[Solved] Wifi USB stick  

RE: Wifi USB stick

Hello,

You need to listen to this first:

RE: Wifi USB stick

I tried a couple of variants. I got furthest with the BigTreeTech SD Cloud. It seems to draw more current than a normal SD card, so was unreliable in the Sidewinder printer I tried it in. It was finicky about when it would switch between SD and wifi modes. Even when it "worked", it was inconsistent in responding to WebDAV requests. I wound up removing it. I haven't played with the Fysetc SD-Wifi version yet, but don't have much higher hopes. They're definitely not for the inexperienced or easily frustrated user. The Toshiba FlashAir was annoying to configure, but worked reasonably well, although it was very expensive. These things don't seem to have been fully thought out.

RE: Wifi USB stick

@adesir

thanks in fact I already watched that video so I thing the device would be fine to me, I just wonder if using it through an usb-sd adapter is enough to get it working. 

@bobstro

thanks for report, I'm exploring alternatives to octoprint as I'm facing issues of serial crash during print.

While checking stuff I tried a USB direct print (which I never used...), I noticed that the quality is better than octoprint as many times I get several print slowdown as octoprint (rpi3a+) gets busy and stops sending gcode for some fraction of seconds (up to a couple of seconds if I transfer a file during print), this leads in bubbles and bad quality object, printing from usb is smooth as probably the gcode feeding is better than octoprint.

Anyone else felt similar behavior?

RE: Wifi USB stick

Assuming it emulates a standard SD card. I see no reason it wouldn't work in a USB to SD card reader. These SD cards with WiFi in them are nothing new. Google Eye-Fi card, they've been around since sometime in the 2005/2010 time frame. I am unsure if the Eye-Fi card allows pushing files back to it, but it works for retrieving files. I did a side job for awhile doing photography and the guy had done a setup with the Eye-Fi cards where the photographer could be out and about doing shots. The Eye-Fi card would transfer the photos back to the PC over wifi where the people who had their photos done could come preview the photo and purchase a print of the photo on the spot. It eliminated needing to have the photographer come back to the kiosk setup for for the preview/printing of photos, and sent the photos over to the PC within a minute or so, rather than having to turn people away because the photographer hadn't returned yet with the SD card that their photo was on.

There also exists another standard for WiFi in SD cards, though likely supported by a limited number of devices, SDIO. This is SD Input/Output. it basically presets an SPI bus in the SD card slot and allows devices to do I/O operations, rather than just data storage. It basically makes the SD slot a generic expansion bus like a PCMCIA/PC card/CF slot. It allowed things like wifi cards, digital cameras and other kinds of I/O expansion. Was popular on PDAs in the early 2000's. I had a Toshiba Windows Mobile PDA that had a SDIO WiFi card that would allow the PDA to be connected to WiFi for things like email/web browsing.

RE: Wifi USB stick

An Eye-Fi card may be a better option considering it probably has more local storage than an ESP emulating an SD card. The Eye-FI cards typically had 4GB of storage that operated just like a normal SD card as far as the host device it was plugged into. The WiFi on it operated completely independently of the device and an application on the PC would monitor for the Eye-Fi card to be on network and whenever it was found the application would start slurping all the photos out of the cards local storage to the PC. I am just unsure if the Eye-Fi cards allow pushing files back to the card itself or if it was a retrieve only solution.

RE: Wifi USB stick

@d0ug

Interetsing option.  I might have to try that on a cheap printer I have that does not have a Pi atatched.  

RE: Wifi USB stick

I just did some googling of Eye-Fi and sounds like they are now defunct as of 2016. Might be able to get the cards for a steal off fleabay. Looks like according to one of the hackaday articles someone has come up with something to emulate their cloud infrastructure. I was unaware these cards required a cloud infrastructure, unless it was only the newer ones. The ones we used with this photo setup were the original ones of 4GB size and they operated completely independently of the internet. We would literally just connect the PC to a wifi router sitting at the kiosk that had no WAN/Internet connectivity. As long as the photographer was within 100ft or so of the kiosk the photos would transfer to the PC.

https://hackaday.com/tag/eye-fi/

RE: Wifi USB stick

@d0ug

Too bad.  Probably too small of a market.

RE: Wifi USB stick

Most of the large manufacturers no longer make them.  

RE: Wifi USB stick

I have been trying to get this to work with the FYSETC device. I used a UGREEN card reader ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01EFPX9XA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1).

It works for direct USB access to the onboard MicroSD. It connects to the WiFi AP, but when I try to access it over the network, I get "Failed to initialize SD Card" as a fake file in the root folder. It's not actually a file, but an error message from the FYSETC.

I think this is because this  USB<>SD Card adapter isn't supplying good power to the device. I tried plugging the adapter into a powered USB hub attached to a PC, to make sure it wasn't a weak USB port and had the same exact result. This is why I think the problem is the UGREEN.

If anyone has a recommendation on a good USB<>SD Card adapter, I'd appreciate it.

I am looking for a powered USB/SDCARD hub but can't find any...

I'm looking at these as possibilities...

https://www.amazon.com/Energizer-ENR-CRP3UNI-Reader-Writer-Black/dp/B00FSXMGME/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Energizer+-+USB+3.0%2F2.0+Memory+Card+Reader&qid=1614004259&sr=8-3

https://www.amazon.com/Sony-MRW-S1-UHS-II-Memory-Reader/dp/B071FJRXGX/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Sony+-+UHS-II+SD+USB+3.1+Gen+1+Memory+Card+Reader&qid=1614008758&sr=8-1

RE: Wifi USB stick

I've reconsidered the situation and have concluded that the USB port is locking up the MicroSD storage, preventing the Wifi module from accessing it.

I tried scraping off the edge of the FYSETC card so that it would register as being write-protected in hopes that the USB port would not lock it for exclusive access. This didn't change anything with respect to the WiFi module gaining access.

I wonder if there is a way to prevent the USB from locking access to the card. It might be that a new firmware needs to be written, or an extra IC placed between the MicroSD card and the SD Card pins.

If you look at all of the USB-WiFi products, 100% of them are USB or WiFi, but never simultaneously. I was hoping that the SD Card non-exclusive nature would propagate to the USB port, but alas.

I am now going to read and try to understand what the function is of all the SD Card pins. Specifically, I am interested in the MOSI (2) and MISO (7) pins.

RE: Wifi USB stick

I've tried putting scotch tape over various SD Card pins to no avail. Now I'm delving into the software, but I am not adept at C++. I have also asked the manufacturer if there is a way around USB not releasing the MicroSD card.

If anyone has skill with C++, I will point you to where the issues are.