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Using 4G LTE wireless modems on a Raspberry Pi

jeffgeerling.com

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Re: Using 4G LTE wireless modems on a Raspberry Pi

#11

Post by 0xbadc0de5 »

geerlingguy wrote: post #2

This blog post has been quite the effort—coming into it I thought I'd just learn some new things, document a simple process, and be done. But along the way I probably spent 40 hours (and counting) trying to figure out the ins-and-outs of 4G LTE modems and Linux networking when it comes to these oddball devices. I hope some parts of this post help anyone else new to LTE networking in Linux, and maybe somebody can help…

If firmware is your thing - you may want to look into Sierra Wireless EM7355, EM7455, etc series. They are linux compatible and have firmware, docs and SDK available from the Sierra site. https://source.sierrawireless.com/devices/mc-series/mc7455/

Re: Using 4G LTE wireless modems on a Raspberry Pi

#12

Post by samueldr »

geerlingguy wrote: post #2

This blog post has been quite the effort—coming into it I thought I'd just learn some new things, document a simple process, and be done. But along the way I probably spent 40 hours (and counting) trying to figure out the ins-and-outs of 4G LTE modems and Linux networking when it comes to these oddball devices. I hope some parts of this post help anyone else new to LTE networking in Linux, and maybe somebody can help…

You might want to look around the Pinephone and Pinephone Pro communities. Both phones use the EG25-G modem, chosen for better worldwide band availabilities, rather than splitting the Pinephone in "EU" and "NA" batches.

Users also are working on providing a mostly liberated firmware for the modem:

- https://github.com/Biktorgj/pinephone_modem_sdk

Re: Using 4G LTE wireless modems on a Raspberry Pi

#14

Post by anonymouse008 »

geerlingguy wrote: post #2

This blog post has been quite the effort—coming into it I thought I'd just learn some new things, document a simple process, and be done. But along the way I probably spent 40 hours (and counting) trying to figure out the ins-and-outs of 4G LTE modems and Linux networking when it comes to these oddball devices. I hope some parts of this post help anyone else new to LTE networking in Linux, and maybe somebody can help…

My god, this community and the things we toil and labor over, then give freely to one another... is just... dang inspiring.

It makes life worth living.

Thank you kind, brave soul.

Re: Using 4G LTE wireless modems on a Raspberry Pi

#15

Post by kube-system »

sneak wrote: post #6

> A SIM card with a 4G data plan. I bought a SixFab SIM and used their monthly pay-as-you-go service for testing. You could pull out the SIM from your mobile phone (on most carriers at least) but that is a bit inconvenient as your phone won't get service until you put the SIM back in. You could also get a plan and SIM from any major carrier (e.g. AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon in the USA)—though you have to make sure the ca…

I feel like you'd probably get more predictable experience by using an always-on VPN configuration on your phone than a wifi hotspot.

Re: Using 4G LTE wireless modems on a Raspberry Pi

#16

Post by riston »

Looking for a similar solution, I had one Huawei USB 3G stick lying around and used that with RPI 3. Everything worked just fine but after a couple of days it would randomly disconnect and wouldn't restore the connection so currently, I am looking for some 3G/4G router to do the same job.

Re: Using 4G LTE wireless modems on a Raspberry Pi

#17

Post by geek_at »

riston wrote: post #16

Looking for a similar solution, I had one Huawei USB 3G stick lying around and used that with RPI 3. Everything worked just fine but after a couple of days it would randomly disconnect and wouldn't restore the connection so currently, I am looking for some 3G/4G router to do the same job.

When I moved into my new house but the internet fiber was not yet activated I also used a Pi with a Huawei 3g dongle as gateway for my home. Most expensive internet I had to use for 3 weeks.

Didn't have any reconnects though but I had a script running checking the connection and if it failed it would re dial

Re: Using 4G LTE wireless modems on a Raspberry Pi

#18

Post by geerlingguy »

0xbadc0de5 wrote: post #5

ModemManager / NetworkManager also work really well with these modems on RPi using nmcli.

This was something I was exploring a little bit, but as I had some early trouble—and since all the guides I could find seemed to _not_ use MM/NM—I didn't keep trying.

I would like to figure it out though, because it seems they'd be the more plug-and-play solution if they can work with the modem out of the box.

Re: Using 4G LTE wireless modems on a Raspberry Pi

#19

Post by rcarmo »

geerlingguy wrote: post #2

This blog post has been quite the effort—coming into it I thought I'd just learn some new things, document a simple process, and be done. But along the way I probably spent 40 hours (and counting) trying to figure out the ins-and-outs of 4G LTE modems and Linux networking when it comes to these oddball devices. I hope some parts of this post help anyone else new to LTE networking in Linux, and maybe somebody can help…

Yeah, things have become wildly fragmented since the "plain" 3G modem days, and there are no effective standards for USB multi-point devices (LTE made Ethernet emulation more popular, but weird pseudo-serials to configure them just became... weirder).

Re: Using 4G LTE wireless modems on a Raspberry Pi

#20

Post by geerlingguy »

pd0wm wrote: post #10
geerlingguy wrote: post #2

This blog post has been quite the effort—coming into it I thought I'd just learn some new things, document a simple process, and be done. But along the way I probably spent 40 hours (and counting) trying to figure out the ins-and-outs of 4G LTE modems and Linux networking when it comes to these oddball devices. I hope some parts of this post help anyone else new to LTE networking in Linux, and maybe somebody can help…

Have you experimented with modemmanager/networkmanager to handle the configuration of the modem? For me that has worked quite reliably across a pretty large fleet of devices with a Quectel EG25 (qmi over usb). Regarding FW updates, have you tried opening a support ticket with Quectel? For me they have been extremely responsive and helpful, providing extra documentation on special AT commands and stuff.

I have not—that was what I was trying (mmcli) early on in my exploration, but I kept hitting speedbumps, so switched gears to configuring the modem over TTY and using QMI utils directly.

I would like to use modemmanager though, it _seems_ like it's the nicer path.

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