NanoPi Neo Air WiFi not working

[ranjanp]

Hello all,

I have just got my NanoPi Neo Air board and was trying to setup Wireless connection as written in wiki but i am unable to get it working at all.

Router: NetGear R6300 (WPA2-Personal security)
Board: NanoPi Neo Air
Image: nanopi-air-core-qte-sd4g.img.zip
Reference:
http://wiki.friendlyarm.com/wiki/index. ... Connection

Steps:
1. edited wpa_supplicant.conf

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
network={
ssid="Wi_Test"
psk="actual_ascii_psk"
}

2. edited /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 192.168.1.1

The green/blue LEDs are blinking fine so it seems board has booted up. Just wanted to know if anyone has got it working on their end? If yes, please post how is it done.

[yonganch]

Hi, ranjanp
There is no Wi-Fi/BT antenna on this board. That means you must mount an external antenna via ipex connector.

[HermannSW]

> There is no Wi-Fi/BT antenna on this board.
> That means you must mount an external antenna via ipex connector.
>
That cannot be true, neither Air product page
http://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=69&product_id=151
nor Air Wiki page
http://wiki.friendlyarm.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPi_NEO_Air
state that this is required.

And the wireless antenna product page
http://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=149
only states "significantly improves signal quality" and not "needed to make Wifi work".

I did order a Neo Air just to have a look, will see whether it works (short distance) without external antenna.

Hermann.

[ranjanp]

It just makes no sense if i have to buy external antenna to get wifi working.
I also tried to use UART console and changed few settings but it refuses to get going.

@herman thanks, eager to hear your feedback. I think very few people have got their hands around Neo Air so far it seems.

[esch]

I can confirm, that the NanoPi AIR does not work without external !
First thought, that during packaging they forgot to add the external antenna.

During tests I run into the same problems. No antenna no fun. After adding an external antenna, it works!

@FriendlyArm Management: Please order an "orange pi" or "banana pi" with onboard wireless support and
check if they provide an external antenna !!!!!!

[Waz]

@FriendlyArm Management: Please order an "orange pi" or "banana pi" with onboard wireless support and
check if they provide an external antenna !!!!!!

They do

Also can confirm; the NanoPi AIR without external IPEX antenna does not work, unless your nanopi is within 20cm of your wifi router. I had to buy the IPEX antenna for all my nanopi's; it's a shame FA is not providing the antenna knowing that it will simply not work without one ...

[HermannSW]

Yesterday I got my Neo Air 19 days after ordering. Without soldering and creating a new SD card I first tried that it works with minicom via USB2UART, and just used one of my existing Nanopi Neo SD cards:
http://www.friendlyarm.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=241&p=1103#p1103

Today I did create an SD card with Neo Air eflasher image and flashed eMMC:
http://wiki.friendlyarm.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPi_NEO_Air#Flash_Image_to_eMMC

Worked immediately, and boot without SD card feels quicker (SD card feels like floppy disk in last century, eMMC feels like builtin harddisk).

Next I did configure Wifi and rebooted:
http://wiki.friendlyarm.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPi_NEO_Air#WiFi_Connection

Of course no connectivity because of the missing ipex antenna.

Next I used a power plug to micro USB cable and powered the Neo Air directly at my WLAN router (see photo below).
The command I used to scan my subnet did not find the Neo Air ("nmap -sn 192.168.178.1/24").
BUT "FriendlyARM" showed up in my "FRITZ!Box 6360 Cable" management tool.
AND it showed that the Neo Air got 192.168.178.128 as IP address!
And then I did login, nice!

