T-CAN485 - Is Wifi really supported?

[Juande]

Hi!

I've seen the specs of this board and I see it supports wifi.

I did not see any wifi antenna, although it seemed to have an ipex connector for wifi antenna

Does this board really support wifi? should the external connector be used for this?

Thanks

J.

[teastain2]

Hi!
Which model is it, I can't find it on GitHub?
I will try to answer your question then.
-Terry

[Juande]

@teastain2 the model is this: https://www.lilygo.cc/products/t-can485

It says it has wifi support

Thanks

[teastain2]

@juande That was helpful!
YES it does have a small Ceramic Antenna C3.

I doubt that it is very efficient, but it may work short range.

BTW the GitHub repository is here:
https://github.com/Xinyuan-LilyGO/T-CAN485

[Juande]

@teastain2 Thank you!

So, my question is why does it have an ipex connector?

Can it be used to improve wifi range?

Thanks again!

[teastain2]

@juande Well, yes, it will improve range!
I would do a functional test, I'm getting 30feet 10m with the built in, so It depends if you need the device to be remote.
What would your T-CAN485 talk to over RF?
You can get apps that show signal strength.

[Juande]

@juande I'm planning to monitor a Solar PV plant.
I would like to monitor it remotely through MQTT so I need to connect to an MQTT server. It is more than 10m away within a dedicated room

Thanks again!

[Juande]

@teastain2 Did you finally do the ipex antenna test?

Can it be done?

Should we modify anything on the board? (like bypass a 0 ohm resistor?)

thanks

[teastain2]

@juande Well, no! I do not use long range WiFi, soi I have not tried.
See the picture I sent last summer and this one, just now:

I would try a range test with the resistor in place and an IPEX antenna.
If not satisfactory I would unsolder the resistor as shown and rotate it 90 deg!
cheers -Terry