Support

 The store entry for the WiFi module currently (Nov, 2023) offers the "WiFi kit" or WiFi with external 5dB antenna."

Does the latter include exactly the same ESP32 board as the "WiFi kit", or is it a different board with some way to attach the antenna?

If it is a different board, does it require different firmware?

Or is the external antenna connection now on the "WiFi kit" board and are there any instructions anywhere for attaching the antenna and are there updated photos of this board?

I recently converted an OpenEVSE unit I had to an external antenna by swapping the ESP32 module (it was located in a WiFi dead zone and had trouble staying connected before).  Let me know if you need any help or information about the process.  It was pretty straightforward.

Thanks for the answers. I bought the antenna version and it improved my reception from about -80 dB (with an old 16-bit WiFi) to around -65. Helpful.  I decided also to replace the charger module as well so I am up to date. The only issue I ran into was needing to make a new cable for the new charger module to connect to my old display. I bought a kit with JST connectors of all sorts and a crimper to make that cable.

Unit is now more reliable but I still have had an unexplained crash and had to power cycle to fix that.

In the process I *finally* figured out that the 120V signal via MQTT from my emonpi was wrong, wrong, wrong for the openEVSE. Its a wonder that PV divert sometimes seemed to work anyway. I multiplied it by 2 in my emonpi config. (best I can do since emonpi doesn't measure both phase voltages) and fed that into MQTT for the openEVSE to use. Works much better that way.