Automatic WiFi re-connection Fails with iPhone hotspot

[KM6YNK]

Does anyone else have the issue with the pi-star not re-connecting to WIFI? I am using iPhone as a hotspot and can get the pistar to connect after a fresh boot but if connectivity is lost between the pistar and iphone the pistar will not automatically connect again forcing me to re-boot it again.

Thanks

[M7PUG]

Yes and I can't seem to see the dashboard even when connected. I've changed my iPhone SSID to one with no spaces or special characters, and it does display '1 connection' in the blue bar for a short period, but then appears to drop the connection. I've never been successful in viewing the dashboard while apparently connected.

I assume that when the pistar is connected to personal hotspot, then I should be able to use hostname.local in the browser to access?

ETA: I find that having tested the iPhone hotspot with my W10 laptop, it similarly struggles to connect. I’ll troubleshoot there first

[G4AON]

I use my iPhone SE as a hotspot all the time, it works fine with both a Chinese MMDVM/Pi Zero W and a DVAP/Pi 3. I typically run both nodes at the same time, the DVAP is a 2m one and runs D-Star, the MMDVM is on 70cms running DMR (although it can alternate between D-Star and DMR). The setup runs for hours without any dropping of the WiFi network. The iPhone is on the Three network, if that makes any difference.

I can view either Pi-Star Dashboard using Safari on the iPhone, or with Firefox on a laptop. I connect to the local IP address, one is 172.20.10.2 and the other 172.20.10.3 (yours is probably different). The OLED display on the MMDVM unit shows the IP address when it is carrying traffic.

The only issues I have are (a) relatively short WiFi range with the iPhone, especially with the metal case of the MMDVM/OLED/Pi Zero W, and (b) the short time the iPhone hotspot remains available when there is nothing connected to it.

Typical reliable maximum range (through plaster board/wooden floors) from the iPhone SE to the plastic cased Pi 3 (on board WiFi) is 10 feet, for the metal cased Pi Zero W about 3 or 4 feet. I’ve not tried an external WiFi adapter with either Pi.

73 Dave