Wireless connection solution?

I have purchased a FlashForge Creator Pro some time ago and I need to find some sort of wireless connectivity solution to it.
The thing is I am not home all the time and I want to keep an eye on the printing process and be able to cancel it remotely if something goes wrong.
I already installed an old ip camera that gives me a great angle over the build plate.. but its not enough.

• I thought about an Eyefi WiFi SD Card but it doesn't give me direct control I can get via USB cable. I maybe can sync it with my computer and transfer my gcode files to it, but I still have to be there to manually start/stop the printer.
• Get a Smart Socket - gives me the ability to remotely shutdown the printer. But its not a safe shutdown. Just cutting off the power and I don't want to damage the printer.
• A USB cable can't reach that far and I don't want a whole cable to run through my apartment. So maybe some sort of a WiFI USB "cable"? Sounds stupid.
• Get a laptop? not really an option atm.

Suggestions anyone? :confused:

Forget the USB. Pick up the RS232 Tx and Rx lines and feed them to a Moxa serial to ethernet.

There are USB <> ethernet but I have no experience with them.

suggest you pick up a raspberry pi2 and run octoprint.
you can feed your rpi2 with either eithernet or wifi
you can setup a usb cam and there are free android apps that let you control your printer and view the camera
working great for me
edit : just make sure to install the gpx plugin
if you use slic3r you can go right from slic3r to the printer/octoprint
if use use simplify3d, you can just turn off generate .x3g and save the gcode to your desktop and then drag and drop to your octoprint browser session.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mjolinor

Forget the USB. Pick up the RS232 Tx and Rx lines and feed them to a Moxa serial to ethernet.

There are USB <> ethernet but I have no experience with them.

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But my printer does not have a RS232 output only USB.. or there is another way?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ffvader

suggest you pick up a raspberry pi2 and run octoprint.
you can feed your rpi2 with either eithernet or wifi
you can setup a usb cam and there are free android apps that let you control your printer and view the camera
working great for me
edit : just make sure to install the gpx plugin
if you use slic3r you can go right from slic3r to the printer/octoprint
if use use simplify3d, you can just turn off generate .x3g and save the gcode to your desktop and then drag and drop to your octoprint browser session.

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Will it work with Makerbot slicer? Where I bought my FFCP did not provide me even an option to purchase Simplify3D and I tried only Makerbot.

There is a huge long thread about using Octoprint that aoyu should read. It is probably the easiest solution if it does what you need.

Inside your printer there are two Atmega processors, one for the printer functions and one small one (8U2 or 16U2) that only handles USB <> RS232. It is possible to pick up the TX and RX lines off the motherboard and use a serial port to talk to the printer if you wanted to, people do this when the Atmega for serial control goes knackered (as mine has).

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mjolinor

There is a huge long thread about using Octoprint that aoyu should read. It is probably the easiest solution if it does what you need.

Inside your printer there are two Atmega processors, one for the printer functions and one small one (8U2 or 16U2) that only handles USB <> RS232. It is possible to pick up the TX and RX lines off the motherboard and use a serial port to talk to the printer if you wanted to, people do this when the Atmega for serial control goes knackered (as mine has).

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Thank you for the help! I sure check this out.

install teamviewer, free utility that will give you total remore control over your computer - from anywhere and pretty much any device.

It's free, it doesn't go through a 3rd party server and it works brilliantly. (even with linux :-) )

It's what i use for remote support for my clients.
www.teamviewer.com

It's hilarious that mj's first thought is to whip out his soldering iron and start attacking the computer motherboard. Particularly when the seril headers are still included on motherboards. If you want a physical serial port you can just buy one and plug it in. No soldering required.
Even the latest boards I use still have serial connectors - you just don't get the cable and socket in the box.

But in your case, teamviewer is most likely the better bet.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by curious aardvark

install teamviewer, free utility that will give you total remore control over your computer - from anywhere and pretty much any device.

