Why is Jetson Wi-Fi Access Point disconnected outdoor ?

Hey,

I have orbitty + jetson tx2 module assembled. I have created wifi access point on Jetson. When I connect to Jetson through wifi in indoor environment, there is no problem. I can ssh into Jetson and do whatever I want. On the other hand, when I go outside/outdoor environment, although I can see the wifi of jetson from my host pc, I cannot connect to it. My pc is trying to connect but cannot achieve it. Moreover, I also went outside after connecting to Jetson in indoor environment, my pc was disconnected at my first step to outside. Why is this happening ? it is really strange. How can I solve this issue ?

enderayhan,

What channel are you using and which country are you in?

Dear Expert,
I am using default channel like in redtail project: Skypad Software Setup Guide · NVIDIA-AI-IOT/redtail Wiki · GitHub

I am in Turkey.

edit: Is it possible that I am using 5 GHz Band. Also, I set up broadcom op_mode for jetson tx2 as follows:
https://elinux.org/Jetson/TX1_WiFi_Access_Point

enderayhan,

Have you connected antennas on jetson? Could you check from your pc to see if the signal is weak after you go outdoors?

Does it use the same power source both indoor and out? Are you positive it also did not go into a sleep mode or low power mode?

yes same, it is on a drone and using 4S lipo battery. I am pretty positive it is not going into another mode. For example, I ssh into jetson from my host just behind of the door of the building (indoor). But as soon as I open the door and go outside (1 or 2 meters far away the building, it disconnects. Afterwards, I am cutting the energy coming from battery and giving it back to reboot the jetson. When it opens,I can see the jetson-wifi from my host but when I click to jetson-wifi from host, it is trying to connect but refuses to connect. After that, I am going to inside of the building. As soon as I enter inside, it connects. That’s crazy.

Are the Jetson and other end of WiFi both in direct line of sight? If for example there is a wall in the way, then anything metal can interfere (examples: wiring and steel structure within concrete).

Any kind of RF source outside can also act as noise. Total signal strength is not the only problem in RF, noise strength too can cause problems.

What messages are you getting on connect? What logs are generated at both ends of the connect?

Note that if you simply reboot by cutting power, and not with a valid shutdown, then you will possibly end up with stale temp files or other file system errors. The journal in the file system keeps the file system “consistent”, and thus still usable, but content may be missing which should be there, and content which should be deleted on shutdown may instead still exist.