That is probably a MIPS appliance running some derivative of OpenWRT, so you would still need to run a TCP/IP stack on your controller board. And for more or less the same price I could buy a TP-Link WiFi router with 4+1 ethernet ports here in Spain through Amazon, no need to go on eBay or order from China. And the TP-Link router at least comes with a power brick, this dongle requires a +5V source of some kind as far as I can tell... Again, imo that's a half baked "solution".Quote
dc42
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AndrewBCN
A network bridge or an add-on WiFi daughterboard are both likely to cost almost as much as a full-fledged OctoGoatBox and you still don't have the CPU power, RAM and storage required to drive a full-fledged Web interface such as OctoPrint.
That's the kind of half-baked "solution" that I definitely would not recommend.
1. You obviously didn't follow the link to the network bridge I linked to. It's only GBP12, and that's shipped from the UK. You can probably get it even cheaper if you buy it from China.
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dc42
2. The Duet + RepRapFirmware shows that you don't need a massive amount of CPU power to provide an excellent web interface. Having a wifi daughterboard with on-board processor to manage the TCP/IP stack would mean that the processor I plan to use for the low cost 32-bit board would be adequate.
Not sure what you call "an excellent web interface", so a screenshot would be nice.
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dc42
3. I didn't mention a specific WiFi daughterboard. I guess you are thinking of the Arduino one, which is massively overpriced IMO.
So, thanks for pointing me in the right direction! All I need to add to my low-cost 32-bit board is a connector for a WiFi module such as this one [www.ebay.co.uk]. The wifi module costs so little that this solution will still cost a lot less than a controller board with built-in wired Ethernet.
So, by the time you have successfully interfaced the WiFi module to your controller electronics, you'll have two 32-bit MCUs onboard, you'll have Wi-Fi connectivity as I had suggested above, and you'll still have nothing such as the OctoGoatBox that can run heavy duty calculations, a slicer program or an excellent web interface (OctoPrint) with video, etc...