Best Le Potato WiFi Dongle?

twf85 · February 12, 2019 at 8:59 PM

As much as I'd like to hold onto all of my assorted S905 boxes, with the absence of a dedicated developer to port LE, I'm starting to look towards officially supported hardware.

I think the device I want is the Le Potato, but the absence of WiFi has me dragging my feet. This review suggests that a dongle can be added, but doesn't go as far as recommending one. The LoveRPI Amazon store has a dongle for sale, but I'd rather have something with an external antenna and AC support.

At least one of my boxes will be mounted to the wall behind a TV, where better reception might make all the difference. The current box in that spot struggles with 4K/DTS content, and my hope is that a newer, officially supported SBC will improve playback on that TV. If I'm not mistaken, the company producing the LP is also helping to fund development, and that is a major plus in my book.

Can any Le Potato owners suggest a dongle with AC support that works with LE9?

**chewitt** · February 13, 2019 at 3:04 AM Official Post

If you're okay with the extra cabling of an external antenna etc. another option is to get a small WiFi router and use it as an Ethernet bridge. It will have better reception and Ethernet connectivity makes it compatible with every box/board device you have today and in the future. Avoiding the "which shitty realtek driver does it require?" lottery is a big win. I have some Apple A1rport's for this purpose .. the later gen ones support ac and I've picked them up for $20 on eBay before, e.g. grubby looking ones that nobody bids on, they clean up fine

For WiFi dongles I've always been a fan of devices that use the ath9k_htc driver because it's completely open-source and it uses an in-kernel driver that's well written and supported. It's 802.11n but not ac though. Avoid anything realtek make that doesn't have an in-kernel driver (which is most of their stuff) else LE10 will drop support when we change from wpa_supplicant to iwd.

twf85 · February 14, 2019 at 3:03 PM

Great idea, thank you!

The TV in question is approximately 40" (so there isn't a great deal of available concealment) and located near the top of the wall, in the Kitchen. The wall it's located on is made out of brick, but the brick ends a couple of feet above where the TV is mounted. I've been tempted to run an Ethernet line in the attic, and then simply conceal the Ethernet cable for those couple of feet down from where I'd pop a keystone into the wall (from the attic).

That line of thinking made me want to move the TV up even higher to cover the potential keystone, but like your idea. I'll look for something small that is supported by LEDE.

I'm pretty sure it does, but would you happen to know if the latest case made by FLIRC will fit the LP? I thought it would be neat to get the one with the KODI logo treatment, but I can't quite find a definitive answer anywhere. As much as I like the idea of getting a case with a fan, the ones listed that "officially" support the LP are not as aesthetically pleasing to me as the cases made by FLIRC.

**chewitt** · February 16, 2019 at 12:20 PM Official Post

The flirc case has an internal heatsink 'finger' that requires the SoC to be in exactly the same position as the RPi one so I suspect the answer is no, but I can't give you an answer until I finish a work trip in a couple of weeks time. The black case is awesome though..