Hey folks,
I've got an oddball question for a somewhat unique use case... I'm almost done building my new ROR observatory and at the stage of getting all the little electronics set up. The ROR is about 300 feet from the house. I use a Minix NEO42C for my imaging rig, with power supplied by solar panel(s) -- no AC power to the observatory. I am at the limits of the WiFi signal for the NEO but it is working reasonably well.
There are a few other devices that are just at the edge of range and it's causing some issues for me. Specifically, I have a few ESP8266 units that I use to monitor battery bank voltage, temperatures, etc. Eventually also want to set up some sky condition sensors, etc. - also using an ESP8266. The ESP8266 devices connect to an MQTT server on my home network, which logs the data to csv files for historical purposes.
I've tried setting up an outdoor access point off my network to extend the range, but the one I have is actually weaker than my primary router. (Complicated network setup so will not go into details here as they aren't toally relevant.) Likewise, I've comandeered an old ASUS router and set it up as a WiFi repeater. This works better, but the router runs off AC and I do not want to leave the inverter running as it tends to outpace my solar panels - particularly in the winter. I also find that the repeater occasionally drops signal, which then wreaks havoc with the ESP devices.
Ok - stage set, now here's what I'm trying to do. I want to set up an RPi unit (I have a few surplus laying around) as an intermediary. Using a WiFi dongle, I can have one interface connect back to the main network, and use the RPi to setup a local network for the observatory devices. (I can also use a high-gain antenna to improve on signal for the RPi <--> Main Network connection.) Install an MQTT broker and have it collect the history, etc. Sync'ing back to my main server can be done periodically using rsync. Having a local WiFi signal and MQTT broker should resolve any issues with the ESP's. No issues there.
Where I am running into trouble is trying to get hostpad working correctly on raspios. I've found loads of tutorials online and managed to get the hotspot working intermittently. However there seems to be something "off" with the setup and the SSID only shows up periodically. (Generally I have to manually restart the hostapd service after booting and the SSID disappears again after a few minutes.) I've also tried using systemd-networkd and a few other approaches I've found online but all have their issues.
I very much like AstroBerry as a standalone astro server, (and could use it to run the mount on my second pier) but it seems that it will only support a single WiFi interface. When I try to connect a USB WiFi dongle, it is greyed out in the settings. I've poked around in the background via console but am not quite sure what's disabling the second WiFi.
So... Does anyone know if it's possible to set up a second WiFi device on Astroberry? Would appreciate any suggestions on how I might get a hotspot running on a second WiFi device! (Or alternative suggestions on how I might accomplish my objectives above...)
I could just invest in a point-to-point wireless bridge, but at some point I need to cut off the spend! Am currently in process of setting up Ubuntu 20.04 on an RPi3 to see if I can resolve the hostapd issues that way, but accomplishing this with Astroberry would be ideal. Sorry for the long winded message - trying to be as clear as possible on usage case and what I've tried so far.
Cheers!
Corey