Raspberry Pi Wi-fi Hotspot

It makes sense to use the raspberry pi's on-board wi-fi as a WiFi access point. Assuming this device is directly connected to the pi camera, then it will have direct line-of-sight contact with the robot. Ultimately, it comes down to the physical arrangement of components.

It is quite feasible to install the rpi and camera in a box fitted to the outside wall of a dwelling, and the USB hub/Ethernet adaptor/USB Flash Drive on the inside wall. The two zones just need to be linked by short, high quality USB cable. This arrangement can provide easier access to the flash drive for maintenance. An SD Card with just bootcode.bin can still be installed, to allow for extended timeouts.

A script bridge-ap.sh is provided in the setup folder to configure the raspberry pi as a wifi hotspot. It needs to be edited to provide the ssid, which by default is ProxymowAP-0000x, and password which is starred '**'. The script needs to made executable, then run and the pi rebooted for the hotspot to be made available.

It is important to note that the hotspot credentials must match with those provided in the robot mower utils.py MicroPython file. Also be aware that running Proxymow-Server and hosting the access point places high demands on the pi, so an external Wi-Fi extender might be a good idea for new or experimental installations.