SD Card + ESP8266 = OctoPrint Alternative?

[@CNCKitchen]

I have no words anymore after watching the intro 😮

[@MadeWithLayers]

You're up next!

[@shadow7037932]

@@MadeWithLayers Wait... you're going to shave him?!?! 😯

[@DarthTater5738]

@@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.

[@DoctorSinister1987]

My god what have I just witnessed. Who is this new presenter???

[@6yjjk]

@@shadow7037932 Only the upstairs... we hope...

[@Project-Air]

That surprise DIY haircut was hilarious, and so smoothly transitioned into! 😂 Nice one Tom

[@laukan]

Wasn’t a surprise anymore 😬

[@wjsbruwer8206]

@@laukan hehe

[@TheDoblerones]

I wonder how many takes he needed for this to look smooth :D

[@muhammadshakil3723]

I wasn't ready for that!

[@EdFrench_uk]

You could try soldering a decent capacitor onto the board: makes esp's a lot more stable from brownouts

[@edumaker-alexgibson]

Definitely.

[@milutzuk]

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.

[@EdFrench_uk]

A 330uf might help

[@gerleimarci]

4:44 Epic Linus moment

[@laszloboszen6109]

That reminds me Linus too :DDD

[@aidanvillacampa4745]

oh my gosh i was thinking the same thing when i saw it and went to comment and saw this! lol!

[@GogogoFolowMe]

Thomas Print Tips

[@Sedokun]

What if, it's a new bane of 2021? Linusviridae!

[@spamcan9208]

He's out Linus'd Linus

[@pete3897]

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

[@franktechniek]

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.

[@sagichnicht6748]

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.

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

if they'll pay him to make videos I don't care if they only sell to Martians

[@sagichnicht6748]

@@RoamingAdhocrat Good point.

[@michaelw.2653]

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*

[@p3chv0gel22]

Well, i mostly drink tea, so yeah, i don't Care Btw: Ich mag deinen Namen 😂

[@christophfriedrich5092]

Looks like a Toshiba FlashAir but with extra steps (and the FlashAir works flawlessly in my Prusa Machines)

[@hackneo64]

How do you do this? I am wanting to know in case I can't get this card. Thanks

[@velocitasfortis]

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.

[@Sundowner111]

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.

[@GunSmoker]

Can confirm that Toshiba WiFi cards are working fine now. There were bugs in older MK3 firmwares though.

[@marsgizmo]

like the new haircut Tom 👌😎 and excellent explanations for the adapter

[@darkshadowsx5949]

his old hair was fine... at least his old hair want unkempt.

[@mustangclaydog]

They’ve been doing this on Toshiba’s flash air for a while now.

[@PewpewFiah]

Exactly what I was thinking, I've had a flash air for over a year now

[@mustangclaydog]

@@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.

[@grepmonkey]

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.

[@JohanBloemberg]

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.

[@grepmonkey]

@@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.

[@optimusprimmv1]

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.

[@_Piers_]

They don't make the FlashAir cards anymore, so supplies will start to run short (...and/or prices will skyrocket)

[@licensetodrive9930]

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.

[@_Piers_]

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.

[@licensetodrive9930]

@@_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.

[@largepimping]

Thanks for converting to "US Floor" numbers... That made me chuckle out loud.

[@tad2021]

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.

[@mrclown7469]

That thumbnail though... Tom with short hair + a goatee = Half Life 3 alternative?

[@alejandroperez5368]

He looks 10 years older

[@KSCPMark6742]

I got a Walter White/Heisenberg vibe from it

[@them0leisback]

At first i thought it was the return of techno viking

[@mewserino]

so i was going to comment "nice quarantine hair tom" and then the video took a weird turn

[@pandupujo3917]

Tom straight up meltdown like Nick Avocado 😂

[@gerleimarci]

It can actually work very well if you combine it with ESP3D (and probably an ip camera which can be an old smartphone).

[@nwallace]

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.

[@DiThi]

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.

[@onlyeyeno]

@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..."

[@ValkGame]

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.

[@DarthTater5738]

Love the hair. Should have cut CNC logo into the back lol. Stefan your move.

[@CNCKitchen]

Man, so unfortunate that Tom doesn't have a logo for me to cut into my hair...

[@InformatrIIcks]

Look at the "Stuff Made Here" KZbin channel for a CNC hair cut robot !

[@sugatooth]

@@CNCKitchen You'll simply have to cut out his profile picture instead!

