Is there an adaptor or any solution to get wifi connectivity to your Shapeoko 5?
Sort of?
If you connect a computer running Carbide Motion such as a Raspberry Pi:
then you can connect to that wirelessly and control the machine thus.
This would also work for Windows or Mac OS — there are some folks who use an iPad w/ Apple’s Sidecar, lots of options.
That said, a shop is not the most friendly of environments to wireless networking, so I just use a directly connected computer directly.
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I would hesitate to use wifi on a CNC. Loss of wifi signal, even a small blip during a cut would be the next disconnect issue users would be experiencing. I have a strong mesh network (which is only as good as the internet provider/access/connection) and I still have occasional signal issues
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Good point. I have 3d printers and even with power outages you can hit resume and it prints pretty seamlessly.
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We do not consider Wi-Fi reliable enough for the connection between the machine and Carbide Motion.
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Makes sense
I just drop my files into google drive and then walk pver to my laptop attached to my shapeoko to run the file
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One always needs a controlling computer. AFAIK the CNC controller itself is not WIFI accessible, it is connected to the outer world by USB, wired.
Now the controlling computer (Laptop, Raspi) gets the file from wherever it can get it, USB stick, Ethernet, or WiFi, and off it goes, takes the file into CM, and lets the controller run its things.
As long as the controlling computer and the genuine CNC controller are connected via USB, and as long as they both have power, it does not matter whether the controlling computer is connected to the outer world at all: the project is on its HD / SSD, and RAM.
Therefore: yes, the CNC machine complex (CNC controller + CNC-controller controlling computer + the USB-cable connecting bith) can be run with WIFI, since WIFI is only needed to transfer the cutting file to this item.
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