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Set up a hotspot (optional)

Set up a Wi-Fi hotspot for your BirdNET-Pi so the bird station stays reachable even outside your home network.

Contents 2 sections

When should I do this?

If your BirdNET-Pi will only be placed within range of your Wi-Fi (glossary)A group of at least two devices exchanging data — wired (LAN) or wireless (Wi-Fi). A hotspot is a device providing a Wi-Fi network. , you can skip the following steps. In this part we’ll configure settings so that, if your BirdNET-Pi is outside your Wi-Fi, it works as a hotspot and broadcasts its own Wi-Fi network (this one has no internet access). That way you can, for example, connect to the BirdNET-Pi from your phone over Wi-Fi and access its data. Here you can also, for instance, add further Wi-Fi networks or change the Wi-Fi credentials you already entered during the Raspberry Pi OS setup.

Instructions

  1. Connect via SSH.
  2. Now we edit the Wi-Fi and hotspot settings. To do this, we first have to open the Network Manager:
sudo nmtui

  1. In the Network Manager you can move the selected element with the arrow keys and confirm with Enter.

  2. Choose Edit a connection.

  1. Choose Add.

  1. Choose Wi-Fi as the connection type.

  1. Choose Create.

  1. Now the details of your network need to be added.

    • Profile Name is only for identification; you can enter any name here. But make sure that in the following commands you replace “Hotspot” with the name you chose.

    • Device is wlan0.

    • SSID is the name of the Wi-Fi network that will be created; you can choose this freely too, but remember it!

  1. For Mode, select Access Point.

  1. For Channel, select B/G (2.4 GHz).

  1. For Security, choose WPA & WPA2 Personal.

  1. For Password, now enter the password for the hotspot. Remember it!

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

  1. Now we can close the program. To do so, go to OK at the bottom.
  2. Go to Back.

  1. Go to Quit.

  1. Now we set the connection priorities of the Wi-Fi and hotspot connections. This makes the Raspberry Pi try to connect to the known Wi-Fi first. Only if no connection is possible does it automatically create its own hotspot, so that a connection to the device can still be established. First we have to navigate to the right folder using the cd command.
cd /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections
Terminal 
birder@birdnetpi:~ $ cd /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections
birder@birdnetpi:/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections $
  1. Now let’s first 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=Your hotspot password goes here

[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 to the first part of the file. The entry autoconnect=true enables automatic connecting. The value autoconnect-priority=0 sets the priority of the network. The higher the number, the more this network is preferred when connecting automatically.
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=Show your parents the bird!

[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 Ctrl+X, then y, and finally Enter to save the file.
  2. Now let’s 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_WiFi_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 to 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_WiFi_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 Ctrl+X, then y, and finally Enter to save the file.
  2. Now restart the Raspberry Pi.
sudo reboot