Wifi boost raspberry pi 4

matt.theshepherd · October 15, 2023, 11:42am

Im looking at options to boost the wifi on my volumio setup. Is this possible? Ive looked at plug and play usb dongles but am not sure if they are worth or if they really make a difference. I have a raspberry pi 4 but its in metal casing, would a dongle work?

Cheers
Matt

Wheaten · October 15, 2023, 11:59am

A dongle might improve the throughput, but to be honest nothing beats a wired connection.

But without providing any useful information, it’s hard to tell.

What are you streaming, MP3, Radio, DSD, …
What is already connected to the USB ports
Distance between rPi and router?
Walls/floors in between?

matt.theshepherd · October 15, 2023, 7:38pm

Im just curious. I didn’t know if there was a tried and tested dongle. Agreed wired is always better.

SimonE · October 15, 2023, 9:27pm

If it’s too far to run a cable from your router to your Volumio system, maybe you could use a wifi extender with an ethernet port and plug that in near your Pi. It’s not as reliable as a direct connection, but good ones work pretty well.

Darmur · October 16, 2023, 8:38am

if you have a metal case on your RPi4, it will degrade considerably the transmission and reception of the onboard WiFi module.

if you connect a USB WiFi dongle and the dongle is not covered by the metal case, you should solve your problem.

If you do so, please don’t forget to disable the onboard WiFi module, and please make sure you pick a compatible dongle.

for disabling the onboard WiFi/BT module, you should add the following lines to userconfig.txt

dtoverlay=disable-wifi
dtoverlay=disable-bt

volumio · October 16, 2023, 11:32am

no need, wifi will be automatically disabled. Please let’s not recommend doing ANY manual mod when there is a simple way. we strive to allow non technical people to enjoy volumio

Wheaten · October 16, 2023, 1:06pm

This one will work, have them in use for rPi and x86.

GlowTube · October 19, 2023, 10:23pm

I run Volumio on an RPi 2, which does not have onboard Wi-Fi. So, I used an inexpensive USB dongle on this box for a long time, successfully. It was one of those tiny 2.4GHz convenience dongles barely bigger than the USB connector. For your purpose, any Linux-supported dongle should be ok. If you have a real challenging signal situation, you might choose a more sophisticated dongle with a larger, high-gain antenna or even a pair of such antennas. Current models are capable of beam-forming with multiple antennas (TP-Link has one which works well on Windows but I’m not sure about Linux support).

In the end, though, I chose to connect my RPi 2 via ethernet, because there was just a single thing the Wi-Fi connection did not do well: act as a UPnP receiver (ie. PlayTo). Wi-Fi could not maintain perfect packet order over the course of playing a full album, resulting in sudden drop-outs and other audible anomalies. Once I changed to a wired connection, this never happened again.

jocoman · July 24, 2024, 11:01pm

Hi
I just got this dongle! (TP-Link AC1300 Min) I have disabled the on board wifi, but how do I configure volumio to see it and connect it to my wireless network? ( I am on volumio 3.661
thanks for your help.

jocoman · July 25, 2024, 1:49am

Please tell me how to get this Dongle working in Volumio 3.X.
thanks

Wheaten · July 25, 2024, 4:22am

To be honest I haven’t disabled the on-board WiFi.
As far as I know it will disable all WiFi.
First screenshot is without the dongle , the 2nd with. Looking at the transmission speed the 2nd uses the dongle.

jocoman · July 25, 2024, 12:28pm

OK. I just installaed a fresh image of 3.703. I’m getting 433.3 Mb/s as you do.
However there is no led light flashing on the dongle. Maybe there isn’t one.
Do you have any lights on your dongle?
Many thanks

Wheaten · July 25, 2024, 12:43pm

Yes a blinking green LED, below tp-link. Its connected to the USB3 port as it won’t work on USB2?

jocoman · July 25, 2024, 12:53pm

I do indeed have it connected on a USB port (Blue). There is no blinking green LED.
Myt router shows that it has only 1 bar whereas the internal adapter gets me 2 bars. So disappointing.
I was thinking of returning it and getting this instead.

Do you think this adapter will work as well?
Eventhough, I don’t understand there is no blinking. I am using 5g maybe that has something to do with it. Txs

Wheaten · July 25, 2024, 1:12pm

@DED

is the driver for the TP-link Archer T3U (rtl8822bu) gone? I am sure I’ve tested it a while ago.

volumio@rpi4-xc1:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 0781:5583 SanDisk Corp. Ultra Fit
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 2357:012d TP-Link
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 2109:3431 VIA Labs, Inc. Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

volumio@rpi4-xc1:~$ lsusb -t
/:  Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 5000M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Mass Storage, Driver=usb-storage, 5000M
/:  Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/1p, 480M
    |__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
        |__ Port 2: Dev 4, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=, 480M

github.com

jeremyb31/rtl8822bu/blob/master/os_dep/linux/usb_intf.c

/******************************************************************************
 *
 * Copyright(c) 2007 - 2011 Realtek Corporation. All rights reserved.
 *
 * This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
 * under the terms of version 2 of the GNU General Public License as
 * published by the Free Software Foundation.
 *
 * This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for
 * more details.
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
 * this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
 * 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110, USA
 *
 *
 ******************************************************************************/
#define _HCI_INTF_C_

This file has been truncated. show original

jocoman · July 25, 2024, 2:06pm

volumio@portable:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 2357:012d TP-Link
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 2109:3431 VIA Labs, Inc. Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
volumio@portable:~$ lsusb -t
/: Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 5000M
/: Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/1p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=,

I think I’m seeing exactly what you have posted. Not sure what it means though. Does it look ok?

Wheaten · July 25, 2024, 2:08pm

Nope,
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 2357:012d TP-Link
Port 1: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=,

Should be filled.
Let’s see wat DED replies.

jocoman · July 25, 2024, 2:10pm

sorry. I screwed up on the copy and paste.
lsusb
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 2357:012d TP-Link
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 2109:3431 VIA Labs, Inc. Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
volumio@portable:~$ lsusb -t
/: Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 5000M
/: Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/1p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=, 480M

How’s this?

Wheaten · July 25, 2024, 2:16pm

Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 2357:012d TP-Link
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 2109:3431 VIA Labs, Inc. Hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
volumio@portable:~$ lsusb -t
/: Bus 02.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/4p, 5000M
/: Bus 01.Port 1: Dev 1, Class=root_hub, Driver=xhci_hcd/1p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 2, If 0, Class=Hub, Driver=hub/4p, 480M
|__ Port 1: Dev 3, If 0, Class=Vendor Specific Class, Driver=, 480M

jocoman · July 25, 2024, 2:41pm

Ok. The dongle is definitely not working. Don’t know why. I simple test was to remove the dongle while Volumio was playing. No interupption, it just kept on playing. So I guess no led means no wifi going thru there. Any other suggestions?