I need this hotspot to allow me to moniter my cabin 300 miles away. I get a good connection from the cell phone tower in view from my cabin. I would like to be able to turn it on when I need to access what ever I have connected to the Wi-Fi .And then turn it. off
Userlevel 4
Im not familiar with that particular Wifi Hotspot, but anything is possible i guess. If currently there isn't a way to do it, that would be a great cool feature for a manufacturer to install into a future device (you are a genius). 😊 Well anyway, I can only think of ways I would go about doing something like that, and two things popped into mind.
#1. You can use one of those electric outlet timers. My wifi hotspot has a physical on/off on the side of it. If your wifi hotspot is similar to that plug a electric outlet timer into an outlet,plug your wifi hotspot to that and set the timer to go on at a specific time everyday. My wifi hotspot has a feature that i can toggle to go off after 10 minutes of inactivity. Then when the next day arrive (in theory) when the timer activates, perhaps the wifi hotspot will turn on again and allows you to access it so you monitor your precious cabin 😀. And as I said, its just a theory, but if you have no other ideas mine is worth looking into.
#2. Purchase a circus monkey and train it to turn your wifi hotspot device on and off on command when the phone rings. Animal activist will not approve of this idea, but I like coming up with at least two options for people to choose from and this was the best I could do sorry, lol 😎
But on a serious note, you have really came up with a great question im sure after the right people read this post, they will probably start making your delimma a problem of the past.
Good Luck
IF anyone else has a better solution than what I have provided I would love to hear it. And you have to admit, I made you atleast smile with my circus monkey solution....lol
Thanks barcodeable, for your suggestions…I like # 2, except that we have lots of red squirrels up there that I’m sure with a little bait we can get them to push a button that turns everything on. The monkeys couldn’t survive the cold in northwestern Michigan. ( we also have Bear, Coyotes, Wild Turkeys, & Deer) hum…lol
Your #1 suggestion, is brilliant! I think I’ll try that next time I get to the Cabin. However, I’m not sure how this will work since my HotSpot is always on until the battery runs out of juice, and the charger must kick on. I can’t remove the battery without breaking the case open. (it’s sealed in)
I checked out You Tube, for people that used an old cell phone to activate a switch, I could see some potential here,also; but I figured that since these HotSpots have their own phone numbers, they could be programmed to turn on when you call that number,and/or enter a passcode.( like retrieving messages remotely on an answering machine at home).
I also have a switch in the top on my hotspot, I could probably break the case open and solder some wires to the switch, and hook them to a cell phone activated switch. But the software solution seems to be the simplest, if the manufacture would ever consider adding that feature to the hotspot.
Lets see what other people think, before I dig in to my Hotspot.
Thanks
Userlevel 4
Hey hey! So as you have probably figured out, there is not going to be a built in way to remotely turn on and off the device 😥 If I am understanding this right, you need to have the hotspot on to remote monitor your cabin via a camera of some sorts? If so,
Thanks Tmo chris… you’ve sparked some ideas.
AS long as the hotspot doesn’t use data when it’s not connected that would be great to just switch on the equipment that connects to the hotspot.
But on another note, I know for a fact that as long as the switch on the hotspot is turned ON, and the Wi-Fi has been set to on in the hotspot, I could set a remote switch, or timer switch to turn on the power to all the devices, including the HotSpot.
Simple! Now I may research on setting up a cell phone activated switch as opposed to a timer. Maybe even both, so I can even turn the timer on and off.
WOW, you have my brain spinning now.
Thanks Guys!
But let’s not stop just yet! I’m sure other people have some other creative ideas to add.
Userlevel 6
+15
Howdy
There's been some good ideas tossed around here. Just checking in to see if you've found a solution that works for you. (or, if you've trained any animals in Michigan to turn the hotspot device on for you. 😊 )
Either way, please stop by and share what you found.
Thanks!
Did anyone find a solution to the above - remotely powering the hotspot on/off.
I have this on another Tmobile community: How to remotely turn off / turn back on my Franklin Tmobile hotspot via http://mobile.hotspot Sometimes the hot spot will go offline (I use it to view my security camera’s) and I am not in a place that I can run over and manually turn it off & back on to reset it and would like to be able to do that via the web. I have called customer service and some representatives are able to do it but some say they cannot, but I would like to be able to reset/restart it online when it stops working and I am not in the area with it.
