OpenMarine

Full Version: Twin wifi dongles - thought it was an AP issue, but appears to be power...
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I was about to document issues I've been having since trying to add a second wifi dongle to my fledgling system...

I've been having serious AP stability issues - despite having both units plugged in to a powered hub.

As a last resort, I removed the gps and DVB-t dongles - and Lo! the wireless dongles both started performing properly and the AP came up just fine Smile

So, despite having a supposedly-powered hub, it's clearly not up to the job. It was one of the PiHut ones - I'll try another to see if I can narrow the issue down.

Anyway, glad to say that OP seems to be working well!
Yes you are right, the 80% of issues are always power related.

Yours may not be a problem with the hub but a problem with the power source of the hub. You have to be sure the power source is providing the amps required.
I have a full equipped OpenPlotter (weather sensors, IMU, 1W sensors, switches, outputs, DVB-T, GPS dongle, NMEA 0183-USB, NMEA N2K, WiFi dongle + wifi built-in) connected to the same power source 5V 3A. Both Raspberry 3 and hub are connected to it. The system works right. Sometimes I can see the annoying, multicolour, little square upper right on the screen but performance is not affected.
Yep. Turns out it was the USB-5mm power cable (cheap eBay job). It helps that I have a number of USB inline power meters to hand - I could see that the hub was trying to draw power from the cable connecting it to the RPI and not from the power lead.

Quite happily typing this now on my system running off a car battery in my living room. Will get to test on our boat in three weeks :-) Thanks.