[@DarthTater5738]

I'd pay money to watch you have @toms3dp cut in to you hair. Maybe you could engineer a 3d printed solution.

[@AlexanderBurgers]

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.

[@one_spicyboi7376]

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!!

[@WyvernDotRed]

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.

[@arsalanjb]

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!

[@elmardus]

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.

[@arsalanjb]

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.

[@Bean-Time]

2:39 pla is not compostable. It's made from natural plants (or can be idk if they synthesize it now) but just because it's from a plant doesn't mean its compostable. (Within a reasonable time frame)

[@sevilnatas]

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.

[@qlum]

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

[@stome3416]

I was seriously like "The shaggy look works for him" and then.... lol

[@darkshadowsx5949]

shaggy hair is usually a little messy and long his was tidy.

[@RandomDude-ni3vt]

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...

[@marcus_w0]

How does it compare to a "standard" SD Wifi card like the Toshiba FlashAir or the many chinese clones?

[@firepower9966]

Toshiba FlashAir work fine connect to windows / mac networks, clones dont, they only connect via mobile apps for phones to transfer photos from your camera etc.

[@mkyral]

@@firepower9966 I have FlashAir, worked correctly. But after router upgrade, Toshiba no more connects to wifi and I can't figure it out. Works as AP, but not as client. And there are not logs to check, why it does not work :-( SSID and password are correct.

[@firepower9966]

@@mkyral make sure client isolation is not enable in router, does it ip address appear in your router DHCP table?

[@TomcatSFX]

@@mkyral I had some device not be able to connect anymore to the router after enabling WPA2+WPA3 on the latter. After switching back to WPA2-only it worked again. Worth a try?

[@hadinossanosam4459]

8:45 That weird baud rate setup is just the default for the ESP8266 ( _74880_ baud bootloader, 115200 normal serial) But overall: power supply issues (15:15), weird baud rates, crashing for no reason... sounds like a typical PoS8266 experience to me ;) Maybe a v2 with an ESP32 would be cool, that thing is *much* more reliable in my experience

[@EricJorgensen]

They could also just add native sd support and printing support to ESP3D. I wanted to like ESP3D, but there are no binary upload protocols for gcode that are stable and supported, and i don't want to grow old waiting for gcode to upload to my printer.

[@kyootfox]

I am using OctoPrint with a common NAS repo for all the STL content across the cluster if printers. So I slice to the NAS folder and it shows up in the Remote OctoPrints.

[@101rotarypower]

Is there a "Best" FlashAir alternative? Flashair doesn't have any of these limitations, but it looks like that market changed...glad I got one with my MK3 early

[@hectorbarranca3257]

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

[@hectorbarranca3257]

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

[@GunSmoker]

I am using Toshiba WiFi card. There were bugs in older MK3 firmwares, but it is fixed now. Currently no problems.

[@alexanderdaum8053]

Now I'm wondering if it would be possible to design an adpater with an ESP and an SD slot, that streams the data from a NAS. It would have to simulate a FAT partition and be quite fast. But while printing everything should be sequential access, so it could prefetch data very easily.

[@kevinmalec4977]

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

[@americangraffiti3971]

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).

[@the23er]

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.

[@TweakTechNow]

Been using a Toshiba FlashAir Wi-Fi SD card for years now. A little harder to setup, but works flawlessly.

[@YouGenom]

I wanted to so something similar and the main reason was the issues, which come with USB printing mode. Loss of quality, lags etc. Later on, I heard that there was a solution to this problem. So I stopped on that. It would have been nice to hear a discussion on that regard. This looks like a solution for that problem. It is easier for the printer to print from SD card. Or am I wrong?

[@aronrad]

Tom, best video ever!!! Started cutting mid sentense. Bravo for shock factor!

[@WooShell]

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.

[@mschild95]

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

[@MetalheadAndNerd]

For the perfect Linus he also needs to shill fake products and promote Indigogo scams.

[@GoingtoHecq]

It's that KZbin stress

[@erroneousbosch]

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)

[@copperchatter6890]

9:25 - The esp8266 wifi server was disconnected when you removed usb power supply. Must be some way to configure auto connect?

[@serluke2089]

Can we get some info on that jacket/hoodie?

[@samionurzaim]

I use a Raspberry Pi and VirtualHere Usb server combination to connect my 3d printer remotely . Maybe you can do a test. This videos method is limited to eap chip performance. RPI has a better wifi performance.

