Wireless connection to NUC

[Stonius]

Hi there,


I'm looking to get a wireless connection to my NUC.


Is it best to do peer to peer, or should I get a travel router or re-purpose a RPi to do the job?


Cheers


Markus

[that_guy]

I just use Anydesk and my phones hotspot. Havent had any trouble yet.

[The_bluester]

I generally use mine at home so it is on the local network, but for star parties I take a router with me with the NUC preconfigured to connect to it if it is available. It needs to be preconfigured as I run it headless. I am set up for all of my rig to run off 12VDC, with a DC bench supply to run it in normal use and a small battery to keep it going over power interruptions.

[Stonius]

So... does that mean your phone essentially becomes the router? And the traffic throughput is okay?

[Stonius]

That sounds like the sort of setup I'm looking at. So what sort of router do you use? What software do you use to connect to the NUC?



Cheers


Markus

[mswhin63]

I use Team Viewer, but Anydesk looks like a good option. May give a try.

[Astronovice]

I use mine on my local network accessed via windows Remote Desktop.

[that_guy]

Yup

[The_bluester]

I am just using some old Netgear thing I had lying around as a wireless router for star parties, the critical thing was it uses a 12VDC power input so it works with my existing power setup and does not add another adapter.

I connect via Teamviewer without using an account (So no pesky accusations of being a business rather than private user if you happen to log in from more than one PC) I have it set up in the settings for exclusively LAN connections, so all you need is the PC name on the network or the IP address, and the password you set on the host PC.

[Stonius]

Okay, I've managed to get it working by hotspotting my phone, as Tony mentioned. I can also just hotspot the computer itself which removes one point of failure. I can't think why this would be any better or worse than using a dedicated router? I was trying to get my RPi to work as a router, but it seems redundant now that hotspotting is working. So that's the network sorted.



But in terms of remote desktop - it doesn't seem to want to work. I can troubleshoot it, of course, but Teamviewer seems to be working fine. The only issue is that it creates a new login code each time and I'd really like to not have to lug a monitor along just to see the password so I can access the NUC desktop.


Does anyone know how to do this, or is it outside the bounds of the free version?


Obviously the idea is to get the setup as smooth and streamlined as possible.


-Markus

[The_bluester]

I am not sure about via a phone hotspot, but I named my NUC with an easy name to remember (ASTRONUC) and then in Teamviewer options, set local LAN connections to "Accept exclusively" (You may have to do this on both machines) and then in the security settings, set a password. Then while you are on the same network you just (In my case) fire up a remote control connection, use "ASTRONUC" as the computer name and click connect, bang in the password that I set and off it goes. I have not plugged a monitor in to my NUC for months.

[Stonius]

Paul, you are a genius! Thank you!!


You may guess from the above that it worked!!


Cheers


Markus

[The_bluester]

The one thing to remember is that you won't be able to connect to it unless you are on the same network. I am not sure if that would apply if you were using a VPN to get in to your home network for instance, I actually have to try that for mine.

[Stonius]

My plan is to use then network when I'm near my house, and just use my NUC as a hotspot while out of range in the field. More testing required, but I think it will work! :-)


Markus

[The_bluester]

I didn't get hotspotting to work for when I am away from home, but I had the router going begging so I didn't really try very hard.

[Stonius]

Yeah, I think you're right. Hotspot only works if the PC doing the hotspotting has an active internet connection.This would work at home except the hotspotting computer would make sense to be the one in the house, and it would have to be always on in order to maintain the connection. It doesn't auto reconnect even with 'connect automatically' selected.



Back to the drawing board. I guess I'll have to investigate turning my RPi into a router. I have an old GBit router, but it's big with 3 antennas and probably overkill.


Markus

[Astronovice]

As I said previously I use Remote Desktop. It only works in the windows 10 pro version, not in the home version.

I have an HEQ5 Pro mount that I use wirelessly with the Skywatcher wifi adapter, even though the NUC is mounted on the scope. I have the Skywatcher app installed on the NUC and on an iPad. This means I can run the scope locally using the iPad for set up and then from inside the house using my laptop. Mount is operated using EQMOD, which has the Synscan driver as an option, plus Stellarium and APT. At home all of this is via network. Away from home all runs via Skywatcher wifi module network and using Remote Desktop app installed on iPad.

[AndyG]

I had the same issue. I found a neat little startup app that initiated hotspot prior to login. Coupled with Power on AC resume in bios, the NUC powers on, boots and offers the hotspot in about 15secs after I plug in the lighter socket. Having dual band wifi, the NUC happily connects to known APs as it's source, whilst offering it's own hotspot as means of connection via RDP. At home that's the Home Wifi. In the field, it's my phone.

I need to find this App and tell you what it is.

[LostInSp_ce]

Hi Markus, one thing to check is that the NUC you have in mind is can run at 12V. I remember when I was looking at getting an i7 model it didn't run at 12v and so I ended up getting an i5. However, this was a while back and things change so it may or may not even be relevant anymore but I thought I'd mention it just in case.

[The_bluester]

All the current ones (As far as I know) will in theory run at 12V but mine (7th gen I5) started reboot looping on me so I went back to it's 19V supply and it stopped misbehaving. I have just bought a DC-DC converter off ebay to get 19VDC from my 12V system and had my first successful night with it, so that is another option. I wanted it all running off the DC system so that everything is capable of running off my backup battery, the power supply is not greatly reliable where I live with plenty of bumps and short outages, and star parties I have lost time like everyone else to a CB trip or someone tripping over a cord in the dark. I never did but I would hate to loose a nights imaging to a six second outage for an auto reclose on the HV feeder to our place, ods on it would be just after I go to bed.

Come to think of it I should increase the size of my backup battery, in the fire danger period an outage can often be a lot longer as if something trips out the new REFCL setup they will generally do a drive out line inspection before re energising. I should use something the size of a motorcycle battery that would run the gear for hours rather than a little AGM gate opener battery.

[Stonius]

Can I just check; does the phone hotspot thing work when you don't have signal?

So far my computers will not create a hotspot if they do not *also have an active internet connection to share.

Markus

[LostInSp_ce]

In the beginning I ran mine at 12v and didn't have any issues. Then later I switched my entire system to 24v and now run it at it's ideal 19v. I find that at 19v the extra juice allows me to run Stellarium with all of the pretty 3D graphics without any lag and I'm sure it improves the WiFi's stability a little bit amongst other things. Intel chips like to drink so the more juice you can give them the better IMO. Still if 12v is all you can supply then it'll still be functional.

[The_bluester]

I didn't see any sort of functionality or performance issue with mine, it just started reboot looping randomly until I put it back on 19V via it's supplied power brick, but I was never happy with the idea of a small power bump ending the night by rebooting the NUC after I was asleep.