Tom Robinson
I recently purchased the sharkrf 2 and received it quite promptly, after several hours of trying to get this
set up, I have not been able to get it working, at first it would not find my hotspot, but it would find other wifi signals in the area, being parked in a truck stop using the truck stop wifi it would find the truck stop wifi along with other wifi signal, but not my hotspot on my phone, after several attempts it will not even find the other wifi hotspots locally, after selecting country of operation, then clicking on next, it scans for several minutes, then shuts down and goes back to my phones set up page comes up. I have tried doing re-set on the sharkrf2 but still does not find my hotspot, and goes back the country select or goes back to the hotspot setup page. , anyone have any suggestions or ideas,
Tom Robinson
de VE9TJR
HA2NON
Do you use an iPhone? If yes, then make sure the Hotspot settings page is open on the phone while you set up the openSPOT2's Wi-Fi connection, otherwise the iPhone will not broadcast it's own hotspot network and the openSPOT2 will not see it.
Make sure you use a compatible browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari). The best way is to set up the openSPOT2 for your home network first, then add the phone Wi-Fi connection as the 2nd network on the Network page, Wireless settings section (turn on advanced mode to do this). Make sure you copy and paste the SSID correctly as it may contain characters which cannot be entered correctly from the keyboard, like the iPhone's apostrophe in the SSID.
Please also take a look at the troubleshooting section in the user manual at
http://manuals.sharkrf.com/openspot2/en/troubleshooting.html
As you wrote an email to us regarding this issue, let's continue the discussion there.
Tom Robinson
I am using an iPhone 6plus, I have done the things you have suggested but still no luck, when I open my hotspot on my phone then go to wifi settings, I am able to connect to "openspot2AP", then i open my browser on my phone and type in " openspot2.local", and then I get the set up page on the openspot, I select country, it goes into the setup page, I select scan, but I will not find my hotspot, at the same time I have my laptop open, and drop down wifi connections and my hotspot is showing full strength. the openspot scans for several minutes, then drops and goes back to select country again, select country and then scan , still will not find a hotspot, , I don't see any other choice but to find a different openspot, but I must say I'm very disappointed. thanks, VE9TJR. Tom Robinson
HA2NON
Make sure your home network is using the 2.4GHz band, not just 5GHz.
Try adding your Wi-Fi network manually. Click on the Exit button at the initialization setup screen, then go to the Network page, Wi-Fi settings section. You can enter the network SSID and key there. After that, click on the Save button, and reboot the openSPOT2.
Tom Robinson
I guess I didn't explain well enough, my bad, lol, I am using an iPhone in a totally mobile situation, I live on the road as a long haul truck driver, I know several others that are using their openspot in their trucks , that was the reason I bought an openspot because all the repeaters are dead. and in some areas that I run, there are actually no repeaters , let alone d-star. across Canada and the United States.
HA2NON
Ok, so if you try connecting the OS2 to your phone and you only use your phone for that then you have to add the Wi-Fi network manually, as the iPhone can't broadcast it's hotspot Wi-Fi network to be visible and do browsing at the same time.
- Put the OS2 into AP mode, connect to the "openSPOT2 AP" Wi-Fi network with your phone.
- Click on the Exit button at the initialization setup screen, then go to the Network page, Wi-Fi settings section.
- Enter your iPhone's hotspot SSID and key there. After that, click on the Save button, and reboot the openSPOT2.
- Enable the hotspot mode on your iPhone and then the OS2 will auto connect to it.
- Use
https://sharkrf.link/
to open the web interface of the OS2.
Keep in mind that if you have an apostrophe character in the SSID of your iPhone's hotspot network then you have to copy/paste it (or just rename it if you can), because the iPhone uses an apostrophe character very similar to the one you can enter using the onscreen keyboard, but it's still a different character and won't be accepted.
Tom Robinson
I hate to be a bother, but I did exactly what you said, went into the wireless setting, put in my ssid (open road), no apostrophe". no other characters. , reset the OS2, turned on my hotspot and and connected to the OS2 AP, it automatically come up with the set up page, selected country and scan, it will not find my network, (openroad), it will how ever find other networks but no matter how many times I rescan ,no luck. yet I can open my laptop (MacBook Pro, and check in the wifi drop down list and my network is showing there.dont know what else to do.
HA2NON
- Use your Mac to connect to the openSPOT2 AP.
- Open the iPhone's hotspot setting page, keep it open.
- Do the initialization setup on your Mac while keeping the iPhone's hotspot settings page open.
Tom Robinson
I did what you told me to, I opened my hotspot and used my MacBook to connect to the OS2, leaving my hotspot on my iPhone open, if found my ssid right away, I connected to my OS2 , and the info page come up and it just stayed there, with the 2 flashing dots and the top right , and stayed there.so then after about 25 min, I opened my browser on my iPhone and typed in sharkrf.link, then entered the UID number and the wireless page opens and this time it found my hotspot, and went into the set up page. to set up the frequency and server and call sign, right away. unfortunately I was not in the truck near my ic5100a, lol, I was in a motel room , but at least it worked and the OS2 found my iPhone hotspot, I will let you know in a couple of days if it works once I get back into the truck. thank you for all the help and I hope I was not too much of a bother. Tom Robinson de VE9TJR
Tom Robinson
well, I got back to the truck, and tried what I had done earlier. connected my MacBook to the os2, with my hotspot open, I went into the os2 setup page, selected country, at wireless page select scan, the connect to my hotspot, it says connection to my network (openroad) , goes into the wireless info page, then disconnect from the OS2 and shuts down and goes back to my desktop, my wireless is then disconnected from the OS2 and is no longer in AP mode, the light is no longer a steady or flashing white light, it is now a green flashing light. I don't know what else to do and I give up. this is no longer a hobby, but a frustration.
Tom Robinson
this is the step as best I can explain that I am following
open hotspot on iPhone
put OS2 in AP mode, flashing or solid white light
connect Mac to OS2
select country of operation (Canada)
select scan, the select network (openroad)
enter key for network
select connect
message says connection to network openroad.
page goes to info page OS2,
then OS2 disconnects from wifi and goes back to browser, wifi scans to reconnect, but OS2 no longer In AP mode, I have to push on the button on OS2 to put it back in AP mode. I have also tried selecting United States as country of operation when I am in the USA. but the results are always the same. OS2 loses connection and kicks me back to browser page. and searching for wifi connection
HA2NON
Green LED means the openSPOT2 is connected successfully to the Wi-Fi network. Now you can use sharkrf.link on your phone to open it's web interface. Make sure you open sharkrf.link on your phone as it will work only there as the openSPOT2 is connected to it.