smoothieware-website-v1

Network Interface

Smoothieboard has an RJ45 connector, which can be used to connect the board to your local Ethernet network and communicate with it over TCP/IP. This works similarly to how you would access your 2D printer or other network devices.

Settings

Smoothie supports Ethernet access, which must be enabled in the configuration file.

To enable the network, set network.enable to true.

The IP address can be set statically or set to use DHCP. However, due to buffer size limitations, some DHCP servers are not supported.

Here is an example of a setup using DHCP (meaning that the router automatically assigns an IP address to the Smoothieboard):

# network settings
network.enable                               true            # enable the ethernet network services
network.webserver.enable                     true             # enable the webserver
network.telnet.enable                        true             # enable the telnet server
network.plan9.enable                         true             # enable the plan9 network filesystem
network.ip_address                           auto             # use dhcp to get ip address

And an example of how to set up with a static IP:

# network settings
network.enable                               true             # enable the ethernet network services
network.webserver.enable                     true             # enable the webserver
network.telnet.enable                        true             # enable the telnet server
network.plan9.enable                         true             # enable the plan9 network filesystem
network.ip_address                           192.168.3.222    # the IP address
network.ip_mask                              255.255.255.0    # the ip mask
network.ip_gateway                           192.168.3.1      # the gateway address

The basic network configuration options can be seen at the end of the Config Sample.

If your configuration file does not contain the network section, it probably means the version of Smoothie that shipped with your board is too old. You need to use the latest edge firmware and use the latest configuration file. See Flashing Smoothie Firmware and Configuring Smoothie.

All Options

| Option | Example Value | Explanation | | —— | ————- | ———– |

Network Options

Option Default Value Description
network.enable true If set to true, enable the Ethernet network services
network.webserver.enable true If set to true, enable the web server service, on port 80, which provides a control and upload web interface
network.telnet.enable true If set to true, enable the telnet service, on port 23, which behaves much like a Serial interface
network.plan9.enable false If set to true, enable the plan9 network filesystem on port 564 which allows mounting the Smoothieboard
network.ip_address auto If set to auto, use DHCP to request an IP address. If set to an IP address, use that address as a static IP.
network.ip_mask 255.255.255.0 If using a static IP, define the mask for the network.
network.ip_gateway 192.168.3.1 If using a static IP, define the gateway for the network.
network.mac_override AB.AB.AB.AB.AB.AB If set, override the MAC address for the Ethernet interface. Only set this if you have a conflict on your network.
network.hostname shapeoko17 Some DHCP servers accept a hostname for the machine, which then allows you to connect to it using that name instead of its IP.

Wiring

To access your Smoothieboard, you need to connect it to your network by plugging an Ethernet cable into the Smoothieboard at one end and into your Ethernet router at the other end. Please note that you can’t connect a Smoothieboard directly to your computer unless you use a special type of cable and configuration on your computer. You want to use a router for this.

Once configured and plugged in, reset the Smoothieboard and wait for it to connect to the network.

Accessing Smoothie

To access Smoothie over the network, you first need to know its IP address. If you are not sure what IP address Smoothie has been assigned, you can use one of the following methods:

You can access Smoothie by using its network services:

Telnet (port 23)

You can use a terminal to connect to your board via telnet by typing in a terminal:

telnet ip_of_smoothie:23

Pronterface can also connect to Smoothie over the network by using telnet - just enter ip_of_smoothie:23 instead of the serial port before clicking ‘Connect’. Where ip_of_smoothie is the IP address of your Smoothie. You must check the box under Settings Menu that says TCP streaming mode.

Raw telnet provides console access to run console commands or G-code, useful network commands here are net and netstat. See the smoothie-stream.py example for streaming.

Web Server (port 80)

You can access the default user interface by going to this address in your web browser:

http://ip_of_smoothie/

Custom web pages can be accessed from the SD card, for example:

http://ip_of_smoothie/sd/webif/index.html

[!SUCCESS] Smoothie ships with a very basic web interface, however, you can install better ones by following these instructions: Installing the new web interface.

[!DANGER] DO NOT use the web interface and telnet at the same time. This will crash Smoothie.

