Connect the Gx Camera through WiFi network

Main page▹Product Overview▹Astronomical cameras▹Articles	18.1.2018 \|

The Gx Camera Ethernet Adapter allows connection of up to four Gx cameras of any type over an Ethernet. Because the communication is handled over the TCP/IP network, the distance between camera and the host PC is virtually unlimited. The Ethernet port of the adapter device can be attached to arbitrary WiFi bridge device to access attached cameras wirelessly. However, such solution needs another box (the Ethernet/WiFi bridge device) with another power supply etc. This is why the Gx Camera Ethernet Adapter firmware was extended with support for USB/WiFi interfaces.

The WiFi adapter can be plugged into any USB port. The Gx Camera Ethernet Adapter then can be added to any existing WiFi network.

Remark:

Such adapter occupies one USB port, so using it limits number of connected Gx cameras typically from 4 to 3. This should be still enough for all applications.

The USB/WiFi adapter is plugged into one USB port

Because the WiFi adapter antenna is located outside of the device metal case, the signal reception is better compared to devices employing WiFi adapter with antenna soldered on the electronics circuits board. The USB 2.0 HiSpeed transfer rate 480 Mbps typically do not bottleneck the WiFi transfers, which are usually slower.

Device with attached USB/WiFi adapter has to be configured over a wired Ethernet connection exactly like the standard Gx Camera Ethernet Adapter. However, the configuration page offers the WiFi adapter configuration section.

USB/WiFi adapter configured to obtain IP address dynamically through DHCP

There are two possibilities how to assign the WiFi adapter IP address. The first possibility is to let the DHCP server assign it. Because the Gx Camera Ethernet Adapter is accessed as a server, it is necessary to assign a fixed address to it, so the clients always know the address to which they should connect. It is usually a task of the DHCP server configuration, which allows assigning a particular IP address to the device with defined MAC address.

USB/WiFi adapter with manually configured IP address

Another possibility is to configure the IP address of the Gx Camera Ethernet Adapter manually.

The properly configured USB/WiFi interface can then be connect to WiFi network. The configuration page indicates successful connection.

Remark:

When the Gx Camera Ethernet Adapter is reset to initial state, the WiFi network has to be configured again using the wired Ethernet connection.

Currently supported USB/WiFi chipsets are:

Realtek RTL8192CU/RTL8188CU/RTL8187
- ASUS USB-N10 Nano, USB-N13
- D-Link DWA-121, DWA-131, DWA-135
- TP-LINK TL-WN82xN
- Netgear N150, N300
- Belkin Surf USB Micro
Ralink/MediaTek RT257x/RT2671/RT2770/RT2870/RT307x/RT3572
- ASUS USB-N13, USB-N14, USB-N66, USB-N53
- Linksys AE3000
- Netgear WNDA4100
- ZyXEL N220
- D-Link DWA-137, DWA-140, DWA-160, DWA-162
Atheros AR5007UG/AR2524/AR5523/AR5524/AR7010/AR9271
- Netgear WNA1100li
- TP-LINK TL-WN72xN
- D-Link DWA-126
Atmel AT76C50x
Broadcom BCM43143/BCM43242/4320
Marvell 88W8388/88W8797

Remark:

The USB/WiFi are supported in device firmware version 28 or higher.

The above list of supported interface devices is valid when the Gx Camera Ethernet Adapter was equipped with firmware v28 when shipped from the manufacturer. If the firmware was only later updated to v28, some USB/WiFi interface devices may not to be supported.