All emonPi’s / emonBase’s shipped to date have included a Raspberry Pi 2. In the next week or so we will be upgrading to include a RaspberryPi 3. This is a nice upgrade: approximately double the processor speed and on-board WiFi with zero cost increase.
Since the RaspberryPi 3 has on-board WiFi a USB WiFi dongle is not required; even more cost savings for our customers, thanks to hard work of the Raspberry Pi foundation and a bit of Moore’s law.
If you receive an emonPi with a black acrylic fascia like in the photo above this means you have a RaspberryPi 3 inside. The reason for switching from punched-aluminium end-plates to black acrylic plastic is to allow the RaspberryPi 3’s on-board Wifi to propagate out of the enclosure.
Note: The Raspberry Pi 3 also includes integrated on-board Bluetooth, however this has been disabled on the emonPi due to a serial port conflict. See our original post on the Raspberry Pi 3.
Sure, no problem. The end plates are £5 including UK shipping. Place order
for 5x custom payment units from the shop and leave a comment with your
order stating that you would like a plastic end plate fascia
How far inside the emonPi metal housing is the RPi 3 on-board WiFi antenna?
It ocurred to me if the antenna is at the end of the case farthest from the plastic fascia, the case will tend to make the antenna directional - similar to a WiFi antenna made from a metal can. www.turnpoint.net/wireless/cantennahowto.html.
In general, the greater the distance inside the case, the more pronounced the directional effect will be.
If the antenna is at or near the plastic fascia, the effect should be minimal.
It’s right next to the plastic end plate. Probably about 5mm away from the plastic. It’s a shame there is no easy option to add an external antenna.
For instalation in location with patchy wifi, we would still recommend using an external USB wifi adapter for maximum wifi signal performance. If you use an external USB wifi adapter, be sure to disable the onboard wifi, since the wifi config in emoncms only supports a single wifi adapter on wlan0.
If anyone is purchasing a new emonpi from the shop in the next week or so, and would like a RaspberryPi 3, Pleae say so with a note at checkout.
We’re currently in the changeover period and still have a few units with Pi2, in stock.
I am planning to order the eMonPi with the RPi 3, but not too sure if the internal WiFi is going to work at my place. Can I order the eMonPi with the RPi 3 (which comes with the Black Acrylic Fascia Plates), and add the Metal Fascia plates on my order in the Online store?
Then, if the internal WiFi is dodgy, I can just use an external WiFi adaptor & swap the Fascia plates if I want to… I love the original looks with the Metallic Fascia…
Yeah sure, we have plenty of spare metal fascias. Just leave a note with your order and we will include an eminPi with Pi3 and plastic fascia and also include a spare metal fascia
To use an external Wifi with the Pi3 you will need to disable the internal Wifi or configure the wifi manually since Emoncms Wifi config will only work with whatever adapter is mapped to wlan0 .
