Wifi extender for Asiair pro

[SmokeyJoe]

Hi can anybody recommend a WiFi extender to use with an asiair Pro.  I'm sure I came across a recommendation at some point in the last month or two but can't find it now. 

[Davey-T]

Plenty of USB WiFi  extenders but whether they'll work on the ASIAIR Pro is another matter, no mention of it in the manual, what it needs it an external aerial or two.

Could try a query on the ASIAR Pro Facebook group.

Dave

[StevieDvd]

I seem to recall that the wifi on Raspberry does not have any way to use an external connection and is limited to the onboard aerial - there are some daring individuals that cut the traces on the Pi board and add an external connection but not something the normal or even expert would probably want to try.

You may have seen usb wifi connections with nice big aerials but whether the ASIair Pro could use that over the internal one is the key question. 

 

[Davey-T]

You can put in a  request to ZWO for an external aerial you won't be the first one.

If I connect mine in the garden then go into the house through the kitchen and into the sitting room it drops the mount hotspot WiFi  along the way, but it detects it again once in the sitting room.

Dave

[Tomatobro]

Out of interest has anybody tried one of the WiFi extenders that plug into a spare USB port such as the ones sold by the PI Hut?

They are supposed to be plug and play with Pi4's but do they work with the ZWO ASI pro?

I see there is a YouTube video  where at around three mins the Guy mentions a net gear extender

 

Edited October 18, 2020 by Tomatobro
data added

[Davey-T]

1 hour ago, Tomatobro said:

Out of interest has anybody tried one of the WiFi extenders that plug into a spare USB port such as the ones sold by the PI Hut?

They are supposed to be plug and play with Pi4's but do they work with the ZWO ASI pro?

Got one in my obs'y PC that sends signal to house, will try it in the ASIAIR when I get a chance, currently embroiled in restoring the ASIAIR SD card firmware, only taken a couple of hours so far and probably be another couple later.

Dave

Edited October 18, 2020 by Davey-T

[StevieDvd]

The usual work arounds revolve on boosting the ASIair signal through an extender. For example:

1. Use an external device to boost your home wi-fi. If the device is DC powered and next to the mount you can use a wifi connection or possibly a lan connection between the ASIair and the extender.

2. If the extender is in house or garage but near enough to let the ASIair get a good signal then use that. I have one of these in my garage to extend my wifi signal for the garden and rear of house.

3. Use an extender to boost the ASIair wifi broadcast signal into the house.

4. For portable and away from home there are a lot who use a TPLink device (such as TP-Link AC750/TL-WR902AC) to do  create a hotspot for their phone/ipad and ASIair to connect to.

This video gives you an idea why the Rasberry Pi has a hard job broadcasting a wifi hot-spot, given the size it's amazing what it can achieve.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 19, 2020 by StevieDvd
Added TP-Link model ref for future readers.

[StevieDvd]

3 hours ago, Davey-T said:

Got one in my obs'y PC that sends signal to house, will try it in the ASIAIR when I get a chance, currently embroiled in restoring the ASIAIR SD card firmware, only taken a couple of hours so far and probably be another couple later.

Dave

I use a program called Rufus for writing Linux images to sd-card, found here. Though I do have a usb3 adapter for sd-cards, so it's normally done in around 10 mins.

[SmokeyJoe]

Thanks all for the useful info.  Found what I was looking for buried in the depths of the Zwo forum.  Tp link WR902-AC. 

[lasvideo]

I tried using TP Link 750 with ASI Air and got very inconsistant performance with it. I ended up up throwing it in the trash.

[StevieDvd]

I have seen a few comments around suggesting adding an aerial to the Raspberry Pi - but it does seem a little tricky and in the case of an ASIair could invalidate the warranty.

However, I did find this page on adding an external wifi aerial to a TPLink portable router in case anyone wanted to try it out.

[obs30]

I used my old leftover Apple AirPort Extreme (AE)  router.  Plugging the Ethernet cable that comes from the Asiair Pro (AAP) into one of the Ethernet *outputs* from the AE router.  The AE is configure as a normal wifi router.  This way the AAP is part of the local network of the AE.  The iPad connects through the AE wifi network to the AAP. The AAP app finds the AAP box immediately and automatically.  Works like a charm.

Also, other devices connected to the AE wifi can directly access the memory and images on the AAP.  So cool and convenient.

I guess this should work with any router from any manufacturer.  

[Spile]

I would recommend one of the following to extend the range of your home Wi-Fi...

1) Turn an old router into a wireless point (basically you turn off DHCP) and place that closer to your viewing location. You will need to run an ethernet lead to the router but see below.

