Toshiba SD Card WIFI signal strength?

[krauster]

I am thinking about getting a Toshiba SD WIFI card for my Resmed Airsense 10 CPAP machine. The WIFI router is in another room on the same floor of the home. I've used a signal strength meter on my smart phone to determine that the strength of the signal "boshta" at the router is -45 when right up next to it, but drops to -60 when I measure the strength near the CPAP machine.

meter on phone near router.png (145.85 KiB) Viewed 3671 times

meter on phone near cpap.png (153.76 KiB) Viewed 3671 times

I'm wondering if that is too much of drop for the WIFI SD card, considering that the cards are small and have small antennas and very low power. The cards were designed to be used in cameras and the user can simply move the camera nearer to the router if the strength is necessary. No point doing that with a CPAP machine.

Anyway, for those of you that are using a WIFI SD card, how far is your CPAP machine from your WIFI router? I'm hoping to not have to buy a WIFI extender if I want to go this route of looking at the data wirelessly.

krauster

[BlueDragon]

I am using the W-04 Flashair card. Router signal strength shows about -20 next to the router and -60 next to the CPAP machine. I'd guess the distance from router to CPAP at about 25 ft, with transmission through several walls required.

I can download data easily using the FlashPap application.

[salinas212]

I appreciate the research & feedback as I too am curious about this rather than physically swapping from XPAP-to-computer. 12 ft "thru-the-wall" or 18 ft around it. Yeah, Yeah I know 15 footsteps one-way or 30 R/T footsteps is ... pure laziness/sloth. So sue me, I remain curious!

[Okie bipap]

We use two of them since we both use a bilevel machine. This way, I don't need to worry about getting the cards back in the wrong machine.

[krauster]

I am using the W-04 Flashair card. Router signal strength shows about -20 next to the router and -60 next to the CPAP machine. I'd guess the distance from router to CPAP at about 25 ft, with transmission through several walls required.

I can download data easily using the FlashPap application.

Thanks for confirming that. I assume you are using some sort of equivalent smartphone app to come up with those -20 to -60 numbers - a drop of 40db signal strength. Those numbers make it look like I might be in good shape if my CPAP machine 's position makes my numbers drop only 15db, Or maybe it makes more sense to see it that your using the SD Card at a distance that gives a -60 and my distance is also a -60 so my placement should also work. Of course there are other factors but I think I'll take a chance and buy a Toshiba W-04 card.
I'll report back when I get it and set it up. (will be in a few weeks)

[BlueDragon]

Thanks for confirming that. I assume you are using some sort of equivalent smartphone app to come up with those -20 to -60 numbers - a drop of 40db signal strength. Those numbers make it look like I might be in good shape if my CPAP machine 's position makes my numbers drop only 15db, Or maybe it makes more sense to see it that your using the SD Card at a distance that gives a -60 and my distance is also a -60 so my placement should also work. Of course there are other factors but I think I'll take a chance and buy a Toshiba W-04 card.
I'll report back when I get it and set it up. (will be in a few weeks)

Yes, I think I am using a different version of the same app you posted.

If you have trouble setting the card up , contact me and I'll post my SD Config file for you to use as a model.

[zorki1c]

Or just take a regular SD card out of your CPAP and plug it into your computer.

[jimc2]

I appreciate the research & feedback as I too am curious about this rather than physically swapping from XPAP-to-computer. 12 ft "thru-the-wall" or 18 ft around it. Yeah, Yeah I know 15 footsteps one-way or 30 R/T footsteps is ... pure laziness/sloth. So sue me, I remain curious!

I have an older clunker of a laptop in the basement that has a SD card reader in it that I have sleepyhead on. I have USB card reader that I haven't seen in years. Something like this would be really handy to have. I could install sleepyhead on a better machine and pull my stats whenever and wherever I am in the house. I might grab one soon.

[BlueDragon]

I have an older clunker of a laptop in the basement that has a SD card reader in it that I have sleepyhead on. I have USB card reader that I haven't seen in years. Something like this would be really handy to have. I could install sleepyhead on a better machine and pull my stats whenever and wherever I am in the house. I might grab one soon.

