Infinite reboots

Support
1

Hi, My iotawatt seems to be stuck in an infinite reboot loop due to an exception. I’m hoping someone can help me with this.

What happened: A few days ago we had to shut off power to our house. The iotawatt, main wifi router and modem are all on a battery backup and are in the same room. There are other mesh router nodes that lost power. It seems that when the power was cut, the iotawatt restarted due to a power-fail (probably in the fraction of a second before the backup kicked in, other devices did not restart). Ever since then it has been in an infinite restart loop due to an exception.

What I tried so far

  • I unplugged the iotawatt for a few minutes (including the 9v ac reference)
  • I restarted my home network, and deleted the dhcp rule giving the iotawatt a static IP

logs: (last 2 restarts prior to the issue, in case they have useful information. Logs with the issue are below.)

** Restart **

SD initialized.
12/16/23 04:26:42z Real Time Clock is running. Unix time 1702700802 
12/16/23 04:26:42z Reset reason: Exception
12/16/23 04:26:42z Trace:  1:1[2], 1:2[3], 9:0[3], 9:0, 9:1, 8:4, 8:6, 8:8, 9:3, 9:5, 9:9, 1:3, 10:0, 10:15, 10:16, 10:16[1], 10:16[1], 10:16[1], 34:30, 34:30, 33:0, 33:1, 33:1, 
34:30, 10:16[1], 10:16[1], 34:30, 34:30, 33:0, 33:1, 33:1, 34:30
12/16/23 04:26:42z ESP8266 ID: 15844538, RTC PCF8523 (68)
12/16/23 04:26:42z IoTaWatt 5.0, Firmware version 02_08_03
12/16/23 04:26:42z SPIFFS mounted.
12/15/23 23:26:42 Local time zone: -5:00, using DST/BST when in effect.
12/15/23 23:26:42 device name: IotaWatt
12/15/23 23:26:42 HTTP server started
12/15/23 23:26:42 influxDB_v1: Starting, interval:5, url:http://192.168.0.50:8086
12/15/23 23:26:42 timeSync: service started.
12/15/23 23:26:42 statService: started.
12/15/23 23:26:42 dataLog: service started.
12/15/23 23:26:43 dataLog: Last log entry 12/15/23 23:26:40
12/15/23 23:26:50 historyLog: service started.
12/15/23 23:26:50 historyLog: Last log entry 12/15/23 23:26:00
12/15/23 23:26:50 WiFi connected. SSID=tmktmk, IP=192.168.0.103, channel=4, RSSI -37db
12/15/23 23:26:50 Updater: service started. Auto-update class is MINOR
12/15/23 23:26:50 Grid: Started
12/15/23 23:26:51 Grid: Last log entry 12/15/23 23:26:40
12/15/23 23:26:52 Updater: Auto-update is current for class MINOR.
12/15/23 23:26:57 influxDB_v1: Start posting at 12/15/23 23:26:15

** Restart **

SD initialized.
12/17/23 00:59:32z Real Time Clock is running. Unix time 1702774772 
12/17/23 00:59:32z Reset reason: Exception
12/17/23 00:59:32z Trace:  10:11, 10:11, 15:0[32], 15:3[32], 15:10, 15:14[32], 15:15[2], 15:16, 15:4, 10:11, 10:11[1], 10:11, 10:11[1], 10:11, 10:11[1], 10:11, 10:11[2], 15:0[32], 15:3[32], 15:10, 15:14[32], 15:15[2], 15:16, 15:4, 1:3, 1:4, 11:0, 11:4, 11:5, 11:5, 11:10, 11:15
12/17/23 00:59:32z ESP8266 ID: 15844538, RTC PCF8523 (68)
12/17/23 00:59:32z IoTaWatt 5.0, Firmware version 02_08_03
12/17/23 00:59:32z SPIFFS mounted.
12/16/23 19:59:32 Local time zone: -5:00, using DST/BST when in effect.
12/16/23 19:59:32 device name: IotaWatt
12/16/23 19:59:32 HTTP server started
12/16/23 19:59:32 influxDB_v1: Starting, interval:5, url:http://192.168.0.50:8086
12/16/23 19:59:32 timeSync: service started.
12/16/23 19:59:32 statService: started.
12/16/23 19:59:32 dataLog: service started.
12/16/23 19:59:33 dataLog: Last log entry 12/16/23 19:59:30
12/16/23 19:59:37 historyLog: service started.
12/16/23 19:59:38 historyLog: Last log entry 12/16/23 19:59:00
12/16/23 19:59:38 WiFi connected. SSID=tmktmk, IP=192.168.0.103, channel=4, RSSI -38db
12/16/23 19:59:38 Updater: service started. Auto-update class is MINOR
12/16/23 19:59:38 Grid: Started
12/16/23 19:59:38 Grid: Last log entry 12/16/23 19:59:30
12/16/23 19:59:39 Updater: Auto-update is current for class MINOR.
12/16/23 19:59:40 influxDB_v1: Start posting at 12/16/23 19:59:15
12/28/23 17:28:16 Updater: Invalid response from server. HTTPcode: -4
12/31/23 11:44:27 WiFi disconnected.