Code: Select all

$ ssh root@192.168.178.128
root@192.168.178.128's password: 
Welcome to Ubuntu 15.10 (GNU/Linux 3.4.39-h3 armv7l)

 * Documentation:  https://help.ubuntu.com/
Last login: Sun Nov 13 14:40:15 2016 from 192.168.178.101
root@FriendlyARM:~# ifconfig 
lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 94:a1:a2:a4:19:ae  
          inet addr:192.168.178.128  Bcast:192.168.178.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          inet6 addr: 2a02:8071:691:6900:96a1:a2ff:fea4:19ae/64 Scope:Global
          inet6 addr: fe80::96a1:a2ff:fea4:19ae/64 Scope:Link
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:338 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:111 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:25635 (25.6 KB)  TX bytes:18821 (18.8 KB)

root@FriendlyARM:~# 

Now I ordered the FriendlyArm 3.99$ IPEX antenna:
http://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=149

The price is really OK, but what is not OK is this:
1) I have to pay 5$ shipping
2) I have to wait some more weeks

Both could have easily be avoided if Neo Air product page or Wiki page would have a single statement that ipex antenna is needed. The correct place is not under "optional accesoires", but at least as a "available option" in product page.

FriendlyArm people -- please fix your Neo Air product and Wiki page, Neo Air is cool product, but you make people angry not providing the needed information that easily avoids 1+2.

Hermann.

[HermannSW]

I placed the Neo Air at different distances to WLAN router antenna.

At 85cm it can be pinged, but pings are intermittent bad:

Code: Select all

64 bytes from 192.168.178.128: icmp_seq=13 ttl=64 time=5.41 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.178.128: icmp_seq=15 ttl=64 time=1029 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.178.128: icmp_seq=16 ttl=64 time=999 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.178.128: icmp_seq=17 ttl=64 time=11.8 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.178.128: icmp_seq=18 ttl=64 time=9.71 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.178.128: icmp_seq=19 ttl=64 time=5.69 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.178.128: icmp_seq=20 ttl=64 time=6.61 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.178.128: icmp_seq=21 ttl=64 time=10.4 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.178.128: icmp_seq=22 ttl=64 time=13.9 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.178.128: icmp_seq=23 ttl=64 time=5.34 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.178.128: icmp_seq=24 ttl=64 time=11.1 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.178.128: icmp_seq=26 ttl=64 time=1007 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.178.128: icmp_seq=27 ttl=64 time=28.8 ms

Logging in at 85cm distance executing "iwconfig" shows "Link Quality=21/70 Signal level=-89 dBm".
"shutdown -fr 0" does not result in Neo Air connecting to WLAN again, power off/on is needed.

53cm shows "Link Quality=21/70 Signal level=-89 dBm" and better pings, still every 10th is >1000ms.

35cm shows "Link Quality=30/70 Signal level=-80 dBm" and all pings <20ms.

5cm shows "Link Quality=54/70 Signal level=-56 dBm" and all pings <6ms.
But even here "shutdown -fr 0" does not reconnect to WLAN

Hermann.

[HermannSW]

After soldering pin headers to Neo Air so that 12x1 and Debug Uart do not collide with Friendlyarm LCD,
http://www.friendlyarm.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=383#p1142

this is first really wireless Neo Air LCD setup.

Because of still not arrived ipex antenna Neo Air had to be placed very near to my wireless router.
It is powered from 4 Lipos (16V in total) via a Buck step down to 5V converter via GND and 5V pins from Debug Uart.

Displayed is nanopi-status, reporting Neo Air's IP address as 192.168.178.128:
http://wiki.friendlyarm.com/wiki/index.php/Matrix_-_2%278_SPI_Key_TFT#Compile_.26_Run_Test_Program



Hermann.

[ranjanp]

Thanks Herman for your inputs. I have also used external IPEX antenna, fortunately i had one available on my Orange Pi Plus 2 board. I pulled it out and fixed on Air board. One amazing thing is WiFi and bluetooth both were useless without this. After adding antenna i could easily pair it as bluetooth device and do all sort of work with it. It would have been nice if NanoPi guys would have mentioned about this on their product page or wiki.

[HermannSW]

As posted previously I did order the FriendlyArm 3.99$ Ipex wireless antenna.
I found many cheaper antennas on aliexpress as well, and did order 5 different (free shipping) as well.