[!WARNING] For Smoothieboards v1, make sure you never access or refresh the web interface while the machine is executing a G-code file. This can result in a crash. Just make sure you don’t do it, load the page while it’s not running, then use the page but do not refresh or re-load it. This is a limitation of the current firmware, we expect it to be possible to fix in v2.

[!WARNING] If you have several interfaces, or installed a new one, whenever changing from an interface to another, make sure you fully clear your cache. See the documentation for your browser, or google about it, to find exact instructions for your setup.

Web interface


It allows you to control the machine over the network

Simple File Transfer Protocol (port 115)

Note: Simple File Transfer Protocol (NOT secure file transfer!) allows uploading of files. See the smoothie-upload.py example.

Plan9 Network Filesystem (port 564)

NOTE: Plan9 is not built into Smoothie by default. To include it, rebuild Smoothie with make PLAN9=1. See Compiling Smoothie.

The Plan9 network file system can be used on Linux to directly mount the Smoothieboard over the network. First, activate the option network.plan9.enable and restart your Smoothie. After that, you can mount with:

mount -t 9p 192.168.2.120 -o dfltuid=1000,dfltgid=1000 /mnt/smoothie

Now you can access the SD card of the Smoothieboard like a normal filesystem!

The dfltuid/dfltgid are the uid/gid of the user which owns the files in the mount. It is recommended to set these to the uid/gid of the user who will write to the filesystem.

If you want, you can also add the filesystem to your /etc/fstab as follows:

# /etc/fstab
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options>                      <dump> <pass>
... your other stuff ...
192.168.1.6     /mnt/smoothie 9p     user,noauto,dfltuid=1000,dfltgid=1000 0      0

Using a Hosts File

If IP addresses are getting you down, you can address your Smoothie by name if you add a line to your computer’s hosts file. For example, assuming your Smoothie’s address is 192.168.2.120, you could add:

192.168.2.120        smoothie

And then simply use smoothie:23 in the Port field of Pronterface, and simply http://smoothie in your web browser.

This only works from the computer you edit the hosts file on and requires Smoothie to have a constant IP address, either through configuring Smoothie as a static IP or by configuring your DHCP server to always assign Smoothie the same IP address.

Hardware Requirements

To use the network capabilities of the Smoothieboard (4X and 5X, note the 3X board does not have Ethernet capabilities), an RJ45 Magnetic Modular Jacks aka RJ45 network transformer like the Hanrun HR911105A needs to be soldered onto the board.

They are, for example, available from RobotSeed.

[!PRIMARY] Versions of Smoothieboard starting August 2014 have the Ethernet connector soldered by default.

[!WARNING] Note it must be a Mag (Magnetic) Jack; a standard RJ45 connector will not work. The only officially supported connector is the Hanrun HR911105A.

Hostname

You can configure a hostname for the DHCP server as such:

network.ip_address  auto          # use dhcp to get IP address
network.hostname   smoothie1   # optionally set this hostname for dhcp

Note the network.hostname is optional. (see section 3.14 RFC 2132)

Net Command

If your network interface doesn’t work as it should, you can get some debugging information (such as the current IP) by sending the net command (@net from Pronterface) via the console (USB or UART).

IP Addr: 192.168.1.100
IP GW: 192.168.1.254
IP mask: 255.255.255.0
MAC Address: 00:1F:11:02:04:C9

API

Creating a custom interface, a script that talks to a Smoothieboard, or helping with Smoothie’s web interface (please do!)?

Here’s the API you can expect the board to answer to over HTTP.

GET /sd/file

Retrieves the content of a file from the SD card. You can use this to retrieve the configuration file, but make sure to try both “/sd/config” and “/sd/config.txt” as both are valid filenames.

GET /query

Returns the same as the “?” command over serial, or the “get status” command over any interface.

Example output:

<Idle|MPos:-700.0000,0.0000,360.0000,0.0000|WPos:-700.0000,0.0000,360.0000|F:4000.0000|T:163.5,0.0|B:178.4,0.0>

Much faster than sending “get status” using /command.

POST /command

Parameter: The command you want to execute as the POST data/parameter.

Returns: Whatever the command returned.

POST /command_silent

Parameter: The command you want to execute as the POST data/parameter.

Returns: Nothing. Faster than /command, prefer whenever possible.

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