I installed the Charge Point Level 2 charger on the detached garage for the wife's new to her 2017 BMW i3. I assumed that since my tablet and phone get wifi in the garage that the charger would be good. Apparently not. It's not seeing a signal. So I want to add an inexpensive booster to the garage. I measured wifi with a signal detection app on the phone and it came back as weak. Charger is about 75 feet from the router which is centrally located in the house. Recommendations? IIRC this was discussed previously but the threads all seem a few years old.
Does it have an external antenna? I've had poor success with boosters. But going to a real mesh network will work, and so would adding a big high-gain external antenna if it has the connection for it.
Something I've run into-- do you have 2.4GHz or 5GHz wifi or both?
I've run into a lot of "smart" equipment that only runs on 2.4, which is generally preferred for slightly better range.
In reply to Tom Suddard :
No external antenna, not a provision for one. What's a real mesh network?
In reply to Karacticus :
I think both, but will need to recheck that.
I have to run my garage wifi cams with a range extender. Currently using an old Netgear router with custom firmware. There are about 100 devices you can buy on Amazon that are preconfigured for this.
Since this is just for basic connectivity in the garage I'll +1 a range extender/repeater box, not as good as another AP with a wired connection but that would be overkill for this situation.
I bought one of these early in the pandemic to get better signal for working out of my dining room: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/netgear-essentials-edition-n300-wi-fi-range-extender-white/9064008.p?skuId=9064008&ref=212&loc=1
Eventually I replaced all of my wifi equipment with a set of Google mesh routers, but that seems a little overkill for what you're trying to do. My bet is that extender box placed somewhere between your router and the garage will do it.
Would putting the extender in the garage boost the signal enough to use the charger if I get wifi with my phone there? Otherwise I can only put the extender in the house which only gets me about twenty feet closer to the garage.
My phone says 5 ghz. Which, if research is correct, means faster speeds at shorter range.
I pulled the data sheet for the Home Flex model, and it does say it's supposed to work on 2.4 and 5 GHz
I have a Zyxel router and it should be dual band according to specs online. Going over to Bestbuy when I leave our store.
Netgear wifi range extender installed and connected to home service. Just waiting for wife to get home to set up the charger app on her phone. We'll see how this goes.
vwcorvette (Forum Supporter) said:
Would putting the extender in the garage boost the signal enough to use the charger if I get wifi with my phone there? Otherwise I can only put the extender in the house which only gets me about twenty feet closer to the garage.
Yes it will. The range extenders have much better antennas than your charger (apparently haha) and will do what you need.
Mine has a separate SSID for the garage, but you just have to connect to that SSID instead of your house SSID and you are golden.
It goes as follows [main wifi] -> [repeater in garage] -> [stuff in garage that needs wifi on their own SSID]
I have my repeater set up as a bridge AND access point since I need hardwired and wireless internet in the garage, if everything you have is wireless you can just use it as an access point.
Its fairly reliable. I have to reboot my router in the garage here and there, but nothing is uptime critical so its not a huge deal. Likely replacing my router with something besides 10 year old hardware with custom firmware programmed by an ape would yield better results, but this solution was free and kept stuff out of the landfill.
You could also look at a higher powered home router if you are still using the freebie that came with your internet. I have a WRT3200ACM and its been very good, looking around the ASUS AC3100 also gets great reviews and has the long range you are looking for. With the external antennas you can also remote or extend your antennas that may get what you are after at a lower cost point and less horsing around.
We're good to go. Thanks for all the assistance everyone. Now I just need to get her to learn how to set up the car while charging to warm things up before she leaves the house. And how to set radio stations. And use the iDrive.
