Range Extender POC

[sillyfrog]

I have added (early) support for adding a "Range extender" feature to Tasmota. You can see a proof of concept here: https://github.com/sillyfrog/Tasmota/tree/sillyfrog-rangeextender

This allows you to add a new WiFi AP to a Tasmota device that will route the traffic through to the network the Tasmota is connected to. I have used this for a little while now and it's going well (I have just updated for the latest v9.5 code).

Please note: this branch includes a platformio_tasmota_cenv.ini and tasmota/user_config_override.h file so you can clone and build easily.

In tasmota/user_config_override.h are the current config options (questions on this below) - including the AP SSID/Password, IP address, netmaks and if you want to enable NAT/NAPT.

The NAPT support uses about 3.2k of the heap, but makes using the range extender feature really easy, just join the network created above, and your devices will have access to the rest of the network. However you won't be able to access the devices as their are behind the NAPT. With out NAPT you need to setup routes back to the network behind the Tasmota device on your core router - but you can then access the devices behind by IP address (eg: get to the web interface). If using MQTT, NAPT is probably the easiest way to go.

Some questions about implementing this:

• At the moment the changes are directly in support_wifi.ino (inside #defines) - is there an API hook I could use to move this to a driver file so it gets called when WiFi comes up?
• At the moment the settings are all hard coded, and I think it would be ideal if they were to me be moved to config options. Is there a best practice example for how to add config options? Should this be a SetOption or have custom commands? I looked at the source for SSID etc, but I didn't find it obvious the best way to do things.

Any thoughts/feedback appreciated - if it's something others may see of value I'd be keen to get it polished and added to Tasmota (as an option for custom builds).

Thanks!

[joba-1]

Thanks for providing this, can get very useful to me.

As you noted I implemented a client list command and my reason for this was some rgx connection issues I wanted to debug.
Unfortunately they are not solved by this, just easier to see:

• The Rgx AP is disappearing entirely after some time (so far ~0,5-6 hours, not sure there is a pattern to this yet).
• Rgx clients get disconnected although within stable, close range and can reconnect easily.
• The tasmota wifi scan seems to not cause this, I've seen clients remain the same before and after a scan.

Other tasmota functionality (e.g. STA wifi including mqtt, syslog and web OTA) seems to be unaffected by this.

Nothing that would help me in the serial log level 4 at the time a client goes away:

11:29:12.891 SRC: MQTT
11:29:12.892 CMD: Grp 0, Cmd 'RGXCLIENTS', Idx 1, Len 0, Pld -99, Data ''
11:29:12.904 MQT: stat/nat2/RESULT = {"RgxClients":{"4c:eb:d6:77:f7:60":{"IPAddress":"192.168.4.2","RSSI":-85},"ac:5f:3e:50:65:bb":{"IPAddress":"192.168.4.3","RSSI":-64}}}
11:29:20.361 WIF: Checking connection...
11:29:40.378 WIF: Checking connection...
11:30:00.431 WIF: Checking connection...
11:30:10.046 BRY: GC from 4404 to 3702 bytes, objects freed 5/40 (in 1 ms) - slots from 52/122 to 42/122
11:30:10.055 MQT: tele/nat2/STATE = {"Time":"2022-11-14T11:30:10","Uptime":"0T00:30:16","UptimeSec":1816,"Heap":126,"SleepMode":"Dynamic","Sleep":50,"LoadAvg":19,"MqttCount":1,"Berry":{"HeapUsed":3,"Objects":40},"Wifi":{"AP":1,"SSId":"job.fritz.ssid","BSSId":"28:D1:27:4E:56:73","Channel":1,"Mode":"11n","RSSI":56,"Signal":-72,"LinkCount":1,"Downtime":"0T00:00:24"}}
11:30:12.837 SRC: MQTT
11:30:12.839 CMD: Grp 0, Cmd 'RGXCLIENTS', Idx 1, Len 0, Pld -99, Data ''
11:30:12.860 MQT: stat/nat2/RESULT = {"RgxClients":{"4c:eb:d6:77:f7:60":{"IPAddress":"192.168.4.2","RSSI":-84}}}

maybe there is some mandatory communication between client and AP that is not implemented?

[joba-1]

FYI: I also added an RgxPort command now. So you can now access devices behind the NAT.
After some trouble it is also rock solid for me now. Not a single disconnect, vanishing AP or other problem since 2 days+ :)

[UBWH]

I also have found the RangeExtender super useful.

But - hit a snag.
I was hoping to use the AP side of RGX as a standalone AP on Tasmota all the time. I did lots of testing and all worked the way I wanted when the Tasmota WiFi client connected to my local AP.

Why do I want a Tasmota AP? This could allow access to the Tasmota MAIN menu even if the WiFi interface has no client IP address. Great for viewing Tasmota webpages in a remote location.

Discovered the if I take the Tasmota device away from my local environment - where the WiFi client fails to connect to my local AP, then the RGX AP fails to start. This makes a lot of sense as the purpose of RGX is to pass packets between the RGX AP and the WiFi client.

But - it has messed up my plans to have a Tasmota device that has a built in AP running all the time.

I am good at C## coding - so had a look at the RGX driver xdrv_58_range_extender.ino. I commented out some of the checks like WiFi.getMode() == WIFI_AP_STA (and built a custom *.bin) in the hope RGX will still run, but no luck.

My question is:
Any advice you can offer so that I can keep the AP running even when the WiFi client is not connected?

[sillyfrog]

Long time since I did this, but I think if you do something like this, it may get it going (this is a guess, untested):

diff --git a/tasmota/tasmota_xdrv_driver/xdrv_58_range_extender.ino b/tasmota/tasmota_xdrv_driver/xdrv_58_range_extender.ino
index 3868dde46..2f700bb40 100644
--- a/tasmota/tasmota_xdrv_driver/xdrv_58_range_extender.ino
+++ b/tasmota/tasmota_xdrv_driver/xdrv_58_range_extender.ino
@@ -492,7 +492,7 @@ bool Xdrv58(uint32_t function)
       break;
     case FUNC_EVERY_SECOND:
       // AddLog(LOG_LEVEL_INFO, PSTR("RGX: XXX DEBUG: Wifi.status: %d, WiFi.getMode(): %d, RgxSettings.status: %d, link_count: %d"), Wifi.status, WiFi.getMode(), RgxSettings.status, Wifi.link_count);
-      if (RgxSettings.status == RGX_NOT_CONFIGURED && Wifi.status == WL_CONNECTED)
+      if (RgxSettings.status == RGX_NOT_CONFIGURED)
       {
         // Setup only if WiFi in STA only mode
         if (WiFi.getMode() == WIFI_STA)

I however have a vague memory that it relies on some other setup from the core of Tasmota to get the WiFi started - but can't hurt giving this a try and seeing if it works.

[UBWH]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Yeah - already tried that - and WiFi AP did not start.

I think I will find the code that turns off the management AP (192.168.4.1) after 3 mins, and keep it on. I find that does give me access (for 3 mins) to the web pages if WiFi client is configured ... but not connected.