2nd DigiPi Not Showing Up as Wi-Fi Hotspot

[WA4SKI]

I want to add a 2nd DigiPi to my home network.  I flashed 2.1-1 and booted it up.  I watched the flashing lightshow and when the Pi turned solid green, I looked for it as a network device to connect to, but it was not listed there.  Help!

[Craig]

Hi WA4SKI,

you might have to wait 3-4 minutes for the DigiPi wifi "hotspot" to appear on your phone.

if the pi is already configured for home wifi, the hotspot will not start unless you're
out of range of your router.

PiZero, 3B, 2B will not work as hotspots (need zero2W, 3B+ or better -- multicore pi's only)

Some Apple devices can't see the hotspot.


I'm not sure that helps, but those are some related facts to consider.


Let us know please,

-craig
KM6LYW

On 6/9/26 11:44, WA4SKI wrote:

I want to add a 2nd DigiPi to my home network.  I flashed 2.1-1 and booted it up.  I watched the flashing lightshow and when the Pi turned solid green, I looked for it as a network device to connect to, but it was not listed there.  Help! --
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[Get Outside]

Craig....I shared your response to me about potential corruption in SD card and not booting.  I had him connect to monitor and he did not see anything.  Recommended using the zip file in balena etcher in case it helped him like it did me.  Looking forward to a new release soon!

[Craig]

right, I wanted to follow up on the zip/unzip issue - i'm worried your
unzipper or pc
software is corrupting the .img file while it's unzipping.   ie, the
.zip and the .img
should both work just fine with balena - uzipping first is unnecessary.

[Randall Luebke]

I decided to swap out the SD card from the Pi that I know is working with the one that is not working and I was unable to connect to the DigiPi.  I then to my newly flashed SD card and inserted it in my know good Pi.  It worked!  So, I guess my problem is that I have a bad Pi.  Agreed?

[Mark Cohen]

Not sure which pi you have but I have found that the pi zero (not 2w) will not boot with 64bit images meant for the 02w for example

Spent way too long tracking that one down, I have a few old pi 0s that got mixed in. 

73 de K6EF

On Jun 9, 2026, at 1:22 PM, Randall Luebke <rand...@gmail.com> wrote:

I decided to swap out the SD card from the Pi that I know is working with the one that is not working and I was unable to connect to the DigiPi.  I then to my newly flashed SD card and inserted it in my know good Pi.  It worked!  So, I guess my problem is that I have a bad Pi.  Agreed?

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/digipi/83628f52-cd9c-4748-b47b-8255eca309c3n%40googlegroups.com.

[Craig]

right, i want to say the bad one is a Zero (not a Zero2W).  The Zero will
not become a hotspot, and honestly, it's prohibitively slow with one core.

You can click SysInfo to see the model name, if you get that far, but this
is the visual clue - notice the big silver square chip on the Zero2W that
isn't present on the old Zero?

You want the one on the left,

[wa4...@gmail.com]

It’s a Zero2W, purchased from Alibaba.  I will return it.  That said, now that I have DigiPi 2.1-1 running I am super impressed with the mapping feature.  That’s the good news.  The bad news is now I have a whole new distraction on my computer to deal with all day long. 😊

 

73

Randy

 

Cell 949-354-1700

WA4...@gmail.com

WA4SKI

WSHI290

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[Scott Sheppard]

Randy 

I know the feeling 

I tossed out mold Pi Zero’s to avoid this confusion. I also find that using 16 or 32 GB micro SD cards he’s with potentially having image size issues with a 8 GB card. 

I am using R Pi Imager to load my *.img fils to the SD card.

The MAPs function works but I have had confusion using Digipi + Pi Zero 2W + GPS receiver + HT radio. My position initially is off but over time (many hours?) my position is correct. I am still learning this one. 

I am still unsure what the BT function will do for me but first I am trying to learn and document other aspects of the new *.img file. 

I find your comments helpful.  

Scott Sheppard

1702 Frazier Park Drive 

Decatur, GA 30033

732 861 3383 

sshe...@bellsouth.net

KJ4ZZB Call Sign

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/digipi/001701dcf858%24ec1a9d90%24c44fd8b0%24%40gmail.com.

[WA4SKI]

You, as usual, were correct, Craig.  Comparing the photos to my Pi, I received a W, not at 2W.  Back to China it goes!