HeaterMeter wireless discussion


 
My wifi does not come up faster then the HM. (Thou my router is pretty much a small daul core computer) I see all of the issues Byran mentioned as a possibility.

What would happen if someone plugged in an Ethernet cable while all this switching is going on? I am also not a big fan of things trying to do something automatically when I am not expecting or wanting to do it, Keep it simple stupid.
 
IDK how many people are using a computer for a router, most people have a regular wifi router which come on line pretty darn quick. If the WiFi is not available when the HM boots because your PC/Router is still booting, then power cycling the HM after your WiFi is up and running would get you connected back to the WiFi, seems simple enough to me. Also keep in mind, this whole scenario we are running down is based on "what if the power goes out while you are cooking", which I think should be a rare event? Plugging in an ethernet cable should have no effect, as it is not the wifi device, and if the check is only done when the HM first boots up and attempts to connect to WiFi anything you do after the HM is booted would have no effect (would not result in any automatic action).

Again, my suggestion is this... At boot the HM attempts to connect to the Local WiFi, if it can not connect it switches to AP mode (where you can connect directly to the HM from any wireless device). If it doesn't connect to your WiFi for whatever reason at first boot, power cycling the HM would make it attempt to connect to the WiFi again, once it is connected to the WiFi nothing will "automatically" make it change to AP mode ever.

That said, this is just an idea of how we could make the HM more "network friendly', 'cause I really do think you should be able to plug the HM into the wall and then connect directly to it with I-Pads, cell phones, laptops etc, if you have an easier way to accomplish this I'd be on board....
 
My router is not a computer, I use an off the shelve router, netgear R7000. My point is its a very powerful router (It really does have a dual core CPU) and takes a little bit to fully boot and go thou all my devices as it provides every TV with digital cable and internet to every computer/phone/tablet in my house. I think doing things automatically is just asking for problems when you can't even come close to imagining everyone's setups or needs.

I love the idea of having two different dongles, its a semi automatic approach like having an external switch. AP mode on AP mode Off.

Ralph please know I am not trolling you, I have used the information you provided to help get a lot of what I am doing working and to me (as if it matters) you are the stuff that's brown.
 
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Yeah my router is no slouch either, it was $150 when I got it 2 years ago and it takes over a minute before it presents a wireless signal. My HeaterMeter boots in about 30 seconds. It is a somewhat rare occurrence that the power is going to go out or flicker. I still don't like the whole one-way switch thing because I feel like these wifi adapters are kinda flaky anyway and even if it failed to AP mode once when it wasn't supposed to it would make me really upset.

The other issue is configuration. I don't think you can have two configurations in /etc/config/wireless and switch between them because OpenWrt doesn't have the concept of an active profile vs an inactive profile. I'd like to be able to still edit both configurations from the web interface regardless of what mode you're in. So this isn't as simple as adding some logic to "just switch over to AP mode" because as with all programming problems, It's Complicated(tm) when you consider the details. I mean how does one even "switch between"? If one configuration is "active" that doesn't necessarily mean it is connected. You need to work back from variables you can inspect to determine which configuration you're in. If the client isn't connected then it may be difficult to tell you're in client mode at all. It just isn't very simple at all and with complexity comes unexpected problems.
 
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Is there any way to differentiate between the two USB ports on the rPi and make the HM run AP mode when plugged into one and client mode when plugged into the other?
 
I still don't get it, though the sentence seems complimentary, to me "the stuff that's brown" sounds like he is calling me a piece of excrement...
 
RalphTrimble said:
I still don't get it, though the sentence seems complimentary, to me "the stuff that's brown" sounds like he is calling me a piece of excrement...
Click to expand...

http://bit.ly/1mkfdIH

http://bit.ly/1lDel31

s02YAco.jpg
 
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IDK how to take that post (pic) either... I assure you I am not old crotchety and out of touch, and understand what it means to call someone "the $hit", but that not exactly what jumps out at me when I read "you are the stuff that's brown"... At any rate, no harm, no foul, it's all good...
 
I wasn't sure what to think either, sounded like a compliment, but it sure gave me a good laugh to come read the thread :cool:

david
 
Based on Bryan's and Ralph's recommendation, I received my WU715N wifi dongle today.