My wife and I each have a machine. As we look at statistics fairly frequently, it is not only convenient to get the data wirelessly, it reduces the possibility of importing from the wrong card to each profile. And of course it minimizes wear and tear on the SD slot in the machine. Our backup machine--rarely used--just has a plain SD card so we move the card if we ever need to see the data on that card.

[Shnorky]

The thing I have found with the Toshiba SD card I bought off amazon is that the machine needs to be powercycled for the wifi to start. Which is a major bummer for me. Anybody experienced this also?

[BlueDragon]

The thing I have found with the Toshiba SD card I bought off amazon is that the machine needs to be powercycled for the wifi to start. Which is a major bummer for me. Anybody experienced this also?

I do not have that problem. I vaguely recall reading something about it; it may depend on your CPAP machine or maybe it was the specific SD configuration files. Sorry, I don't remember what I read, and it didn't affect me.

[wm_hess]

The thing I have found with the Toshiba SD card I bought off amazon is that the machine needs to be powercycled for the wifi to start. Which is a major bummer for me. Anybody experienced this also?

Hi. I've just started using this myself and found that it doesn't require it to be power cycled, I would have to eject and then reseat it. I just ran across an article that mentions this, and says to go to the config file, and change the APPAUTOTIME to zero to disable the time out. For me, it didn't work, so I went with changing the APPAUTOTIME=1209600000 which is 14 days in milliseconds. I just checked and downloaded two days of data without having to reseat it, so it appears to be working.

Here is the posting by krelvin viewtopic/t111250/flashair-card-broadca ... chine.html that I used.

Hope this helps!

-Bill

[Shnorky]

The thing I have found with the Toshiba SD card I bought off amazon is that the machine needs to be powercycled for the wifi to start. Which is a major bummer for me. Anybody experienced this also?

Hi. I've just started using this myself and found that it doesn't require it to be power cycled, I would have to eject and then reseat it. I just ran across an article that mentions this, and says to go to the config file, and change the APPAUTOTIME to zero to disable the time out. For me, it didn't work, so I went with changing the APPAUTOTIME=1209600000 which is 14 days in milliseconds. I just checked and downloaded two days of data without having to reseat it, so it appears to be working.

Here is the posting by krelvin viewtopic/t111250/flashair-card-broadca ... chine.html that I used.

Hope this helps!

-Bill

Thank you very much, will try this!

[krauster]

Okay, I've just received a Toshiba SD W-04 WIFI card. The card is UNLOCKED. I have inserted it into my laptop's card reader.
I see:
DCIM directory and,
SD_WLAN directory that is grey'd out.
Under the SD_WLAN there is one file, CONFIG.
It looks like this:
_____________________
[Vendor]

CIPATH=/DCIM/100__TSB/FA000001.JPG
APPMODE=4
APPNETWORKKEY=********
VERSION=F15DBW3BW4.00.01
CID=02544d535731364754d264937a011b01
PRODUCT=FlashAir
VENDOR=TOSHIBA
_____________________
What do I do next? (I assume I am going to write something that tells it the SSID of my router and my router's password. If so, what format and what else?)
Thanks,
\STeve

[BlueDragon]

Here's my SD_WLAN/CONFIG:

Code: Select all

[Vendor]

CIPATH=/DCIM/100__TSB/FA000001.JPG
APPMODE=5
APPNETWORKKEY=*****************
VERSION=F15DBW3BW4.00.01
CID=02544d535733324755e2d7ca7a011c01
PRODUCT=FlashAir
VENDOR=TOSHIBA
APPNAME=flashair

MASTERCODE=0123456789AB
LOCK=1
APPSSID=BlueDragon
DHCP_Enabled=NO
IP_Address=192.168.20.77
SUBNET_MASK=255.255.255.0

UPLOAD=1
NOISE_CANCEL=0
STA_RETRY_CT=0
DNSMODE=1
APPAUTOTIME=0
TIMEZONE=-28
WebDAV=1

APPSID is the SSID of your router. IP Address is a fixed IP you assign to the card on your network (I used a fixed IP because I have FlashAir cards in two machines, so give a separate IP to each to distinguish them).
APPNETWORKKEY is the password to your network.
TIMEZONE is the offset from GMT in number of 15 minute blocks. (-28 is -7 from GMT.)