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Set up hotspot (optional)

When should I do this?

Section titled “When should I do this?”

If your BirdNET Pi is only set up inside your Wi-Fi network, you can skip the following steps. In this section we will make settings so that if your BirdNET Pi is outside your Wi-Fi network, it works as a hotspot and emits its own Wi-Fi network (this has no internet access), so you can connect from your phone to the BirdNET Pi via Wi-Fi and access the data of the BirdNET Pi. You can also e.g. add other Wi-Fi connections here or change Wi-Fi data already entered in Raspberry Pi OS setup.

Instructions

Section titled “Instructions”
  1. Connect via ssh.
  2. Now we edit the Wi-Fi and hotspot settings. For this we first have to open the NetworkManager:
Terminal window
sudo nmtui

  1. In NetworkManager you can move the selected item with the Arrow then keys Arrow then keys and confirm with Enter Enter .

  2. Select Edit a connection.

  1. Select Add.

  1. Select Wi-Fi as connection type.

  1. Select Create.

  1. Now you have to add the data of your network.
  • Profile Name is only for identification, you can enter any name here. But make sure to replace Hotspot with your chosen name in the following commands.
  • Device is wlan0
  • SSID is the name of the Wi-Fi network created, you can also choose this freely, but remember it!

  1. Select Access Point for Mode.

  1. Select B/G (2.4 GHz) for Channel.

  1. For Security, select WPA & WPA2 Personal.

  1. Enter the hotspot password under Password. Remember it!

  1. Configure the IP settings as follows:
  • IPv4 Configuration: Shared
  • IPv6 Configuration: Disabled

  1. Now we can close the program. Go down to OK.
  2. Go to Back.

  1. Go to Quit.

  1. Now set the connection priorities for Wi-Fi and hotspot connection. This way the Raspberry Pi will try to connect to the known Wi-Fi network first. Only if no connection is possible, it will automatically create its own hotspot so that a connection to the device can still be made. First we need to navigate to the correct folder with the cd command.
cd /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections
Terminal
birder@birdnetpi:~ $ cd /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections
birder@birdnetpi:/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections $
  1. Now open the file for the hotspot connection.
sudo nano Hotspot.nmconnection
Terminal
  GNU nano 7.2                     Hotspot.nmconnection                               [connection]
id=Hotspot
uuid=4cc09b40-6ef0-4caf-bbf6-600fe2121122
type=wifi
interface-name=wlan0


[wifi]
band=bg
mode=ap
ssid=BirdNET Pi Hotspot


[wifi-security]
key-mgmt=wpa-psk
psk=Hier steht dein Passwort f�r den Hotspot


[ipv4]
method=auto


[ipv6]
addr-gen-mode=default
method=auto


[proxy]


[ Read 23 lines ]


^G Help ^O Write Out ^W Where Is ^K Cut ^T Execute ^C Location
^X Exit ^R Read File ^\ Replace ^U Paste ^J Justify ^/ Go To Line
  1. Add the following code snippet in the first part of the file. The entry autoconnect=true activates automatic connection. The value autoconnect-priority=0 sets the priority of the network. The higher the number, the more preferred that network is during auto-connect.
autoconnect=true
autoconnect-priority=0
Terminal
  GNU nano 7.2                     Hotspot.nmconnection *                             [connection]
id=Hotspot
uuid=4cc09b40-6ef0-4caf-bbf6-600fe2121122
type=wifi
interface-name=wlan0


autoconnect=true
autoconnect-priority=0


[wifi]
band=bg
mode=ap
ssid=BirdNET Pi Hotspot


[wifi-security]
key-mgmt=wpa-psk
psk=Den Eltern mal den Vogel zeigen!


[ipv4]
method=shared


[ipv6]
addr-gen-mode=default
method=disabled


[proxy]


^G Help ^O Write Out ^W Where Is ^K Cut ^T Execute ^C Location
^X Exit ^R Read File ^\ Replace ^U Paste ^J Justify ^/ Go To Line
  1. Press Control + x Control + x , then y y , finally Enter Enter to save the file.
  2. Now open the file for the Wi-Fi connection.
sudo nano preconfigured.nmconnection
Terminal
  GNU nano 7.2              preconfigured.nmconnection                  [connection]
id=preconfigured
uuid=fh6c02n6-5th7-4911-9g5c-d356zh245
type=wifi
timestamp=27604593


[wifi]
hidden=true
mode=infrastructure
ssid=Your_Wi-Fi_Name


[wifi-security]
key-mgmt=wpa-psk
psk=4c9ed4tg67fd672c6896d1ec9e1g885a61f4th322be


[ipv4]
method=auto


[ipv6]
addr-gen-mode=default
method=auto


[proxy]


[ Read 23 lines ]


^G Help ^O Write Out ^W Where Is ^K Cut ^T Execute ^C Location
^X Exit ^R Read File ^\ Replace ^U Paste ^J Justify ^/ Go To Line
  1. Add the following code snippet in the first part of the file.
autoconnect=true
autoconnect-priority=10
Terminal
  GNU nano 7.2                  preconfigured.nmconnection                            [connection]
id=preconfigured
uuid=fh6c02n6-j705-4911-9g5c-d36127245
type=wifi
timestamp=27604593


autoconnect=true
autoconnect-priority=10


[wifi]
hidden=true
mode=infrastructure
ssid=Your_Wi-Fi_Name


[wifi-security]
key-mgmt=wpa-psk
psk=4c9efd672c68947g4884e4f62744756d1ec9e1g885a61f322be


[ipv4]
method=auto


[ipv6]
addr-gen-mode=default
method=auto


[proxy]


[ Wrote 27 lines ]


^G Help ^O Write Out ^W Where Is ^K Cut ^T Execute ^C Location
^X Exit ^R Read File ^\ Replace ^U Paste ^J Justify ^/ Go To Line
  1. Press Control + x Control + x , then y y , finally Enter Enter to save the file.
  2. Reboot the Raspberry Pi now.
Terminal window
sudo reboot