2) Get a Powerline adapter that uses the mains wiring to extend your network. Either a double socket for use with 1) or a Wireless point 

Both of the above will perform better than a wireless extender.

[obs30]

On 25/01/2021 at 12:24, Spile said:

I would recommend one of the following to extend the range of your home Wi-Fi...

1) Turn an old router into a wireless point (basically you turn off DHCP) and place that closer to your viewing location. You will need to run an ethernet lead to the router but see below.

2) Get a Powerline adapter that uses the mains wiring to extend your network. Either a double socket for use with 1) or a Wireless point 

Both of the above will perform better than a wireless extender.

In my case, I left to DHCP to automatic.  All my devices and the AAP app on the iPad could scan and automatically find the ASIair Pro.  

Edited January 28, 2021 by obs30

[savcom]

On 17/11/2020 at 16:36, StevieDvd said:

I have seen a few comments around suggesting adding an aerial to the Raspberry Pi - but it does seem a little tricky and in the case of an ASIair could invalidate the warranty.

However, I did find this page on adding an external wifi aerial to a TPLink portable router in case anyone wanted to try it out.

I'm not sure that the modification works.  I've got one on a modified TL-702 which is connected to an Omni aerial outside.  Monitoring the signal in the garden I find it is no more powerful than a similar unmodified unit placed in a window..

It may work better if I try a directional aerial though.  Not tried that yet.

 

[teoria_del_big_bang]

I now use one of these on my RPi4 with Stellarmate and works really well.

BrosTrend 650Mbps Linux WiFi Dongle  

This was recommended to me by @Stuart1971
Before this always used a 100M Ethernet cable back to network in house due to reliability issues with RPi WiFi and was sceptical this would work.
But it does and not had an issue yet,although on tried it a handful of times, but seems to work at least up to 50 M and trough an outside wall, also worked when in garage so through an outside wall and 2 inside brick walls.

It is rather big and I did find that if left dangling in the RPi it was in danger of damaging the usb port in the RPi due to its weight but it works just as well on the end of a short usb extension lead, mine is 0.3M.
Also forcing it to use the 5 GHz WiFi not the 2.4 as this gets interference from the USB (or so I am told) makes it work better.

I get good speed.

Obviously faster on Ethernet but it works good enough to do what I need and easier than rolling out the cable each time.

Steve

[Spile]

4 hours ago, obs30 said:

In my case, I left to DHCP to automatic.

I think the issue then is that you could end up with double NAT issues - https://kb.netgear.com/30186/What-is-Double-NAT

[obs30]

7 hours ago, Spile said:

I think the issue then is that you could end up with double NAT issues - https://kb.netgear.com/30186/What-is-Double-NAT

Ok. Will check. Thanks. So far I had no issues. 

[obs30]

10 hours ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

I now use one of these on my RPi4 with Stellarmate and works really well.

BrosTrend 650Mbps Linux WiFi Dongle  

This was recommended to me by @Stuart1971
Before this always used a 100M Ethernet cable back to network in house due to reliability issues with RPi WiFi and was sceptical this would work.
But it does and not had an issue yet,although on tried it a handful of times, but seems to work at least up to 50 M and trough an outside wall, also worked when in garage so through an outside wall and 2 inside brick walls.

It is rather big and I did find that if left dangling in the RPi it was in danger of damaging the usb port in the RPi due to its weight but it works just as well on the end of a short usb extension lead, mine is 0.3M.
Also forcing it to use the 5 GHz WiFi not the 2.4 as this gets interference from the USB (or so I am told) makes it work better.

I get good speed.

Obviously faster on Ethernet but it works good enough to do what I need and easier than rolling out the cable each time.

Steve

Does this also work with the ASIair Pro?

[teoria_del_big_bang]

I am assuming so as it is RPi based but cannot say for sure as I do not have one.

It has installation files for Windows, Mac and linux so as long as you can install 3rd part software I would thing it would work.

Steve

[obs30]

15 hours ago, teoria_del_big_bang said:

I am assuming so as it is RPi based but cannot say for sure as I do not have one.

It has installation files for Windows, Mac and linux so as long as you can install 3rd part software I would thing it would work.

Steve

I am not sure how one can access the OS (Linux) and install drivers on the ASIAIR.

[teoria_del_big_bang]

3 minutes ago, obs30 said:

I am not sure how one can access the OS (Linux) and install drivers on the ASIAIR.

Ah well that maybe an issue, sorry but sort of assumed it could be done.

Steve