# General re lack of pi's **URL:** \ **Category:** General Discussion\ **Created:** [October 29, 2022, 9:03am UTC](https://klipper.discourse.group/t/general-re-lack-of-pis/4678 "2022-10-29T09:03:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![gene1934](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@gene1934](https://klipper.discourse.group/u/gene1934)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2022, 9:03am UTC](https://klipper.discourse.group/t/general-re-lack-of-pis/4678/1 "2022-10-29T09:03:13Z")
### Basic Information: Printer Model: MCU / Printerboard: `klippy.log` _Fill out above information and in all cases attach your_ `klippy.log` _file. Pasting your_ `printer.cfg` _is **not** needed_ ### Describe your issue: Raspberry Pi’s are now made of pure unobtainium. Can the latest bannana pi BPI-M5 run this?, I have 4 of them coming. I have 2 bigger printers, an ender5plus and a tronxy-400 pro and neither can be made to work with newer hot ends and direct drives with the stock controller and marlin. I cannot set a g1f500z.2 and get .2mm on either. So I also have some of BTT’s latest high voltage (60 volt motor) 8 axis boards, displays and 5160 drivers coming. And some SSR’s to control bed warming power from a 5kw 2/1 transformer giving 63 volts to heat beds as they are both very slow heating on 24 volts. The tronxy is about 12 minutes from room to 80C. And I eventually want to hook up the accelerometer on both printers. Please advise of any gotcha’s the above will generate. ;o)\> Take care & stay well folks. Cheers, gene1934 ---
**Author:** ![gene1934](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@gene1934](https://klipper.discourse.group/u/gene1934)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2022, 9:08am UTC](https://klipper.discourse.group/t/general-re-lack-of-pis/4678/2 "2022-10-29T09:08:43Z")
I forgot to add that I am a CET and can probably contribute to the electronics knowledge here, once I get these printers running… Cheers, gene1934 ---
**Author:** ![mykepredko](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/klipper.discourse.group/mykepredko/32/2085_2.png) [@mykepredko](https://klipper.discourse.group/u/mykepredko)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2022, 3:08pm UTC](https://klipper.discourse.group/t/general-re-lack-of-pis/4678/3 "2022-10-29T15:08:28Z")
Where are you looking for rPis? I’m seeing more places where they are in stock (especially rPi 4s) - prices are quite high, but they are available. To be fair, the stock of rPi Zeros seem to have been seriously depleted in the past few months and their prices are skyrocketing. One trick to getting a rPi 4 is to look at a vendor’s supply of “kits” (which includes a case, power supply, etc.) - you may not need that, but the price over a rPi by itself isn’t that much. Remember to look for the kit with the smallest SD card as I find they will really soak you on SD cards. You’re much better off getting them somewhere like Staples or Best Buy. There are many vendors on Amazon and AliExpress that have rPi boards. Personally I lean toward AliExpress as they have a tighter rein on their vendors and I haven’t had the same problems with “mistakes” as with Amazon vendors. Good luck! ---
**Author:** ![Sineos](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/klipper.discourse.group/sineos/32/18_2.png) [@Sineos](https://klipper.discourse.group/u/Sineos)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2022, 4:24pm UTC](https://klipper.discourse.group/t/general-re-lack-of-pis/4678/4 "2022-10-29T16:24:39Z")
Basically every halfway modern SBC will work unless it is very exotic. I’m running Klipper on a RPi 3b and on an OrangePi 3 LTS. Issues you might be experiencing is not from the SBC but from the Linux distribution running on it. Unlike Raspberry, all of them have only a small community and often the distributions provided by the manufacturers are crap. E.g. on my OPi the WiFi sooner or later crashes forcing a reboot. Luckily I can run it via ethernet, which is stable. What kind of topics to be expected is hard to tell but most likely: - Stability - GPIO support - I2C support - SPI support The last 3 items can easily be worked around by using a Raspberry Pi Pico, which is rock solidly supported by Klipper. In doubt, I would at least choose an alternative that has an active maintainer in the armbian community. ---
**Author:** ![gene1934](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@gene1934](https://klipper.discourse.group/u/gene1934)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2022, 5:11pm UTC](https://klipper.discourse.group/t/general-re-lack-of-pis/4678/5 "2022-10-29T17:11:28Z")
Unforch, that doesn’t answer my question. which was, will it run on a banana pi BPI-M5 with 4gigs of dram, probably running armbian’s version of debian sid. I have 2 rock64’s running octoprint on that distro now, but they were new in 2016, and their video suffers horrible trash in the video from net or usb traffic. rpi3b’s &4b’s don’t. And the bpi’s out usb the rpi4b as all usb ports are usb3. I have half a terabyte of drives plugged into that pi, and its a full blown developer station for linuxcnc, Complete with a realtime kernel I built on it. rpi4b 4G and 8G kits start here right at $300 USD, a far cry from the $70 I paid for that rpi4b w/2G’s 4 years ago that has been running my 11x54 Sheldon lathe, one of 4 CNC machines I’ve built, but the BPI’s are only $89 USD. And I’ve already got the 5v 5a supplies to run them. And I’m probably capable of fixing any reasons it might not run. They won’t be here for another couple weeks, and I should probably round up some heat sink kits & small SSD’s. I can print boxes for them that can include fans once I get my prusa running again. Its mosquito hot end is leaking. Thank you, take care & stay well Myke Predko Cheers, Gene Heskett. ---
**Author:** ![gene1934](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3d9bf3/32.png) [@gene1934](https://klipper.discourse.group/u/gene1934)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2022, 5:35pm UTC](https://klipper.discourse.group/t/general-re-lack-of-pis/4678/6 "2022-10-29T17:35:19Z")
> Basically every halfway modern SBC will work unless it is very exotic. I’m running Klipper on a RPi 3b and on an OrangePi 3 LTS. > > Issues you might be experiencing is not from the SBC but from the Linux distribution running on it. Unlike Raspberry, all of them have only a small community and often the distributions provided by the manufacturers are crap. E.g. on my OPi the WiFi sooner or later crashes forcing a reboot. Luckily I can run it via ethernet, which is stable. > > What kind of topics to be expected is hard to tell but most likely: > > - Stability > Has been excellent with the rock64’s > - GPIO support > Is a question mark. On the rpi’s, a professor in Sweden wrote the SPI > driver code that runs at > 41 out, 25 back in, both in megabaud on either pi. And it Just Works. > Uses 3 pins of gpio. And a > very short transmission line about 4 cm long. > - I2C support > you use that? I’ve only tangled with one i2c, and found that a cable 1 > foot longer than i2c specs did not work. > I’m a retired broadcast engineer, and a CET, I understand VSWR, the i2c > designers obviously do not. > - SPI support > > The last 3 items can easily be worked around by using a Raspberry Pi Pico, which is rock solidly supported by Klipper. > > In doubt, I would at least choose an alternative that has an active maintainer in the armbian community. Thanks Sineos, take care and stay well. Cheers, Gene Heskett.