40. Networking¶

SolarNode will attempt to automatically configure networking access from a local DHCP server. For many deployments the local network router is the DHCP server. SolarNode will identify itself with the name solarnode, so in many cases you can reach the SolarNode setup app at http://solarnode/.

40.1 Finding SolarNode's network address¶

To find what network address SolarNode is using, you have a few options:

40.1.1 Consult your network router¶

Your local network router is very likely to have a record of SolarNode's network connection. Log into the router's management UI and look for a device named solarnode.

40.1.2 Connect a keyboard and screen¶

If your SolarNode supports connecting a keyboard and screen, you can log into the SolarNode command line console and run ip -br addr to print out a brief summary of the current networking configuration:

$ ip -br addr

lo               UNKNOWN        127.0.0.1/8 ::1/128
eth0             UP             192.168.0.254/24 fe80::e65f:1ff:fed1:893c/64
wlan0            DOWN

In the previous output, SolarNode has an ethernet device eth0 with a network address 192.168.0.254 and a WiFi device wlan0 that is not connected. You could reach that SolarNode at http://192.168.0.254/.

40.2 WiFi¶

If your device will use WiFi for network access, you will need to configure the network name and credentials to use. You can do that by creating a wpa_supplicant.conf file on the SolarNodeOS media (typically an SD card). For Raspberry Pi media, you can mount the SD card on your computer and it will mount the appropriate drive for you.

Once mounted use your favorite text editor to create a wpa_supplicant.conf file with content like this:

country=nz
network={
    ssid="wifi network name here"
    psk="wifi password here"
}

Change the country=nz to match your own country code.