WiFi not working (Page 1 of 2)

Thanks, Uriah. My scanner is right next to my router. I've spent hours in the GUI and elsewhere with no success. The wlan config tool does not see the dongle and that is obviously part of the problem.

I have not been able to get the dongle working with my Octoprint setup either. In that case, the software does not even see the dongle with lsusb unless I use a powered hub. When I do so, it sees the card but does create wlan0. For some reason, I don't have quite this issue with the Atlas setup, but it still won't create wlan0.

I'm wondering if this Ourlink card is incompatible with the RPi 2. I've seen complaints of dropped network connections but nothing that indicates it won't work at all.

--Dave

Whoops. I just tried plugging the dongle in directly and it is still working. Hopefully it will stay that way.

It's me again with hopefully one last comment here.

After all that effort getting the wifi working, it turns out not to be worth the effort. The speed is so slow and flakey that it is unusable. From what I read about the OurLink dongle, this is to be expected. Ethernet works fine so I'm sticking with that. Not a big deal.

--Dave

Whoops, I had missed this earlier question from you, Uriah. Yes, I was using the official SD card and no, it did not work. The symptoms were the same as with the card I set up myself. I fixed it by installing the missing firmware file (rtl8188eufw.bin) which apparently was also missing on your card (/lib/firmware/rtlwifi) , although I didn't check to make sure.

That said, I found this fix by goggling around. I can't say for sure that this is the correct and most recent file. All I can say is that it got the card working. However, as I said before, the speed is unusably slow. You might want to try it out with your card image and take it from there. Maybe you could look and see what firmware file you use for this dongle?

--Dave

I did so when I installed Raspian and FreeLSS a couple of weeks ago. I think I also tried that when I first noticed the problem with the preconfigured card.

I guess I'll toss my 2 cents in here. 

My only issue with the WiFi dongle was the configuration.  Once I was able to modify the config file to input the SSID and password, it worked just fine. 

With regard to speed, yes, it's pretty slow, but then again, for using it to control the Pi it's adequate.  The only time it becomes an issue, is when you try to download or view the scans.  Depending on your connection quality and the size of the file, you could be waiting for a long time.

For that reason, I too use it wired to my ethernet.

I used to have the original  Pi that came with my kit, which was a Pi1 model B.  I have since installed a Pi2, but I never bothered to plug the WiFi module back in.

The comments above are based on the original model.

yeah my WIFI was worthless too. never connected even with correct PW etc. always had to replug in both the dongle and usb drive 2X for them to run a few secs. PW never saved in the Atlas and when connected direct I saw even the place selecting to connect through wireless was not checked. seems it just dont want to work as intended from the getgo. and never saves Password of wifi just name. also the power drain of everything running is at the limits already things try to shut down at the slightest power fluctuation like Motor whines, Pi lights for connections flicker etc. had to twist prongs on the wall wart so it made better contact in outlet to prevent this enough to do a 2 hour scan completely. cant reviw or preview any video or watch anything while scanning and clicking refresh does same thing as clicking the back button (which is bad during scan :^O) imagine how this would be through WIFI. much less transferring any data and if WIFI died while scanning that would make you have to start over same as power failure since control is through computer. lag is bad enough. kinda like driving the Mars rover lol

also my default browser is Firefox but Atlas only uses IE when connecting still as if its embedded into startup command or something and no icon for the start file looks like Monopoly deed for Boardwalk default DOS type icon, is that how they all are?
I'm sorry... WHAT ???!?!?!?!

Explain to me HOW can Atlas 3D scanner force you to use use IE.  How in the heck does a device connected via a network (Ethernet or WiFi) manage to start your Internet Explorer? 

When you connect the scanner to your computer, either via Ethernet or WiFi, IT DOES ABSOLUTELY NOTHING until YOU personally start the web browser to connect to it's start page. 

How do you know the power consumption is at it's limits? 

The Raspberry Pi with a WiFi dongle draws about 500mA.  The RaspiCam, another 300mA, and the 2 lasers 25mA each.  That's less than 1A.  A NEMA 17 stepper motor like the one used to drive the turntable is about 1-1.5A.  all this adds up to less than the power supply rating of 3A

A complete scan shouldn't take 2 hours to complete, even if you scan at 5Mpixels, and 1600 steps per revolution, it will only take about 50-60 minutes.  The type of connection you have (or how fast or slow it is) is not relevant to the scan time.  The scan process happens inside the RPI, and is not dependent on your PC or your connection the PC.

If you can't preview the scan, it's because your browser is not setup to support WebGL.  There are many posts regarding this, search for them.

your power draw shows about 2.5amps so thats close to limit when figuring safety margins of power supplys and line voltage fed to primary which can very also.
the scans I done when started said 120mins left I think thats 2 hours and thats what they took. and if anything disrupts scan either connection or power all you got is partial scan file saved and you cant continue or restart it. have to start over. happened 3 times to me so far. WHY would I make this crap up?
the preview etc is why I want to open through FF instead of dumb IE which will no longer update on XP OS its stuck on IE8

The 2.5A total power draw is a worst case scenario.  The largest single component draw is the stepper motor.  The NEMA-17 stepper motor would draw 1.5A only when it's trying to hold a position under torque, there's nothing in this design that puts undue load on the motor, so actual average draw for it should be less than 1A,  The lasers power draw is inconsequential, and is not continuous.  Last but not least the Pi and the camera together are less than 800mA.

So it's safe to say that total power consumption is probably less than 2A.  The Little 3A wall wart that came with it is more than adequate.

The reason your scans are taking 2 hours is because you're scanning at hi resolution and 3200 steps.  You don't need to scan @ 3200 steps.  1600 is more than enough to get a good scan.  Additionally, I can tell you from personal experience that scanning a detailed model at 3200 steps will most likely fail at the end because the RPi doesn't have enough RAM to process the the scan.  I had to get a RPi 2 with 1GB RAM to be able to scan @ 3200 steps.

Before you start scanning stuff at 3200 or even 1600 steps, you should debug your system using faster scann like 800 steps which should take about 25 minutes or so.  Once you get those going OK, then you can move on to higher quality scans.

If you want to see detail on your small models then you will definitely need to refocus the camera.  Se the instructions I posted elsewhere in the forum.

To see the preview during scan, you will need to make sure your browser is WebGL enabled.  The latest versions of Firefox  work OK, Chrome should be OK as well but you need to check, IExplorer 11 supports it, but I don't think earlier versions do.
Safari should work, but it's disabled by default.  Additionally WebGL requires a compatible display adapter.