Connecting over WiFi? (Page 1 of 2)

I do the latter. Works great.

Both. Both are connected to wifi. Both computers share a Dropbox account. I have a folder there with all my STLs and gcode. I slice and print on my remote computer. I login from my phone sometimes too, and print there.

So basically, download/model file with main computer, put in Dropbox, switch to VNC window, load STL, position, slice, print.

I have a Windows Home Server that stores all the music, photos, dvds, etc.  I keep the STLs on my laptop and send the gcodes to the server which the printer computer can access.  It's like the dropbox idea, but in-house.  I can also upload to the server from the internet, so if I finish something while at work I can send the gcode home to print at lunch time, or have it ready to go when I get home.   

I should get remote access setup so I can start heating the bed before I get home.

I also just use Teamviewer; normally hosted from my file server or laptop...I do all my CAD/Graphics work on my main desktop since it causes RH to crash all the time for some weird reason...like goo said....doing the work on the beast pc and send it to the remote to be occupied with.

dropbox + teamviewer ftw.

My current thought is to have everything (3D models and STLs) on my main machine, and manually transfer STLs to the remote computer, using Remote Desktop.  Not elegant, but simple.

I'm actually quite happy controlling my Solidoodles from a computer using Repetier Host.  I'm not clear what the advantages are of using an SD card.  If I used an SD card, I would have to use sneaker-net to fetch the card, insert it locally, upload to it, trek back, etc.

I was thinking about buying a wireless print server and trying to hook the Solidoodles up to the USB ports on the print server.  Does anyone know whether this approach would work or not?  The Solidoodles are not "printers", so I'm not sure whether this approach would work

Hacking together a wi-fi solution has its challenges. For starters, it's a very complex protocol and in onesies, wi-fi modules are expensive. Then, you need a host computer of some sort to interface with the module. The host will have to run a full TCP/IP stack (or at least a full IP stack) in addition to managing the Wi-Fi link, which drives up cost and complexity.

If you really want wireless printing, perhaps an XBee would be a solution. These are 'serial cable replacement' wireless devices that use the 802.15.4 protocol. A pair is still going to be somewhat pricey, but you could probably hack the firmware on the Solidoodle to listen to the serial port on the ATMega644 rather than having to find or invent a USB host, which would save complexity and money.

I'm afraid I haven't seen a schematic of the Solidoodle's controller board to be able to give further ideas. I can certainly see the appeal of a wireless link between a host computer and a Solidoodle. There are a number of lightweight wireless protocols, both standardized and proprietary, that would probably be applicable. My personal opinion is that Wi-Fi is just too heavyweight of a protocol for a simple 'cable replacement' wireless link. Now, if you wanted to, say, use a Raspberry Pi or something attached to the Solidoodle as an embedded host, and communicate with that wirelessly, then I think Wi-Fi starts to make more sense.

It's certainly an interesting topic. I've currently got a few projects in the queue, but it's something I may want to tackle down the road.

I use dropbox on my main laptop, where I slice everything. Dropbox syncs automatically to my old laptop with a cracked screen, which i use for printing the files.  By the time I go over to my old laptop, or log into it remotely, I typically have my gcode synced or almost synced. Then I load and go on. It's been a simple solution for me, and doesn't involve dealing with ip addresses and ports.

At this point, I am awash with old desktop computers, so I probably will just dedicate one to running Repetier and servicing the printers.  I would then remote into that computer using WiFi.  I've just installed Win 8 on a number of computers, and am reasonably happy with it so far (long story, but for $40 per computer, I was able to upgrade all of the computers to 64 bit operating systems).  So, memory will no longer be an issue, once I'm finished with this exercise.  Once you disable all but one of the Metro tiles in Win 8, and add a Start Button replacement, it basically is just Win 7. And it "boots" and shuts down VERY quickly, so I can just put them to sleep when I'm not printing.

I have seen postings from others saying that they are running the PronterFace and/or Repetier Host on Win 8, but I have not tried it myself, yet.  RH does setup correctly and run, but I've not actually driven a printer with it.