stuck trying to find hotspot on pi | Rat Rig Community [Unofficial] | Page 1

cosmic glacier Oct 10, 2025, 2:56 PM

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I finally got the firmware flashed to an SD card. Had to keep using smaller and smaller cards until one would work. Inserted in pi and conncected to control board and powered up via USB. Ive tried my existing 4GB pi as well and the 2GB that shipped with the kit but neither created a hotspot that i could find. I have Spectrum as an ISP and getting into the router is done via there web app so I haven't found a way to directly access the router by entering the IP address so any router changes might be a problem with my current setup.

proud talonBOT Oct 10, 2025, 2:56 PM

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agile warren Oct 10, 2025, 11:03 PM

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The pi image needs at least 8gb SD card, so not sure how you're even putting it on a 4gb or smaller card?

cosmic glacier Oct 10, 2025, 11:27 PM

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I’m talking about the pi not the SD card. I already had a RPI4 with 8GB because RR said I had to source it. Then they shipped one with 4GB of memory.

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Not that it makes a difference but I had the wrong specs on the Pi. I had a 4GB and they shipped a 2GB so I tried both units.

agile warren Oct 10, 2025, 11:34 PM

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How are you powering the pi? What image did you burn to the SD card for the pi?

cosmic glacier Oct 10, 2025, 11:37 PM

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With the USBC. The file is ***RatOS-2.1.0-RC2-raspberry-rpi32.img.xz
I’m not new to electronics but I’m new the the Raspberrypi world so don’t leave out any obvious steps because I’m sure I am somewhere.

agile warren Oct 10, 2025, 11:37 PM

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What software did you use to write that image to the SD card?

cosmic glacier Oct 10, 2025, 11:39 PM

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I tired balenaetcher first then retried with RUFUS. The first one failed to validate until I disabled all my security so I tried RUFUS just in case

agile warren Oct 10, 2025, 11:39 PM

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It failing to validate is concerning

cosmic glacier Oct 10, 2025, 11:41 PM

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According to their site security software messes with it. It worked after I disabled everything. RUFUS never faulted

agile warren Oct 10, 2025, 11:42 PM

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I know there's an issue with the latest version of balenaetcher and people have to use an older version

cosmic glacier Oct 10, 2025, 11:42 PM

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I tried letting the software handle it as downloaded. Than tried again by using the imaging software on the img file after extracting it with Winrar

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I did notice after the SD card failed to boot and I put it back into my pc, it only shows 256MB capacity. When looking at it in disc management it looks like a small boot sector and the rest of the space is unallocated. Is that normal?

agile warren Oct 11, 2025, 2:20 AM

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Yes, it is reformatting the card and windows doesn't understand the filesystem so it reads it as empty

cosmic glacier Oct 11, 2025, 2:55 AM

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Got it!! I had a solid red LED on the Pi through the whole process so I thought power was good. Last ditch effort before bed I tried a different USB cable and it booted up and made a hotspot straight away. Never trust an indicator lamp. I work with power for a living and live by that motto but my brain never made the jump working with electronics. Thanks for the reponses.

#stuck trying to find hotspot on pi