For some odd reason SM OS 1.4.3 Hotspot was not showing up on my Win 10 laptop last night. It's been about 6-8 weeks since we've had a clear night I could get out and I'd booted my Rpi 4 with SM OS 1.4.3. Prior to last night, my system had been working 100% flawlessly with my rig: RPi 4 - 4 GB, Vilros case with heat sinks and fan, Canon T3i, iOptron iEQ45 Pro mount, Lodestar X2 guide cam. Nothing had been changed since the last time I ran the system. Due to the problem I ran into last night, today I decided to try SM OS 1.4.4 for Rpi 4. Unfortunately, I found the Hotspot to be EXTREMELY unstable, so much so SM OS is simply unusable. Nine times out of ten the Hot spot was simply not visible on my Laptop (or my Win 10 desktop for that matter). Only after MANY reboots of the Rpi, would the SM Hotspot appear again to my Win 10 laptop. Since I was testing for reliability and REPEATABILITY, after another reboot of the Rpi, it would disappear again. After a full day of trial and error with consistent inconsistency, I decided to go back to SM OS 1.4.3 and thankfully, it's working again, seemingly reliably - so far - time will tell.
I used to work in IT as a network admin. I'm very good with computers (not a Linux guy though) and this one has me perplexed. Frankly, I have no idea what's going on both before I tried 1.4.4, while trying 1.4.4, or after switching back to 1.4.3 - it makes no sense. My "theory" is the RPi 4 WiFi hardware is unstable. If this is the case, I guess it goes without saying this is a real problem for us and it has me more than a bit concerned. When it's working, the Rpi 4 runs beautifully - it's simply a joy, especially compared to the Rpi 3B. But much like my early experiences with SM, when the Rpi's networking doesn't work reliably, it renders SM completely unusable.
Thoughts, experiences, comments??