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What if you could combine an SD card with an ESP8266 Wifi module? Well, the idea is that it would give you full remote access to the contents of your SD card - while it's in your 3D printer! Let's find out if that's enough to make it a viable alternative to a full-blown OctoPrint setup.
SD-Wifi on Aliexpress go.toms3d.org/SDWifi
BTT SD Cloud on Aliexpress go.toms3d.org/BTTWifi
Products shown
Prusa MK3 go.toms3d.org/PROOSHAA/
Raspberry Pi for OctoPrint go.toms3d.org/RPi4
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I have no words anymore after watching the intro 😮
You're up next!
@@MadeWithLayers Wait... you're going to shave him?!?! 😯
@@MadeWithLayers Maybe we should start a just giving page for his favourite charity. There's a tenner here to watch a live stream of Stefan getting a buzz cut.
My god what have I just witnessed. Who is this new presenter???
@@shadow7037932 Only the upstairs... we hope...
That surprise DIY haircut was hilarious, and so smoothly transitioned into! 😂 Nice one Tom
Wasn’t a surprise anymore 😬
@@laukan hehe
I wonder how many takes he needed for this to look smooth :D
I wasn't ready for that!
4:44 Epic Linus moment
That reminds me Linus too :DDD
oh my gosh i was thinking the same thing when i saw it and went to comment and saw this! lol!
Thomas Print Tips
What if, it's a new bane of 2021? Linusviridae!
He's out Linus'd Linus
like the new haircut Tom 👌😎 and excellent explanations for the adapter
his old hair was fine... at least his old hair want unkempt.
You could try soldering a decent capacitor onto the board: makes esp's a lot more stable from brownouts
Definitely.
100uF is not decent enough? Just asking, seeing the schematics at 4:23. Albeit I would add a 0u1, I don't think anything bigger than 330 or 470uF would be very safe for the 3.3V source.
A 330uf might help
I still find it hillarious that Thomas makes advertisements for a coffee brand he and anyone else in Europe can't get. I know, lot's of US Americans are probably watching, but still.
if they'll pay him to make videos I don't care if they only sell to Martians
@@RoamingAdhocrat Good point.
Maybe it's better for us? I surely would have spent money for that. It seems that we have to order our next load at a competitor who will profit that way from their campaign *mmmmhhh, coffee*
Well, i mostly drink tea, so yeah, i don't Care Btw: Ich mag deinen Namen 😂
Similar SD wifi cards have been around a while, and are used by digital photographers to save them swapping out the SD cards from their SLRs and to obtain immediate backups as soon as the photo is taken
Yes, and the camera can upload photo's to a PC with a proper driver setup. But it doesn't work the other way around. These wifi-cards are not in any listening mode. Won't work in a printer.
Tom, best video ever!!! Started cutting mid sentense. Bravo for shock factor!
One of the most impressive videos I've seen in years - great action with the haircut, looks good and totally surprised me. You're really one of the best KZheadrs ever - I think it's so likeable that you don't cut out your "errors" - that gives the whole thing something so human and I'm doing so all the time, who doesn't. By the way, I learned 3D printing with you. I celebrate almost every video.
I bought 3 ESP8266 last year and they're a lot of fun, but since then Ive literally have had this very similar idea. Great video glad someone did it. Thanks!!
so i was going to comment "nice quarantine hair tom" and then the video took a weird turn
Tom straight up meltdown like Nick Avocado 😂
Thanks for converting to "US Floor" numbers... That made me chuckle out loud.
I put a Toshiba FlashAir 64GB in my Prusa i3 Mk3, configured it to be a wireless network drive, works great because I never have to take it out of the printer to add/delete/etc. the files on it. The Prusa does have a FlashAir setting in it's configuration but it can lose track of what files are there when you add/delete some, so my workaround is to make a subdirectory for each project in the root, and in that subdirectory a directory called 'refresh', so I can navigate into 'refresh' then back out again and the file list is fully refreshed. I couldn't get a smaller sized FlashAir, but the printer has no issues with it formatted to FAT32. With so much extra space I put it to good use by storing a backup of my 3D project files I work on, zipped & split into 1GB file sizes.