[@TheBekker_]

wonder if it will be more stable with usb power plugged in? But this is like the perfect thing for me, i hate running back and forth with sdcards, but i dont really want or need the whole octoprint setup.

[@WoodFlipWorkshop]

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.

[@boenboe324]

Looked up there is a ton of versions with usb instead that seems like a great tool

[@str0g]

you can install an ftp or samba server on the pi and then push over wifi your code.

[@mikefromwa]

I tried something similar a few years ago with a Wi-Fi SD card meant for a camera. I could connect but getting files onto it never really seemed to work. This looks exactly like what I was trying to do (except it works).

[@dominicbaines5947]

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.

[@JohnMatthews72]

One issue I have had with Octopi is that prints from "local" end up with a rough texture due to the serial port bottleneck between the raspberry pi and my printers. Using the Octopi to copy to an SD card is prohibitively slow. Maybe this product could eliminate the worst bit of the Octopi prints, by allowing reasonably quick access to the sd card, and then using octopi to control the print?

[@Deneteus]

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.

[@S3rial85]

Gotta ask. what is with all the camera movement? Is it digital or real? It makes me kinda..seasick? Not really but it makes watching what is going on a bit distracting.

[@Tomasu82]

I doubt the prusa caches any information from the SD card so every time you go into the file menu it will re read the list of files in that directory and will probably not even read the entire dir into memory so if a file is added to the dir you can probably just scroll down and it'll see it when reading in more info from the SD card.

[@AztecVideos]

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...

[@bubnikv]

Toshiba FlashAir runs at 10mbit per second and the upload works even during printing. We at Prusa Research did experiments some 4 years ago, implementing a rudimentary statistics web page (print status, temperatures) directly on the FlashAir. Unfortunately Toshiba was phasing out the product already, so we did not push it any further. Interestingly the FlashAir cards were available until recently, now the sources are drying out. PrusaSlicer supports sending a G-code to FlashAir in a similar way to sending to OctoPrint.

[@experimental_av]

Unless you are on a tight budget being able to send directly from Prusa Slicer to OctoPrint and start the print is hard to beat.

[@wktodd]

Oh god the wobbly camera is back !

[@TijmenvdP]

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

[@usertogo]

I would like to see a open project where we use all means (Stepper effort meassurement, acelerometer and or Camera observing the printhead) to close the loop and for example stop printing if the head runs into an obstacle or the Printed object breaks off and airstrings are printed...

[@edumaker-alexgibson]

Going deep... please could you see if it possible to set up a static IP on the fizzytech? I'd be willing to brave a few of those bugs to try them instead of Octoprint on Makerbots, but for sake of sanity I've got to assign known IPs to things on the network and not just reserve on the router.

[@brianv2871]

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.

[@MaxMakerChannel]

I wish Prusa would just add wifi to their printers. And a optional camera module.

[@EricJorgensen]

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.

[@robertsnyder4480]

I didn't read all 222 comments, but i'm going to guess that when saving your INI file from windows it saved the line endings as CRLF, but linux is very picky about that will not read your file properly that way. You'll need to ensure you save the file with LF line endings ( you can do this in notepad++ or vscode)

[@pirobot668beta]

Is 'octoprint' short-hand for a set of functions, or is it a specific piece of hardware/firmware? I mean, I keep hearing 'Ford' and 'truck' when the conversation is about hauling lumber. Does that mean non-Ford trucks can only haul non-lumber? The functions of 'octoprint' are easy to implement using other software/hardware, as Hackaday can verify. An 'alternative' implies there is no other way to get the job done, or that the established way has limitations. Just wanted to know which problems this 'alternative' was addressing.

[@AndrewSink]

My jaw seriously dropped when you pulled out those clippers

[@janwillemhouwers9597]

Thomas as alternative a octoprint setup on for example a orange pi one, one+ or zero is a great alternative, starts from around 10 euro for octoprint..and also smaller as rpi regards jw

[@FrugalShave]

Not all 3D printers are set to auto refresh so some tweaking may be needed. They will be the type where the SD card clicks in and clicks out instead of just sliding in.

[@alklein4660]

I just happened to start cutting my own hair in the summer of 2019, not knowing what was coming. So I kept getting trims (from myself) during the pandemic. I still look pretty freshly barbered. I don't have a card yet (I'm at 8:27 in your video, which I'm watching to see if I should or shouldn't buy one), but have you tried quoting filenames that have spaces? (For this is a filename, use "this is a file name".) Windows uses that format (and I'm sure that Microsoft had a thumb on the IETF's scale). I finished the video. The card now goes for about $30. A RPi 3B+ goes for $37. So the card is a nice little toy, and thank you for the video, but no. The card is not for me.

