Max 7 Wi-Fi stations are supported in Access Point mode on Raspberry Pi 4

[gentoo-root]

Describe the issue you are experiencing

As reported in https://github.com/raspberrypi/linux/issues/3010#issuecomment-750324929, Raspberry Pi 4 is limited to 7 wireless clients with its builtin Wi-Fi in AP mode. However, an alternative cyfmac43455-sdio-minimal.bin firmware can be used to overcome this limitation, reportedly allowing up to 19 clients.

I haven't, however, found out a supported way to replace /lib/firmware/cypress/cyfmac43455-sdio.bin in the host squashfs image. I'd like to have a config option or an addon that would allow replacing the Wi-Fi firmware with the "minimal" version to bump up the number of "smart" devices connected to Home Assistant via the Hass.io Access point addon.

What operating system image do you use?

rpi4-64 (Raspberry Pi 4/400 64-bit OS)

What version of Home Assistant Operating System is installed?

6.6.31-haos-raspi

Did the problem occur after upgrading the Operating System?

No

Hardware details

Raspberry Pi 4

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. Install Home Assistant on Raspberry Pi 4 with the official instruction.
2. Install the Hass.io Access point addon.
3. Configure the Wi-Fi access point.
4. Attempt to connect 8 ESP8266 devices to the access point.
5. Observe that only 7 can connect.

Anything in the Supervisor logs that might be useful for us?

-

Anything in the Host logs that might be useful for us?

[    3.885051] brcmfmac: F1 signature read @0x18000000=0x15264345
[    3.907838] brcmfmac: brcmf_fw_alloc_request: using brcm/brcmfmac43455-sdio for chip BCM4345/6
[    4.236023] brcmfmac: brcmf_c_process_txcap_blob: no txcap_blob available (err=-2)
[    4.236556] brcmfmac: brcmf_c_preinit_dcmds: Firmware: BCM4345/6 wl0: Nov  1 2021 00:37:25 version 7.45.241 (1a2f2fa CY) FWID 01-703fd60

System information

System Information

version	core-2024.7.4
installation_type	Home Assistant OS
dev	false
hassio	true
docker	true
user	root
virtualenv	false
python_version	3.12.4
os_name	Linux
os_version	6.6.31-haos-raspi
arch	aarch64
timezone	Europe/Kyiv
config_dir	/config

Home Assistant Community Store

GitHub API	ok
GitHub Content	ok
GitHub Web	ok
GitHub API Calls Remaining	5000
Installed Version	1.34.0
Stage	running
Available Repositories	1392
Downloaded Repositories	12
HACS Data	ok

Home Assistant Cloud

logged_in	false
can_reach_cert_server	ok
can_reach_cloud_auth	ok
can_reach_cloud	ok

Home Assistant Supervisor

host_os	Home Assistant OS 12.4
update_channel	stable
supervisor_version	supervisor-2024.06.2
agent_version	1.6.0
docker_version	26.1.4
disk_total	56.3 GB
disk_used	6.7 GB
healthy	true
supported	true
host_connectivity	true
supervisor_connectivity	true
ntp_synchronized	true
virtualization
board	rpi4-64
supervisor_api	ok
version_api	ok
installed_addons	Bluetti to MQTT (1.4.1), Mosquitto broker (6.4.1), File editor (5.8.0), Hass.io Access Point (0.5.2.1), Terminal & SSH (9.14.0), Caddy 2 (1.5.8), go2rtc (1.9.4)

Dashboards

dashboards	3
resources	7
views	4
mode	storage

Recorder

oldest_recorder_run	26 июля 2024 г. в 11:21
current_recorder_run	5 августа 2024 г. в 16:56
estimated_db_size	307.26 MiB
database_engine	sqlite
database_version	3.45.3

Additional information

No response

[l3d00m]

Isn't this a feature request that belongs to https://community.home-assistant.io/c/feature-requests/13 ?

[gentoo-root]

Let me try to explain my thoughts why I think it is a bug.

I consider it a bug when I can't connect a reasonable amount of Wi-Fi devices. I'm not talking about hundreds, seven is just way too low. 19 is also not an overwhelming number, but it should suffice for entry-level (and maybe even middle-level) automations based on Wi-Fi.

Moreover, when the user tries to connect more devices, they begin to disconnect randomly. There are no warnings about the max number of devices, and it's not the new devices that can't connect, it's random ones. Random disconnects also fall under a "bug" category as for me.

As far as I know, the limitation of max 7 connected Wi-Fi devices is not a documented behavior in HA docs either.

I hope that makes sense.

[github-actions[bot]]

There hasn't been any activity on this issue recently. To keep our backlog manageable we have to clean old issues, as many of them have already been resolved with the latest updates. Please make sure to update to the latest Home Assistant OS version and check if that solves the issue. Let us know if that works for you by adding a comment 👍 This issue has now been marked as stale and will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[gentoo-root]

Please make sure to update to the latest Home Assistant OS version and check if that solves the issue. Let us know if that works for you by adding a comment

No, it doesn't :shrug:

[github-actions[bot]]

There hasn't been any activity on this issue recently. To keep our backlog manageable we have to clean old issues, as many of them have already been resolved with the latest updates. Please make sure to update to the latest Home Assistant OS version and check if that solves the issue. Let us know if that works for you by adding a comment 👍 This issue has now been marked as stale and will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[gentoo-root]

Please make sure to update to the latest Home Assistant OS version and check if that solves the issue. Let us know if that works for you by adding a comment

No, it doesn't :shrug:

[github-actions[bot]]

There hasn't been any activity on this issue recently. To keep our backlog manageable we have to clean old issues, as many of them have already been resolved with the latest updates. Please make sure to update to the latest Home Assistant OS version and check if that solves the issue. Let us know if that works for you by adding a comment 👍 This issue has now been marked as stale and will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[gentoo-root]

Please make sure to update to the latest Home Assistant OS version and check if that solves the issue. Let us know if that works for you by adding a comment

No, it doesn't :shrug:

(It's the battle of endurance between a bot and a human.)

[github-actions[bot]]

There hasn't been any activity on this issue recently. To keep our backlog manageable we have to clean old issues, as many of them have already been resolved with the latest updates. Please make sure to update to the latest Home Assistant OS version and check if that solves the issue. Let us know if that works for you by adding a comment 👍 This issue has now been marked as stale and will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[gentoo-root]

Please make sure to update to the latest Home Assistant OS version and check if that solves the issue. Let us know if that works for you by adding a comment

No, it doesn't 🤷

[github-actions[bot]]

There hasn't been any activity on this issue recently. To keep our backlog manageable we have to clean old issues, as many of them have already been resolved with the latest updates. Please make sure to update to the latest Home Assistant OS version and check if that solves the issue. Let us know if that works for you by adding a comment 👍 This issue has now been marked as stale and will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[gentoo-root]

Of course, it's still relevant, my dear bot.