Toshiba don't make the FlashAir cards any more. In fact they spun off their whole solid state division into a new company KIOXIA and they're not making the FlashAir. The primary market for the cards was killed off by cameras and the like having WiFi added to them. They're still available in a lot of places, but not long term.
@@_Piers_ Oh no, thanks for the heads-up, I'll grab a couple more whilst they're still available because it's such a useful feature I'm sure I'll need one or two in years to come.
I normally skip the ad reads, but because of your haircut I think you earned me watching the whole thing. Hair looks great by the way!!
Guy just whips out the buzz cutter and goes to town! Been in love with you and your content since finding it recently. Keep it up! New haircut looks really good btw! It suits you
Looks like a Toshiba FlashAir but with extra steps (and the FlashAir works flawlessly in my Prusa Machines)
How do you do this? I am wanting to know in case I can't get this card. Thanks
Pop the FlashAir card into an SD card reader in your PC, edit the configuration file in the root of the card with a text editor to add your WiFi details, pop it in the printer, done. Has worked great for me for several years as well.
Yeah, I've spend the whole video trying to figure out how is this different to the FlashAir card I was using for the last two years.
Can confirm that Toshiba WiFi cards are working fine now. There were bugs in older MK3 firmwares though.
This is a very specific filming idea, but it would be neat to grab a cup of coffee at 3:18 right as the ad ends and take a sip. It looked great in my head. Another great video Tom!
They’ve been doing this on Toshiba’s flash air for a while now.
Exactly what I was thinking, I've had a flash air for over a year now
@@PewpewFiah the flash air is more reliable but a pain to set up. Chris Riley has a really good video on how to set it up for a printer. I use one in my F150 in USB port 2 in my Sync module. Hit remote start and transfer music while it’s warming up.
Agreed on this. I have been using a Toshiba FlashAir W-04 for a few years now with very good results. My motivation was to keep the power fault protections of the Prusa that octoprint couldn't provide. This all being said, I have two friends who tried the same card and couldn't get it to work. YMMV.
I've not been able to buy a FlashAir for any reasonable price lately. Seems they are out of production. I think this would be a nice stop-gap solution. Escpecially since you can flash the ESP8266 to add more feature and maybe make it FlashAir compatible.
@@JohanBloemberg I just looked at the going price on Amazon. Wow! I paid much, much less two years ago. At these prices, I might give this kind of hack a try. It should be noted that the Toshiba card performance is much faster than what Thomas is experiencing. I'm happy I got mine before they were discontinued.
That thumbnail though... Tom with short hair + a goatee = Half Life 3 alternative?
He looks 10 years older
I got a Walter White/Heisenberg vibe from it
At first i thought it was the return of techno viking
Like the concept of this, and Loving the new hair cut Tom.
Love the hair. Should have cut CNC logo into the back lol. Stefan your move.
Man, so unfortunate that Tom doesn't have a logo for me to cut into my hair...
Look at the "Stuff Made Here" KZhead channel for a CNC hair cut robot !
@@CNCKitchen You'll simply have to cut out his profile picture instead!
I'd pay money to watch you have @toms3dp cut in to you hair. Maybe you could engineer a 3d printed solution.
It looks to me like it has the potential to improve a lot with software updates. Maybe it can even buffer data from the point the printed read onwards, so it can keep feeding data to the printer while it writes new data. The cherry on top would be to connect the printer's serial port to the ESP and be able to control it through WiFi.
love the new vlogging style!!
He's becoming more and more like Linus, all in this video 1. Nice new hairstyle 2. "you know what else" - segue 3. Drops the object the video is about Might rename your channel to Toms drop tips
For the perfect Linus he also needs to shill fake products and promote Indigogo scams.
