Bluetooth and the reprap

I was looking through sparkfun and found this product. i think it should work to make your reprap Wireless ><

Would like to know what everyone thinks about this.

[www.sparkfun.com]



OR you could possibly hook it up to Ethernet if you don’t want to go wireless with this product for under $25

[www.saelig.com]



From what I am seeing this requires no special firmware hack to the reprap mother board. Only a small amount of power and a second piece of software on your computer for the Com port and a custom cable to match up to the TTL header.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/11/2010 11:47AM by Bailey.

I think it is cool. It is more of the "Because I can" factor than real necessity though.

It's my understanding that getting networking going on an Arduino uses up most of the resources... leaving little room for applications.

Al...

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[araspitfire.blogspot.com]

This unit is completely separate from the reprap mother board and requires no resources other then maybe some power. It would interface with the existing TTL header. Hardware wise it should be plug and play.

It might work but it really depends on the radio frequency enviorment being not in use or noise free; otherwise the delays involved (latency) will mess up your prints.

Typical example it could be printing fine until you nuke a cup of tea in the microwave or start wirelessly surfing the web with a laptop or notebook.

Given that not something to propose as a universal solution.

I'm going to use this module on my RepStrap, initial tests with the module proved quite successful, but with two differences other than wireless.

1) On ther MakerBot electronics you need to wire the 5VSB to the VCC pin of the serial port, but by doing this means you CANNOT use a USB to serial because you WILL blow up your computers' motherboard.

2) In Firmware, ensure you have the baud set to 9600, do the same as in the HOST, because Bluetoth is slower that you will have connnection problems if you don't.


Windows bluetooth drivers can cause problems and is less than straight foroward to manage your bluetooth connection, I found if you go to Control panel -> system -> hardware -> Device manager you can adjust the baud, which you needto do here too.

How and where does the SparkFun Wireless thingies plug in to? What kind of connection do they make?

Thanks,
Chris Stephens

P.S.- What is the 'rx/tx line'? Can anyone provide pictures of this?

if sticking to bluetooth from the name of this forum, it really does not take resources to enable the bluetooth. just select the pin that enables detection. other than that it is tx,rx, serial communication as far as arduino is concerned. this is if it is set to be a slave device. also i think the passcode is generic like 4 or 6 zeros.

I think this will help you along.

[wiki.makerbot.com]

"Setup Bluetooth Mate and ReplicatorG on a Mac"

...sigh

Why use a $300 laptop, or $100 android device, when you can use a beautiful but $3000 laptop of the same power simply to showcase your wealth.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/2012 06:24PM by Simba.

Simba Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> "Setup Bluetooth Mate and ReplicatorG on a Mac"
>
> ...sigh
>
> Why use a $300 laptop, or $100 android device,
> when you can use a beautiful but $3000 laptop of
> the same power simply to showcase your wealth.

< sarcasm >
You can't buy used Macs or ones that cost less than $3000 in the first place, and they really do have as much power as a $100 android device.
< /sarcasm >

This isn't the place for Apple vs. PC vs Linux etc. If someone wants to use a RepRap with their Mac, why should they be ridiculed?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/17/2012 07:36PM by NewPerfection.

Here's an awesome tutorial to get bluetooth working with your 3D printer.

While it is done on an Azteeg X3, it will work with most controllers that has the TX and RX pins exposed.

http://bukobot.com/make-your-bukobot-wireless

I have used some cheap BT modules from dx.com ($8) [dx.com] connected to the serial port of the Mega, it works nicely at 115000bps from an Android phone a Mac or a Linux machine.

[fightpc.blogspot.com.es]

Downside is throughtput, that will make your printer to slow down on circles or where there is a lot of detail (lots of short motion movements). If using main serial port of your Mega, USB needs to be disconnected (and for the Mega to be powered like this diode D1 on your RAMPS has to be installed).

How do you do this with ramps 1.4