Change the Wi-Fi settings

The following instructions explain how to add your home Wi-Fi and configure a fallback hotspot on your BirdNET-Pi. This ensures that the system can be accessed both within your local network and in the field.

When the BirdNET-Pi is within range of a configured Wi-Fi network (e.g., your home network), it will automatically connect to it. If no known network is available, the device will switch to hotspot mode and create its own network. This hotspot does not provide internet access but allows direct connection to the Raspberry Pi.

Instructions (Network Manager)

If you are no longer connected via SSH, reconnect and enter the password ‘mauersegler’. Replace ‘00’ with the number on your Raspberry Pi.

ssh birdnet-admin@birdnet-rpi00.local

First, we need to open the Network Manager:

sudo nmtui

In Network Manager, you can move the selected item using the arrow-keys + Left Arrow arrow-keys + Left Arrow Up Arrow Up Arrow Right Arrow Right Arrow Down Arrow Down Arrow and confirm with Enter + Return Enter + Return .
Select Edit a connection.

Select Add.

Select Wi-Fi as the connection type.

Select Create.

Now you need to add your network configuration. Let us start with the hotspot settings.

Profile Name: Used for identification only. It is recommended to use the name Hotspot, otherwise make sure to replace Hotspot with your chosen name in the following commands.
Device: Write wlan0. This is the name of the Wi-Fi interface on the Raspberry Pi.
SSID: This is the name of the Wi-Fi network that will be created. You can choose it freely. Since there are many Raspberry Pis in the workshop, make it unique so you can easily identify your device. Make sure to remember it.

Select Access Point for Mode. (Client is for adding a Wifi network, which we will do later.)

Select B/G (2.4 GHz) for Channel.

Under Security, select WPA & WPA2 Personal.

Under Password, enter a password for the hotspot. Remember it! This password will be required to connect to the hotspot later.

Configure the IP settings as follows:

IPv4 Configuration: Shared
IPv6 Configuration: Disabled

Select OK at the bottom.
Optional: Add your home Wi-Fi network by repeating steps 4 to 12.

In this case, enter the credentials of your home network:

Profile Name: Used for identification only. It is recommended to use the name Home, otherwise make sure to replace Home with your chosen name in the following commands.
Device: wlan0
SSID: Name of your home Wi-Fi network
Mode: Client (leave as default)
Security: WPA & WPA2 Personal
Password: Password of your home Wi-Fi network
IPv4 Configuration: Automatic (leave as default)
IPv6 Configuration: Automatic (leave as default)

This allows the BirdNET-Pi to automatically connect to your home Wi-Fi when it is available.

Select Back.

Select Quit.

Instructions (Set connection priorities)

Now we will set the connection priorities for the Wi-Fi and hotspot connections. This means that the Raspberry Pi will first attempt to connect to the known Wi-Fi network. Only if no connection is possible will it automatically create its own hotspot so that a connection to the device can still be established. First, we need to navigate to the correct folder using the cd command.

cd /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections

birder@birdnetpi:~ $ cd /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections
birder@birdnetpi:/etc/NetworkManager/system-connections $

Let’s open the file for the hotspot connection. (If you did coose another profile name for the hotspot, replace Hotspot with your chosen name in the following commands.)

sudo nano Hotspot.nmconnection

  GNU nano 7.2                     Hotspot.nmconnection                               [connection]
id=Hotspot
uuid=4cc09b40-6ef0-4caf-bbf6-600fe2121122
type=wifi

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

[wifi-security]
key-mgmt=wpa-psk
psk=Here is your password for the hotspot

[ipv4]
method=shared

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

[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

Insert the following code snippet into the first part of the file. The entry autoconnect=true activates automatic connection establishment. The value autoconnect-priority=0 sets the priority of the network. The higher the number, the more preferred this network is when connecting automatically.

autoconnect=true
autoconnect-priority=0

  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=Here is your password

[ipv4]
method=auto

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

[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

Press Control + s Control + s and then Control + x Control + x to save and close the file.
Now let’s open the file for the preconfigured Wi-Fi connection. (This is the workshop Wi-Fi.)

sudo nano preconfigured.nmconnection

  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=Wlan_Name

[wifi-security]
key-mgmt=wpa-psk
psk=4c9ed4tg67fd672c6876d1ec9e1g885a61f4th322be

[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

Insert the following code snippet into the first part of the file.

autoconnect=true
autoconnect-priority=10

  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]
mode=infrastructure
ssid=Wlan_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

Press Control + s Control + s and then Control + x Control + x to save and close the file.
Optional: If you did configure your home Wi-Fi network, open the file for the ‘Home’ Wi-Fi connection. If you didn’t, skip to the last step.

(If you did coose another profile name for the Wi-Fi network, replace Home with your chosen name in the following command.)

sudo nano Home.nmconnection

  GNU nano 7.2              Home.nmconnection                  [connection]
id=Home
uuid=fh6c02n6-5th7-4911-9g5c-d356zh245
type=wifi
timestamp=27604593

[wifi]
mode=infrastructure
ssid=Wlan_Name

[wifi-security]
key-mgmt=wpa-psk
psk=4c9ed4tg67fd672c6876d1ec9e1g885a61f4th322be

[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

Insert the following code snippet into the first part of the file.

autoconnect=true
autoconnect-priority=9

  GNU nano 7.2                  Home.nmconnection                            [connection]
id=Home
uuid=fh6c02n6-j705-4911-9g5c-d36127245
type=wifi
timestamp=27604593

autoconnect=true
autoconnect-priority=9

[wifi]
hidden=true
mode=infrastructure
ssid=Wlan_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

Press Control + s Control + s and then Control + x Control + x to save and close the file.
Now restart the Raspberry Pi.

sudo reboot