It's that KZhead stress
danke für deine ehrlichkeit! super review.
Best. Intro. Ever! Nice job on the cut.
Thanks for the review! I ordered such a thing a bit ago (did not arrive yet). I ordered it although I actually have ocoprint running... kind of running... an issue sometimes heard of are buffer underflows which cause the printer sometimes to pause and create blobs in the print. It started occurring for me at some point after octoprint worked flawlessly for many prints. I didn't have time (and mood) for bugfixing yet, so I went back to moving the card between printer and computer. I was hoping for more speed than you measured. Still it is faster than uploading to SD via octoprint I guess...
I used to use one of those EZ Share type cards to upload RAW images from my Canon 60D directly to the internet using my cell phone as WIFI. It ate battery but it could still do it reliably. They even had a site to manage the card. This may work better with a different chip and an external antenna depending on the home layout.
I was seriously like "The shaggy look works for him" and then.... lol
shaggy hair is usually a little messy and long his was tidy.
That intro was amazing!
Great video today and nice hair cut! A note on the SD cable adapter. Be careful not to bend this cable too much. Had 2 of mine die because of the way I was using it.
I have been using a Toshiba FlashAir card for a couple years on my MK3 and have had no issues. It transfers quite slow but gcode isn't usually large anyway. No issues setting it up or any bugs. You can also upload to it at any time. EDIT: Seems like the FlashAir cards have gotten very expensive. I found a few alternatives but not sure how well they work.
Wow. Totally was like "Who is this guy" (new to 3d printing so finding vids) and then ALL OF A SUDDEN clippers and buzzing and cutting. Lol. Instant subbed. Awesome video.
Daumen hoch für diese geile Aktion
Digging that shirt... New channel options? Thomas Styles and 3d printing. Home haircut hints are a bonus!
Didn't expect that. Made my day. 👏
Nice haircut Tom 👌👌. I use the same method and call it "low maintenance mode" 😎🤓
YOOOOO Very nice camera angle you got there good Sir
Dude respect 4 that hair treatment! It actually looks really good! You should consider keeping that style. Also nice detailed review on a very interesting piece of tech.
Great hair cut. But this might the first time I'm really missing something in the video. I see why you're comparing it with octoprint, but wouldn't be a comparison with commercial WiFi2SDcard adapters more reasonable? If I remember correctly something like a FlashAir is even supported by Prusa's firmware. And yes - I'm aware that those adapter do cost more than $10.
Been using a Toshiba FlashAir for years, and it's excellent. Mounts as a drive on my PC, so I can slice straight to it. Even explicitly supported in Prusa FW.
They don't make the FlashAir cards anymore, so supplies will start to run short (...and/or prices will skyrocket)
Even though I am not going to use this for my 3D Printer, I do appreciate this video, because I have been looking for a similar solution to get the data off of the SD card in my CPAP machine. I just bought one of these, and I am going to experiment to see if I can read the data off of the SD Card while it is inserted into the machine on my computer. This will save me taking out the SD Card, putting it in the PC, copying the data, and then putting the card back in the machine every day.
One way I've might have approached this type of device design would have been too use the ESP32 instead, it can support the high speed SD card interface, then emulate the SD storage to the printer over SPI on the ESP. With dual cores, may even be possible to have dedicated threads for SD-to-NAS and the printer-to-SD.
Wow! I was thinking of how I could do this in my car entertainment system so I no longer need to remove the card to add movies for the kids! Idk how this popped up, but perfect timing! Thank you!
This solutionis way too slow to transfer movies, as well as a ~20MB size limit which makes copying media impossible. Other SD cards with wifi built-in exist, but not at this price.
Lol, saved me from trying this out and being disappointed. Will do some research for sure before selecting a solution. Thank you! Maybe will use this for something else.
Nice, funny actually had one and use it pretty much as you described. With an older resin SLA printer that cannot use with octoprint anyway. It means don't have to swap mini SD card in and out. I used a buck converter off the printer main PSU to power the ESP8266.
