04-01-2025, 11:55 AM
The symptom "I have had about a dozen dropouts of about 0.5sec, all within the last year." suggests a network issue.
The way to troubleshoot this type of issue is to run a ping test from the Pi to your Router and then examine the ping times while it's running and then the final stats after terminating it.
Ideally the ping times will be consistent for example around 3 or 4 ms for WiFi over an arbitrarily long sample period. If they vary a lot and by wide margins it could indicate a signal quality or signal strength issue. The final ping stats will reflect this by showing long average round trip time (rtt) and high standard deviation (mdev).
A good ping test result will look something like below. This one ran for about 35 minutes.
.
.
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2167 ttl=64 time=3.95 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2168 ttl=64 time=3.96 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2169 ttl=64 time=0.946 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2170 ttl=64 time=3.95 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2171 ttl=64 time=5.78 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2172 ttl=64 time=3.05 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2173 ttl=64 time=1.08 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2174 ttl=64 time=4.11 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2175 ttl=64 time=3.85 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2176 ttl=64 time=3.94 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2177 ttl=64 time=4.62 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2178 ttl=64 time=3.93 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2179 ttl=64 time=3.92 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2180 ttl=64 time=4.07 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2181 ttl=64 time=4.65 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2182 ttl=64 time=3.96 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2183 ttl=64 time=3.96 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2184 ttl=64 time=3.95 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2185 ttl=64 time=4.03 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2186 ttl=64 time=5.97 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2187 ttl=64 time=3.97 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2188 ttl=64 time=3.19 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2189 ttl=64 time=3.29 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2190 ttl=64 time=3.95 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2191 ttl=64 time=3.28 ms
^C
--- 192.168.1.1 ping statistics ---
2191 packets transmitted, 2191 received, 0% packet loss, time 2194796ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.821/4.205/62.377/3.098 ms
pi@moode9:~ $
As @DRONE7 hinted at, WiFi is susceptible to signal interference for example some device near the sender or receiver is emitting radiation that degrades the signal or there are materials between the sender and receiver that attenuate the signal, etc.
The way to troubleshoot this type of issue is to run a ping test from the Pi to your Router and then examine the ping times while it's running and then the final stats after terminating it.
Ideally the ping times will be consistent for example around 3 or 4 ms for WiFi over an arbitrarily long sample period. If they vary a lot and by wide margins it could indicate a signal quality or signal strength issue. The final ping stats will reflect this by showing long average round trip time (rtt) and high standard deviation (mdev).
A good ping test result will look something like below. This one ran for about 35 minutes.
.
.
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2167 ttl=64 time=3.95 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2168 ttl=64 time=3.96 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2169 ttl=64 time=0.946 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2170 ttl=64 time=3.95 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2171 ttl=64 time=5.78 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2172 ttl=64 time=3.05 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2173 ttl=64 time=1.08 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2174 ttl=64 time=4.11 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2175 ttl=64 time=3.85 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2176 ttl=64 time=3.94 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2177 ttl=64 time=4.62 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2178 ttl=64 time=3.93 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2179 ttl=64 time=3.92 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2180 ttl=64 time=4.07 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2181 ttl=64 time=4.65 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2182 ttl=64 time=3.96 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2183 ttl=64 time=3.96 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2184 ttl=64 time=3.95 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2185 ttl=64 time=4.03 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2186 ttl=64 time=5.97 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2187 ttl=64 time=3.97 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2188 ttl=64 time=3.19 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2189 ttl=64 time=3.29 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2190 ttl=64 time=3.95 ms
64 bytes from 192.168.1.1: icmp_seq=2191 ttl=64 time=3.28 ms
^C
--- 192.168.1.1 ping statistics ---
2191 packets transmitted, 2191 received, 0% packet loss, time 2194796ms
rtt min/avg/max/mdev = 0.821/4.205/62.377/3.098 ms
pi@moode9:~ $
As @DRONE7 hinted at, WiFi is susceptible to signal interference for example some device near the sender or receiver is emitting radiation that degrades the signal or there are materials between the sender and receiver that attenuate the signal, etc.
