WiFi Dongle - tested dongle from Pi Hut does not work on Balena

Product support
1

Been searching for a wifi dongle with WAP to connect to the internal USB port from the Pi4 to our washer and dryer’s internal 2.4 Ghz network boards in our laundry rooms. Balena supports very little. I even got a driverless dongle from the Pi Hut proven and tested and of course, it does not work with Balena. I was shocked to see this not work. The listed supported dongles are pretty much no longer available. Trying to get an answer from Balena is even worse. It’s going to force me to look for another fleet platform away from Balena that is more flexible and responsive. Does anyone have a useful, reliable WiFI dongle that actually works on the Balena OS?

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Hello @douglindland first of all welcome to the balena community!

could you please share more details of the balenaOS version that you are trying and the errors that you get when you are testing this WiFi dongle?

Trying to get an answer from Balena is even worse.

Apologizes if we didn’t see any previous message that you sent to us. Could you please confirm how did you try to connect with us?

Thanks!

3

Thanks for the fast response! We are using 2.99.27 - can you guide me toward a wifi dongle that is readily available that plugs into the USB port or make this one work?

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Hey @douglindland , that OS version is almost 3 years old at this point. Have you verified that the dongle also doesn’t work with our latest OS version? Thanks!

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Thanks for the reply! Do you have a changelog from 2.99 to current that I can review? I have found that OS updates sometimes don’t go so well. Also, do you have a latest list of compatible WiFi USB dongles that correspond with the latest OS? Appreciate your assistance!

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Yes! Find here the changelog

https://github.com/balena-os/meta-balena/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md

1 Like
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Hi @douglindland , I believe support for this dongle’s firmware was re-added in 6.3.18+rev1: balena-raspberrypi/CHANGELOG.md at master · balena-os/balena-raspberrypi · GitHub

Let us know if this version works, or if not, if latest version does. Thanks!

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8

Looks like this dongle uses mt7612u chipset, which requires a different firmware.

I’ve just tested ALFA AWUS036ACM dongle (also mt7612u) and I had to install the firmware manually for it to be detected (using the latest OS version).

It would be great if basic WiFi and Bluetooth dongles were simply plug-and-play. I had an identical problem with ub500 (though ub400 was working fine).

1 Like
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Thanks! How did the ALFA AWUS036ACM dongle work for you? The reviews look positive. Appreciate the post!

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I ran wavemon side by side and observed only about a 0–10% improvement in ‘link quality’ in favor of the Alfa dongle for most networks. To be honest, this is quite disappointing, especially considering that the dongle with antennas is bulkier than the Raspberry Pi itself.

11

Totally understand your frustration—Balena’s limited hardware support can be a real blocker. One dongle that consistently works well with Balena OS is the Edimax EW-7811Un, a popular 2.4 GHz WiFi adapter with broad Linux driver support. It’s usually plug-and-play with the Pi and Balena. Also, consider using an external USB adapter with the Realtek RTL8188CUS chipset—it’s known to be reliable with Balena. Hopefully, that helps save you more trial and error. You can further ask me anything about personal branding.