Quinly Wireless Hub Setup for Quinly
Last Updated April 15, 2022
Thank you for purchasing the Quinly Wireless Hub! The Hub is a microcontroller similar to the Raspberry Pi 4 and runs off a Rock64 2GB, making it well suited for controlling 3D printers. The Quinly Wireless Hub kits come with everything you need to ensure smooth 24/7 operation of your 3D printer. They are designed to be interchangeable with RPis, and you can use both in your print farm.
If you puchased this with a Quinly kit, or have a Quinly Kit from before, your SD card will come preloaded with all the software you need, and setup should take a few short minutes.
Having trouble with the setup? Join our discord for live chat support, or email support@3dque.com.
1.0 What's in the Kit
Quinly Wireless Hub
1 x Quad-core Microcontroller with 2GB Ram
1 x Class 10 32GB MicroSD card (Pre-loaded with Quinly for Quinly users)
1 x 3D Printed Vented Enclosure with Cooling Fan
Mounting Hardware
2 x M5x8mm Button Head Screws
2 x M5 3030 T-nuts
External
1 x USB Cable for Hub to Printer
1 x High Quality 5v Power Supply (EU or US outlet)
1 x External Wifi Antenna
2.0 What You'll Need
If connecting via Ethernet
1x Ethernet cable
If Connecting via Wifi
1x USB/SD to micro SD adapter (SD card reader)
Mounting to Printer
M3 allen key
3.0 Connecting Via Ethernet
If you plan to use your Quinly hub via wifi, please skip to section 4.0
- Plug the one end of the USB cable to the Hub and the other to the Printer
- Plug an Ethernet cable to the Hub. The other end should be connected to the local network you wish to connect from.
- Plug the power into your Quinly Hub.
Special Note: On first powerup, please allow for up to 10 minutes for the wireless hub to self-configure and adapt settings to your printer. It will be ready to use when you see an IP address appear on your printer's LCD screen. Please do not unplug the hub during this process. Subsequent boot-ups will be much faster.
4.0 Connecting Via Wifi
Connecting the Hub to your wifi network can be done quickly. You will need a computer and SD card reader for this step. As the card is already preloaded, only a single file needs to be modified to give the hub your wifi information. We'll walk through the steps below. It is recommended to perform these steps before powering on the hub for the first time.
- Remove the SD card from the wireless hub. The SD card slot is spring-loaded, so push the card in towards the case in order to eject it. You will hear a click.
- Insert the SD card into any computer using a MicroSD to USB adapter.
- When you first insert the card, windows may display many messages saying "You need to format thie disk in drive X: before you can use it." Please close these windows by hitting "Cancel". Allowing windows to format the drive will delete the data on there.
- Open up File Explorer or Finder and look for a drive called "boot". Select that drive to view it's contents.
- You should see a file called wifi.txt. This is where the wifi name and password are entered for the wireless hub.
- Enter your wireless network name (SSID) and password immediately after the colon. Once your file should looks like the one above, save the file.
- Safely eject the SD card from your computer and remove it from the SD card reader.
- Press the SD card into the slot on the back of the Wireless Hub. Reminder: the slot is spring loaded, once you hear a soft click, the SD card is secured.
- Retrieve the Wireless Antenna from the kit and plug it into any of the USB slots on the Quinly Hub. Double check to ensure the antenna is tightly screwed onto the USB block. You can do this by gently turning the plastic where the golden metal contact is exposed.
- Plug the USB control cable into the Quinly Hub and into your 3D Printer.
- Finally, once everything is connected, power on the Quinly Wireless Hub
Special Note: On first powerup, please allow for up to 10 minutes for the wireless hub to self-configure and adapt settings to your printer. It will be ready to use when you see an IP address appear on your printer's LCD screen. Please do not unplug the hub during this process. Subsequent boot-ups will be much faster.
5.0 Mounting your Quinly Hub to the Printer
The Quinly Hub comes with Mounting hardware for 3030 aluminium extrusion. This is the type of extrusion used in all Quinly Automation kits. Below is an overview of the recommended mounting position. You are welcome to swap out the mounting hardware and place the Quinly Hub in a location more suitable to your setup. It is important the Hub is secured during printing to avoid strain on cables, or accidental disconnections. A lot of things can happen when printing 24/7 so it is best to lock things down as best as possible.
- Mount the hub to your printer using an M3 allen key.
- Plug the USB cable into the printer.
- Power on the Quinly Wireless Hub.
Special Note: On first powerup, please allow for up to 10 minutes for the wireless hub to self-configure and adapt settings to your printer. It will be ready to use when you see an IP address appear on your printer's LCD screen. Please do not unplug the hub during this process. Subsequent boot-ups will be much faster.
- Enter the address into a browser, and start using Quinly!
6.0 Updating your Wireless Hub
- Download and install the Sandisk official sd card formatter
- Download and install BalenaEtcher (for writing the new software image to your SD card)
- Download new Quinly image and extract to an accessible folder
- Eject SD card from the wireless hub (push to eject - it is spring loaded)
- Insert SD card into computer
- Format SD card with Sandisk SD card formatter
- Open Balena Etcher
- Click ‘Flash from file’ and select the most recent Quinly software .img file
- Click flash. Will take a few minutes. Once done, the SD card will be ejected automatically, unplug and reinsert it
- Access the SD card and open the wifi.txt file
- Enter wifi Credentials
- Eject card and insert back into wireless hub
- First boot may take up to 10 minutes. Please do not unplug the wireless hub during this time
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