Forum Discussion

sakaleita's avatar
sakaleita
Network Novice
Hace 9 años

Can I turn ON and/or OFF my hotspot remotely?

I need this hotspot to allow me to moniter my cabin 300 miles away. I get a good connection from the cell phone tower in view from my cabin. I would like to be able to turn it on when I need to access what ever I have connected to the Wi-Fi .And then turn it. off

  • Delmdsn's avatar
    Delmdsn
    Network Novice

    I would really like to hear if anything worked too. I'm having the same issues!

  • Mike_B's avatar
    Mike_B
    Network Novice

    I have an operational solution. My solution uses the "trained Monkey' method. In my few attempts to locate a hotspot that resumed normal operation after a power outage, I did not find any that resumed normal operation, none!

    I did buy (to test) a ZTE MF928 hotspot. While it didn't resume operation, I really liked the way the power button worked. An easy press and holding for about 4 sec toggled the power on and off, reversing the prior power state.

    So I took angle aluminum and bent it into a three sided frame with extending ends. Unto the left extended end, I bolted a SG90 servo motor so that it's arm could rotate down to press the power button. This required some spacing material behind the MF928 so the arm was hitting and pushing the on/off button.

    I run Home Assistant smart home software at that remote location. I flashed a ESP8266 NODEMCU with Tasmota firmware. I use this ESP8266 to control the SG90 servo motor. Home Assistant can communicate directly with ESP8266 using MQTT protocol. All the necessary pieces are present! The Raspberry PI running the Home Assistant does restart after a power outage as does the ESP8266.

    Home Assistant has a 'ping' command that can be used to check for Internet connection. Home assistant has a 'MQTT publish' command to send commands to devices listening on MQTT. So what I do is: Every 5 minutes... check the result of the 'ping' test. If NO Internet; then I run a series of commands that 1-move servo arm down that pushes the power button down, 2-wait 5 seconds (with button pressed down), 3-move the servo arm up (off the button). Then after another 5 minutes, it runs again but only does action when no Internet. As it always runs every 5 minutes, it will always detect and fix a hotspot outage.

    Another little tweak is that I programmatically periodically run; shortly after midnight NOT testing Internet presence, but ALWAYS goes through the button press steps. This turns the hotspot off to reset it in case it has become 'confused'. Little trick learned from dealing with computers running Windows OS. Actually, I don't know why I loose connection. Hopefully this will fix whatever the problem is?

    Don’t know if including my address is allowed? mikeATmikebakerDOTcom

    I did see in documentation for the T9 that pressing and holding the power button for 10 seconds would power up the device. I have not confirmed this. If true then this same approach could be used with that hotspot? I do not recall reading about that action turning off the device?

  • ernieh's avatar
    ernieh
    Network Novice

    I'm not sure about the T9, but on a T10 if you can figure a way to keep the power button depressed, the hotspot will reboot by unpower/repower method.  I actually have mine connected to a backup power supply and the hotspot stays connected for several months, so I have never needed to reboot.