Some question about range effect to printing

General
1

Hey i'm wondering about the impact of printing remotely through wifi connection, does the range between the raspberry and the wifi source affect the printing time and the quality of the printing result? or maybe the wifi source is 2 room away from the printer and blocked by the wall will also affect it? Does that mean putting the 3d printer in 1 room with the wifi source will make it faster and have better quality? Thanks

2

A number of factors can affect the throughput speed of wi-fi communications:

  1. Competition for channel: In the states, 802.11b for example only has eleven discreet channels and given the overlap, the reality is that only channels 1, 6 & 11 are "clean". Since wi-fi manufacturers know this, that means that there is a fair amount of competition for these three as the default for the router. In my apartment complex there are no less than twenty zones which my devices see from these competing routers. Given something called deconstructive interference, these other routers screw things up for you. Your only advantage is shorter distance in this case since presumably you are closer to your router.

  2. Distance to router: Yes, the distance matters as well as things between you and the router. Although the range is supposed to be quite far, the reality is that there are too many things which absorb the signal.

  3. Metal objects or water: Metal objects may absorb/re-transmit the signals they receive, causing problems. Chain-link fence is practically a Faraday cage in this way but radiators are also brilliant at destroying wi-fi. Since the frequency is maximized to excite water molecules, water (aquarium) and anything with water (tree leaves) can completely block wi-fi. This includes metal file cabinets.

  4. Walls: A standard wall won't itself block the wi-fi signal but the electrical wiring and metal conduits inside the wall can cause problems. Old-school lead-based paints should in theory block wi-fi effectively.

  5. 2.4 versus 5Ghz: Note that only the Raspberry Pi 3B+ has support for 5Ghz; the rest only have 2.4Ghz support.

I bought the Orbi-branded room routers which work wonderfully since I have an expensive Internet connection but I usually spend my time elsewhere in my apartment. It's well worth the investment.

3

... @OutsourcedGuru you completely missed the point of the question :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

The simple answer is: no, wifi quality will not influence print quality since it isn't the browser that feeds commands to the printer (that would be a quite idiotic design decision) but rather the server. And as long as that's connected to the printer the printer will print.

Wifi quality is however a factor when it comes to webcam streaming and reliable control of OctoPrint through the browser - if half the button presses you do get lost you won't be happy.

4

So that means it because the server which is the raspberry pi itself is the one that feeds the commands to the printer the wifi interferences are not affecting the quality of the print right? That makes more questions that might be out of topic from this one and i'm sorry if this kinda stupid i'm still newbie with this, is it possible to say uploading CAD or GCODE file from your other device through the internet and print it right away real time and will it affect the printing quality and time maybe?