Hi Daniel,
Your testimonies are beginning to raise concerns.
I went with the RaspPi Zero W because I can easily add an audio DAC and
2x40W amplifier <https://www.justboom.co/product/justboom-amp-zero-phat/>,
that also happen to act as a DC regulator for the RaspPi, all running from
a 3S LiPo. Then I can also monitor battery voltage using an available
analog-input.
The battery needs to last at least 9 hours, preferrably more. Using a 4000
mAh-3S, we can heathly use up to 2000 mAh before recharging. The audio
amplifier typically uses 200 mAh per day (tested, leaving 1800 mAh for the
rest).
I haven't received the RT5370-USB yet, but I have the rest of the hardware
and also 8 dBi antennas.
Honestly, I haven't even considered using routers.  Should I ?
Fabien
2018-07-12 7:00 GMT-04:00 Daniel Golle <daniel(a)makrotopia.org>rg>:
  Hi Fabien,
 On Wed, Jul 11, 2018 at 09:28:10PM -0400, Fabien Gagné wrote:
  Ok, I have ordered a four RT5370-USB adapters.
 I am building a distributed wireless audio with shairport that will 
 operate
  4 nodes outdoors, plus a laptop. It will be
running on four Rasp-Pi Zero 
 W,
  each equipped with a audio amplifier and
Wifi-mesh through this external
 adapter. The on-board WiFi could be used as an access-point.
 So, Am I on the right track? 
 If the mesh your are building is very small and not very dense, this
 may work, but really don't expect any performance or range miracles
 from that Ralink Rt5370 1T1R USB Wifi, nor reliability... (I'm not
 saying that the SDIO Broadcom on-board WiFi crap on those RaspBi boards
 is any better)
 Why are you so keen on using that toy hardware? Using of-the-shelf
 WiFi routers is so much more convenient and even cheaper than using
 those RaspPi boards + Wifi dongles... Any reason why it got to be those
 boards (which neither has any fast IO interfaces to attach proper
 wireless hardware, nor any decent networking capabilities itself)?
 Cheers
 Daniel
 
 Fabien
 2018-07-11 5:04 GMT-04:00 Daniel Golle <daniel(a)makrotopia.org>rg>:
 > On Tue, Jul 10, 2018 at 10:20:53PM -0400, Fabien Gagné wrote:
 > > Hi,
 > >
 > > I'd like to LibreMesh a few RaspberyPi Zero W.
 > >
 > > Which USB network interfaces are compatible for mesh ?
 >
 > None. USB wifi is always shit. There haven't ever been really useful
 > USB WiFi dongles for several reasons. The closest it gets to are
 > ath9k_htc based dongles, but even those have only very limited support
 > for AP/Mesh/Ad-Hoc (limited to max. 6 neighbours/AP-clients, with more
 > behaviour starts to be weird/undefined).
 > Some Ralink rt2800usb based dongles also somehow work, but they perform
 > worse than those ath9k_htc ones. RealTek stuff is acceptable for STA
 > client mode, but that's it. MediaTek MT76x0U may become more useful
 > in future (driver development is ongoing). Did I forget anything?
 >
 > > I'd like one with a removable antenna.
 >
 > Honestly: Wrong platform. Use something with mPCIe or hard-wired PCIe
 > radios, ideally ath9k or mt76x2e.
 >
 > >
 > > Thanks,
 > >
 > > Fabien
 > > Canada
 >
 > > _______________________________________________
 > > lime-users mailing list
 > > lime-users(a)lists.libremesh.org
 > > 
https://lists.libremesh.org/mailman/listinfo/lime-users
 >
  _______________________________________________
 lime-users mailing list
 lime-users(a)lists.libremesh.org
 
https://lists.libremesh.org/mailman/listinfo/lime-users  > 
  _______________________________________________
 lime-users mailing list
 lime-users(a)lists.libremesh.org
 
https://lists.libremesh.org/mailman/listinfo/lime-users 
 _______________________________________________
 lime-users mailing list
 lime-users(a)lists.libremesh.org
 
https://lists.libremesh.org/mailman/listinfo/lime-users