[AllanG]

I finished building my PLUS rx board a month or so ago and it was working very well. I've not used it for the last 10 days or so though, and when I powered it up again yesterday, I noticed that the little blue led on the Wi-Fi module which normally gives a quick flash when power is applied, stayed on. It also took a lot longer to display the "WeatherDuino Pro PLUS" splash screen - just over 30 seconds instead of the usual 10 to 15. I left it running though and all appears normal apart from the time not synchronising via NTP. (I checked my router and the WeatherDuino was not connecting and I couldn't ping the device either)

Since then I've re-started the rx quite a few times and apart for one occasion when it behaved normally, it's done the same. I've tried "factory reset" of the Meduino and have also reprogrammed it, same problem occurs. I've tested for voltages around the Wi-Fi module and pin 3 does have 3.3v as indicated in the circuit diagram, but I noticed that sometimes when I applied the voltmeter probe to pin 3, the blue led went out - but the device still wasn't connecting and the led would come on again if pin 3 was touched again or the rx rebooted. (I'd considered the possibility of a poor connection to the board but all is good.)

I'm not sure why, but I'm suspecting it could be a Meduino issue??Any thoughts what the problem may be

Allan.

[JT118]

Mine is OK,

I got mine here:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161757319864?_...EBIDX%3AIT

[AllanG]

Mine is OK,

I got mine here:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/161757319864?_...EBIDX%3AIT

Yes, mine came from them too. I'm completely guessing the problem *may* be related to the Meduino on the basis that it's taking a *lot* longer to start up, but it is only a guess as I really don't understand the startup sequence. Hopefully Werk_AG may be able to shed some light on the matter!

A.

[hornychz]

Hi Allan,

I would probably look first at the proper functionality of the router - I would look into the logs of what happens
when the RX unit trying to connect. This to me looks like when it is not a DHCP server well, or bad firewall-router.
Or - maybe - poor WiFi signal ???

Good luck!

[werk_ag]

It also took a lot longer to display the "WeatherDuino Pro PLUS" splash screen - just over 30 seconds instead of the usual 10 to 15.

This longer time until you get the splash screen will happen every time the WiFi module (when enabled, of course) is facing difficulties to connect to the WiFi network. Ensure you have a strong WiFi signal in the place where the RX unit is placed, remember that the WiFi module only have an internal antenna.
Sometimes, if the initial connection fails, you must press the reset button on the Meduino, to allow the wifi module to successful reconnect again.

If your router supports the function "assign a IP to MAC address", try it assign a fixed IP to the WiFi MAC address. This surely will help, when the module needs to reconnect.

[werk_ag]

When I wrote the previous post I had not read yet the post from Zdenek. And yes, he touched into the problem. This is why that I said that assign a fixed IP to the WiFi module is a good procedure.
It seems that the ESP8266 modules store the last IP where they have been connected the last time, and at each attempt to reconnect, first they try to use the same IP. On some routers, if the request IP address is already used, they just refuse the connection, and the DHCP just do nothing, making that the WiFi module will not be able to reconnect. Those are the cases where pressing the Meduino RESET button is needed.

Perhaps someone with a better knowledge of networks, can explain with better words, what I'm trying to say.

[AllanG]

Hi Allan,

I would probably look first at the proper functionality of the router - I would look into the logs of what happens
when the RX unit trying to connect. This to me looks like when it is not a DHCP server well, or bad firewall-router.
Or - maybe - poor WiFi signal ???

Good luck!

Zdenek, thank you for the suggestions. It is easy to test using my laptop and mobile phone so I know the wifi signal is good - and I've been using the PLUS rx about 7 metres from the router so I'm sure signal strength is not a problem.

When I first completed the board and connected successfully to my home network, I assigned a static IP address matched to the MAC address of the ESP8266 module, so the device *does* have an IP address and there is no possible conflict on the network. It has worked perfectly in the past and I have not made any changes at all to my network, so it is a very strange problem. (To be sure, I have checked the firewall and the ESP8266 *is* allowed through.)

I have watched the router while powering the PLUS rx and there is no sign of it detecting any signal from the board... (In the past it has immediately appeared in the "connected stations" list.)

When I wrote the previous post I had not read yet the post from Zdenek. And yes, he touched into the problem. This is why that I said that assign a fixed IP to the WiFi module is a good procedure.
It seems that the ESP8266 modules store the last IP where they have been connected the last time, and at each attempt to reconnect, first they try to use the same IP. On some routers, if the request IP address is already used, they just refuse the connection, and the DHCP just do nothing, making that the WiFi module will not be able to reconnect. Those are the cases where pressing the Meduino RESET button is needed.

Perhaps someone with a better knowledge of networks, can explain with better words, what I'm trying to say.

Werk_AG, you are right (as usual!!) and I also think it is a good idea to assign static IP addresses to devices (using their MAC address) like this - and I did that as soon as I first successfully connected to my home network. Until this last few days it has worked perfectly. I have tried pressing the Meduino reset button, but it does not change anything.

(I ALWAYS understand perfectly what you mean to say and as I have said before, the English you write is better than some English people I know. Honestly!!)

This morning I opened a serial monitor window in the Arduino IDE and watched as the PLUS board was powered up. Immediately this appeared:

Mode station err

Then about 5 seconds later:

Join AP failure
Single err
ESP 8266 init end

I don't know if that helps at all.

Allan.

[hornychz]

Yet I could think of such a stupid thing: you can not have a configuration error RX+ ???
I mean, eg. a blank character at the end of a string SSID, etc.?

Good luck again ...

[AllanG]

Yet I could think of such a stupid thing: you can not have a configuration error RX+ ???
I mean, eg. a blank character at the end of a string SSID, etc.?

Good luck again ...

Yes you're right Zdenek, sometimes it is the very simple things that cause the biggest problems!! I have checked again though and all is well with SSID, password etc.

There is now no alternative. I must go and get some more Staropramen....

Thanks again for your suggestions.

Allan.

[AllanG]

An update - the problem is fixed, but I don't know how or why!!

Although I had re-programmed the Meduino yesterday, today I decided to do it again, this time using a fresh download. When I rebooted after that it worked perfectly, although I don't understand what difference it made. 

For anyone who is interested, this is the information in a Serial Monitor window after a successful initialisation of the Wi-Fi module. (192...102 is the IP address I've allocated in my router to the PLUS board, I have replaced part of the MAC address with xx:xx:xx for security purposes...)

Mode station ok
Join AP success
IP:+CIFSR:STAIP,"192.168.1.102"
+CIFSR:STAMAC,"a0:20:a6:xx:xx:xx"
single ok
ESP8622 init end

Thanks again to Zdenek and Werk_AG for advice and support. Instead of having a cold bottle or two of Staropramen to help me think, I'll now have a few to celebrate....

Allan.