10-27-2024, 05:52 PM
(This post was last modified: 10-27-2024, 05:54 PM by TheOldPresbyope.
Edit Reason: typo fix
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(10-27-2024, 10:37 AM)suzywong Wrote: That was my thinking as well, although I might move it onto t’Ethernet and try from there.
As an aside, is the WiFi antenna on the 3B+ deemed to be better than the 3B? If so, I might try swapping the Kitchen wified 3B for one of the Ethernetted 3B+.
Something to play with, next week.
It would be interesting to hear what you get if you do try the swap. I'm remiss for never having done comprehensive side-by-side comparisons.
The networking subsystem of the Pi 3B+ is improved in several ways, but how much of a difference that would make in your circumstance is difficult to predict.
Candidly, you may not find much of a difference in performance. Your reported -77 dBm signal level is extremely weak (1000 times weaker than the -47 dBm reported by an Pi 3A+ which is my player most distant from our access point). I don't see that being overcome just by changing boards. An external WiFi adapter with external antenna likely would be more helpful.
My rule of thumb: received WiFi signal levels -50 dBm or better give adequate moOde performance.
BTW, are you using a wired amp and speaker in the kitchen or a Bluetooth speaker? Using (2.4 GHz) Bluetooth at the same time as the (2.4 GHz-only) WiFi on the original Pi 3B is problematic for many; less so with the improvements of the 3B+. Even on my Pi 3A+ (essentially a cut-down 3B+), I get sputtering from a Bluetooth speaker when I'm streaming over 2.4 GHz WiFi but not when I'm streaming over 5 GHz WiFi., perhaps in part because of the low received WiFi signal level. As always, YMMV.
Regards,
Kent
PS - dBm is a measure based on the logarithm of the ratio of a signal to a reference level. A reported 0 dBm means the signal is equal to the reference level while -10 dBm is a factor of ten less, -20 dBm is a factor of 100 less, etc. So, -77 dBm differs from -47 dBm by 30 dBm which is a factor of 1000.
PPS - An interesting Linux command that reports detected access points in terms of a more familiar if arbitrary 0 - 100 scale along with a familiar 1 - 4 signal bars representation is sudo nmcli dev wifi
