On an ideal night, I mount my rpi4 to my HEQ5 and operate it remotely from about 50ft away over wifi. I don't think this distance is unreasonable for an external wifi dongle with antenna (I'm using a
Panda PAUO6
). It seems that when the mount moves or when I just barely touch it, it loses the connection. To make it even more frustrating is that I have had nights where I don't haveto think about wifi. It worked flawlessly. For what it's worth, I live in a remote area so there is little interference outside of the mount itself.
Here is what I have tried:
Buying a new mesh point and placing it as close as possible to my setup
Used a different rpi4
Used different (admittedly crappier) wifi dongle
Using a USB extension cable
Used a powered USB hub
Use a dedicated power source for the rpi4 and hub (I usually use a DC hub)
I am thinking about buying a "long range" dongle to see if that works. I'm also going to try using a longer USB extension and putting the dongle far away from the mount. I am curious if others have had similar experiences and if so, what solved them.