The year 2020 will go down in history as a time of challenges and changes that rocked the planet. While some of those changes and challenges are definitively harder than others, I will say having the chance to work from home is one that I will always appreciate.
While I am here working at home, I have had the chance to go through some of the tech I have hiding in drawers, baskets, and boxes. I have found some products that I realized would be make a pretty cool project. I will put a touch screen on my Prusa MK3S 3D printer.
While the screen is roughly 3 to 4 inches larger than it really needs to be for this application, it is much better I do this with it than let it sit as it races towards obsolescence hidden away in a box.
Now that I think about it, I am also using a Raspberry Pi 4B with 4GB of Ram with a 32GB HCSD card for this project. Perhaps in the future I can set this up to also be a operate as TV box so I can catch some Netflix while I am printing my projects.
In the interest of full disclosure, I have not done anything here that has not been done before. The value I hope to bring to the topic comes in the way of some 3D Models and an easy to use bill of materials.
| Product Image | Product Description |
|---|---|
 |
Capacitive Graphic LCD Display Module Red, Green, Blue (RGB) TFT - Color HDMI, USB 7" (177.80mm) 1024 x 600 |
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BCM2711 Raspberry Pi 4 Model B 4GB - ARM® Cortex®-A72 MPU Embedded Evaluation Board |
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Memory Card microSD™ 32GB Class 10, UHS Class 1 |
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Cable Assembly HDMI-A Male to HDMI-A Male, R/A 6.0’ (1.83m) |
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Adapter Connector HDMI Micro, Plug To HDMI, Receptacle Free Hanging (In-Line) |
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USB 2.0 Cable A Male to Micro B Male, Right Angle 6.00’ (1.83m) Shielded |
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Graphic LCD Display Module Red, Green, Blue (RGB) TFT - Color 7" (177.80mm) 800 x 480 I used a display that I already had at home. This is the official 7" Raspberry pi. I have no doubts that my model can be modified to fit this display as well. |
If you happen to be in need of any the nuts, bolts, washers, or other hardware that I used in this project I will suggest you take a look at the following post:
I do believe this mounting system could be used for many different things. If you are interested printing these items you can directly download the STL files below. If you would like to edit them to suit your own purposes you can do so by making the models your own over at 
Click the arrows to expand each section.
Display mount
Display Bracket Mount.stl (2.2 MB)
Neck and Arms
Printer Button Assembly - Display Neck Mount.stl (984.8 KB)
Printer Button Assembly - Arm 3H_Inset_Center.stl (324.9 KB)
Printer Button Assembly - Arm 3H_Outside.stl (142.3 KB)
Printer Button Assembly - Arm 3H_Inset.stl (226.3 KB)
Printer Button Assembly - Arm 2H_Long.stl (113.6 KB)
Mount on the Right Side
Printer Button Assembly - Bracket Right Top.stl (604.6 KB)
Printer Button Assembly - Bracket Right Bottom.stl (345.0 KB)
Mount on the Left side
Printer Button Assembly - Bracket Left Top.stl (604.6 KB)
Printer Button Assembly - Bracket Left Bottom.stl (345.0 KB)
The instructions below are limited when it comes to assembling the articulating arm. For more detailed instructions visit the post for the Pause / E-stop button linked below.
I used the following YouTube video to walk me through the installation. It did a good job of doing it so I will direct you there if you need it.
Install Octoscreen on Raspberry Pi with 7inch Screen!
These are links to the required downloads and programs to get this up and running.
Notepad ++
https://notepad-plus-plus.org/
Some files will need to be edited to change the settings. Normal text editors remove some of the information in the files that are needed when they save the document. We need to use a program like Notepad ++ to ensure these files are saved correctly and usable by the Octoprint system.
OctoPrint
https://octoprint.org/note
The headless operating system that controls the 3D printer from the Raspberry pi.
WIN32 Disk Imager
https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/files/Archive/
This program will take the Octoprint image and install it on the micro SD card in a way that the Raspbery pi can boot from it.
Putty
https://putty.org/
This is used to communicate with the raspberry pi over an Ethernet connection from your PC. We will use it to install and edit files.
If you are using the same display that I am using, you will need to follow the instructions are in this document.
Octoscreen
https://github.com/Z-Bolt/OctoScreen
You will want to visit this page to get the proper code to install the deb package and its dependencies through putty. There are also configuration instructions available here.
I have found this to be a fairly simple project and the added functionality is wonderful. The touch screen adds a way to easily touch and select models that need to be reprinted and with a couple of touches its up and running.
Happy printing!
Keep an eye out for more of my creations as time goes on and feel free to reply here with creations of your own.
I use Onshape to create most of my designs. If you haven’t given Onshape a shot yet perhaps you should. It is very good at allowing multiple people to make their own iterations of a project and is a real asset while we are social distancing. You can start by editing this file to suit your needs as well as sharing it with a friend. Click below if you would like to learn more about OnShape in general.
The models here can be printed with your preferred 3D printer and filaments. These, as well as almost any electronic component you might need, can be provided by Digi-Key.