Hello, I wanted to share how I got my OMTech Polar 350 connected to my home wifi network using an old wifi router as a bridge. Several posts include helpful information that got me part of the way there, but I didn’t see anything that covered this specific solution - so I wanted to document it here in case this is helpful for anyone else!
I have a Mac that doesn’t have USB or ethernet ports built in, so I was keen to have a way to connect to my machine without using too many hubs or adapters. I did my initial cuts and calibration using a USB A to C adapter, which worked fine. I also experimented with the built-in wifi but didn’t like how that required you to disconnect from your main wifi network and lose internet connectivity. That said, these two methods worked fine for me and are documented elsewhere.
The IP address for the OMTech Polar is 192.168.1.100. My old router’s default/gateway IP was 192.168.1.0. I connected the ethernet cable from the Polar to the old router and joined the wifi network (without internet). I was then able to use the same ethernet/wifi settings in Lightburn to easily connect to the device. I think it was because the first three parts of the IP address matched, so I didn’t even need to manually change my computer’s IP (as described in the Polar video).
My main router’s IP was different on the third part - 192.168.X.X - so I manually changed the IP LAN settings on the router to match my old router and the polar more closely. I then connected the old router as a bridge to my home wifi network.
This didn’t work for me at first. My bridge router was automatically/randomly assigned an IP address of 192.168.1.117 when it connected to my home wifi network. I decided to instead manually set the bridge router IP to the computer IP that is recommended in the Polar setup video - 192.168.1.80. Once I did this and everything restarted, I could instantly connect to the Polar through my home wifi using the device IP - 192.168.1.100 - without manually changing any IP settings on my laptop.
Helpful posts on this topic:
