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, 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@makrotopia.org>:

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@makrotopia.org>:
>
> > 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
> >
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> > > lime-users@lists.libremesh.org
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> >
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> >

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