Using wifi dongle with pi zero [obsolete]

[krishnancr]

Hello,

Can i use any wifi dongle with the pi zero to give it wifi capabilities ? I have http://www.amazon.co.uk/TP-LINK-TL-WDN3 ... TL-WDN3200 this Wi-Fi dongle. Was wondering if i can use this or should i but a raspberry pi wi fi dongle ?

This is my first attempt at using the pi. I'm looking to build a baby monitor using a pizero , usb camera and usb wifi dongle. Any suggestions you may have will be very helpful.

[DougieLawson]

Wow, that dongle is seriously overpriced.

I'm using:
https://thepihut.com/collections/raspbe ... fi-adapter @£6
https://thepihut.com/products/usb-to-mi ... erter-shim @£2
plus post & packing on my Zero.

[Goraxium]

Most wifi dongles work out of the box. The only real issue I've had, was with one that doesn't want to play nice with my cheap USB hub (spammed the network for no reason, but worked fine when plugged directly into my Pi2). But given that they're cheap aa chips these days, it's not going to hurt to get a couple of different ones if the one you have doesn't work. Of course you can always get the official RPi one for safety.

[MrEngman]

Just tried a WDN3200 on a Pi Zero and it connected straight away to a 5GHz AP using 240Mb/s bit rate. The WDN3200 is connected directly to the Pi Zero USB port without a hub.

Talking to the Pi Zero via the wifi using SSH from my laptop.


MrEngman

[krishnancr]

@MrEngman,

My WDN3200 seems to work fine on my windows laptop and connects to the router straight away but when i plug it in to the pi, i see nothing. I've tried plugging it in directly and thru a hub.

So as long as the wi fi dongle connects to the internet on a normal PC , just plugging it to the pi zero should just work right ?

Appologies if the questions are too dumb .

[MrEngman]

@MrEngman,

My WDN3200 seems to work fine on my windows laptop and connects to the router straight away but when i plug it in to the pi, i see nothing. I've tried plugging it in directly and thru a hub.

So as long as the wi fi dongle connects to the internet on a normal PC , just plugging it to the pi zero should just work right ?

Appologies if the questions are too dumb .

I think you will need an adapter cable, OTG cable??, plugged into the Pi Zero to get the USB to operate in host mode otherwise the Pi Zero will operate as a USB device and will not connect to and recognise other USB devices. So what cable have you used to connect your wifi/hub to the Pi Zero? That could be your problem.

Otherwise it should work as the drivers are included in the kernel image. (rt2800usb)

I have a Pi Zero sat next to me with a WDN3200 wifi connected and it is working OK. I am connected to it via SSH and wifi and commands lsusb and lsmod show

Code: Select all

pi@Pi-0a:~ $ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 148f:5572 Ralink Technology, Corp. RT5572 Wireless Adapter
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
pi@Pi-0a:~ $ lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
ctr                     4005  1
ccm                     8334  1
arc4                    1956  2
rt2800usb              18741  0
rt2800lib              81939  1 rt2800usb
rt2x00usb              11912  1 rt2800usb
rt2x00lib              47782  3 rt2x00usb,rt2800lib,rt2800usb
mac80211              595702  3 rt2x00lib,rt2x00usb,rt2800lib
cfg80211              479223  2 mac80211,rt2x00lib
crc_ccitt               1620  1 rt2800lib
rfkill                 21508  2 cfg80211

MrEngman

[krishnancr]

I have the wifi router plugged in thru a usb hub. What i was missing was setting up the ssid and psk in the wpa_supplicant.conf file. The moment i set it up and rebooted the pi it started working. I'm able to connect and work with it in SSH mode. It is awesome

Thank you for you help MrEngman.