I had to watch part of the video three times after realizing that I stopped listening and was just staring at his hair. :-D Well done!
New Haircut looks really great! ;)
Hi interesting video packed with some useful info, for me the card looks like it will be enough for my needs, so I just ordered one, but a quick question I noticed that with the card plugged into your printer you have the USB cable connected, did you just not remove it after programming or is this needed to power the board? or will it get enough power from just being plugged into the micro SD card slot? thanks in advance Alan
It's a novel idea, and a bit more drop-in than Octoprint. But the reason I use Octoprint is for monitoring, progress reports (push notifications), webcam & etc. So doesn't really do the job for me. Would be useful for things like older Sailfish based printers (e.g. Wanhao Duplicator 4), but it's a small used case!
I've been tinkering on something similar with an ESP32, but I quickly decided that rather than intercepting the SD card, I want to connect through serial and use the M20-M30 commands to save files to SD and then print from them from SD. You could already do this with an USB cable (so you can turn off the host computer), the ESP part would just make it wireless and slightly more like a low-budget octoprint alternative, being able to control it remotely and from multiple devices.
I've been using a Toshiba FlashAir card in my FlashForge for a few years. It works but it took some light coding but I can add and remove files through a web browser. Pretty sure it was in the $40 dollar range though.
That haircut,I think the lockdowns have made you a little crazy tom. Thank you for sharing this video,I shall give the sd wi-fi a try.
Note to self, set up octorprint sometime. That being said I don't have that much need, wifi in the attic is pretty unstable, so it's often faster just to grab the sd card. Some sort of monitoring would be nice but also not really needed. Running up and down the stairs really doesn't hurt me anyway, I can preheat in the meantime
It can actually work very well if you combine it with ESP3D (and probably an ip camera which can be an old smartphone).
Toshiba sells the „FlashAir wireless SD card“ for years and its working flawless with my prusa MK3S for over a year now. It looks like a normal SD card without any exposed electronics.
Been lurking awhile, intro got me to subscribe lol
I had thought that this might be great for my old anycubic photon but the file size limitation breaks that use case - resin files, particularly with antialiasing, are hundreds of megs. The photon does have an ethernet port and you can connect it and push print jobs to it over the network, but it is very slow. Edit to clarify: The photon supports an SD card if you solder some pin headers to the board and connect it, and have firmware that allows it to work. There is also a virtual networked usb stick project you can build with a raspberry pi zero for the photon, which probably works great but i haven't tried it.
Been using a Toshiba FlashAir Wi-Fi SD card for years now. A little harder to setup, but works flawlessly.
Oh what, im from the Hudson Valley. I really wasn't expecting to hear that hahaha
So I actually found this device super interesting, not really for my 3d printer but for other things that moving the sd around would be inconvenient, so thanks for that. I would note, even though it's not recommended at all, Octoprint does work (albiet slowly) on the Pi Zero W which is $10. While admittedly that's not a great option, I think it would be better then this device.
Oh god the wobbly camera is back !
Way to go, Tom! I cut my hair just that way a couple of months ago... I went for a whole year without a haircut.
Me too. I was literally rocking the exact same haircut as Tom, and not I have the same exact haircut as him afterwards because I was so fed up with having my long hair fall on my face.
Great haircut! Cool device review as well... 😉
And, here I was just cruising through my day, watching some 3d printer vids, feeling a bit bored.. then bam! instant haircut! That was hilarious! lol
Searched this a few days ago. Did not find that. Found the bigtree things, but was not sure if it will work, as my MP Select Mini is pretty picky about the SD Cards. Thanks for the tip and the test.
Great video watched it from beginning to end. The ESP8266 has finally here for the 3D printer masses. Love the idea and fingers crossed they make it Plug and Play very soon. Heck would be nice if it could communicate with software named Home Assistant/ESPhome. PS Whenever I run across a video either presenting something new and interesting or helps me solve a problem I like to buy them a cup a joe. Unfortunately, I looked and you don't have a "buy me a cup of joe" link. Thank you great video.
