There are SD cards with WiFi support
There are SD cards with WiFi support
At least my 3d printer was so inexpensive it’s silly.
I’m pretty happy that the engineering team that built it doesn’t need to worry about networking code and maintaining a networked device. Jappy that an open source community does it instead.
Klipper requires that the printer is running Klipper firmware.
OctoPrint can work with printers running Klipper or Marlin.
Main advantage of Klipper is that it moves all the gcode and movement processing off of the microcontroller on your printers main board. Also, Klipper let’s you update firmware settings through a config file without actually having to reflash the printers firmware.
OctoPrint works great as an easy add-on for a printer running the stock Marlin firmware. Main thing people want is wifi print uploads and camera monitoring anyway.
Mine acted like a wifi card. I could connect to wifi networks with it.
Worked for shit, but it did work… Just enough.
I had good luck with these at my wedding. Instead of disposable cameras, I put cheap digital cameras. It didn’t take long for guests to realise that the pictures were appearing on a large tv, in a sideshow. People got a lot more creative when they realised they would be seen quickly, not weeks later.
I managed to get them working without proprietary software, too. The onboard script logged into WiFi and uploaded the photos over ftp.
Given their size and the level of tech at the time, it was pretty impressive.
We also set up an excellent photo booth with the same setup.
A DSLR, on a tripod, a cheap remote trigger, and some photography lamps. We used drapes to box it off a bit. Throw in some inflatable props, and let the kids/drunks make it awesome.
The photos on the TV just encouraged others to join in the fun.
Things like this were huge back in the days of PDAs. They had SDIO ports specifically for expansion. I had one for Wifi and another for Bluetooth on my Garmin PDA, so I couldn’t use Bluetooth and Wifi at the same time, and both kept you from having non-volatile storage. If your battery died, your system was wiped because all the storage was in memory.
I got a Dell at the very end of the PDA era (the iPhone was already out, but was still ATT exclusive) that was super fancy because it had a CF card slot AND an SDIO port, so I could store data AND use my SDIO digital camera.