logs: (starting from power failure)

** Restart **

SD initialized.
1/02/24 18:35:43z Real Time Clock is running. Unix time 1704220543
1/02/24 18:35:43z Reset Reason: Power-fail restart.
1/02/24 18:35:43z ESP8266 ID: 15844538, RTC PCF8523 (68)
1/02/24 18:35:43z IoTaWatt 5.0, Firmware version 02_08_03
1/02/24 18:35:43z SPIFFS mounted.

** Restart **

SD initialized.
1/02/24 18:35:44z Real Time Clock is running. Unix time 1704220544
1/02/24 18:35:44z Reset reason: Exception
1/02/24 18:35:44z Trace: 34:6[15], 34:25[71], 34:28, 34:30, 34:10[6], 34:30, 34:10[7], 34:30, 34:10[9], 34:30, 34:10[9], 34:30, 34:10[11], 34:30, 34:10[12], 34:30, 34:10[13], 34:5, 34:5, 34:5, 34:6[3], 34:10[1], 34:30, 34:10[2], 34:5, 34:5, 34:5, 34:6[3], 34:25[71], 34:28, 34:30, 34:10[12]
1/02/24 18:35:44z ESP8266 ID: 15844538, RTC PCF8523 (68)
1/02/24 18:35:44z IoTaWatt 5.0, Firmware version 02_08_03
1/02/24 18:35:44z SPIFFS mounted.

** Restart **

SD initialized.
1/02/24 18:35:45z Real Time Clock is running. Unix time 1704220545
1/02/24 18:35:45z Reset reason: Exception
1/02/24 18:35:45z Trace: 34:6[15], 34:25[71], 34:28, 34:30, 34:10[6], 34:30, 34:10[7], 34:30, 34:10[9], 34:30, 34:10[9], 34:30, 34:10[11], 34:30, 34:10[12], 34:30, 34:10[13], 34:5, 34:5, 34:5, 34:6[3], 34:10[1], 34:30, 34:10[2], 34:5, 34:5, 34:5, 34:6[3], 34:25[71], 34:28, 34:30, 34:10[12]
1/02/24 18:35:45z ESP8266 ID: 15844538, RTC PCF8523 (68)
1/02/24 18:35:45z IoTaWatt 5.0, Firmware version 02_08_03
1/02/24 18:35:45z SPIFFS mounted.

These messages continue every second. This actually causes the iotawatt led to blink green (with each blink being caused by a restart). The log file is currently 155MB

Other Info:

  • The router is a TP-Link X60 (with some X20 nodes as well)
  • I’m running a Pi-Hole on the network, which filters out dns requests for known ads
  • Prior to this, the Iotawatt was has been working flawlessly since March 2023
  • The Iotawatt is also set up to log to influxdb and is connected to homeassistant
  • There are two bin files in the DOWNLOAD directory: 02_08_02.bin and 02_08_03.bin

Anything that anyone could do to help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

2

The trace indicates an exception while processing the configuration. More specifically, it was processing a script, probably an output script because it references an integration followed by an operator followed by a reference to input 12.

I suspect that the config file may be damaged, possibly because of SDcard failure as a result of the power failure. In general, I don’t recommend using a UPS for the IoTaWatt. It’s a power monitor, and when the power goes out, there is nothing to monitor. The IoTaWatt has a battery backup real time clock and can restart immediately after power resumes.

But regardless of that, the damage is done, and you need to recover. I would suggest removing the SDcard and posting the config.txt file to me in a Private Message. I can see if there is obvious damage and possibly repair.

Also, send me your original order number from purchase and where you are located.

3

Solved:
I just wanted to follow up here in case others have a similar issue. I spoke with @overeasy via DMs and he or she (I don’t actually know) was able to figure out that the problem was related to one of my integrators. @overeasy sent me a version of my config file with the integrators and any associated outputs removed and advised that I also remove /iotawatt/integrations. This fixed the issue and everything is working perfectly again.

Thanks again @overeasy !