I found the WiFi on the Pi4 using Raspbian and it's default WiFi to be poor, I had to position the Pi4 just so to get it to connect.
But once I had got AstroPi3 to do it's magic, which includes installing a different communication system, it seems much better.

Had to disable the timeout method of setting a hot spot as it started immediately instead of waiting 30 seconds.

Argh...
Yesterday, everything was fine. Finished around 2am.
Brought everything inside.
Today, exactly the same setup. No changes.
Same wifi channel. Same neighbors.
Brought outside.
Worked for about one hour.
Then, in the middle of polar alignment, the mount lost connection to the SM hotspot.
I couldn't restore it.
Gave up and switched to RPI3 (takes 5 minutes).
Go figure...

OK. I give up on WI-Fi connection from the mount to RPI4's elusive hotspot for the time being. (RPI3 is fine in this respect).
Made an EQDIR cable ($8 total cost).
Works reliably.

^^^I flashed a spare SD card with 1.4.4 and also couldn't get the WIFI to work. Luckily I still have 1.4.3 on the other SD card and the wifi works flawlessly on that.

Max,

Can you please specify what you bought/soldered/etc to make your cable? I just failed in my attempt to build a cable to connect my RPi4 to my Orion Atlas Pro -- (I do have a shoestring cable I bought, but I'd like to make backups).

Hy

www.cloudynights.com/topic/586532-new-sk...page-69#entry9693690

For some odd reason SM OS 1.4.3 Hotspot was not showing up on my Win 10 laptop last night. It's been about 6-8 weeks since we've had a clear night I could get out and I'd booted my Rpi 4 with SM OS 1.4.3. Prior to last night, my system had been working 100% flawlessly with my rig: RPi 4 - 4 GB, Vilros case with heat sinks and fan, Canon T3i, iOptron iEQ45 Pro mount, Lodestar X2 guide cam. Nothing had been changed since the last time I ran the system. Due to the problem I ran into last night, today I decided to try SM OS 1.4.4 for Rpi 4. Unfortunately, I found the Hotspot to be EXTREMELY unstable, so much so SM OS is simply unusable. Nine times out of ten the Hot spot was simply not visible on my Laptop (or my Win 10 desktop for that matter). Only after MANY reboots of the Rpi, would the SM Hotspot appear again to my Win 10 laptop. Since I was testing for reliability and REPEATABILITY, after another reboot of the Rpi, it would disappear again. After a full day of trial and error with consistent inconsistency, I decided to go back to SM OS 1.4.3 and thankfully, it's working again, seemingly reliably - so far - time will tell.

I used to work in IT as a network admin. I'm very good with computers (not a Linux guy though) and this one has me perplexed. Frankly, I have no idea what's going on both before I tried 1.4.4, while trying 1.4.4, or after switching back to 1.4.3 - it makes no sense. My "theory" is the RPi 4 WiFi hardware is unstable. If this is the case, I guess it goes without saying this is a real problem for us and it has me more than a bit concerned. When it's working, the Rpi 4 runs beautifully - it's simply a joy, especially compared to the Rpi 3B. But much like my early experiences with SM, when the Rpi's networking doesn't work reliably, it renders SM completely unusable.

Thoughts, experiences, comments??

Some reported that if RPI4 is in close proximity with other devices, the WiFi becomes extremely unstable. The kernel + firmware for the rpi4 appears to be in flux still. Next week I should release SM OS v1.4.5 with the latest upstream kernel.. hopefully this would help in making the wifi more stable.

I’ve come into the Rpi world very recently so very inexperienced in all of this, I’ve had similar experiences of flaky hotspot and WiFi. My solution was to stick a usb WiFi antenna in and disable the hotspot. No lost connections, always available. My setup is fixed so no need of hotspot, so for me this works. What I have found that don’t understand is what I’d describe as stalls or slow downs, at first I thought this was WiFi speeds but now I don’t think it is.

I’ve seen numerous screen shots with system monitor info, cpu mem etc on the right, so far not figured whether that’s a util or a system feature, what do people use to display this sort of info, as I’d like to see what’s going off when things grind to a halt.

GN2000: I'd like to try that, what USB WiFi antenna are you using?

There are various widgets you can add to the desktop to do that, but I tend to avoid them since they consume power and CPU cycles which can be better directed at running your gear. But you can add whatever you want to the desktop.

Is it possible to upgrade to 1.4.5 from 1.4.4 using apt or should one flash the new image?