Skywatcher Wifi Dongle and Home Network

[andyk74]

I have just tried connecting my Skywatcher Wifi dongle to my home network as per the instructions so I can control my mount and be online as well. I entered the SSID and password for my router, deselected Access Point Mode and selected DHCP. Everything worked fine. I powered the mount off to take it outside for a range check and thought I would double check it before carting it all outside and now it will not connect via the home network. I also cannot connect to its own network as it was disabled to connect to the home network. Have I missed something here or has anyone got any advice?

[Dr_Ju_ju]

How far away from your access point to the mount ??  is the dongle "hidden" but the mount ?  I suspect that the dongle does not have much of a range....

[andyk74]

The mount with dongle attached was about 5 feet from the router and 7 feet from the PC. I was testing it indoors. I think I have now found the problem. It looks like it is a known issue with the dongle as Skywatcher have issued a firmware update (Ver 1.03) issued 29 October 2017. I bought my dongle in December 2017 so had (wrongly) assumed it was at the latest revision. Their description is below from the update revision notes:

Version 1.03
  Oct. 17, 2017
  1. Fix a bug which prevents the adapter from working in STA only mode.
  2. Start the adapter's own access point automatically if the external access point for the STA only mode is not valid.
  3. Reduct the factory reset timer to 1 hour.

[andyk74]

So it looks like without this update, if there is a problem with the home network, it does not automatically switch to its own access point which would explain why I cannot find it on any network.