iSpindel - Can't connect to Wifi AP

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MikeScott

MikeScott

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Just looking if anyone has ran into this, or has any suggestions.

I built it, and flashed it with the latest firmware (6.3.1). When I reset it and get it into configuration mode, I see the AP in my wifi list, but can't connect to it. Windows says "Can't connect to network", and I've tried it with a Linux machine as well, it can't connect either.

My phone doesn't see the access point at all. I've also tried initializing memory, and flashing it again, no joy.
 
It's been a while since I've gone through that process with mine, so hopefully my suggestion is not stupid.
Do you need to change your IP address on your laptop or phone to actually connect to the ispindel and not just see the SSID?
I think the ispindel is at IP 192.168.4.1
Might you need to change the IP of your computer to 192.168.4.2 and subnet 255.255.255.0 ?
Or, if the ispindel has a built-in DHCP server, this won't be needed.
 
rkhanso said:
It's been a while since I've gone through that process with mine, so hopefully my suggestion is not stupid.
Do you need to change your IP address on your laptop or phone to actually connect to the ispindel and not just see the SSID?
I think the ispindel is at IP 192.168.4.1
Might you need to change the IP of your computer to 192.168.4.2 and subnet 255.255.255.0 ?
Or, if the ispindel has a built-in DHCP server, this won't be needed.
Click to expand...
I shouldn't have to set my address in order to connect to the access point, in most cases I might connect, but not actually get an address, but I'm pretty certain that the iSpindel has a DHCP server.

I appreciate the reply though. Thanks!
 
Just as an update, I posted to the iSpindel Facebook Group, and someone has the same issue, and ordered a new D1 Mini thinking it may be suspect. I was going to go that route as well, but I would still like to hear from anyone who might have had the same issue.
 
I have not had your specific issue but have experienced other strange issues. For one of my ispindels it would come on and the light would show constant blue and another it would never wake up and send data after the initial turn on. In both of these cases the issue turned out to be a bad solder point. Not sure if you are using a PCB or sled but if it D1 Mini is soldered it may be worth going over each solder joint and inspecting. I would also look at the solder joints of any resistors/diodes.
 
cayde1001 said:
I have not had your specific issue but have experienced other strange issues. For one of my ispindels it would come on and the light would show constant blue and another it would never wake up and send data after the initial turn on. In both of these cases the issue turned out to be a bad solder point. Not sure if you are using a PCB or sled but if it D1 Mini is soldered it may be worth going over each solder joint and inspecting. I would also look at the solder joints of any resistors/diodes.
Click to expand...
That's not a bad suggestion. Thanks!
 
Hello. Have you found anything to fix this problem? I too have this issue. I built 2 of these and both flash fine, but I cannot connect to them over WIFI. THANKS.
 
electrobrew said:
Hello. Have you found anything to fix this problem? I too have this issue. I built 2 of these and both flash fine, but I cannot connect to them over WIFI. THANKS.
Click to expand...
I'm not quite sure yet. I also posted over in the facebook group and another person had the same issue, and they thought it was a bad D1 Mini, so he ordered a replacement. Then later on he posted that it was working with the replacement.

I ordered and received some replacements, but haven't had a chance to actually solder it onto the board just yet.
I ordered these boards boards, they are on Amazon, $15 for 5, and prime shipping:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product...EK04F9Ujew8w9hw0MyhDPm93aLWXLT_b6QxwnwQjCEpSM
 
MikeScott said:
I'm not quite sure yet. I also posted over in the facebook group and another person had the same issue, and they thought it was a bad D1 Mini, so he ordered a replacement. Then later on he posted that it was working with the replacement.

I ordered and received some replacements, but haven't had a chance to actually solder it onto the board just yet.
I ordered these boards boards, they are on Amazon, $15 for 5, and prime shipping:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product...EK04F9Ujew8w9hw0MyhDPm93aLWXLT_b6QxwnwQjCEpSM
Click to expand...
Sounds good. Please keep us posted if this solves your issue. Thanks. D. L.
 
Have you wiped the D1 mini completely clean and tried a new install? The D1 mini will hold on to wifi information if you don't correctly wipe it clean
 
Bigdaddyale said:
Have you wiped the D1 mini completely clean and tried a new install? The D1 mini will hold on to wifi information if you don't correctly wipe it clean
Click to expand...
I have tried that myself, with no luck. I performed the process of wiping all the memory and then laying the new image on it, and I tried it with a couple of different versions of the firmware.
 
