UM3: moving printer between two or more wifi networks

[Northener 0]

Hi,

 

I have an UM3 that is moved and connected to different wifi networks regularly. 

 

Is there really no other way to do this than to perform the wifi setup, give the machine a new name etc every time? I really just want to connect it to wifi, not set up the printer as it was new.

 

I have tried searching but my search fu could not help me.

[Smithy 1,145]

Not via an official way.

The printer uses standard Debian methods to connect to wifi, so it should be possible to add more than one wifi profile and the printer connects to the network which is available, like a normal device or notebook.

 

You would need to enable the developer mode, then you can ssh into the printer to do the changes. I haven't tried it personally, nor do I know if it really works, this is just an idea but I think it should work.

 

But be careful when you do changes via ssh, you could brick your printer if something went wrong.

[robinmdh 100]

TL;DR:
yes, with dev mode enabled, a simple text file and 1 console command or winscp. it should even work for both locations with one file.

A little while back we made a feature for the S5 and S3 to set the WiFi via USB, unfortunately that hasn't been ported to the UM3 but the UM3 does use the same back-end for networking: connman
So that means you can create a file like explained here: https://support.ultimaker.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018123920-Network-setup-via-USB
Then you'll have to enable dev mode like @Smithy said, and scp that file to root@<your.printer.ip.adderss>:/var/lib/connman/service.config
To scp a file you can use the scp command on Linux, Mac or presumably on window10 via windows shell integration
the command would look like:

scp service.config root@192.168.178.35:/var/lib/connman/service.config

where you replace the ip address with the ip address of your printer.
if you don't know your printers IP you can find it by using Cura's "manage printers menu which you can find via settings -> printer -> manage printers or via the drop-down printer selection box at the top right; Then you select connect via network and select your printer name and the address is shown on the right.

alternatively you can use winscp on windows which works more like a file manager.

You can disable dev mode when the setting works but when you update the firmware to a new version the file will be removed and you'll have to redo the setup, but we've just had new UM3 firmware released for the first time in quite a while so not the biggest issue.

Which all is basically this or this manual page

The upshot is that you can list multiple wifi network configurations in that one file which should allow it to connect to both networks, I haven't tested this behavior though.

Edited August 6, 2021 by robinmdh
added TL;DR