Connecting to wireless LAN - Apple networks?

[wlaidlaw]

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Has anyone been able to get the SL to connect to an Apple wifi network, either 2.4gHz or 5gHz? I can occasionally get the SL to connect to my Draytek wifi network but only if I am quite close to the router's aerials. Using the Scan feature on wifi setup on the SL, does not find the Apple networks at all for both 2.4 and 5 gHz, even though I am sitting within one metre of the nearest Apple Airport Express wifi booster. The original Apple wifi signal comes from a Time Capsule, connected with a Cat 6 cable to the Gigabit Ethernet port on the Draytek modem/router.

 

I just wanted to lift one photo off my SL and the WLAN would have been more convenient than taking the SL off the tripod it is currently sitting on and getting the SL card out. It would be nice to have a wifi reset only option on the camera reset setting on the menu. 

 

Wilson

Edited March 28, 2016 by wlaidlaw

[ramarren]

When I've had difficulty connecting to a WiFi network, I tell the SL to create its own hot spot and temporarily connect my iPad to it directly. As soon as you disconnect, the iPad will automatically reconnect to the existing WiFi since the SL powers down the hot spot after you disconnect. 

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[AlanJW]

+1 on creating a network between SL and Ipad.   That works very well.   But I have also connected via my home network where the router is an Airport Extreme. The SL finds the wifi without a problem.   I do prefer the "remote control" way, though that is a bit of a misnomer because you can download to the ipad that way also.

[wlaidlaw]

The problem was I did not want to connect the SL to an iPad but to a Mac. I eventually got it to work but still not on the Apple wifi network but on the Draytek one. However I found that when you link to the SL via its DHCP-URL, you only seem to be able to download thumbnails, so not useful. In the end, I just took the card out and accessed the shot conventionally. However once I go down to France, this is going to be a problem as I only have Apple wifi down there and will have to use the SL as a host, which also means temporarily having to reset my iPad to the Leica signal from its usual wifi.

 

I am still puzzled why the SL is not "seeing" the Apple wifi networks, which are by far the strongest signals in the house, as I have Airport Express boosters all over the place. I wonder if it is because my Apple 2.4 gHz channel is set to 13, which is a Europe only channel. The SL might only "see" the US channels of 1-11. The Draytek 2.4 gHz network the SL does see, is on channel 6 (6 and 13 are non-conflicting channels). My Apple 5gHz is set to Auto but wifi diagnostics saying it is running on dual channels 36 and 100. 

 

Wilson

[wlaidlaw]

Update. I have just checked on the manual (RTFM) and I was correct, the SL only sees US wifi channels 1-11 and not the European 1-13. I will change my Apple channel to 11, which is also non-conflicting with 6 (and also 1). I will change it when my wife has finished talking to her sister on Facetime in 3 or 4 hours 

 

Wilson

Edited March 28, 2016 by wlaidlaw

[ramarren]

Update. I have just checked on the manual (RTFM) and I was correct, the SL only sees US wifi channels 1-11 and not the European 1-13. I will change my Apple channel to 11, which is also non-conflicting with 6 (and also 1). I will change it when my wife has finished talking to her sister on Facetime in 3 or 4 hours 

 

Wilson

 

 

LOL! 

 

Yes, it works fine on the US channels, which I assume are the defaults that my Airport Extreme and Airport Express are using here in California. 

 

I'd not done this connection before, but after I figured out that I needed to use a web browser to look at the address using "http://XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX", it came up immediately and I was able to browse and download JPEGs at full resolution. 

 

I poked around my card in the camera and found this shot, which I posted some time ago: 

 

 

Well, zooming in, I found something in the little bear's nose ..

 

 

That's me on the left and the camera on the right!  Not bad resolution, eh? 

[wlaidlaw]

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Changing the Apple WiFi channel to 11 has worked but still only seeing JPEG's at 1616px x 1080px, so no true access to card contents. Using wifi also gobbles up battery. 

 

Wilson

[steppenw0lf]

Hello Wilson,

 

I think you need tethering for the full access (also to raw files). With the cable it is also potentially much faster. Can you or somebody else with a "wire" to Leica ask them again about the status ?

I offered to be beta tester for it (for tethering), but of course got no reply.

 

Stephan

Edited March 28, 2016 by steppenw0lf

[wlaidlaw]

Stephan, 

 

I will do so after the next FW update comes out. I don't want to do anything to distract them from sorting out the flash   .

 

I am doing a wedding in two weeks time and for the evening, I will have to change to my M240, as flashes work so badly with the SL at the moment. Far too much to hope for that the FW update will come out before then. 

 

Wilson

[ramarren]

Changing the Apple WiFi channel to 11 has worked but still only seeing JPEG's at 1616px x 1080px, so no true access to card contents. Using wifi also gobbles up battery. 

 

Wilson

 

 

You have to click the "Full Resolution" text in the upper left corner of the view after clicking on an image file. Then you will get a browser window with the full resolution JPEG that you can save to a file on your computer. There's no access to raw files ... The web server is very simple and only serves displayable RGB images; it's not a file server and doesn't give you access to the total contents of the card. I didn't notice whether it also gave access to video files... I presume it does. 

 

I'd just switch working methodology to use flash with the SL. Since I know that works, I may order an SF40 soon. It would be useful to have a dedicated flash for the SL. 

[wlaidlaw]

You have to click the "Full Resolution" text in the upper left corner of the view after clicking on an image file. Then you will get a browser window with the full resolution JPEG that you can save to a file on your computer. There's no access to raw files ... The web server is very simple and only serves displayable RGB images; it's not a file server and doesn't give you access to the total contents of the card. I didn't notice whether it also gave access to video files... I presume it does. 

 

I'd just switch working methodology to use flash with the SL. Since I know that works, I may order an SF40 soon. It would be useful to have a dedicated flash for the SL. 

 

Thanks for that hint on web browsing on the SL, I will give it a try. 

 

The flash does now work well enough for slow sync fill in on the SL, whereas the M240 works just fine. When you turn the SF58 onto bounce and M on the SL, the exposures are all over the place. Again this works fine on the M. It would be nice for ease of use to have AF and zoom but I cannot risk as many wrong exposures as I got on the SL with a trial run. I could use auto setting with the flash but this does not work very well with the bounce head and secondary flash fill in. 

 

Wilson

Edited March 28, 2016 by wlaidlaw