@Thomas Sanladerer Just a "Quick tip"... ... If You find that You want to calculate how long it takes to a transfer a file with the size is specified using Bytes (as they normally are). But the "transfer speed" is given using "bits" (Mbps, as they normally are). You do not necessarily have to first divide the "transfer speed" with 8 to figure out the "speed" in MegaBytes/s... AND then divide 1MB with that result ((in effect inverting it)) to figure out the time it takes to transfer 1MB...And then multiply that result the size of Your file in MegaByte, to figure out how long it takes to transfer Your file..As You appear to do @10:59 ""You can actually use the old trick"" to take Your "speed" in "Mbits/s", and simply say that it "roughly" takes 8 seconds to transfer the same number of MegaBytes (i.e that is You "MegaByte/8second "speed")...And then if You want to be "Really Specifik" You can divide Your file size (in MegaBytes) with Your "MegaByte/8s" speed, to get the transfer time (roughly) ;) And hence it takes "roughly" 8 seconds to transfer 1MB at 1Mbps--- Because 1MB/(1MB/8s) = 8s... See much simpler ;) Best regards. ... And Yes I'm joking (or at least attempting), as I was a bit "taken aback" @10:59 when Thomas paused (and appeared) to "calculate" how long it took to transfer 1 MB at the speed of 1Mbps "Now... As You were..."
For me the only concern is you need to plug on/off the printer manually (or use a smart plug), but could be a in between solution for people that not want to complicate with octoprint, just to move files or start printings remotely like me (my printer is 2 floors above my desktop).
The video topic had my curiosity - your haircut got my attention!
there's a commercial equivalent to this in the toshiba flashair - it's a LOT faster than the module shown here and by personal experience doesn't have the same issues with random disconnects on windows. I also have octoprint attached to my printer but no longer use it for printing (only diagnostics), as printing from the sd card allows power recovery to work and isn't noticeably slower. unfortunately these are no longer manufactured so you have to lucky to find one
These are very interesting and something I could use outside of 3D printing...especially since I'm VERY new to this. One thing I have been looking to find for a long time (and it might even exist) but that I have not found is a micro USB wifi adaptor that uses wifi to replace the physical USB wire. As far as the printer and PC would be concerned it would appear and operate just as a standard cabled USB connection...just without a physical wire to get in the way. I'm thinking a USB dongle on each end (ie one plugged into a USB port on the PC and the other into the printer), they'd pair and then just show up and work as though they were physically cabled together. This would give all the benefits of a USB connection without any of the distance limitations and would be hugely helpful for way more than just printing. As I said I have been looking for a long time and haven't found anything out there like it, and since I just do not have the skills to make one myself I'm just going to have to keep looking. But if anyone understands what I've described and knows where I can get one I would LOVE to get your input.
I think this would make a good solution for SLA Printers. I use something similar (although more complex) on my Mars Pro already. I will try this and see if it's more reliable than what I have now...
Best video of 2021? At least best intro!
Tshiba makes this in a cleaner package called FlashAir and they work fine as long as you make sure your printer can handle the generation of card (SDHC vs SDXC)
To avoid stairs between desk and printer, create a shared folder on octoprint (or a webdav one) where you copy your files from your desk computer then you transfer the file from octoprint with a sd reader, near your printer.
I think this solution is handy but I think it really shines for SLA printers. With FDM printers, Octoprint is probably the best way to go because it offers so many features, but Octoprint doesn't typically work for an SLA printer. If this ends up working for my Elegoo Mars SLA printer, then we really have something there.
