wifi extender

[ningyichensha]

Hello, I looked at your project and I am very impressed.

I do own the same car, Model 2020 and just need to extend the reach of the wifi of the car.

So far I tried this software, "martin-ger /esp_wifi_repeater" which is also in github.

The configuration is: car <--> ESP8266 <--> iphone
The ESP connects to the car.
iphone connects to the ESP.

But the app on the iphone does not get through to the car with the ESP8266 inbetween.

Without the ESP everything works fine, but I need to be very close to the car. car <--> iphone

Do you have any idea, why this doesn't work?

[vzakharchenko]

Looks like your car see mac address of your ESP instead of iphone.

You can try to register in the app with esp connected

[vzakharchenko]

@ningyichensha If this does not help, then you can try to connect to your ESP. from PC. and ping 192.168.8.46

ping 192.168.8.46

[vzakharchenko]

@ningyichensha You should understand that EV-Remote uses own DHCP server, and give you IP from 192.168.8.47 - 192.168.8.254

So your extender have to work in 2 ways:

First Way: ESP in Router mode

1. ESP connect to EV-Remote and take IP from this module (for example: 192.168.8.47)
2. IPhone connect to ESP and take ip (for example: 192.168.4.2)
3. ESP contains routing 192.168.4.2 <-> 192.168.8.47 <-> 192.168.8.46

In this case your car does not see the Iphone.
To work in this case you can try to re-register in the application.

Second Way: ESP in Bridge mode

1. ESP connect to EV-Remote as bridge
2. IPhone connect to ESP and take ip from EV-Remote (for example: 192.168.4.47)
3. Iphone directly communicate with EV-Remote 192.168.4.47<->192.168.4.46.

For you the best is the second way.
But looks like esp_wifi_repeater works in the first way.

[vzakharchenko]

My suggestion is to use mikrotik.
And use script from https://github.com/vzakharchenko/remote-ctrl-gsm#setup-mikrotik-in-the-car-ltap-mini-lte-kit

but without VPN connection.

[vzakharchenko]

@ningyichensha , You can use any type of wifi mikrotik for example https://mikrotik.com/product/RB931-2nD (20$).

[vzakharchenko]

I Created wiki page: https://github.com/vzakharchenko/remote-ctrl-gsm/wiki/WiFi-Extender

[ningyichensha]

Hello,
Thank you very much for your suggestions.
The last days I have been busy with homeschooling. Therefore I will try the next days.

Last thing I tried was using a raspberry zero with a second antenna, but also no success so far.

[eithe]

@ningyichensha What is the error message you get / where does it stop for you? Are you able to ping the Outlander?

Cause I just setup something similar, and I can ping the Outlander just fine, but the app (on iPhone) complains that "Device is connected to a network other than the vehicle network". Thus I'm guessing the app reads the SSID of the wifi the phone is connected to and stops all actions since it's not the vehicle SSID. Guess I need to find an Android device and run the modified apk for this to work.

[ningyichensha]

Hi eithe,
in ma case, everything connected fine, but the app could not communicate with the car.
I tried several tutorials and spent hours, but no success.

In the meantime I follow another approach to reach my goal to expand the range to appr. 1 km.
Than I can reach the car in the parking lot when I'm in the office...

To achieve this, I needed a repeater, which stays in the car and runs with DC.
Because I could not find such a device, I bought a wifi extender for 220V at amazon (AC1200). When you open it, you can disconnect the 220V and connect it to a 12V power supply. With a DC/DC converter it also runs with 5V / 220mA.

So far, this works fine, even if the repeater uses another SSID. But the range of the wifi signal has not improved much.

The next step is to connect a better antenna to the repeater. May be add a booster.

If you are interested, I keep you up to date and give more details of the DC converter.

[eithe]

Thanks for the update, @ningyichensha!

Actually I also found another solution to what I really wanted to achieve (smart house integration when the car is parked at home) a few hours after this post. I used https://github.com/phev-remote/phevctl on an Raspberry pi that connects to the car where I just changed the MAC address of the wifi device to be the same as my iPhone so I didn't have to re-register or anything.

[mic88250]

@eithe
That is exactelly what I am tring to do with my Outlander 2021. Integrate the parked car to the smarthome system (Loxone). Now the car's own WiFi signal ist just to poor. Can you give me some more detailed info about your way? I assume you installed Docker on the Raspberry (Raspbian OS?)?
How is the setup? Raspberry via ethernet connected to the smart home and via wifi to the car?
Thanks so much for some info!

[ningyichensha]

I'm working with another solution:
I use a more sensitive wifi range extender in my house. The tp-link, model TL-WA850RE connects very fast to the weak outlander WLAN. My iphone didn't even "see" the outlander wlan.
I just followed the setup in the manual. I didn't change any IP or MAC address.
When I want to connect to the car, I plug in the range extender and after a few seconds I connect the iphone to the extended wlan of the outlander.
Because I just need it preheat or precool this solution fulfills my needs.
During the last vacations I also used the extender on the campground.