Wi-Fi AP and Client

balenaFin
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1

Hello!

We would like to add support for a Wi-Fi AP in addition to our Wi-Fi client connection on a BalenaFin. We currently use Network Manager to manage the client connection and that works perfectly. But we have occasionally seen cases where the Wi-Fi radio is not able to connect, or loses its connection, and we would like to be able to connect to the AP in those cases to retrieve some debugging information. I could write code to enable the AP when the client becomes disconnected, and that would be fine, but it would give us greater flexibility if we could just run the AP concurrently.

I found this post that said the AP+STA feature was not working on the Rasp Pi 3 at that time. Has this feature been supported yet?

I also noticed there is a “uap0” interface on the gateway, but it is in an unmanaged state. What is this intended to be used for? Can the NMCLI command be used to create and enable a Wi-Fi AP on uap0?

Thank you for your help!

4

Hi. The balenaFin uses a different WiFi chipset than the rpi3. I believe you could try to use hostapd on the uap0 interface to achieve what you are trying to do.

5

As a related question, when do you see the balenaFin losing wifi connectivity? After reboot or when it’s just online and drops off unexpectedly?

7

We recently installed 6 gateways at a customer’s site (warehouse), and within an hour, 2 of the gateways lost Wi-Fi connectivity and it has been very spotty since. I don’t think the gateways were power cycled, but I’m not certain.

8

Hi @dstewart, let us know if you see a specific pattern in the logs that cause the disconnections. Perhaps we might help with resolving them in case they are not network rooted problems.

Also let us know how it goes with the hostapd setup.