Wi-Fi SD cards?

[Marius Watz]

Has anyone tried to use a wi-fi SD card (not SDHC) in a Replicator? Would be sooo useful for those days when I'm printing rapid iterations of the same model.

[Marius Watz]

Meant to post a link - this is a sample card that looks like it might work since it's SD-compatible:

http://www.amazon.com/Lexar-Shoot-n-Sync-Wi-Fi-Memory-LSDW2GBACNA/dp/B001JHJY96

[Martin Galese]

I was thinking about this too, but I doubt any of these wifi cards would simulate a FAT (not FAT32) filesystem on them, so I don't think they'd work in the Replicator.

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Martin Galese

[Owen M Collins]

Man if MBI could change that it would open up a lot of possibilities. Or doing something that you could hook it up to an Ethernet hub to send files to it.

O.

[Jeremy Green]

The problem I see is that most of these cards are set up to transfer files from the card to the Internet/computer. They aren't set up to allow you to edit or add files to the card. 

   -Jeremy

[Dan Newman]

Bluetooth <-> USB dongles sell for well below $20 USD. (I'm seeing some listed
for $12.49). You may have better luck going that route albeit with all the downsides
of printing over USB with wireless comms issues on top of it. I recall folks trying
them with Cupcakes back in 2010, but I didn't pay too much attention.

Dan

[Laird Popkin]

Exactly - there's software on the card, and is doing the opposite of what you want.

What the cards do is go into a camera. When the camera writes a file to the SD card, the card connects to WiFi and sends the file somewhere (computer, Flickr, etc., depending on the specific card).

What we want is to be able to send a file over WiFi to the card, so that you can tell the printer to print it. Technically the cards could do it, but I'd guess that the companies that sell the cards don't want people writing their own firmware for the cards.

Another way to do this would be to put a WiFi interface onto the printer, and write some software to (for example) run a very simple server to accept files and write them to the SD card, so that you could then go to the printer and print from the SD card. I think you'd rather print from SD than print from WiFi, because of the timing issues (i.e. printing over WiFi would be worse than printing over USB, which is worse than printing from SD).

- LP

[Tyler Pope]

I'm sure we all transfer programs wirelessly, but it's a big no-no when dealing with g-code programs in manufacturing. Just one missing decimal point or number can cause a million dollar machine to destroy itself. 

I guess my point is that I would rather see a way to transfer a program to the machine and start it all from a wired (USB or Network) computer. Currently RepG sends the program line by line and has caused me problems. So now everything runs off of SD card.

[Luis E. Rodriguez]

Use multiple SD cards. Or just be patient, you have the future on your desktop. :)

I think it would be cooler if slicers were in the cloud (with your profile) and you send a file and receive the gcode to your sd card. I guess that would suck when you don't have an Internet connection but that is crazy talk!

Luis E. Rodriguez

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[Tyler Pope]

Especially since we are going to have Google Fiber in KC soon Luis.

[Whosawhatsis]

I don't know what its storage capabilities are, but the Electric Imp could probably be configured to do this.

[Cymon]

Supposedly the Cube lets you wirelessly send files for print to your printer. Of course I don't know ANYONE who has one. Are they even shipping or are they just a list of bullet points on a website.

[Gary Crowell]

On Mon, Aug 13, 2012 at 9:10 AM, Whosawhatsis <whosaw...@gmail.com> wrote:

I don't know what its storage capabilities are, but the Electric Imp could probably be configured to do this.

It would take some work:

"While the device looks just like and SD card, it's not pin-compatible with the standard -- the idea is to leverage a reliable and affordable connector for the Electric Imp. The module is not very useful on its own -- it only comes to life when inserted into one of several boards, which provide the Electric Imp with power and access to the real world. In turn the device gives these boards a brain and an Internet connection. Eventually the company hopes that appliance manufacturers will incorporate Electric Imp slots into products to make them network aware."