At first, I could not get it to run on LinkMeter v10 software. However, a quick update to LinkMeter v11, and the WU715N came right up. With minimal testing (via the OpenWrt GUI), I had my HM configured to support both the EdiMax and WU715N running in AP mode. (Individually, not at the same time)

So, I could successfully connect my PC to the HM-based wifi AP. Then login to the HM (at the HM's static IP) and the HM also provided an IP address for my PC via DHCP.

At this point, my HM will simultaneously operate on my LAN and also serve as a wifi AP. Thus, I am getting close the my ideal HM wifi configuration.

My ideal configuration is to use my Edimax as a wifi CLIENT, and the WU715N as a wifi Access Point. If I am cooking locally, I start the HM with the EdiMax dongle installed. If I want to cook off-site, I start the HM with the WU715N installed. To do this, I still need some guidance on wifi configuration...

How do I link my two wireless profiles to an actual physical device? Do I use the MAC address or is there a better way? I would like to provide a solution to the community. So, I think the preferred way is to do all the configuration via the OpenWrt/LinkMeter GUI...

Any thoughts?

mw
 
I actually did some work on this myself this weekend. I tried getting the one device to work in both modes simultaneously. When trying to start the second mode ifconfig gives an error "no buffer space available". I haven't dug into if this can be worked around yet.

Mark Workman said:
How do I link my two wireless profiles to an actual physical device? Do I use the MAC address or is there a better way? I would like to provide a solution to the community. So, I think the preferred way is to do all the configuration via the OpenWrt/LinkMeter GUI...
Click to expand...
Yuss. The mac is the only way to identify them, because they can be enumerated or initialized in any order. As far as I can tell there's no way to set them up this way from the webui.

What you need to do is edit /etc/config/wireless and for each wifi-device radio section, change the 'option phy phyX' to 'option macaddr XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX' (don't just add the macaddr or it will still use the phy). Given the macaddr, the setup code will search all available phys and assign it to the appropriate device. If you don't know the macaddr of the device, `cat /sys/class/ieee80211/phy0/macaddress`. Just replace phy0 with the device you're looking for.
 
I wonder if it is a resource limitation? In other words, I wonder if both interfaces are competing for the same buffer space...

Yupper, the ultimate solution would be for the device to simultaneously operate in both modes, Otherwise, this is still great news! I'll try the wireless config changes tonight. Thx
 
Mark Workman said:
I wonder if it is a resource limitation? In other words, I wonder if both interfaces are competing for the same buffer space...
Click to expand...
The RT5370 is a "software mac" as far as I can tell, which means that the generic Linux mac handles all the real wifi vintf stuff so it should have all the code to do multiple interfaces at once. OpenWrt might be doing something silly like trying to assign the same mac address to both interfaces and it fails with an error message you don't expect.

EDIT:
God I love open source, where one can look up answers. You can have multiple APs or multiple STAs (clients) running at the same time but not a combination thereof (rt5370 code):
Code: 
        case NL80211_IFTYPE_AP:
                if (rt2x00dev->intf_sta_count)
                        return -ENOBUFS;
 
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Hi,
I am trying the suggestion to manage using the MAC addresses. I have (2) of the Edimax adapters... they are 7 dollars and change now on amazon. Will also try and manage using the command line since I am seeing some dhcp issues that dont make sense.

I have been looking for the syntax of the wifi-ap command... like 'wifi-ap heatermeter _____' (not sure what to specify for the key if it is needed).
 
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Type wifi-ap without any parameters and it tells you. You can't use wifi-client or wifi-ap if you have two adapters though because it wipes out the previous configuration each time you use it, so there is no way to set up the second adapter without losing the first.
 
Bryan Mayland said:
... way to set up the second adapter without losing the first.
Click to expand...

http://tvwbb.com/showthread.php?52778-Extra-meat-probes&p=588369&viewfull=1#post588369

Thanks for this tip on setting up the mac address for the wifi adapters. You also reminded me NOT to use the command line to switch adapters because that will overwrite the configuration files.

I have ordered a rt5370 based wu715n with an antenna for AP mode. Getting to the HM somehow using the web gui is most important to me because I want to save the logs every time. (Is there an auto archive option ?)
 
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