[@monsieurd.6890]

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.

[@PartTimeRonin]

When I see hair trimmer I thought it's the segue way for a hair trimmer sponsor. XD On another note, I see you got yourself a cameraman, nice.

[@AndrewGillard]

I'm wondering if the camera operator is his mum/mom who was doing some filming for some videos a few months ago (eg the videos about cable management and the Raptor that "absolutely nobody should buy", IIRC). Tom's also mentioned hiring her part-time to deal with some of his admin work, which I think is a cool idea, at least for anyone who gets on well with their parents :)

[@deathshaker0026]

I was wondering if Tom was wearing sandals and sock?

[@microtrigger]

I used the same adapter from BTT and got a huge issue with projects more than 2mb gcode files - esp8266 just halts and printer stops anciently at meddle of printing. Just because of that behavior I avoid using this device - too risky.

[@ZakLeek]

Although it is a cool idea, I definitely don't see any point in this gadget. If I need to go and start the print manually, I don't see why I can't just take my SD card with me to the printer, they aren't hard to carry and considering there are no bugs uploading, it's probably quicker to do this. Octoprint is a brilliant solution but I don't think the SD wifi card is comparable as it serves quite a different purpose. Thanks so much for the video Tom, I love all your content and it is great that you show off lots of cool new inventions!

[@BrazenRain]

My Toshiba Flashair finally started working reliably, but if it gets finicky again I'm so glad there's another option.

[@minimachinas]

Great work Gordon Freeman

[@ItsMeMas]

What brand hoodie is that, I love the look and couldn't figure it out sleuthing through the footage.

[@psikic72032]

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.

[@KCLaxton]

What's the opposite of a hair raising experience? Whatever it is, it makes me want to drink coffee.

[@ChazBword]

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.

[@TheSmokintbird]

This is a great solution for old printers/devices that don't have USB for Octoprint...unless you have a better suggestion?

[@kasparsbutlers]

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!

[@crawlerin]

Me seeing the thumbnail: WHO ARE YOU, HOW DID YOU GET TO THIS CHANNEL, AND WHERE IS TOM??? (I dig your new style BTW ❤)

[@arekx]

Replacing octoprint with this makes a little sense. But connecting both together is another story! I imagine a setup where upload to octoprint would actually upload to that sd card (writting plugin would be needed; that fysect card provides webDAV API) and then instead of printing via usb (which is quite problematic sometimes and slower) print reliably from sd card. That would give octoprint flexibility with sd card printing stability and reliability. Yes, octoprint has ability to upload to sd card but that's sooo slow (due to 115k serial interface used).

[@rodsnyder6020]

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.

[@iprokator]

But octo block a lot of staff from mk3s (like power panic)!

[@wangouthangout]

As someone who's facing issues with my pi disconnecting from my printer mid print this is an interesting possible solution. I can wait a minute for a print to upload for the sake of not repeating prints and wasting filament

[@Fugatech3DPrinting]

Wait, did you compare wireless performance to wired? Pretty obvious that wired is faster.

[@ardenpm]

Looks like a nicer cheaper alternative to the Toshiba FlashAir which Prusa Firmware actually has a specific option to support. Nicer though since its not tied to a specific SD card and capacity.

[@GnuReligion]

Very late making this comment ... but it is slow writing to OctoPrint if saving to the printer's flash card, as well. The "SD" protocol is fast, but proprietary. Some MCUs (Not the ESP) do have this feature. The universal interface to access the flash memory though is the "SPI" bus, which is unbuffered and slow.

[@thorbjrnhellehaven5766]

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.

[@jonnieZG]

What happened to Toshiba SDHC FlashAir W-04 cards? I bought one in 2019 for $32, and now they above $130 and very rare to find! Mine still works like a charm, but I am interested here they discontinued and why?

[@evanelledev7237]

It might be useful to compare this with the Toshiba FlashAir Wifi SD Card instead of with Octoprint.

[@BurninGems]

Digging that shirt... New channel options? Thomas Styles and 3d printing. Home haircut hints are a bonus!

[@annekedebruyn7797]

This was so popular in photography a few years back but I remember them being much smaller in size