How to use external wifi dongle

[danabnormal9000]

I just received my CM3 DIY kit. But I am still a noob in this Pi thing, there are a lot of things that I don't understand.

- How do I use external wifi dongle? I have Mediatek wifi dongle, I don't know if it's compatible with CM3 or not.

[williamallen941]

Go to the command line and run:

Code:

lsusb

and then:

Code:

dmesg

Let us know of the output.

[danabnormal9000]

This is the output of lsusb :

Bus 001 Device 051: ID 04d9:1503 Holtek Semiconductor, Inc. Shortboard Lefty
Bus 001 Device 015: ID 2109:2813  
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

I also attached the output of dmesg as dmesg.txt

Btw several buttons on my USB keyboard is not working correctly on my Freeplay CM3.
When I type @, it becomes "
When I type \, it becomes #
etc

How can I fix the keyboard problem?

[danabnormal9000]

I fixed the keyboard problem by change keyboard layout to US keyboard in raspi-config.

Hmm. Is there any way to adjust brightness? It's too bright.

[sam]

I fixed the keyboard problem by change keyboard layout to US keyboard in raspi-config.

Hmm. Is there any way to adjust brightness? It's too bright.

Great question about brightness!

With the help of Ed and Andrew I was lucky enough to work with a modded board. I've been working on using pwm to drive the three backlight channels. For clever programmers it would be possible to use one of the breakout pins on the pi for pwm control.

 I'm trying to use a simple 555 timer to control the brightness, with an ldr for ambient brightness assist and a control trimmer pot in the back/battery.

I'll pull some photos together and start another thread on brightness. It would be great to have a simple extension to retropi with a brightness slider for pwm on a pin with a mosfet.

-sam

[Flavor]

I just received my CM3 DIY kit. But I am still a noob in this Pi thing, there are a lot of things that I don't understand.

- How do I use external wifi dongle? I have Mediatek wifi dongle, I don't know if it's compatible with CM3 or not.

To connect to WiFi, you can do something like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnJYnncYzlI
At least that will let you know if your WiFi dongle is working, because you will see your WiFi network.  If you need to supply a password, it can be tricky if you only have 1 USB port.  I have had it work to try to connect, when it asks for a password, unplug WiFi and plug in keyboard, type the password, then swap back, wait a moment, and then hit OK.  I've also had it fail sometimes.

There's another way to easily set up the WiFi using /boot/wpa_supplicant.conf which would look something like

Code:

network={
   ssid="«your_SSID»"
   psk="«your_PSK»"
   key_mgmt=WPA-PSK
}

But that won't easily tell you if your dongle is functioning (like the video method should).

[williamallen941]

I looked up the chipset for that dongle. From a quick look, it's not easily used with Raspbian. Dongles are cheap, get one with a compatible chipset.

Here's some reading:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewt...p?t=205245
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewt...p?t=192263

[danabnormal9000]

I looked up the chipset for that dongle.  From a quick look, it's not easily used with Raspbian.  Dongles are cheap, get one with a compatible chipset.

Here's some reading:

https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewt...p?t=205245
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewt...p?t=192263

This is the best solution, thanks! I bought Edimax dongle, and it works perfectly out of the box. (I wish there is a solution for the brightness setting)

[Flavor]

We are working on brightness, but it requires an add-on. We’re perfecting it. Stay tuned.