lopau Posted January 22, 2017 Posted January 22, 2017 (edited) Does anyone know if the Zero's on board WiFi chip XR819 can be disabled? The RJ45 is disabled by default, so there must be a way to disable the XR819 - right?Any thought appreciated. Edited January 22, 2017 by tkaiser Splitted off from 'Orange Pi Zero went to the market' thread
tkaiser Posted January 22, 2017 Posted January 22, 2017 Does anyone know if the on board WiFi chip XR819 can be disabled? The RJ45 is disabled by default Huh? Ethernet isn't disabled by default and Wi-Fi can be disabled -- see post #37 in original thread (also remove the xradio... occurences from /etc/modules to prevent warnings in dmesg output) 1
lopau Posted January 22, 2017 Author Posted January 22, 2017 Huh? Ethernet isn't disabled by default and Wi-Fi can be disabled -- see post #37 in this very same thread here (also remove the xradio... occurences from /etc/modules to prevent warnings in dmesg output) Oh, my bad. Re WiFi, is there a way to disable it completely. That is, even during boot. My reading is that (sleep 60 && echo 000 >/proc/driver/wifi-pm/power) & can only be executed in shell. I wonder if there's a way to have it disabled before the shell is loaded (perhaps in BIOS?).
tkaiser Posted January 22, 2017 Posted January 22, 2017 Wi-Fi isn't active until the driver is loaded. So by removing stuff from /etc/modules you ensure that Wi-Fi is disabled. The above command just ensures that the Wi-Fi chip is cut off from power. A hardware 'solution' is possible too: https://forum.armbian.com/index.php/topic/759-tutorial-i2s-on-orange-pi-h3/page-2 1
lopau Posted January 22, 2017 Author Posted January 22, 2017 Wi-Fi isn't active until the driver is loaded. So by removing stuff from /etc/modules you ensure that Wi-Fi is disabled. The above command just ensures that the Wi-Fi chip is cut off from power. A hardware 'solution' is possible too: https://forum.armbian.com/index.php/topic/759-tutorial-i2s-on-orange-pi-h3/page-2 But isn't the WiFi chip powered (and perhaps radiating?) even before the driver is loaded? The driver shouldn't power the chip though - right?
tkaiser Posted January 22, 2017 Posted January 22, 2017 But isn't the WiFi chip powered (and perhaps radiating?) even before the driver is loaded? The driver shouldn't power the chip though - right? It's off by default: https://github.com/igorpecovnik/lib/blob/master/config/fex/orangepizero.fex#L566 -- so why don't you simply follow the advise to edit /etc/modules and are happy having disabled Wi-Fi then? 1
lopau Posted January 22, 2017 Author Posted January 22, 2017 It's off by default: https://github.com/igorpecovnik/lib/blob/master/config/fex/orangepizero.fex#L566 -- so why don't you simply follow the advise to edit /etc/modules and are happy having disabled Wi-Fi then? Sure. I'm just learning and trying to see what's off and what's not. Looking at that FEX, how do you tell that PA20 is the port for the WiFi chip? I'm not sure if I'm understanding it right, but if it was disabled shouldn't module_power0_vol (power0 voltage?) be 0 instead?
tkaiser Posted January 22, 2017 Posted January 22, 2017 Schematics are available, the link above (hardware solution) describes this pin in detail and if it wouldn't be defined in the fex file Wi-Fi wouldn't work at all. Since I still don't understand what you're asking for I'll stop. It should be clear where to tweak what to test whatever you want with Wi-Fi 1
lopau Posted January 23, 2017 Author Posted January 23, 2017 (edited) So if you really want to use I2S on this board the best option would be to unsolder R69 and use one of its pads. Hi I'm looking at how the WiFi chip is powered but I'm slightly confused. You said to unsolder R69, but is there a resistor across it though? Isn't it just 2 pads? Same for R66. You'd want to solder the wire only to the pad on the positive side too - right? Is WIFI-POWER-EN in the schematic PA20? Thanks Edited January 23, 2017 by tkaiser Moved away from I2S Tutorial thread
Ford Prefect Posted January 23, 2017 Posted January 23, 2017 There is a lot of choice in the Orange family. Why don't you choose a board without WIFI ? My opinion is that WIFI on a SBC is a bad idea except ,of course,in the tablet case. USB dongles are much easier to install in a good signal / little interference place. Easy to disable too
lopau Posted January 23, 2017 Author Posted January 23, 2017 Sure. I just like the Zero's small size. If I'm understanding @tkaiser correctly, disabling a module in the fex switches off the component completely. That is, at no point in time the component is powered up. But how does this actually work on low level? Is XR819's power line an output of the SoC? So the fex strictly defines the state of the power line?
tkaiser Posted January 23, 2017 Posted January 23, 2017 I just like the Zero's small size. https://www.armbian.com/nanopi-neo/ -- 'problem' solved. 2
stefi.com Posted March 26, 2017 Posted March 26, 2017 Hello, for completely disable x819 just remove U56 on bottom of board. 2
DrTune Posted August 16, 2018 Posted August 16, 2018 Also if you remove U56 (the LDO for wifi) that conveniently leaves you that pin (PCM0_DOUT) spare to use for its' god-given purpose, that is, driving WS2812B leds (for example). The Allwinner I2S hardware is dope- it has its own PLL so you can overclock it to crazy speeds (e.g. 100mbs)
guidol Posted August 16, 2018 Posted August 16, 2018 On 1/22/2017 at 6:02 PM, tkaiser said: Wi-Fi isn't active until the driver is loaded. So by removing stuff from /etc/modules you ensure that Wi-Fi is disabled. Yes - /etc/modules is the best way to disable the modules permanently. For disable it temporarly @lopau could use the follwing commands in /etc/rc.local or in a shell-script: ifconfig wlan0 down rmmod xradio_wlan rmmod mac80211 rmmod cfg80211
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