It's free, it doesn't go through a 3rd party server and it works brilliantly. (even with linux :-) )

It's what i use for remote support for my clients.
www.teamviewer.com

It's hilarious that mj's first thought is to whip out his soldering iron and start attacking the computer motherboard. Particularly when the seril headers are still included on motherboards. If you want a physical serial port you can just buy one and plug it in. No soldering required.
Even the latest boards I use still have serial connectors - you just don't get the cable and socket in the box.

But in your case, teamviewer is most likely the better bet.

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Not an option when the Atmega serial is stuffing the main processor though, you have to stop that first.

Nowt wrong with a physical solution, life is not software. :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by 3dcrgr

Will it work with Makerbot slicer? Where I bought my FFCP did not provide me even an option to purchase Simplify3D and I tried only Makerbot.

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If makerbot slicer exports gcode (not .xg3) then yes it would work because the gpx plugin on the octoprint server will convert it to .xg3 and send it to your printer.

Not sure i would suggest team view or hardware mod (not that i have a problem with hardware mod's - but the octoprint approach is much safer and easier)

if you use teamviewer, you are still susceptible to pc crashes, loosing interet. etc.
depending on your skills with a soldering iron you may or may not want to mess with that, i was originally going to go that route until i discovered the octoprint route and since my local pc store had rpi2's for $29 i figured what the heck.
I'm happy with that method because it allows me remote control of my printer, while viewing it through a web cam and i can shut my pc off at night and just let my printer and print server do all the work.
bonus i got to print an rpi2 case :)

well if the pc crashes - the print stops anyway.
And even a raspberry pi can crash - it's a computer.

The quickest, cheapest and simplest way - my three standard criteria - is teamviewer.

Sorry if I'm late to the discussion; I found out this is the correct forum where everyone talks about Flashforge / Makerbot clones (I have a CTC). I've had success using Astroprint (http://astroprint.com). It's still being developed and doesn't seem as advanced as Octoprint, but between the two, it's the one that effortlessly installed for me on a Raspberry Pi. Acts as a go-between your printer and pc, and you can easily monitor the prints via webcam wireless and print from wherever.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cjalas

Sorry if I'm late to the discussion; I found out this is the correct forum where everyone talks about Flashforge / Makerbot clones (I have a CTC). I've had success using Astroprint (http://astroprint.com). It's still being developed and doesn't seem as advanced as Octoprint, but between the two, it's the one that effortlessly installed for me on a Raspberry Pi. Acts as a go-between your printer and pc, and you can easily monitor the prints via webcam wireless and print from wherever.

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Actually this is exactly the sort of thing I have been looking for.
But it pretty expensive. :eek:

Astroprint to my knowledge is free?

If you have a Raspberry Pi, you can install the Astroprint firmware onto SD card. Follow the instructions on their website, it's pretty simple to setup. You don't need a monitor or keyboard or mouse just insert a properly formatted SD card with the Astroprint software, connect to the WiFi Access Point it creates and go from there.

still seems unnecessarily complicated.
if the printer is already connected to a networked computer. Why add another computer into the mix instead of using the existing one with free software ?

i would say because the rpi uses 5v, where as most peoples laptops and pc's and monitors use much more.
so it's more energy efficient. it's also set up for a dedicated task. so you can set it and forget it and go and do other things with your laptop or pc.
and if you need to you can shut it down, reboot it. etc all while your print is unaffected because it has a dedicated device.

What ffvader said. Also you run it headless and it can be portable enough to fit into the 3d printer housing if need be. I have mine attached to the outside, and run the 5v power off the printer's psu (using a 24vdc to 5vdc usb adapter). Sweet, simple, low power and effective. Now if only Astroprint would add more features.... meh.

okay - sounds good.

I tend to forget that other peopel donm't have a workshop full of pc bits. It's generally quicker and cheaper for me to build a pc for a job than mess around with raspberry pi's - particularly as I;ve never managed to get my pi to display a picture on anything other than our telly.
If I ever could get it to work I;m sure I;d use it for something.