I’ve been battling this problem for days. I’m building two Volumio “music boxes” for my daughters, for Christmas, and time is running out to get this system stable. I’m using RPI 3’s with HiFi Berry DAC + Pros, and attached 1TB Seagate laptop drives, connected to USB ports via USB to SATA cable. The latest build of Volumio 2 (from last week or so).
For user interface, I’m using Samsung Galaxy Tab A 7" tablets. Tried the Pi touchscreen, and it was very slow, and the backlight doesn’t shut off, etc. I didn’t think it was that good. For an extra 30.00, the girls will have a tablet that becomes a handheld remote, and has other uses, so…
Power is from a 3A NorthPada power supply. The power supply seems adequate, and I’ve added extra filtering to clean it up.
At this time I just want to use the WiFi hotspot to connect to Volumio. Reason is one daughter is living in a dorm at college, and the WiFi situation is unknown to me. My other daughter is 1000 miles away, and is moving into a new apartment soon, and again I don’t know what she’s going to have for WiFi at the moment. So having the access point as primary connection, is my goal at the moment.
What happens is the built in WiFi on the Pi seems to turn on and off. I’m wondering if there is a setting that can be changed to keep the WiFi always on? I’m not sure what is causing this. Both Pi 3’s have shown this symptom. I have been using an android app called WiFi Analyzer to monitor the signal level from the Pi access point. Sometimes it works flawlessly. Re-boot, and now it’s on - off, power level going up, and down.
Is the built in WiFi junk? Are there driver issues? Is the Edimax a better way to go, and if so, do I need to disable the built in WiFi?
The latest thing I have tried is an Edimax USB WiFi adapter, which seems to be working. But I have had the built in WiFi work for hours, then unplug the Pi, and move it to a different spot, and it goes intermittent. I have a ton of time and money into this project, and wood working, etc. I just want it to work! But I’m running out of ideas!
Help Please!
Thanks!