{"id":1508,"date":"2022-01-14T06:52:02","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T06:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/picockpit.com\/raspberry-pi\/?p=1508"},"modified":"2023-08-29T12:17:53","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T12:17:53","slug":"raspberry-pi-zero-2-w-wifi-chipset-speeds-monitor-mode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/picockpit.com\/raspberry-pi\/raspberry-pi-zero-2-w-wifi-chipset-speeds-monitor-mode\/","title":{"rendered":"Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W WiFi chipset, speeds & monitor mode"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W chip is slightly different from the chips used in other models. Therefore, in this blogpost, we’re going to cover the differences in depth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

WiFi performance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

WiFi figures sourced from Jeff Geerling<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zero W \u2013 20.3 Mbps<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zero 2 W – 33.5 Mbps<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pi 3B (non-plus) – 38.8 Mbps<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pi 4 B – 92.8 Mbps<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chipset<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The chipset that the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W uses is the Synaptics SYN43436.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Ostensibly, the WLAN chipset used in the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W is the Broadcom 43430, according to the screenshot above.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, several other WLAN chipsets are also detected as 43430, such as the BCM43438 A1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running dmesg<\/strong> leads me to seeing a mention of the Broadcom 43436. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But let me reiterate — the chip is a Synaptics SYN43436.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monitor mode?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, I haven\u2019t been able to get the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W\u2019s WiFi chip into monitor mode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I used Kali Linux with Re4son-Kernel and ran airmon-ng check kill<\/strong> to kill any PIDs that might interfere with monitor mode, and airmon-ng start wlan0<\/strong> to toggle the monitor mode on the wlan card, but that didn\u2019t work, as you can see from the above screenshot \u2013 error 524.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Naturally, running airodump-ng wlan0mon<\/strong> (created by airmon-ng) resulted in no SSIDs being found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One key aspect that is stalling this is Nexmon not supporting the Pi Zero 2 W’s WLAN chip. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nexmon is a “firmware patching framework for Broadcom\/Cypress WiFi chips” that allows you to enable monitor mode with radiotap headers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Nexmon’s readme, you won’t find the Pi Zero 2 W listed in its table of supported devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you want to get ideas on what do with your Raspberry Pi Zero 2, check out our article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n