Forcing 5Ghz instead of 2.4Ghz

Yeah, you are right, it does state that “n” supports both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz. Although I have always assummed that if you want a fully compliant 5 Ghz WiFi it needed to use the ac standard.

The Primo is based around an Asus Tinkerboard, looking around sites that compare it to the rpi also shows no 5 Ghz. e.g.

Again spitting image. The Primo - Tinkerbord can probably only 2.4Ghz. On the other hand, the 5Ghz are indicated in the technical specifications. Small drama actually, it would be nice to hear a final statement from the Volumio guys. It’s not about the amount of data, it’s about lack from errors in the less crowded 5Ghz area. I turned everything off on the Primo, it’s a pure streaming machine and it sends DSD direct to the Cambridge 840C DAC. Pretty impressive and definitely on par with the Aries Femto. However, with a sbooster power supply in front of it. I claim that a cleaner 5Ghz WiFi could give a kick here… and yes, Joni, my WiFi networks have different names

Where it is mentioned? I had a look to the spec tab of the official website and it is not there

Unfortunately the ThinkerBoard used in the original Primo does not support 5GHz WiFi, this is one of the reasons something else was used for the new version

Not really. the n spec only suggests a maximum bandwidth and does not “guarantee” radio frequency. Early “n” only used 2.4ghz and as it progressed used the 5Ghz simultainiously to double the bandwidth.

A snippet of the tinkerboard manual.
Capture

On another note you Primo has an antenna which looks removable, have you tried replacing this for a higher gain antenna which may improve signal quality/strength

At least all German dealer sites list 802.11 b/g/n. And n now means 2.4 + 5Ghz. Anyway, it’s not about the amount of data. My Primo shows 72.2 - 150mbit, you hardly need more. It’s about the lesser crowded and therefore more interference-free 5Ghz WiFi.

1 Like

Wireless N spec provides connection to 2.4 GHz and the OPTION of 5 GHz.
Some adapters have 5 GHz radios, and some don’t.

Getting 5GHz with the ThinkerBoard will not be possible, because the 5GHz option is not supported.

Maybe there is a way to solve your problem, using a supported USB dongle with WiFi AC (disabling the onboard WiFi), but it will require some manual actions from ssh

1 Like

Here on wikipedia you can find support to my statement:

1 Like

Thanks you Darmur for the info. In my constellation, the Primo makes excellent music. I’ll leave it as is and maybe upgrade sometime to the new Primo or an Aurelic at some point. The probability of making things worse with a dongle and tinkering is rather high. I’m only talking about luxury concerns anyway. :beers:

You should investigate the wifi/firewall/lan/dhcp options on your router. On my Asus I can force certain MAC addresses to only connect to 2.4GHz or 5GHz. My networks share the same SSID.

Also, previously I had an older Asus router that only went up to N and that definitely supported 5GHz at N. I had it split to two different SSIDs. Several of my devices could see and use the 5GHz network if they supported 5GHz networks - some were N only devices as well as newer devices that supported AC.

It’s also easy to create two SSIDs. My Pi3Bs are connected only to MYSSID-25 and my Pi4s only to MYSSID-5.

It’s also preferable to use different SSID’s, sharing the SSID can cause all sort of issues with different devices.

There is a reason why all routers/modems comes with post fixed SSID’s instead of using the same for both frequerencys.

Definitely on older devices, but many newer routers - especially WiFi 6 routers like my asus TUF AX5400 have good auto-switching between 2.4GHz and 5GHz networks that share an SSID.