands may have failed.

[@kearo]

@@3DPrintscape i did all the commands without copy paste , but still having the same issue

[@3DPrintscape]

@@kearo Did any of the commands actually come back failed , they could have been ran but with issues.

[@chrisjackson954]

when I enter the systemctl enable octoprint2 I get nothing like it shows just another line see below root@octopi:/etc/systemd/system# systemctl enable octoprint2 root@octopi:/etc/systemd/system# everything up to this step is fine

[@3DPrintscape]

Hi. That output looks normal. If there was an issue it would come back saying path not found or something along those lines.