morrownr / USB-WiFi

USB WiFi Adapter Information for Linux
2.78k stars 179 forks source link

Built on your foundation #516

Open briantbutton opened 1 month ago

briantbutton commented 1 month ago

A year ago, I popped up with questions about drivers, adapters and such.  Anyway, we built a product and I thought I would mention it here since it uses one of your drivers.  It is based on the Raspberry Pi CM 4, uses that Nano A baseboard and exposes two radios.

The whole thing weighs a pound and a half and will run 12 hours plus or minus.  (first image)  I discovered (here, I think) that the Pi internal radio won't support many users and, after some study, adopted the Alfa AWUS036ACH as the workhorse radio.  It has performed fine. 

We don't want all the consumer packaging and accessories and so were able to get Alfa to just ship us the board.  With some additional wiring and hilarious molded plastics, we adhere the second radio to the Pi subsystem with suitable mounting spots.  (second image)  The height of the combined unit is a bit more than a cell phone, so we are able to get batteries with the same silhouette to fit right behind it.  Two antennas for the Alfa are mounted to either side of the unit, for best reception.  (third image) 

In normal working conditions, the Alfa hosts a 2.4G WiFi network.  From time to time, it can be used to connect the whole system to the internet so the "HotSpot" (as we call it) can dial into the cloud for updates or instructions.

in-satchel1-quart IMG_0590-quart naked-nano-quart

morrownr commented 1 month ago

Brian,

That is cool. FYI: The in-kernel, RTW88 rtw8812au driver is in review right now and should go into 6.13 or not long after that.