Today the 1st of the 6 antennas arrived (China - Germany in 14 days):
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2-4G-Soft-Antenna-IPX-IPEX-connector-WIFI-Antenna-2DB-Gain-Copper/32588233115.html

I just connected it to Nanopi Neo Air and powered via OTG. Login via ssh was easy, and iwconfig shows good link quality. Distance to my cable router is 6m with a wall in between:

Code: Select all

root@FriendlyARM:~# iwconfig wlan0
wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"FRITZ!Box 6360 Cable"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.472 GHz  Access Point: C0:25:06:CC:F1:CD   
          Bit Rate=65 Mb/s   Tx-Power=31 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=55/70  Signal level=-55 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:4  Invalid misc:1   Missed beacon:0

root@FriendlyARM:~# 

I plan to do comparison of all 6 antennas when they will have arrived.

Hermann.

[HermannSW]

Good "Link Quality=31/70" from 20m distance at end of garden, 2 walls in between!

Back in house I did test with 6m distance again.
Wanted to see how much wireless speed the Neo Air will give.
Started ssh session by "ssh -X 192.168.178.128" on desktop.
Then executed "firefox" on Neo Air, which showed up on desktop screen.
Then did run testmy.net download test for 25MB.
The average of 24.32Mbps seems to be correct.
Only the graph is not right because of the high latency of "ssh -X" connection:
http://testmy.net/db/Zar0QekXC&framed=1&framed2=1&framed3=1

(WLAN router has 120Mbps connection to internet, shows 91.17Mbps via ethernet on desktop)

Hermann.

[HermannSW]

Today 2nd antenna arrived, 1.50$ with free shipping:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1PCS-2-4G-WIFI-module-use-IPEX-turn-SMA-female-external-antenna-connector-With-SMA-male/32576230679.html


Distance to router was 7m, previous antenna showed 55/70. Replacing with new antenna had much better quality:

Code: Select all

Link Quality=66/70  Signal level=-44 dBm

Hermann.

[sukk741]

Hello ranjanp
No antenna, Wi-Fi / BT on board is. That means you'll need to install an external antenna connection via IPEX.

[Hammen]

Thanks to the team for the opportunity I have to buy an external antenna to receive WIFI function, I also try to use UART console and change some settings. But he refused to go.

[jjm]

Hello all,

I have just got my NanoPi Neo Air board and was trying to setup Wireless connection as written in wiki but i am unable to get it working at all.

Router: NetGear R6300 (WPA2-Personal security)
Board: NanoPi Neo Air
Image: nanopi-air-core-qte-sd4g.img.zip
Reference:
http://wiki.friendlyarm.com/wiki/index. ... Connection

Steps:
1. edited wpa_supplicant.conf

ctrl_interface=DIR=/var/run/wpa_supplicant GROUP=netdev
update_config=1
network={
ssid="Wi_Test"
psk="actual_ascii_psk"
}

2. edited /etc/resolv.conf
nameserver 192.168.1.1

The green/blue LEDs are blinking fine so it seems board has booted up. Just wanted to know if anyone has got it working on their end? If yes, please post how is it done.

Hi,
An IPX Antenna is A MUST.


thank you!

[Raymond Day]

Not sure what got my WiFi working but it's working now and my /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf file looks like this with my WiFi password x out.

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-ssid Linksys01953_V2
wpa-psk xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

It works.

Not real sure if this is what got it working because a lot of times I did a dhclient wlan0 and waited and then did ifconfig to see if it got a IP but it never did till I did a reboot.

So did a lot of editing things and not sure what worked.

To bad I did not reboot after every edit.

Here is my /etc/network/interfaces

auto lo

iface lo inet loopback
iface eth0 inet dhcp

allow-hotplug wlan0
auto wlan0


iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-ssid "Linksys01953_V2"
wpa-psk "xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"

Not sure what one got it working with WiFi.

-Raymond Day

[Raymond Day]

Used a DD command to copy the image to the eMMC so I had to start over. This time I found out what get's it on WiFi.

The /etc/network/interfaces file. I just did a cp /etc/network/interfaces /etc/network/interfaces~

Then vi /etc/network/interfaces and clear it all out what they have in there and copied a past the other post I put before this one.

Rebooted and it worked!

Did do the other one 1st /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf and rebooted and still no IP on the WiFi.

