Toshiba Flashair SD Card Mapped in Windows

[DaveB]

That's a good catch Scobo. A well positioned factoid in their data sheet, like the very last note on the page...

[scobo]

That's a good catch Scobo. A well positioned factoid in their data sheet, like the very last note on the page...

Yeah I would think that'll catch a lot of folk out.
They should've made that clear in the basic setup guide.

[beerdart]

Thanks Ill look into it..

[ServiceXp]

With the video full screen (via YouTube rather than this forum) I could read the screen text well enough to copy off and key in the missing CONFIG file parameters. Everything is working slick as you please now. I am using the FlashAir with S3D on a QIDI 3D printer and it makes for a very sweet setup. Thank you very much ServiceXP for making and posting your video, it likely saved me hours of frustration.

I did find that having the NOISE_CANCEL=2 line present in the CONFIG file seemed to kill off the FlashAir's wifi connection, but all seems to be perfectly functional without that particular line in there. It's working, so I'm not gonna fix it.

All during this install process I was throughly confused by an SSID issue. Specifically, whose SSID was being referred to by the two entries in the CONFIG file? I finally got it that both the SSID entries (and their password) in the final CONFIG file are the same, and are the one for my home router/access point. I kept thinking they were different, or the FlashAir card's...not so.

You are welcome, I absolutely love the setup, now it's so easy to send prints to my printers right out of S3D.

I ordered a W-03 card but still couldn't get it to connect to my router at first.
I finally figured out the problem, my router was using wifi channel 12 but the flashair only uses channels 1-11 apparently ......
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/p-media/wwsite/flashair.htm
(see bottom of page)
So I switched the router to channel 11 and it's now working great !
Can now save directly to the card from S3D or access it from a mapped drive on the windows desktop.

@beerdart, I suspect this might be the issue you're having too.
Check which wifi channel your router is using and try changing it if it's above 11.

VERY nice catch scobo. I thought I had read that entire pdf, like twice.. :-) I'll add this in the video description.

[DaveB]

I have been using the Toshiba Air card setup with my QiDi for about a year now. I love it. It has been rock solid. HOWEVER, I have one more gold plated caveat to add to the list of Toshiba Air Card "gotchas".

DO NOT attempt to move a file over WiFi onto the Toshiba Air Card that includes an "&" embedded in the file name. Example: "Nuts&Honey".

Windows is fine with this, and the file system on the SD card is fine with this, but the Toshiba code that deals with comms to/from the card goes bats. I seem to recall that DOS utilized the "&" as kind of an "Escape" character, maybe something like that is going on... Anyway, the file save will fail, and the card's "Files" directory will become inaccessible via WiFi. Take the card out and directly access via some SD dongle from your computer to change the filename to one without the offensive "&". All will be well.

I feel like a freaking idiot for not approaching it from the "What was the last thing you did" perspective. Took me about 30 minutes of ripping things apart and incrementally rebuilding it all to get it. I finally got the (in your face) clue when I saved the same file I had been trying to save previously, and everything promptly went straight south in a handbasket once again. Faceplant...

[scobo]

Thanks for the heads-up there. I'll be sure to avoid that one !

[ServiceXp]

I have been using the Toshiba Air card setup with my QiDi for about a year now. I love it. It has been rock solid. HOWEVER, I have one more gold plated caveat to add to the list of Toshiba Air Card "gotchas".

DO NOT attempt to move a file over WiFi onto the Toshiba Air Card that includes an "&" embedded in the file name. Example: "Nuts&Honey".

Windows is fine with this, and the file system on the SD card is fine with this, but the Toshiba code that deals with comms to/from the card goes bats. I seem to recall that DOS utilized the "&" as kind of an "Escape" character, maybe something like that is going on... Anyway, the file save will fail, and the card's "Files" directory will become inaccessible via WiFi. Take the card out and directly access via some SD dongle from your computer to change the filename to one without the offensive "&". All will be well.

I feel like a freaking idiot for not approaching it from the "What was the last thing you did" perspective. Took me about 30 minutes of ripping things apart and incrementally rebuilding it all to get it. I finally got the (in your face) clue when I saved the same file I had been trying to save previously, and everything promptly went straight south in a handbasket once again. Faceplant...

Holy crap that's messed up, It would've taken me days to figure that out.. I've switched both of my printers over to OctoPrint so I've not used the cards in my printers for about 6 months now.

[supertaz]

As a heads-up, Toshiba has released a W-04 version of these cards that has a few new scripting features (mostly useless for most printers, but could be useful if you're running MachineKit, LinuxCNC, OctoPrint, etc. with one of these in it for some reason, or if you've got the resources on your board to run a modified firmware that can leverage them), more resources for the microcontroller (and some flexibility in how they're used), and improved WiFi connectivity. The throughput is 2.9x higher on the WiFi side (again, not a huge issue for most use cases with 3D printing) and the connection itself is stronger and more resilient. They're also designed to leverage UHS-I Class 3 and the SDXC standard (both pretty much completely useless for 3D printers).

Some folks who've had issues with these cards may have been too far from their AP, but the new design should increase the range a little bit when inside a metal box (they say camera body, we say 3D printer, both are a potential issue). The new WiFi engine is specifically designed for better performance in noisy environments, which 3D printers themselves are, as are areas with medium to high population density these days (I can see dozens of networks from some rooms of my house, which is the problem they were solving for).

I'll have one on Friday and expect to have it configured and running by the weekend, if all goes well.

[DaveB]

As a heads-up, Toshiba has released a W-04 version of these cards that has a few new scripting features...
I'll have one on Friday and expect to have it configured and running by the weekend, if all goes well.

Thanks for the update. Good luck!

[DaveB]

As a heads-up, Toshiba has released a W-04 version of these cards that has a few new scripting features...
I'll have one on Friday and expect to have it configured and running by the weekend, if all goes well.

I need to get an aircard for a Folger Tech FT5 printer that I've just acquired. Were you successful at getting the version 4 AirCard working with your 3D printer? By the way, my V3 card does work with both the QiDi Tech 1 and the FT5.