Add a STA mode

[Toniob]

Hello,

Currently, the bridge is set in AP mode. That's a good choice by default. Do you think it would be possible to add a STA mode to, where the bridge connects to a WiFi Access point and get an IP address by DHCP ?

The idea behind that is for the bridge to connect to a MQTT server and maybe send informations about the car. It would be great to automatically get informations like the number of kilometers. I get this idea from this video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JW3J4_Ukrs .

The bridge doesn't have to always be connected of course. But maybe set a wake up every hour or so, send the data and go back to sleep.

What do you think ?

[morcibacsi]

It can be done, but I am not familiar with HA and MQTT. An open source project which does similar thing would definitely help.

[Toniob]

If you want an example, you can check on BSB-LAN : https://docs.bsb-lan.de/ . It uses MQTT to send informations about some heaters to Home Assistant, using MQTT.

[Toniob]

Is it ok with the link I gave ?

Another idea, with the STA mode, the OTA could be easier or even automatic.

[morcibacsi]

I took a look at it, might be implemented, but it is going to take some time. There are some things I need to finish first, but I'll get back to this.

[Comodore125]

Isn't this contrary to the performance needs? I was thinking about this more than a year ago for your bridge but after more research it looked like a bad idea. on the other hand, if it connects to home wifi it would be easier to do a lot of stuff. and it would not really take that much performance since it would just kill of the wifi when you disconnect from it due to distance.

[morcibacsi]

It can be implemented like this: the SSID and password can be configured from the setup page. At startup if it is configured, and the ssid is found then try to connect to it. If not successful (or not found), then fallback to AP mode (so we don't lock ourself out). In both cases shutdown after the timeout we already have. This way data can be gathered or sent via mqtt, and add no additional load on the MCU. If needed a function can be also added to wake up the wifi every x minutes, connect to the saved wifi network, send the mqtt packet, and shutdown the wifi. The vehicle speed can also be checked and if it is 0 then we assume the car isn't moving so doesn't matter if a few packets aren't bridged. There are options, but these needs to be considered/tested. But anyways... currently the AP is enabled for 2 minutes after startup, but I didn't encounter problems after starting the car, so most probably, it doesn't matter if wifi is on or not.

[Toniob]

I agree with @morcibacsi . The way I see it, it will not impact the performance. The idea to fallback on AP mode at startup if the network cannot be found is a good idea. In case your car is parked away from your home and you need to change some parameters. Then, you don’t even need to check for the speed of the vehicule. Something like wake up the wifi every 30 minutes or 1h would be perfect. It will mainly send data during the night, when the car is parked. No need to wake up the wifi more often.