Connect to your own Wi-Fi network¶
By default the terraPen runs as an access point — you connect to it, which means your computer drops off the internet while you plot.
Putting the terraPen on your own network fixes that, and is how you will normally use it.
There is a more practical reason too: file uploads are much more reliable over your own network. Over the access point, a large plot can fail to transfer at all — see uploading files.
1. Enter your network details¶
Connect to the terraPen access point and open the web UI, then set your network name and password in the controller settings.
Click Set after each field.
2. Restart the controller¶
Select the ESP3D tab and click the red power icon to reset — see Restarting the terraPen.
3. Check whether it worked¶
This is the quick way to tell, without hunting through router settings:
Look at your computer's list of available Wi-Fi networks.
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
terraPen has disappeared | It worked. The plotter is on your network. |
terraPen is still there | It failed and has fallen back to access point mode. Reconnect and check the details. |
Failing is harmless
If the details are wrong, the controller gives up and returns to access point mode. Nothing is broken — reconnect to terraPen and try again.
4. Reconnect¶
Put your computer back on your normal Wi-Fi network, then reach the plotter with either:
- terraForge — recommended
- A browser at http://terrapen.local
If terrapen.local does not resolve, check your router for the address it assigned, for example http://192.168.1.145.
Trade shows, schools and locked networks¶
Managed networks — a university, an office, a school — often will not work. They commonly stop devices talking to each other, or put a login page in the way that the terraPen has no way of completing. And at a show there may be no network worth joining at all.
You could reconfigure the terraPen for each new place, but that means digging into the settings every time you move it.
Use a travel router¶
This is what we do. A small travel router such as the GL.iNet GL-MT300N-V2 solves it neatly:
- Set the travel router up once, with its own network name and password.
- Point the terraPen at that network, following the steps above.
- Take the router with you.
The terraPen now only ever sees one network, so it never needs reconfiguring. The router handles whatever is available at the other end — your home router, a hotel connection, or a phone hotspot — and your computer joins the same network and reaches both the plotter and the internet.
Or use a phone hotspot¶
Connect both your computer and the terraPen to your phone's hotspot. You keep internet access on the computer while still controlling the plotter.
This needs the terraPen pointing at the hotspot's network name and password, so it is best when the hotspot details stay the same.
Or fall back to the terraPen's own network¶
If all else fails, the terraPen's own access point always works — join terraPen as you did during first time setup. Your computer will not have internet while you are connected to it, but the plotter will work perfectly well.