Introduction: Raspberry Pi Upside Down Mount for 3D Printing

About: Engineer, Clemson grad, writer, maker of random contraptions for fun and profit.

After installing Octoprint and setting it up with my 3D-printer, I needed a way to mount everything on a wire rack that I got from Amazon. Also, I wanted a way to hold and properly aim a Raspberry Pi camera. What I came up with, I'm quite pleased with, so check out the video to see the story.

If you like the coolant hose concept, this could certainly be applied in other situations, and the zip-ties make it quite versatile. As set up here, it slides along the rack, giving it another aiming axis for observing 3D prints.

Step 1: Print and Assemble

All things considered, this build is pretty simple, though you'll need to have a tap available to cut threads, as well as some way to press the end of the coolant hose into the 3D-printed base.

Parts required:

Tools:

  • 4-40 tap/tap handle
  • Vise or other pressing aparatus

As designed, all screw holes are 4-40, but the RPi has 2.5mm mounting holes, the camera has 2.2mm holes. This will require some manipulation so that the 4-40 screws will fit properly.

Step 2: Enjoy!

Mount everything to the rack as shown, and you can now position your Raspberry Pi camera for filming and remote print monitoring. I'm quite happy with how it turned out, and have been using it successfully with octoprint. You can see a time-lapse of one of my prints at the end of the project video.

Thanks for reading. If you'd like to see some of my other projects, be sure to check out my YouTube page here.