SD Card Files Connected to Windows Network Drive

Software / Firmware Jackpot Board / FluidNC
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Good Afternoon!
I am working on macros and figuring out the best workflow for using this machine. I am new to fluidNC but not new to the CNC world, I have built a CNC back in the day using GRBL hat with an arduino and various other machines. One thing that I am finding annoying with fluidNC is that I have to drag and drop the files into the webUI that I want to run, adding another step that I could mess up. Especially with no built in Gcode preview in the webUI. So I am wondering if there is a way to setup a network drive for windows that can view the files that are on the SD card so that I could save files directly from my CAM software to the machine. I would also be curious on what other peoples workflow looks like.

Thanks!

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Hmmm. I don’t know of a good way to do that. I know in Linux you could write a script to watch a folder and then at least call something when a new file showed up or was modified. Then you could probably use a curl call to upload the file. But I have no idea if the curl call is possible. And no idea if windows can do something similar.

What about having two sd cards that you move with you?

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You can use curl with FluidNC. I do it when working on WebUI extensions.

http://wiki.fluidnc.com/en/features/wifi_bt#upload-with-curl

I was thinking similarly with a directory watcher which you can do on Windows. That feels a bit fragile though.

At one point I had it so you could right click on a file and send to the SD card but I don’t use that anymore.

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Hmm, thanks guys. I think I will just use a PowerShell script with the right click menu for now. Kind of a bummer there isn’t a cleaner setup. I would use openbuild’s control software since it has everything I want, but streaming Gcode though it seems to be laggy and not as smooth as the SD card.

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Yea you could try a different gcode sender like UGS which has good FluidNC support.

I avoid gcode senders since the connection seems like another possible point of failure.

You can also try the tablet extension for the WebUI (exists for V2 and V3) which includes a gcode preview. I don’t use it.

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My solution for the time being is a powershell script that looks at a folder I tell it to and if there are any changes in the folder it uploads that file over curl.

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Hello Garrett. I might be wanting to do the same sort of thing. I have my cnc in the garage, but my design computer is in the basement, so I’ve been dropping my gcode to a SD card everytime I want to run something, then manually carrying it to the garage and putting it in the cnc controller. Are you saying there’s a way for my design computer to “see” the SD card in the cnc controller and drop a file directly into it using the wifi? I know the two can see each other on the network because I got them talking to each other using the UGS sender.

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Well I was not able to get my program to read what is on the CNC, and honestly I dont know if that is possible. But I am able to send programs to the SD card with the program that I uploaded previously. Haven’t had the time to iron out all the wrinkles but it works well enough for now.

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Same here, I tried a bit with UGS, but couldn’t get it to see the SD card. It saw the control board, but not the SD card within the control board. I downloaded your program, but I don’t know how to actually work it. Could you explain how to work it, I’d like to try - sorry to be a bother. I bought my first computer in 1978, but I don’t know about Powershell, ha.