 

----------------------------------------------
Gary A. Crowell Sr., P.E., CID+

Linkedin  Elance  KE7FIZ

[whosawhatsis]

I don't know how "not pin-compatible" it is, but I know that it includes an ARM chip that can be programmed (to some extent) and can be configured for several interface protocols including SPI. Presumably it would be designed so that you could configure it to simulate an SD card, and the contents of the the card could then be replaced by cloud storage.

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[Sean Tu]

The hardware for Ethernet (802.3) and WiFi (at least for 802.11b/g) already exists for the Arduino platform.

If someone really wanted to do this, it should be possible to build something to put in the case. 

I have not gone through much of the firmware running on a ToM or Replicator so I don't know what is still available as far as resources on the Arduino (i.e. what pins are still available), but, I would probably add another processor in the form of a Nano, to hook up the networking hardware and some memory for buffering, and create an independent communications subsystem to latch into the main controller.

There would still be issues that would need to be worked out but it should be possible to feed the GCode over a network. If someone really want's to do this I would suggest looking at how the current setup interacts with the SD card and USB port (kind of a question to Jetty since he's one of the few who may know, kind of wondering if all it's doing is a Serial.read() from the USB or what package it uses for the SD.)

[Shawn]

If/when time permits, I was going to set up a single board computer to
run the printer (I'll probably test it with my Prusa first). The idea
is that I could send a file to the printer, which would load/store the
file locally - just like the SD Card - and then print it when possible.
A simple directory watch routine might do the trick - set up a network
share, configure the bot to watch that directory, and when it sees
anything there it grabs the "next" file, transfers it locally and
continues processing the print. Once done it just repeats the cycle.
Now you could have many printers watching the directory and printing to
a bot farm becomes easy.

BUT, the existing Arduinos that run the various printers are already
fairly taxed in terms of memory and such. A secondary controller would
have to be set up (I think) to utilize the Ethernet/WiFi shields. That
means you need a way to communicate the details to the main controller,
which requires more overhead than I think is available. But I haven't
actually gotten that low level with the printers yet, so I *may* be
talking out of my ass on this.. .:)

Still, I think the Single Board Computer approach would be more flexible
and not too much more expensive.

Shawn

>> Imp with power and access to /the real world/. In turn the device

>> gives these boards a brain and an Internet connection. Eventually
>> the company hopes that appliance manufacturers will incorporate
>> Electric Imp slots into products to make them network aware."
>>
>> ----------------------------------------------
>> Gary A. Crowell Sr., P.E., CID+

>> Linkedin <http://www.linkedin.com/in/garyacrowellsr> Elance
>> <http://www.linkedin.com/redirect?url=http%3A%2F%2Fgaryacrowellsr%2Eelance%2Ecom&urlhash=kJm9>
>> KE7FIZ <http://www.arrl.org>

>>
>>
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[Ward Elder]

How about a Raspberry Pi running Linux. Attach it to your Ethernet and somehow attach it to the TOM/Replicator/CupCake... maybe some sort of SD card emulator running on the Pi?


Thank you,


Ward M. Elder
Eldersoft
42 Appleton St.
Winnipeg, MB
R2G1K5
(204) 791-7754   (Cell)
wa...@eldersoft.ca

[Jamesarm97]

That was my thoughts. I have a pi and would like to make a 3d printer server / buffer. FTP or email the gcode files to and have them available to print.

[Sun]

This should do what OP wanted to do
http://www.eye.fi/

[Sun]

Great, I accidentally hit post again..

I wanted to ask you how long it took for you to receive Raspberry Pi, I really really want one but then at the same time I hate waiting so illogically I'm putting off ordering it.

[Ward Elder]

Once they started to ship I think it took over two months to get mine.  The Allied Electronics page shows a wait time of 12 weeks.

 

Thank you,

 

 

Ward M. Elder

ElderSoft

42 Appleton St.

Winnipeg, MB

R2G1K5

(204) 791-7754   (Cell)

 

wa...@eldersoft.ca

 

From: make...@googlegroups.com [mailto:make...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Sun
Sent: August-14-12 3:07 AM
To: make...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [MakerBot] Re: Wi-Fi SD cards?

 

Great, I accidentally hit post again..

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[Hugh Johnson]

I got one on eBay including an sd card and shipping for $50.

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