No WiFi connection M0151 + USB 3.0 + Alfa Networks Dongle

[Dronodev]

Hi everyone,

I am experiencing persistent WiFi issues with my VOXL 2 using the M0151 USB3/UART Expansion Adapter and the Alfa Network AWUS036EACS dongle I bought in the WiFi add-on kit. When I initially used this setup with an older SDK version (likely around 1.0), the WiFi in SoftAP mode was working reliably and I was able to connect to the network without any problems. After upgrading to SDK 1.5, these issues already started to appear, and the same behavior is still present after upgrading further to SDK 1.6.

In SDK 1.6, the SoftAP SSID is still being broadcast and visible, but my laptop is unable to connect — the connection attempt starts, asks for the password, and then eventually fails. Station mode is also non-functional, as no external networks are found. After a power cycle, the WiFi network disappears entirely. When reflashing SDK 1.6, the same pattern repeats: the SSID appears again, the connection fails, and after the next reboot it vanishes. The dongle is correctly detected via lsusb at all times, and voxl-my-ip still shows the expected default IP. I configured the modem as type 28 (M0151 with AWUS036EACS), and also tested other modem configurations without success. In dmesg I frequently see repeated messages such as “wlan0: link is not ready” and “wlan0: link becomes ready”. At this point I am unsure whether this is caused by a driver regression in newer SDKs, a USB 3.0 compatibility issue with the AWUS036EACS, or a networking stack/configuration problem. Has anyone encountered similar behavior or can provide guidance? Any hints would be highly appreciated.

(I also noticed that the WiFi add-on kit consisting of the M0151 adapter and the AWUS036EACS dongle is no longer available in the shop, which made me wonder if this setup is still officially supported.)

Thanks in advance!

[Dronodev]

I did some additional testing and was able to narrow things down a bit. After reconfiguring the WiFi as a SoftAP using voxl-wifi and then rebooting the VOXL, the network now shows up consistently again. So the broadcast issue seems to be resolved for the moment. However, the core problem remains: I still can’t actually connect to the AP — the connection attempt starts, prompts for the password, and then fails just like before.

If anyone has ideas on what else I could check or has seen similar behavior with this setup, I’d really appreciate the help.