Possibly. But my Onefinity controller is less than 20 feet away from the AP and in the same room. Singal strength at the controller is very strong as measured using a WiFi utility app on my phone. It’s not buried in a cabinet of any type, nothing but air between the two. I gave up and ran a length of CAT6e cable from the closest switch.
I purchased a TP-Link wifi extender just a couple days ago. It was on sale for roughly half price on Amazon. When I got it all setup it created a new wifi that had my wifi name with an extension to the file name (wifi-name_EXT). The password was the same as my wifi password. So I had to change the network info in the controller to match the extended wifi name.
But the other issue I ran into was it wouldn’t always connect. Then I noticed that the URL address had changed. Not sure why it changed and I’m not sure how to set up my wifi so it will always keep the same address. So now I just look at the address when I boot up my controller so I know what the address is. The only thing that changes is the last set of digits XXX in the example below. It generally looks like this:
IP:192.168.1.xxx SSID: wifi-name_EXT
When you connect to it from your web browser you just enter: http://192.168.1.xxx
(where xxx is the number that shows up when you boot up the controller)
Hope that helps!
As an alternative, look into using a powerline adapter. It uses your actual power lines in the house as if it were an ethernet cable. Works great. TP Link has a good one @ 1gbps.
I have a Netgear Orbi mesh router endpoint in my shop - extends the WiFi signal from the house very well, and publishes on both 2.4 and 5 Ghz bands. A little expensive - but has worked great. I also connected a USB wifi dongle. OneFinity has posted that the 1F doesn’t work with external USB dongles - but mine has worked great.
If you can, a Cat5 connection would be better, but I use a laptop in the shop to connect over WiFi to my Onefinity without any trouble.
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I also had this problem. Unable to get my WiFi to work even after bringing the control box into the house (known good WiFi).
I found a solution (Not for the faint of heart, nor long term).
First UNPLUG power. Then open the control box (aka faraday cage). I removed the 4 screws on the power switch side of the controller box. This allows the lid containing the emergency stop button, to slide out about 4 inches. Don’t pull too hard because of the wire connections to the E-Stop button. This exposes the Raspberry PI inside the controller box (#UnCageYourPI). Make sure the power switch leads are not touching anything metal before you plug the control box back in. When I powered mine back up, I was greeted with my SSID and a spanking new IP assigned to my Onefinity.
As I mentioned this is not a long term solution. However, I was able to use it to update my firmware over the web. I also will probably keep it open till I receive @garrett1812’s WiFi extender from Amazon. That will be a much better long term solution.
If you do this, you do it at your own risk without me being responsible. Please don’t use this advice to Fry your control box. Nor go touching the electronics inside. Remember when you plug it back in, electrical things will be exposed to damage and able to shock you and others by you. Not to mention that dust and other shop things can now get inside your control box.
I’m only sharing this to validate the root cause behind the problem. That plus for those of you who want a work around till you implement a better long term solution. So go ahead and order you an extender now … then get back out in the shop and play with your new Onefinity Toy.
Why can’t you take a 4” or 5” hole saw to the top and cut a hole, then cover it with a car speaker cover. Or a piece of perforated wood ,metal to cover the hole…
Hey Les,
even a mesh or perforated plate of conductive material gives a faraday cage which encloses electromagnetic fields.
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Make the top part of the controller box out of a hard plastic. Then there is no faraday cage…
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Hey Les,
in fact most enclosures for Raspberry Pis are plastic, but I find this very sad. To implement a single-board computer with onboard WiFi and not to plan an external antenna connector means promoting plastic cases, and that’s so sad. As if the water that covers two-thirds of earth surface and an increasing amount of sand grains on the beaches weren’t already containing that large amount of microscopic plastic that we throw away (and that we are now eating in form of marine salt and fish). Well let’s buy another cnc and mill more wood cases 
PS: Yes, wood can be a conductor too, but it depends on humidity. For letting WiFi through, it would be worth a try
I get what you mean by the plastic waste, I just bought a new computer and it came with two antennas on the back to hook up .heck my old one had nothing. Maybe someday they may start making a raspberry with an antenna. I told my wife that and she said ,just makes “making a pie harder”.
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It’s people who do not dispose of plastics properly that create the problem.
Hey Les,
…although it has been shown that a Pi (a ARM Cortex-A53-based single-board computer) with external Wifi Antenna, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 3.0, 2 GB LPDDR3 RAM, 8 GB onboard-eMMC and onboard Infrared Sensor is possible (for 34,99 $):
Hey Bob,
you’re always good for a round of off-topic 
That’s what everybody tends to believe. But our spreading of plastic into the environment is far from being limited to the plastic we throw away.
Microfibers are emerging pollutants with widespread distribution in the environment and have adverse ecological impacts. Approximately 2 million tonnes of microfibers are released into the ocean every year from various sources, of which 700,000 micro fleeces are released from each garment through domestic laundry. Microfibers are the major marine pollutant throughout the world estimating 13 million tonnes of coastal synthetic fabric waste entering the ocean each year, out of which 2.5 million tonnes enter through adjoining rivers. It is anticipated that, to date, 1.5 million trillion of microfibers are present in the ocean. Microfibers are mistakenly ingested by marine animals and cause hazardous effects to aquatic species. Microfiber treatment techniques are under progress for efficient control of this pollutant. This article focuses on global microfiber generation and its sources, pathway of its entry into the environment and food chain, potential threat to aquatic animals and humans, present treatment technologies, and future challenges.
- Source: Marine microfiber pollution: A review on present status and future challenges
PMID: 30803634 DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.01.039
Microplastics are widely recognized as a category of emergent pollutants that can cause complex ecotoxicological effects. Synthetic fibers released during the washing of textiles are a relevant source of microplastics, which reach aquatic ecosystems from sewer discharges, even when there is retention in wastewater treatment plants. In this paper, we determined microfiber emissions from washing of textiles in a domestic environment, by collecting wastewater from washings of a mix of clothing from a household of 4 people. It is the first time the characterization of microplastic emission from textiles washing is performed in real household conditions. Results estimated an average emission rate of 18,000,000 synthetic microfibers for a reference load of 6 kg of synthetic fibers. Only 7% of the synthetic fibers found were larger than 500 μm in length, 40% were between 100 and 500 μm, and 53% were between 50 and 100 μm.
- Source: Microplastics in wastewater: microfiber emissions from common household laundry
PMID: 32378098 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-020-08765-6
-
Polyester Textiles as a Source of Microplastics from Households: A Mechanistic Study to Understand Microfiber Release During Washing
PMID: 28537711 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.7b01750 -
Synthetic textile and microfiber pollution: a review on mitigation strategies
PMID: 34100210 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-021-14763-z
Hi Andy, ive got the same situation, good luck to us both.
