Author Topic: OGNR with WiFI  (Read 2133 times)

Kurt37

OGNR with WiFI
« on: November 22, 2020, 08:19:29 am »
Hi there,

On my journey to install more OGNR stations I came across an airfield that has great WiFi coverage but no options to lay an ethernet cable to an OGNR ground station.

Question: what do I have to do to get the OGNR connected to the local WiFi?

Kind regards,
Patrick

exfirepro

Re: OGNR with WiFI
« Reply #1 on: November 22, 2020, 10:03:27 am »
Hi Patrick,

When you say the airfield ‘has great WiFi coverage’ do you mean ‘good mobile phone access to WiFi masts’, or does it have a WiFi router ‘on site’?

If it has a router on site, you can build your OGNR station on a Raspberry Pi 3B which has inbuilt WiFi (same as Rosetta). Connectivity via WiFi is already built in to the current OGNR firmware - it just needs to be configured to the SSID and Password of the local router during configuration.

If however, as I suspect you mean, you don’t have a 3/4G router available, you will also need to provide one, or provide a ‘bridge’ to someone else’s router in a friendly local site.

I haven’t done this yet, but have been actively researching it as I have several local sites where this looks like my only option. If you need further info please get in touch.

In any case, please keep us informed.

Best Regards

Peter

Kurt37

Re: OGNR with WiFI
« Reply #2 on: November 22, 2020, 11:31:56 am »
Hi Peter,

It has a WiFi router on site with SSID and Password available. I also have a OGNR station from PAW here, that I will use.

Do I need to connect it to via lan cable for initial set up of the WiFi? That is possible, but where the OGNR would be in operation I can't run an ethernet cable, so I am relying on WiFi.

Kind regards from Germany,
Patrick

mariko

Ciao
  Mariko

steveu

Re: OGNR with WiFI
« Reply #4 on: November 22, 2020, 01:21:42 pm »
Hi Peter,

It has a WiFi router on site with SSID and Password available. I also have a OGNR station from PAW here, that I will use.

Do I need to connect it to via lan cable for initial set up of the WiFi? That is possible, but where the OGNR would be in operation I can't run an ethernet cable, so I am relying on WiFi.

Kind regards from Germany,
Patrick

Don't forget you can connect a screen and keyboard to a Pi, so you do not need WiFi to connect to a phone or tablet for initial config.

This is how I run mine as with the screen I'm not guessing if it has finished an update or rebooted.

You may need to command line the Wifi bits.

The main set up is just answering questions.



exfirepro

Re: OGNR with WiFI
« Reply #5 on: November 22, 2020, 10:17:30 pm »
Patrick,

You can’t use a standard PAW unit (as supplied by Keith). You need to change the motherboard to a Raspberry Pi 3B as the firmware is only configured to use the built-in WiFi. You can still use the supplied Bridge and case. I would also suggest setting up using a keyboard and screen as advised by Steve as this makes things simpler.

If I get time, I will run a test setup on a Pi 3B tomorrow and advise further.

Regards

Peter
« Last Edit: November 22, 2020, 10:19:27 pm by exfirepro »

exfirepro

Re: OGNR with WiFI
« Reply #6 on: November 23, 2020, 09:14:19 pm »
Hi Patrick,

I have just run an ATOM test setup on a Pi3B to check the WiFi connectivity set up as promised.

All very easy except for one minor glitch.

Loaded new firmware onto a fresh card. Card inserted into unit and allowed to partition and unpack using an HDMI monitor. Dongles, inserted and antennas connected then Config started. N.B you don’t now need to do the cd rtlsdr-ogn and ./PilotAware-OGN.config.sh bit after logging in to the Pi - simply log in and type config at the prompt, and the config will start.

After it sorts out the SDRs, Station Name, Lat / Long / Alt and Geoid and asks for your e-mail, it will ask if you want to setup wlan0. At this point simply say ‘y’ and follow the instructions by entering the SSID and Password for your router and the connection will be set up. (Though mine failed to do so first time round and I had to rerun the config - all OK second time round and the Station is now running, connected via WiFi and reporting traffic to my laptop via the ATOM Radar screen (after hunting down its new IP address. It also connects fine on my iPad via ognpaw.local, but this doesn’t work on my laptop).

Any probs please let us know.

Best Regards

Peter