[SOLVED] Turn off onboard wifi radio for rasberry pi 3

[tmax premium]

tmax premium

8. Dezember 2016 at 16:13 #24690

Is there a way to turn off the onboard wifi on Raspberry Pi 3? I would like to use USB wifi and move the dongle cable away from the raspberry pi. I don’t want any wifi radio signal coming from the PI 3 itself
Thanks

[jcu-muc Moderator]

jcu-muc Moderator

8. Dezember 2016 at 18:45 #24704

Hi Tmax,

Yes there is, just go to the Raspberry Settings tab and activate

Disable Default WiFi Interface WLAN0 on RPI3  [  ]
This moves the build-in WiFi on Pi 3 to wlan1. This is necessary to add another WiFi stick on interface wlan0.

Best regards,
JCU

[tmax premium]

tmax premium

8. Dezember 2016 at 18:59 #24706

Hi JCU
I was not sure if that setting switched the radio off or just moved the logical wlan port that it used to connect. Do you know if it turns radio off? I guess it does say disable so it may well do that.

[jcu-muc Moderator]

jcu-muc Moderator

8. Dezember 2016 at 19:13 #24708

Hi Tmax,

To be honest I am not sure if this setting completely disables the onboard wifi or merely renames and moves it from wlan0 to wlan1. I believe it does the latter.

The setting in any event makes an exterior USB wifi stick the default wlan0. I have two different RPi-Max2Play setups and use USB wifi sticks (and this setting) on both. It made quite a difference in terms of signal connection strength – and in turn in listening enjoyment as well, particularly with larger FLAC files…

[Heiner premium]

Heiner premium

13. Januar 2017 at 17:14 #25880

Hi guys,
We also have an option in our Raspberry Settings to completely turn off the built-in WiFi.

[tmax premium]

tmax premium

13. Januar 2017 at 17:59 #25899

Hello Heiner
What is that option?
I am currently using the following
blacklist brcmfmac
blacklist brcmutil

[Heiner premium]

Heiner premium

13. Januar 2017 at 18:34 #25907

It’s the same option JCU mentioned. The move to the secondary interface ceases its activity.