Yeah.. I just ran into this issue for my cabin 600 miles away. It has worked perfectly for the last week but all of a sudden stopped. I figure the hotspot may have turned off or rebooted (phone with hotspot enabled). I called support and they did not find a way to remotely enable the hotspot feature on the phone(they actually hung up and never called back… I guess it’s time for a road trip and a new service provider.
I have a T-Mobile Franklin T9 hotspot in a remote location and over a long time span that Franklin T9 always becomes disconnected. As a result, I desire to periodically reset that device to provide reliable continued access.
I removed the battery of the T9 and then tried a simple timer controlled power off/on cycle to reset the hotspot. Did not work because when power is restored, the T9 does NOT self restart!
I plan to either:
1- Replace the T9 with another hotspot device that self starts when power is restored. So I can reset with timer controlled periodic off/on action.
2- Use a servo motor to press the power ON button to restart the T9. (the monkey solution)
That remote hotspot provides the ability to monitor/control conditions in a property many, many miles from our location. I will not be returning to that remote location for two months, early September 2022.
1- Replace the T9 with another hotspot device that self starts when power is restored. So I can reset with timer controlled periodic off/on action.
That remote hotspot provides the ability to monitor/control conditions in a property many, many miles from our location. I will not be returning to that remote location for two months, early September 2022.
I’m looking to solve this same issue, I have a remote location that I’m trying to use the T9 to provide internet access/wifi so I can remotely monitor and controls network enabled devices. Did you find a replacement for the T9 - that can either be restarted on a timer if necessary or will not not require to be periodically restart to reset the internet connect?
I would really like to hear if anything worked too. I'm having the same issues!
I have an operational solution. My solution uses the “trained Monkey’ method. In my few attempts to locate a hotspot that resumed normal operation after a power outage, I did not find any that resumed normal operation, none!
I did buy (to test) a ZTE MF928 hotspot. While it didn’t resume operation, I really liked the way the power button worked. An easy press and holding for about 4 sec toggled the power on and off, reversing the prior power state.
So I took angle aluminum and bent it into a three sided frame with extending ends. Unto the left extended end, I bolted a SG90 servo motor so that it’s arm could rotate down to press the power button. This required some spacing material behind the MF928 so the arm was hitting and pushing the on/off button.
I run Home Assistant smart home software at that remote location. I flashed a ESP8266 NODEMCU with Tasmota firmware. I use this ESP8266 to control the SG90 servo motor. Home Assistant can communicate directly with ESP8266 using MQTT protocol. All the necessary pieces are present! The Raspberry PI running the Home Assistant does restart after a power outage as does the ESP8266.
Home Assistant has a ‘ping’ command that can be used to check for Internet connection. Home assistant has a ‘MQTT publish’ command to send commands to devices listening on MQTT. So what I do is: Every 5 minutes... check the result of the ‘ping’ test. If NO Internet; then I run a series of commands that 1-move servo arm down that pushes the power button down, 2-wait 5 seconds (with button pressed down), 3-move the servo arm up (off the button). Then after another 5 minutes, it runs again but only does action when no Internet. As it always runs every 5 minutes, it will always detect and fix a hotspot outage.
Another little tweak is that I programmatically periodically run; shortly after midnight NOT testing Internet presence, but ALWAYS goes through the button press steps. This turns the hotspot off to reset it in case it has become ‘confused’. Little trick learned from dealing with computers running Windows OS. Actually, I don’t know why I loose connection. Hopefully this will fix whatever the problem is?
Don’t know if including my address is allowed? mikeATmikebakerDOTcom
I did see in documentation for the T9 that pressing and holding the power button for 10 seconds would power up the device. I have not confirmed this. If true then this same approach could be used with that hotspot? I do not recall reading about that action turning off the device?
I’m not sure about the T9, but on a T10 if you can figure a way to keep the power button depressed, the hotspot will reboot by unpower/repower method. I actually have mine connected to a backup power supply and the hotspot stays connected for several months, so I have never needed to reboot.
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