So, I just tried the wipe then flash and still nothing. I have a couple more boards that I will try also.
Is there a way to flash and test the D1 board before soldering it to the iSpindel?
 
electrobrew said:
So, I just tried the wipe then flash and still nothing. I have a couple more boards that I will try also.
Is there a way to flash and test the D1 board before soldering it to the iSpindel?
Click to expand...
I've been relying heavily on the Open Source Distilling guides and videos. On his firmware flashing page he said that
"Please note that the community has reported that you can flash the D1 mini before doing any soldering or assembly. The iSpindel can be assembled after the D1 has been flashed with the firmware."
https://www.opensourcedistilling.com/ispindel-firmware-flash/
I haven't tried it, but I think I may just do that. I would assume it gets enough power from the USB cable to operate.
 
Bigdaddyale said:
Are you soldering the D1 mini to the PCB without headers?
Click to expand...
By headers, do you mean the plastic things that go around the pins, or the pins themselves? I am using the soldered pins to connect the D1 Mini to the PCB board, and I left the plastic on them. They don't cover the entire pin though.

I'm pretty much following the process that open source distilling uses.
 
Solder the short female pins to the pcb and the male pins to the D1 mini
1599245918990.png
 
MikeScott said:
I've been relying heavily on the Open Source Distilling guides and videos. On his firmware flashing page he said that
"Please note that the community has reported that you can flash the D1 mini before doing any soldering or assembly. The iSpindel can be assembled after the D1 has been flashed with the firmware."
https://www.opensourcedistilling.com/ispindel-firmware-flash/
I haven't tried it, but I think I may just do that. I would assume it gets enough power from the USB cable to operate.
Click to expand...
You can flash before soldering and assembly (it's what I've done on mine) but you can't test at that time. One of the first things the iSpindel firmware does is look for the sensors and will no go further if they are missing.

If you're connected to console, you can see the messages saying the sensor detection failed, but you'll never get to the point of setting up/testing the WiFi.
 
rsquared said:
You can flash before soldering and assembly (it's what I've done on mine) but you can't test at that time. One of the first things the iSpindel firmware does is look for the sensors and will no go further if they are missing.

If you're connected to console, you can see the messages saying the sensor detection failed, but you'll never get to the point of setting up/testing the WiFi.
Click to expand...
Thanks for bringing that up!
 
I found this thread because I've had the same issue on 2 / 3 of my devices this last week. I have flashed and set up over a dozen units, but these two units D1mini boards are from a new supplier I got off Amazon. The other unit flashed fine, and I was able to set it up on v6.3.1 with no issues.

When plugged into the Arduino serial monitor it boots, sees that there is no config and goes into http server mode. I then cannot connect to it via any number of devices. I pulled this chip ID off of the log and I'm wondering if it has to be the reason

ESP8266EX

Steps to reproduce:

1. flash chip with either NodeMCU or Brewflasher
2. Disconnect and power back on
3. iSpindel SSID shows in wifi available networks
4. Go to connect, it shows "connecting" and about 3 seconds later shows, "Cannot connect to this network"
5. Serial Monitor shows device is still awaiting HTTP connection and is active.

Anyone know, short of editing the bin file, if I can push configs to the unit without the GUID/http?
 
Last edited:
I am having similar issues.

one unit flashed fine and works without any problems and the second unit does not.

Looking in the serial log I see it failing ... fails mounting the file system and at some point after reading the temperature, it is giving temperature sensor errors......... then it completely errors out and reboots.

when I look at the AP on my phone and try to connect it just disconnects.....likely when its rebooting...

I have written some custom code to test the Filesystem reading and writing and that works fine, I did the same thing for temperature sensor and that works fine too, I did the same thing by adding some more code to test the Gyro and it works just fine too. So I know most of my hardware and soldering is perfectly fine.

I need to test the wifi portion as well to ensure it works.......but I am really starting to wonder if there is some sort of issue with release version 6.3.1 that is causing all this odd behavior? definitely some strange quirk with the hardware and software causing it to crash out, and reset/reboot

I have considered hardcoding all my settings just to get it working......writing the config file to the file system on start up if it doesn't exist.....with my personal settings just to see if it will work.
 
Ok, I managed to get mine working. I had to change some code in V6.3.1 and hardcode my credentials to write them to the FileSystem on startup and then was able to access the AP. Its a pain to setup Arduino to compile it because you need to install all the supporting libraries......but its nice to have it working. The problem must be related to not having a config file.....but I don't know exactly why there is an issue, so this hack gets around the problem.

