Hi All,
I was wonder if anyone here has issues with RPi 4 using Wifi 2.4 Ghz which constantly drops the connection and also not able to connect using 5 Ghz. I am on Virgin Media, using their Hub 3 modem router where I have quite a few wireless devices connected to both bands and I don’t have any issues. I also have a RPi 3 Model 3 connected using wifi running 24/7 with no issues.
I am unsure if it is a drive/hardware issue.
It would be good to know if other are facing similar issues.
RPI on board WiFi is rubbish in my experience and so are tiny USB dongles. To get around it I had to put a very strong WiFi booster in the room I use as a lab. Laptops, phones and ESP8266 modules work fine in the same room from my main router, which is not very far away.
What type of case is it in? Plastic or metal etc.
Any Hats or pHats attached? That might block the signal.
Both 2.4 and 5 GHz are usable on mine. I think mine has dropped my connection maybe once? And I do believe it was the 5Ghz band. We were getting some power bumps that day though if I remeber correctly. It was stormy outside etc.
I had an aluminium heatsink case installed and I first thought this was the issue as it will affect the signal. So I removed the case and the signal strength improved but still disconnects on 2.4Ghz and does not connect on 5 GHz. No hats attached but am using a wire usb keyboard and mouse with micro hdmi cable and a 2 amp power supply.
I think 2 amp is enough at the moment just to get it up and running with WiFi.
WiFi signal is fairly good, but I will try moving the RPi closer to the router to eliminate as many variables as I can.
The problem is the aerial is tiny. Look at how big a proper 2.4GHz aerial on a router is. Laptops have similar sized internal aerials in the lid. I have no success with tiny dongles unless they are in the same room as the router and the RPI aerial is even smaller . And 5 GHz is useless because it doesn’t go through walls and floors.
I was running mine off of the official 2.5A Micro USB power supply at first. No issues I was aware of. I’ve since got the official 3A USB C power supply.
Undervolt warnings on your display would be an indication of your power supply having issues supplying enough current.
I setup the Pi to run headless with VNC turned on with the Pi in the same room as the wifi router (about 2.5 m from the wifi router). I connected via VNC and ran ping in the Terminal it reached sequence 15, the connect dropped; VNC lost connection and attempted to reconnect. It reconnected after about 30 seconds and resumed pinging at sequence 45. Again the connection dropped at sequence 84 and resumed at 106 and continued in this pattern.
I will hazard a guess that there is definitely an issue with the onboard wireless even if the antenna is minuscule and it should not have so frequent drop outs.
I picked up a 3A power supply (not official) just to rule out power issues. There has been no undervolt warning displayed using 3A or 2A PSU since I am not running anything demanding of it, so I can rule out PSU not supplying enough power to it.
I’m thinking you have a defective Pi 4? Partially defective anyway.
Yes I’m thinking that too. Everything thing else works (not tested Bluetooth).
Thanks for to all for your help and suggestions.
Hello there
Did you manage to get to the bottom of your issues.
I have just started using the PI4 for my projects which are mainly remote servers of one form or another usually outside on an antenna mast. I normally use a Dynamode USB ext wifi connection since the projects are housed in alloy boxes and then kill the internal coms with rfkill (and sometimes blacklisting the drivers). I have used 3Bs and zeros without issue. With the PI4 however, I have constant wifi drop and there is no PM enabled on these external wifi dongles. No idea how to fix this since power isn’t a problem (5A PSU with barrel connector). Did you resolve your issue?
Graham
Hi Graham,
Sorry to hear your having issues with the Pi4. The problem I had was with the onboard wifi, which kept dropping connection. Are you using the onboard WiFi?
I sent my Pi4 back to Pimoroni for testing and they concluded that the WiFi was working as expected. But in the end they shipped me another Pi4 and I have had no issues with this one.
Thanks for that
No, I don’t use the onboard wifi since the projects are in an alloy project case so a pretty good Faraday cage. I use a USB dongle with ext antenna connection. This does not have power management enabled so should not just power down like it does. If I have the lid off while it is on my desk and I pull out and replace the usb dongle, it starts working again so the machine must be going down into standby. I don’t have this issues with pi3b or zero as I have used on other projects. I remember back in th days of the first pi and pi 2, I have awful problems with this issue, so much so that I used a wired ethernet connection and a mini WAP in the project cases. Anyway, will see what other ways I can maybe trick the system from not powering down and will post any solution I get.
I just got PI4 and having the same problem. I have found moving the PI up, and away from any surface improves the connection speed. But it is still very slow, relative to other devices.
There can be a delay(5-10 sec) in the change of resulting signal speed, and moving it. While downloading something, try moving the pi out into free space, and then back down again onto table, and/or under book. You might notice the delayed response too. Notice it can get worst and even lose connection after a minute or two.
This behaviour suggests there might be a heat problem, and not just a line of sight for the signal problem.
So try to get it out in the open and keep it cool when downloading.
The Pi’s cavity or what ever it is, WIFI antenna may have something to do with it. Try turning your Pi around 90 or 180 degrees.
Where your router is will affect it too. If it’s on a different floor in your house that can make the signal weaker.
I just recently bought one of the heatsink cases and was worried a big hunk of metal above the Pi’s antenna would affect my WIFI. So far so good though, as near as I can tell its working fine. There is a gap to open air where the antenna is, its not totally blocked.
As near as I can remember I haven’t had any issues with any Pi model onboard WIFI. I have had some finicky dongles I used on my A+ and the original Zero.
And Buster has broken the WIFI on a USB Hub with WIFI I use with my Pi A+'s. No wireless interface found?
I have been having issues with my PI4 WIFI,I gave up on the onboard pretty quickly and bought a dongle.I need to use it headless with SSH+VScode,It is a fair distance away from the wifi extender,I have Powersaving turned off,Tried 2.4ghz written a script to cycle wlan when it loses connection and still it randomly drops,I had it right next to my main computer and router the other day doing some coding and it lost WIFI!!! I have now bought a 50m Lan cable,Which is pretty annoying…
Its probably your internet providers router they installed (if they did). Thats my issue. Its a jerk router. Good out of box usually then regresses until it drops alot of things.
Usually wifi calling gets patchy or doesn’t work at all if its router from my experience with some phones. Same with some odd dongles and older wifi stuff. You can set up a pi as a router to cure that. Simple pi B (or any b+ on)with dongle and ethernet connected to your providers router. There are plenty of youtube and the sort on it.