PiZero W + Picoreplayer 7.0.1 Wifi Issues

[Matt Drown]

(See below, I think this is fixed by turning OFF 802.11 Fast Roaming on my access point)


Having a strange issue. I've had a three Pi3b+ units with Hifiberry dac's installed in the house for awhile, and they work wonderfully over wifi. They are running PicoReplayer 7.0.1 (upgraded from 6 in place without any issues).

I recently decided to replace one of the headless units with a pizero W + the hifiberry dac-zero. I ordered two PI-Zero's to play with (and a pirate-audio).

Both pizero's connect to my wifi with picoreplayer and work, but lose IP connectivity after a period of time that can be 2 minutes to 60 minutes. It does not appear to happen when I'm not running anything on them.

I originally thought it was an issue with using bluetooth + wifi at the same time (a test i was doing, but have since re-tested without the BT drivers loaded and the issue persists).

The pi's are still running, and if I force them to reconnect to the access point (Ubiquiti NanoHD), via the AP control panel, then they happily continue for a bit before failing again.

I have reduced to a single AP to see if I was having roaming issues.

I have NOT tested a stock OS on the pi-zero's yet. I purchased two different piZeros from adafruit, a W and a WH unit, so shouldn't be from the same batch.

Any ideas to further test? Settings to adjust?

[Matt Drown]

I was able to install the official buster image, and run a full update, and I get the exact same behavior.

If I run a large file copy over to the PI from a local host, it can "freeze" the pizero's network quickly or in 3-5 minutes.

Does sound even remotely familiar to anyone else? My next test is to see if I can replicate the behavior with a different access point, to rule that out.

[paul-]

I have a pizero /w pirate audio that runs fine for months at a time. But I don't push large files to it (Other than a few MB when I'm testing new kernels/drivers) There always has been issues with these chipsets in some configurations. I also have some pizeros at work in a corporate multi AP system, but I use usb/wifi sticks on them.

[Matt Drown]

I thought the issues were with bt+wifi at same time on the 3's and earlier. The pizero wireless is hanging if I stream 320 mp3's or flacs in less than an hour. Which pretty much makes them less than useful. Running the initial update on the pizero it hung once also, and I had to kick wireless again.

I'll end up just going back to "full size" units shortly, if this ends up being the chipset's on the zeros, as those just seem solid and work all the time.

[TomS]

not really helpful, but as a data point, I will say I have a pi zero w(h) with hifiberry dac zero, running piCorePlayer 7.0.1, no issues on wifi for the month I have been using it. No bluetooth running on pi. Running it on ubiquiti APs.

[Matt Drown]

So I think I found the issue. I had "Fast Roaming, 802.11r" enabled on the Ubiquiti settings. Disabling this, appears to have solved my problem, as I'm 12gigs into file copies without an issue. Will update this thread if that changes.

For future searching, this setting is in the wifi networks advanced settings in the ubiquiti controller.

[TomS]

So I think I found the issue. I had "Fast Roaming, 802.11r" enabled on the Ubiquiti settings. Disabling this, appears to have solved my problem, as I'm 12gigs into file copies without an issue. Will update this thread if that changes.

For future searching, this setting is in the wifi networks advanced settings in the ubiquiti controller.

yes, I've read fast roaming will cause problems with Squeezebox Radios sometimes, didn't know it affected an rpi.

good to know.

[Matt Drown]

Yea, I had no issues with my 3b+ units, so this was unexpected to me.

[edwin2006]

Also older units like the boom do not like fast roaming. Ended up with seperate SSID for SB stuff