OS3.0 Wifi reported as “Poor” and/or “Unuseable”

[zim]

Installed OS3.0 DC-powered yesterday in our garage…. I have a 4-unit Orbi system (1 main + 3 satellites). The OS unit is approx 15′ diagonal down from the satellite in the BRAG (bonus room above garage), and 30′ from another Satellite on the 1st floor. It is installed on some wooden shelves (built in to the wall). No plastic/metal box of any kind around it.

After the install, I had no issue using the OS app on my Android phone to manually verify that each zone would activate.

Decided to check the logs today to verify the program ran, and it appears it did not. Nothing I can find in the logs to say why not.

Looking at the diagnostics, I see that the Wifi Strength status seems to hover between “Poor” and “Unuseable”. Is the antenna in the unit really that bad? Any way to improve it?

thanks
Mike

EDIT2: my Orbi reports the unit is connected via 2.4GHz, which would normally be the better band for penetrating walls, etc.
EDIT3: it also reports that the unit is connecting to the satellite above it in the bonus room (which should be the closest/best)

[Ray]

The controller can only connect to 2.4G WiFi. It’s not able to connect to 5G.

[zim]

yes… my router says its connected to 2.4GHz (Orbi does both bands in parallel).

2.4GHz should penetrate walls better.

Which makes it all the stranger (to me) that it reports the signal being so bad despite being within 15′ of the Orbi satellite.

So again I ask, is the reception expected to be this weak? Can it be improved?

[zim]

Additional info

I downloaded WiFi Analyzer (Android) and put my phone right next to the OS3.3. My phone reported -40dB, which from what I read should be very good.

The LCD actually shows 3-4 bars, yet the System diagnostic reports Poor and/or Unuseable.

Is my unit defective?

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[Ray]

The LCD icon just indicates it’s connected to WiFi, it doesn’t indicate the signal strength. That icon would be either 4 bars (indicating it’s connected to WiFi), or 4 bars with a cross (indicating it has no WiFi connection).

The signal strength is a dynamic thing, it may not stay the same all the time. Does it persistently report Poor/Unusable? It may improve over time.

You can get an OpenSprinkler top-level logic board with a WiFi antenna plug, if you want.

[zim]

I updated the FW to 2.2.1 (0) last night and now the system is reporting “good” for Wifi.

Attached a pic of Wifi signals from my phone (Orbi system with 4 units). Only thing I can think is that the OS is sometimes not picking the strongest satellite (reading up more on that concept).

Please tell me more about the antenna plug? Is that an add-on to the 3.3DC board I just purchased? (I’m also trying to get a schematic viewer and not above breaking out my soldering iron if needed)

thanks!

EDIT: Spoke too soon.. Seemed like it was “good” since the udpate.. and now I just saw Fair and Poor again 🙁

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[zim]

ignore the previous post (says its awaiting moderation and then the forum won’t let me edit b/c of too many redirects (deleted cookies to no avail)

I think there may be a software solution for Orbi-type systems … sanity check me here

it appears that WiFi begin accepts a BSSID argument….

A work-around for this would be to display all BSSIDs on the Wifi page (ie. I’d see 4 entries for my network) and instead of joining by SSID, I join by BSSID (ie. mac address of the particular Orbi station). Both the OS3 and Orbi are fixed.. they aren’t moving around… so that guarantees that the OS3 will connect to the Orbi with the strongest signal.

Plausible?

(and if some of this already exists, apologies, I’m still trying to learn my way around and my CPP is pretty rusty.. I see that some of the start_network calls actually use a BSSID)

[Ray]

The firmware can already accepts BSSID. At the WiFi configuration page, you can see it has an input for BSSID, which is automatically filled when you select a detected network, or you can manually type it in, or you can leave it empty so it will automatically connected to one of your routers that share the same SSID and password

To be honest, to address your issue you might want to consider having a secondary router that’s dedicated to OpenSprinkler, with a different SSID than your main network. Or, you can use wired Ethernet connection which can eliminate WiFi issues completely.

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[zim]

Broke out the tape measure… the OS unit is placed within 25′ of 3 Orbi satellites (15′, 22′, 25′).

Possibly Wifi device in OS3.3 isn’t going a good job of picking the strongest satellite? (ie. why would the signal quality be varying from Poor to Good… interference/shielding???)

I see mention of the Wifi antenna option on :

https://opensprinkler.com/forums/topic/external-antenna-option-for-os3-2/
https://opensprinkler.com/forums/topic/wifi-distance/

are there details on how to get this? (support ticket), and what kind of antenna it would accept (and where would it plug in?)

thanks
Mike

[Ray]

You can send a support ticket at
support.opensprinkler.com
and ask for a version of the OpenSprinkler logic board that has external antenna plug. It will come with ESP-07S WiFi chip:
https://www.rfsolutions.co.uk/downloads/6253e9bcb090a456DS-ESP07S-1.pdf
and you can buy a WiFi antenna yourself and plug it in. Please note that ESP-07S has no PCB antenna, which means it must use an external antenna, otherwise it won’t be able to connect to your router at all.

Other than the WiFi signal reported as poor/unusable, are you experiencing problem connecting to the controller? If you can still connect to the controller, I don’t think you need to bother with the antenna.

[zim]

I reset Wifi and made sure to connect to the specific satellite (ie. specific BSSID). The system now reports Good/Excellent.

I expect that to result in a long term solution.. ie. I’m not moving the Orbi satellites around… and I’m not moving the OS unit around. So with Wifi.Begin always choosing that one satellite (based on BSSID), that should do it.

I dunno.. might be worth a mention in the FAQ for people who have Orbi (or probably any mesh system??) .. ie. the user needs to pick based on combination of SSID and BSSID (it makes perfect sense now, but I have 30+ devices connected to my network and have never needed to think that way before). FWIW, I checked and Orbi doesn’t allow one to pre-select/associate an endpoint to a satellite.. the endpoint has to do the picking.

Other than that, I’m a debug freak and would prefer more verbose logging, but will take that back up in the logging thread I started 🙂

thanks!

[Author]

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