Code: 
void setup()
{

  Serial.begin(115200);

  CONSOLELN(F("\nFW " FIRMWAREVERSION));
  CONSOLELN(ESP.getSdkVersion());

  sleepManager();

  bool validConf = readConfig();
  if (!validConf){
    CONSOLELN(F("\nERROR config does not exist or is corrupted"));
    strcpy(my_name, "iSpindel0002");
    strcpy(my_token, "AddyourUbidotsTokenHere");
    my_OWpin = 12; //If you know the ESP pin for your temp sensor you can set it here otherwise comment it out.
    my_ssid = (const char *)"AddyourhomenetworkSSIDhere";
    my_psk = (const char *)"Addyourhomenetworkpasskeyhere";
    my_api = 0; //for ubidots
    //my_api = 2; //CraftBeerPi
    //my_api = 3; //HTTP
    //my_api = 4; //TControl
    //my_api = 5; //FHEM
    //my_api = 6; //TCP
    //my_api = 7; //iSpindel.de
    //my_api = 8; //InfluxDB
    //my_api = 9; //Prometheus
    //my_api = 10; //MQTT
    //my_api = 11; //ThingSpeak
    //my_api = 12; //Blynk
    //strcpy(my_server,"");
    //strcpy(my_port,"");
    //strcpy(my_uri,"");
    //strcpy(my_vfact,); //Battery conversion factor
    formatSpiffs();
    Serial.println("(setup) Mounting FS...");
    
    if (!SPIFFS.begin()) {
    Serial.println("(setup) Failed to mount file system");
    return;
    }
    else{
      if(saveConfig()){
        Serial.println("(setup) Config saved to SPIDFF.");
        validConf = readConfig();
      }
    }
  }
 
  if (!validConf)
    CONSOLELN(F("\nERROR config corrupted"));
  initDS18B20();
  initAccel();
 
Both of my boards have rounded corners. One worked and the other didn't work with the latest firmware until I changed it. With my custom firmware both boards work.


erickr.cr said:
Hello, there are reports that says that D1 Minis with squared-off top corners don't work and the ones that have round corners are the ones that works... Have someone try to verify this and check the difference between both types of D1 Mini?

https://www.opensourcedistilling.co...BO3O_Dmnc1ckBW_3zI2Io4Js__JxzVkrJS6oujowyaRAQ
Click to expand...
 
Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to replace my D1 Mini yet, things have been a bit busy. The ones I've had trouble with are in fact the squared off top corners though. Although the replacements I ordered also have squared off corners ...
 
redfoxblueeagle said:
Both of my boards have rounded corners. One worked and the other didn't work with the latest firmware until I changed it. With my custom firmware both boards work.
Click to expand...
Awesome sauce. Thanks for your hard work. I too had noticed that there are errors about config file corruption upon first boot that go away after saving the configuration page on the AP. Glad this resolved the issue :)
 
Open Source Distilling said:
Awesome sauce. Thanks for your hard work. I too had noticed that there are errors about config file corruption upon first boot that go away after saving the configuration page on the AP. Glad this resolved the issue :)
Click to expand...
I couldn't even connect to AP until I wrote the custom code to write the config on startup for the first boot.....There is certainly something glitchy about that version of software
 
Where or how do I add this code? Is there a step-by-step guide?


redfoxblueeagle said:
Ok, I managed to get mine working. I had to change some code in V6.3.1 and hardcode my credentials to write them to the FileSystem on startup and then was able to access the AP. Its a pain to setup Arduino to compile it because you need to install all the supporting libraries......but its nice to have it working. The problem must be related to not having a config file.....but I don't know exactly why there is an issue, so this hack gets around the problem.

Code: 
void setup()
{

  Serial.begin(115200);

  CONSOLELN(F("\nFW " FIRMWAREVERSION));
  CONSOLELN(ESP.getSdkVersion());

  sleepManager();

  bool validConf = readConfig();
  if (!validConf){
    CONSOLELN(F("\nERROR config does not exist or is corrupted"));
    strcpy(my_name, "iSpindel0002");
    strcpy(my_token, "AddyourUbidotsTokenHere");
    my_OWpin = 12; //If you know the ESP pin for your temp sensor you can set it here otherwise comment it out.
    my_ssid = (const char *)"AddyourhomenetworkSSIDhere";
    my_psk = (const char *)"Addyourhomenetworkpasskeyhere";
    my_api = 0; //for ubidots
    //my_api = 2; //CraftBeerPi
    //my_api = 3; //HTTP
    //my_api = 4; //TControl
    //my_api = 5; //FHEM
    //my_api = 6; //TCP
    //my_api = 7; //iSpindel.de
    //my_api = 8; //InfluxDB
    //my_api = 9; //Prometheus
    //my_api = 10; //MQTT
    //my_api = 11; //ThingSpeak
    //my_api = 12; //Blynk
    //strcpy(my_server,"");
    //strcpy(my_port,"");
    //strcpy(my_uri,"");
    //strcpy(my_vfact,); //Battery conversion factor
    formatSpiffs();
    Serial.println("(setup) Mounting FS...");
   