I bet you've got some new subscribers by this video! Gut gemacht Tomas :-)
Thom, another similar option I am using in my prusa the "toshiba airflash" it is an SD card with Wifi, it was created for cameras but also work at least with my prusa mk2.5, I have some years with it but if my remember is correct it cost me like $35 USD (not complety sure) with international shipping
Forgot to tell, the Toshiba airflash can be also put as network disk in Windows (never try with other SO) so you can see it like another USB Disk (for example) but by WiFi xD
I wonder if, possibly after changing some settings in Marlin, you can do the following: First upload the G-Code of the thing you want to print. Then upload a file called "auto0.g" to it, with "M32 P !/[g-code path]#" in it. With how it seems to work, having Marlin poll the SD card to catch the autostart file might interfere with the operation. But even if it doesn't work, this still is is useful for not having to carry SD cards around, but instead uploading the file while you walk to the printer.
thx super cool I always wondered how these wifi sdcards worked (without 3d printers) . specially about the locking part. And you explained this very well!.It even said that marlin was using the sdcard. Maybe you can mount it on a linux server and than share the mount over samba to windows again. Just to stop windows from messing up.
Looked up there is a ton of versions with usb instead that seems like a great tool
Cool haircut. Great analysis of the device. I certainly don't regret having decided to go with OctoPrint already. :-)
My Toshiba Flashair finally started working reliably, but if it gets finicky again I'm so glad there's another option.
I'm glad the camera was working when you did the haircut; it would have taken a while before you could do a "Take 2" 😂
Me seeing the thumbnail: WHO ARE YOU, HOW DID YOU GET TO THIS CHANNEL, AND WHERE IS TOM??? (I dig your new style BTW ❤)
Great haircut!! Completely random. I love it! Great video too.
I'm pretty fine with swapping SD cards on my 3Dprinter, but I think I'm gonna try this thing out in my camera. If I can get this to sync photos off the card over night, I'd be quite happy. I tried an eyeFi card before, but that turned out as a fail because it could only talk to its mobile app.
Thank you so much .I have a flashforrge finder light with no usb so can't do octoprint. now have to wait for my clone to get here but this will help so much ..cheers
I like the new Haircut! You actually look younger now :)
I am using Toshiba WiFi card. There were bugs in older MK3 firmwares, but it is fixed now. Currently no problems.
I noticed this item while watching their build tutorial for their prusa mk3s clone just yesterday! Prefect timing, sir! I'm printing parts for their clone kit now. Their name is Fysetc, definitely not something that makes any sense in English, lol.
This thing is garbage tho of course. Just use octoprint everyone!
This is an interesting consept for other applications as well: If it is possible with USB-adapter, and the file size limit were solved, it would be interesting for my video recorder, to avoid physically moving the USB drive to transfere files to my server. Some stand alone media players use SD/USB. It wouød be nice to update the files for the playlist, without moving the media. The power issue could possibly be solved using the micro-USB connector for extra power. With different firmware on the ESP8266, i see potetial for: - auto transfere new files to server (and remove from SD) - auto transfere new files from server - auto remove old files from SD, after set time, to always have a set minimum free space.
Been looking for something like this. I'm sure octo print is fine, but if you only have a few printers, and even less $$$. This looks like a good option. Also my last sd card read on one of my printer died have pulling and out the card so much.
I appreciate fun hair-cutting moments in the video and not putting click-baity thumbnail on it. Click on the Like button for that well deserved!
The haircut out of nowhere was amazing. There is a trick where you can rename gcode files to jpeg and send them on regular photo wifi SD card to your printer. Just have to make your printer firmware read them as gcode.
4:46 Linus style review, I love it!
This was so popular in photography a few years back but I remember them being much smaller in size
even if it has not yet been thought through/developed i find it very interesting! and: cool new hairstyle!
What brand hoodie is that, I love the look and couldn't figure it out sleuthing through the footage.
This is great! Thanks Thomas!!! Any chance you can explore some solution like this for resin printers? Something that does wifi-to-USB for Mars, Sonic, etc...
I plan to hide my printer away in a closet. So plan A was a simple angled USB extension (90° male to female Type-A) cable plan B: it might be possible to use something like this in the video. Would be great to move files around and being able to create backups from already printed files.