Skip to main content

Manual Raspberry Pi Installation

If you want to install AutoFarm3D on a Raspberry Pi, follow these instructions!

1. What you'll need

ItemMinimum Specs
Raspberry Pi 42 GB RAM
MicroSD card16GB, Class 10 Rating. Maximum 64 GB
Raspberry Pi 5V power supply3 Amps
USB or SD to MicroSD adapternone
Ethernet cablenone

2. Load Software Onto SD Card

Caution

Formatting your card erases all data on the SD card. Make sure you have backed up any important files before proceeding.

2.1 Format SD Card

  1. Insert the micro SD card into your computer.
  2. Install and open SDCard.org SD card formatter (download here)
  3. Format your card using the "Quick Format" option.
Why we recommend using the SDcard.org formatter

Your computer likely has a built-in SD card formatter, but they can be unreliable, especially if the SD card previously contained a Linux file system. The SDcard.org SD Card Formatter produces identical results on Mac and Windows computers, and works on any SD card, regardless of what file system it contains.

2.2. Choose Software

  1. Download AutoFarm3D for Raspberry Pi (First time user) or (Existing user).
  2. Install and open Raspberry Pi Imager (download here), use v1.8.5 or newer.

pi config

  1. Click ‘Choose Device’ and choose “Rasberry Pi 4”.
  2. Click ‘Operating System’ and select ‘Use custom’.
  3. Select the AutoFarm-x.x.x.img file you downloaded from our website. If it is in a .zip file, please extract it first.
Can't unzip the file?

Mac computers sometimes have issues unzipping large files. For a fix, please follow this guide.

  1. Click “Choose Storage” and select the SD card you have formatted from previous stage.
  2. Click Next.

continue to delete data

2.3 Network Configuration

Raspberry Pi Imager will prompt for “Use OS Customization”, choose No.

os customization settings

Custom username and password

Do not set a custom username for your Pi - AutoFarm3D wont boot! Your username must be exactly pi

You may, however, set a custom password. As long as the username is pi, it'll boot up fine.

2.4 Write to SD card

  1. Click ‘SD Card’ and select your SD card.
  2. Select ‘Write’ and wait until it's finished. Writing to the SD card may take up to 15 minutes.
Caution

This process will delete all data on the selected SD card. Make sure you select the correct SD card!

If you have other SD cards or USB flash drives plugged into your computer that contain important files, to prevent accidents, you may want to temporarily eject any drives you don't want to accidentally overwrite.

3. Plug Everything In

  1. Make sure the Pi is turned off and unplugged.
  2. Insert SD card.
  3. Connect a USB cable from your Pi to your 3D printer (if using a network-enabled printer e.g. Bambu Lab, skip this step)
  4. Connect an ethernet cable from your router to the Pi (unless using Wifi).
  5. Connect the power supply. Your Pi should power on and begin booting up.

4. Log in to AutoFarm3D

4.1 Finding Your IP Address​

When the Print Farm Hub successfully boots and connects to the internet, you will need to find its IP address.

To find your IP address, we recommend using Angry IP Scanner. To begin, please download and run the appropriate installer.

Download for Windows

Download for Mac - Intel

Download for Mac - M1/M2

Once installed, you should see this:

Angry IP Screen

Simply click the “Start” button and wait until scanning is complete (approx. 60sec). Once it is complete, click close.

Angry IP Scanning Complete

Look for "Raspberrypi.home" in the Hostname column

Tip

You can search for the above by using ctrl+f on Windows or cmd+f on Mac, and can sort the column by clicking “Hostname” then “Sort by Hostname.”

Once you have found the IP address, you can proceed to 4.2!

‍If you are having issues finding the IP or unsure if your Print Farm Hub is functioning correctly, please see our Network Troubleshooting Page.

4.2 Log in From Your Browser

  1. On your computer, open a browser and enter the IP address followed by “:8080”. You should now see the 3DQue login screen.
  2. Sign in to your AutoFarm3D account. If you don't have an account, please create one.

log in

5.0 Next Steps

Check out our Tutorials to learn how to use AutoFarm3D!