    if (!SPIFFS.begin()) {
    Serial.println("(setup) Failed to mount file system");
    return;
    }
    else{
      if(saveConfig()){
        Serial.println("(setup) Config saved to SPIDFF.");
        validConf = readConfig();
      }
    }
  }

  if (!validConf)
    CONSOLELN(F("\nERROR config corrupted"));
  initDS18B20();
  initAccel();
Click to expand...
 
MikeScott said:
Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to replace my D1 Mini yet, things have been a bit busy. The ones I've had trouble with are in fact the squared off top corners though. Although the replacements I ordered also have squared off corners ...
Click to expand...
I finally got around to replacing my D1 mini (with the squared off top corners) with some I bought from Amazon with rounded corners, and it worked like a charm.
 
I am having issues connecting my ispindel to an Access Point (AP). I am using windows I have tried BrewFlasher and ESP8266Flasher. I can connect it and it opens the 192.168.4.1, but every time I add my SSID and password it does not take.
I am using 5.x.x farmwear because every time i use anything higher I can not connect to the ispindel I just get ESP8266xxx as the wifi.
I had the same issue when i was trying to add Brew Bubbles to an AP and it turned out that i need to add bonjour and make sure my port 5353 was assigned and open. Is there something like that for the ispindel?
is there someone that can help me work through all these issues?
 
With the code that redfoxblueeagle has given I've managed to rebuild a bin file using visual code and installing platformIO IDE, but using ubuntu. Windows didnt work aswell, even while trying to install the same programs along side each other. I ran into a number of problems, like having to initilize git. But while in the IDE it was easy to edit the code and build the bin file. By using set variables it is now loging onto my router, which was confirmed while watching its progress with putty. I had to change the git_rev.py by renaming 'describe' to 'rev-parse'.
 
So I thought I was having the same issue because of the config files. Pulled the code, built from source, hard coded the configs, and eventually debug traced mine to this floopin' loop on line 999.

while (!accelgyro.getIntDataReadyStatus())
delay(2);

Turns out my MPU-6050 board would initialize and pass .testConnection() successfully, but would never deliver data. Took me 2 days, super frustrating, but an easy fix. I customized the firmware/rigged up a simple test bench just for the accelerometers. I bought my MPU boards from two different suppliers on Amazon and had 5/10 and 1/6 success rates, with some returning non-zero values, but frozen. Put the good boards on and have two working Open Source Distilling iSpindels now.

PXL_20210708_001229240.jpg


PXL_20210708_001301483.jpg


PXL_20210708_001345030.jpg


I recommend we throw an exit condition into the loop after a reasonable number of attempts. Maybe record the max number of loops before a reading in the wild and setting it 10x that? At least log out the stale loop? Maybe we could build out a debug mode that blinks error codes to the onboard LED.

My C is rusty but I'm happy to try and put in a PR : )

Cheers!
 
rsquared said:
You can flash before soldering and assembly (it's what I've done on mine) but you can't test at that time. One of the first things the iSpindel firmware does is look for the sensors and will no go further if they are missing.

If you're connected to console, you can see the messages saying the sensor detection failed, but you'll never get to the point of setting up/testing the WiFi.
Click to expand...
I think it works without a functional gyro, but definite non starter without a functioning Temp.
 
MikeScott said:
Just looking if anyone has ran into this, or has any suggestions.

I built it, and flashed it with the latest firmware (6.3.1). When I reset it and get it into configuration mode, I see the AP in my wifi list, but can't connect to it. Windows says "Can't connect to network", and I've tried it with a Linux machine as well, it can't connect either.

My phone doesn't see the access point at all. I've also tried initializing memory, and flashing it again, no joy.
Click to expand...


For your info latest firmware is actually 7.1

Edit just noticed that was a very old post.
 
Hey guys is the general consensus that the squared chips don't work? I've got two with squared edges and have been able to flash basic firmware to a built ispindel. After appearing to successfully flash ispindel to the chip, the SSID of the wemos is 'esp8266'.
Can this issue be worked around or do I need to chase down the chips with rounded edges? Cheers
 

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