[larry barello]

I have a shelly plus 1 question. Above, I reprogrammed the shelly plus RGBW and it works great but I have yet to use it in my van. I purchased a Shelly plus 1 PM and used it to implement an electronics cabinet vent for when my charge controller gets too warm. Yes, the shelly integrates well with Homeassistant. Easy peasy.

The issue is this: I have two networks (wi-fi) defined: the house, for when I am developing in my office, and the van, for production. What bothers me is that the !@#%% thing seems to prefer attaching to the house even though the RSSI is -91 and the van is -60 dbi. I set the roaming to -80 dbi and 10 seconds...

I'm about to rework it with ESPhome since the other doodads I make with that behave better (i.e. connect to the stronger network w/o any fuss).

The short term solution is one wi-fi and the AP enabled so I can switch networks when in the shop.

Hints welcome. TIA

 

[gregoryx]

...
The issue is this: I have two networks (wi-fi) defined: the house, for when I am developing in my office, and the van, for production. What bothers me is that the !@#%% thing seems to prefer attaching to the house even though the RSSI is -91 and the van is -60 dbi. I set the roaming to -80 dbi and 10 seconds...
...

What router are you running in the van?

The optimal solution will be to have the router attach to the house and have them communicate with each other. If that's not possible, then the next-best option will be to use the Home Assistant system and Tailscale to route directly to the house network.

Either way, the solution is to NEVER have any devices in the van try to connect to any other network (other than the router, if that's an option).

 

[larry barello]

I asked the oracle (co-pilot) and The answer was that the Shelly does a very poor job of roaming. It connects with the first network and no matter how poor the connection as long as packets get through it will never try the second network.

So I reordered the networks in the Shelly (van then house) rebooted and now its working.

My router is an open wrt gl-x3000. 5g NSA, starlink and repeating the local net when home.

I definitely have large gaps in my understanding of networking. When the router is connected to the local network (repeater mode), devices on that net cannot connect to the router WiFi. Is that a bug or a feature or just me trying to do something that isn't possible?

 

[Irontent]

I asked the oracle (co-pilot) and The answer was that the Shelly does a very poor job of roaming. It connects with the first network and no matter how poor the connection as long as packets get through it will never try the second network.

So I reordered the networks in the Shelly (van then house) rebooted and now its working.

My router is an open wrt gl-x3000. 5g NSA, starlink and repeating the local net when home.

I definitely have large gaps in my understanding of networking. When the router is connected to the local network (repeater mode), devices on that net cannot connect to the router WiFi. Is that a bug or a feature or just me trying to do something that isn't possible?

Rather than use the Van WRT router to repeat the home network, use the WIFI-as-WAN feature in WRT and connect the VAN router as a "client" of the home network. That way, all your van devices simply talk to the VAN router LAN, then your WRT forwards the packets destined for the internet to your Home network as if your home network was just another ISP.

I found that Tailscale is the perfect solution to couple LANs into one logical network. I installed Tailscale on the AppleTV in the van, and also the AppleTV in the house, and set both to act as a "subnet" router. Each looks for packets addressed for the other LAN, and forwards them properly.

Here is an intro video which focuses on connecting devices. How to Use Tailscale: Step-by-Step Setup Guide for BeginnersYouTube38K views

This video zeros-in on using AppleTV to enable connectivity to devices on a LAN even without installing Tailscale on the device (like a Shelly)

It works like magic! And it's free for home use.

 

[larry barello]

My network topology is this:

{house}
cable modem - router -+- vlan_main --+- cat6 -+- wap1
| | |
+- vlan_guest -+ +- wap2
{van}
starlink ---+--router -+- wap ... wifi -+- homeassistant
| |
Cellular---+ +- shelly
| |
wifi -------+ +- other stuff (radios, phones, etc)

So, the overall topology is fine, just wrangling the shelly to connect to the correct network (main or van) under the various circumstances: in the van (production) or in the shop (development)

I do have tailscale in the van router but haven't really used it yet.

 

[Irontent]

My network topology is this:

{house}
cable modem - router -+- vlan_main --+- cat6 -+- wap1
| | |
+- vlan_guest -+ +- wap2
{van}
starlink ---+--router -+- wap ... wifi -+- homeassistant
| |
Cellular---+ +- shelly
| |
wifi -------+ +- other stuff (radios, phones, etc)

So, the overall topology is fine, just wrangling the shelly to connect to the correct network (main or van) under the various circumstances: in the van (production) or in the shop (development)

I do have tailscale in the van router but haven't really used it yet.

In my widget development, I found it easiest to always connect the widgets to the van network, then access then using Tailscale from my dev systems in the house. Occasionally, I’ll connect my main dev systems in the house to the van wifi network if I have lots todo. I’m fortunate that I can connect to the VAN’s wifi network from my home office/dev lab which makes it convenient to provision new Shellys in my lab before moving them to the van.

That way, I’ve avoided any of the issues of the poor Wifi network selection inherent in the Shelly microcode.

 

[mototreks]

I played around with several home/van setups before trying Tailscale. Now that Tailscale is up and running that‘s all I use.

For a new Shelly device I’ll power it up at home and configure it to use the van WiFi with the Shelly app. Then at a later date I’ll install it in the van finish any other configuration and connect it to HA.

 

[gregoryx]

My network topology is this:

{house}
cable modem - router -+- vlan_main --+- cat6 -+- wap1
| | |
+- vlan_guest -+ +- wap2
{van}
starlink ---+--router -+- wap ... wifi -+- homeassistant
| |
Cellular---+ +- shelly
| |
wifi -------+ +- other stuff (radios, phones, etc)

So, the overall topology is fine, just wrangling the shelly to connect to the correct network (main or van) under the various circumstances: in the van (production) or in the shop (development)

I do have tailscale in the van router but haven't really used it yet.

If your diagram is accurate then you're using WiFi as WAN on the router? If so, then your Shellies should NOT be connecting to the house WiFi. Or is there some reason you want them to?

FWIW, I'd move the Home Assistant system to wired if possible.

 

[larry barello]

Yeah, the stupid diagram looked good, but didn't transfer. Yes, everything goes through the van router. The router connects to the Internet via various methods as needed

I have two networks so when I work on a sub panel in the shop I have access to the doodad w/fixed ip on the house lan.