WiFi dongle or WiFi bridge

Audio Gear Talk RoPieee
1

Have a RPI 3B+ running Ropiee XL with S/PDIF HAT. Need to move it to a room without Ethernet. I hear that the 3 uses the same bus for Ethernet and USB, so it might not matter if I use a WiFi bridge( plugged into the Ethernet jack) or a USB WiFi dongle, but configuring the device and getting it recognized by Ropiee probably matters. WiFi bridges are probably more expensive, but have better antennas, though I could probably let my dongle dangle with a short extension cable to get its antenna out in the open. Any advice??? In other threads it seems some WiFi dongle chipsets do better in Ropiee than others, but some of those threads are old and maybe not still relevant. I truly appreciate any response. Thanks!

2

You don’t need a dongle. A 3B+ has WiFi on board, just make sure it isn’t in a metal case and WiFi in your new location isn’t bad.

3

It is in a metal case, and while I’ve largely solved my WiFi problems by going with separate routers, switches and access points, I still worry the onboard WiFi won’t be enough, especially in a cabinet.

4

A wireless access point is the way to go for a trouble free experience. No config in Ropieee once the access point is set up.

5

I asked a similar question and received this reply. I ordered this antenna and it should be here today. I’ll let you know how it works.

6

Although for RoPieee you don’t need to configure things manually, still a WiFi bridge is a better choice as they don’t need a driver. Unfortunately there are a lot WiFi drivers that are not properly included in the kernel, which means they need to be added but more importantly in most cases there are often ‘quality issues’ (looking at you RealTek).

So either you need to spend your time on investigating which chipset is properly supported and find a WiFi dongle with that chipset, or you just buy a WiFi bridge and be done with it.

Thanks

2 Likes
7

Any luck with this one?

1 Like
8

Worked great. Been using it ever since

1 Like
9

Nice! Are you using it on an RPi3 or RPi4?

It worked straight out of the box with RoPieee?

10

The 3. Installed it before the 4 was out

1 Like