So just use that same file but put your own wpa-ssid "name" in quotes. Same with the WiFi password wpa-psk in quotes.

To bad they don't install nano editor, Even there name start with that, nanoPi. So they should have it on this image and nmtui easy WiFi set up command. Looks like this when you type nmtui

nmtui easy command line WiFi.jpg (15.71 KiB) Viewed 21844 times

Got down one to Activate a connection and you see this at lest this is the WiFi mine picks up.

nmtui easy command line WiFi list.jpg (41.2 KiB) Viewed 21844 times

That would make it easy to set up WiFi and this nano pi air image should have that in it because besides RS-232 that is about the only way to connect to it.

-Raymond Day

[Raymond Day]

Now that I have mine working good with room on the 8GB eMMC can install things. I installed the apt install network-manager Took a wile to install all it needed. But it worked.

After installing it had to start it.

service NetworkManager start

But go to activate and it's all blank on it's WiFi.

Rebooted and still did not fix it. I guess that's why they did not install it. Even the change hostname don't work on it. Just says did not change it.

-Raymond Day

[Mindee]

Now that I have mine working good with room on the 8GB eMMC can install things. I installed the apt install network-manager Took a wile to install all it needed. But it worked.

After installing it had to start it.

service NetworkManager start

But go to activate and it's all blank on it's WiFi.

Rebooted and still did not fix it. I guess that's why they did not install it. Even the change hostname don't work on it. Just says did not change it.

-Raymond Day

Multi-manager will confuse the wifi configuration. That's why we don't install others networking setting tools.

Thank you

-- Mindee

[bigtreeman]

edit the image before copying to memory card
in /etc/network/interfaces might use auto wlan0 or allow-hotplug wlan0

bash-# apt-get install multipath-tools

bash-# kpartx -av nanopi-air-core.img
add map loop0p1 (251:0): 0 81920 linear /dev/loop0 49152
add map loop0p2 (251:1): 0 7486114 linear /dev/loop0 131072

bash-# mount /dev/mapper/loop0p2 /mnt/hd2

bash-# nano /mnt/hd2/etc/network/interfaces
#allow-hotplug wlan0
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_suppliant.conf

bash-# nano /mnt/hd2/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

network={
ssid="YourWiFiESSID"
psk="YourWiFiPassword"
}

bash-# umount /dev/mapper/loop0p2
bash-# kpartx -d nanopi-air-core.img

now copy updated image to memory card and boot yr board

[Mindee]

edit the image before copying to memory card
in /etc/network/interfaces might use auto wlan0 or allow-hotplug wlan0

bash-# apt-get install multipath-tools

bash-# kpartx -av nanopi-air-core.img
add map loop0p1 (251:0): 0 81920 linear /dev/loop0 49152
add map loop0p2 (251:1): 0 7486114 linear /dev/loop0 131072

bash-# mount /dev/mapper/loop0p2 /mnt/hd2

bash-# nano /mnt/hd2/etc/network/interfaces
#allow-hotplug wlan0
auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp
wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_suppliant.conf

bash-# nano /mnt/hd2/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

network={
ssid="YourWiFiESSID"
psk="YourWiFiPassword"
}

bash-# umount /dev/mapper/loop0p2
bash-# kpartx -d nanopi-air-core.img

now copy updated image to memory card and boot yr board

You are AWESOME! Thanks for sharing.

-- Mindee

[makza]

Hello!! I went to the site for the first time. I strongly advice

[jukuuck]

Hi , I'm new beginning for this site recommend I thank you for everything.

[tkaiser]

service NetworkManager start

But go to activate and it's all blank on it's WiFi.

That's because network-manager gracefully ignores all interfaces defined the old/anachronistic way in /etc/network/interfaces.

Armbian for NanoPi Air ships with an empty /etc/network/interfaces and a serial console on the Micro USB port so you're up and running within 1 minute after booting due to nmtui making access to your network easy (no annoying wpa_supplicant stuff). Some performance numbers for some SBC: https://forum.armbian.com/index.php?/to ... es-on-sbc/