New unit seems DoA (fixed)

Support
1

I got the iotawatt through openenergymonitor.org at 25/3 and just got the time to play with it. When I turn it on it either flashes “green green green” or “red green red” if an 8V or 12V AC adapter is attached but I only get a “AI-THINKER_6AAEC0” unlocked SSID from and/or a “SKYNET” locked one. No iota*. I left it many hours in red-green-red with no change.
Any ideas how to proceed? Is there a “reset” button somewhere? Should I check the SD card inside? Would that void the warranty?

UPDATE1:
I opened the unit and read the sdcard, it had only this zero-sized file inside:
DOWNLOADS/02_03_18.BIN

I copied the contents of the sd card from the repo with no behaviour change. Should the card have any specific label? (it appears as “NO NAME” in macos)

I am trying to dump the firmware to check current version with esptool.

UPDATE2:
I reflashed with the newest firmware (got it from github releases->Assets) with:
(it’s a MacOS)
sudo esptool.py --port /dev/tty.SLAB_USBtoUART write_flash 0 ~/Downloads/firmware.bin

and it now works! The menu appears and I get a red-green-green

2

Theunit was not properly flashed by OEM. It was still running (and passing) the manufacturing test firmware. Good job researching and manually flashing.

3

Hi overeasy thank you for the feedback! There seems to be some issues:

  • it does not send data to emoncms, tried with and without userid
  • the led is constant dim red, but the unit is accessible (NTP?)
  • minor but possibly relevant: the “Allow Daylight Time” checkbox remains unchecked even if checked.

Logs:
ESP8266 ChipID: 6991552
IoTaWatt 4.x, Firmware version 02_04_02
SPIFFS mounted.
Local time zone: +0:00
device name: IotaWatt
Connecting with WiFiManager.

** Restart **

SD initialized.
Real Time Clock not initialized.
Reset reason: External System
Trace:  63:155[44], 229:89[88], 169:78[23], 202:221[103], 95:161[45], 2:99[241], 254:151[8], 219:215[51], 178:112[106], 63:155[208], 253:13[60], 127:193[173], 100:96[105], 68:82[164], 26:61[249], 253:32[240], 105:250[30], 207:118[21], 153:68[56], 193:253[163], 234:230[76], 56:25[6], 237:133[206], 86:193[28], 108:245[140], 85:41[61], 56:251[87], 248:20[147], 241:13[218], 56:70[14], 8:102[165], 129:161[249]
ESP8266 ChipID: 6991552
IoTaWatt 4.x, Firmware version 02_04_02
SPIFFS mounted.
Local time zone: +0:00
device name: IotaWatt
Connecting with WiFiManager.
RTC not running, waiting for WiFi.
MDNS responder started for hostname IotaWatt
LLMNR responder started for hostname IotaWatt
HTTP server started
WiFi connected. SSID=oink1, IP=192.168.123.229, channel=3, RSSI -53db
timeSync: service started.
statService: started.
Updater: service started. Auto-update class is MINOR
Updater: Invalid response from server. HTTPcode: -4
WiFi disconnected.
WiFi connected. SSID=oink1, IP=192.168.123.229, channel=3, RSSI -54db
WiFi disconnected.
WiFi connected. SSID=oink1, IP=192.168.123.229, channel=3, RSSI -62db
WiFi disconnected.
WiFi connected. SSID=oink1, IP=192.168.123.229, channel=3, RSSI -57db
timeSync: No time update in last 24 hours.
Restart command received.

** Restart **

SD initialized.
Real Time Clock not initialized.
Reset reason: Software/System restart
Trace:  9:0, 9:0, 8:4, 8:6, 8:8, 8:9, 1:2, 1:3, 1:4, 1:5[20], 20:0, 20:1, 20:2, 20:31, 20:33, 1:6, 1:1, 1:2[1], 9:0[1], 9:0, 9:1, 8:4, 8:6, 8:8, 8:9, 9:3, 9:5, 9:9, 1:2, 1:3, 10:2, 10:3
ESP8266 ChipID: 6991552
IoTaWatt 4.x, Firmware version 02_04_02
SPIFFS mounted.
Local time zone: -2:00
device name: IotaWatt
MDNS responder started for hostname IotaWatt
LLMNR responder started for hostname IotaWatt
HTTP server started
WiFi connected. SSID=oink1, IP=192.168.123.229, channel=3, RSSI -49db
timeSync: service started.
statService: started.
Updater: service started. Auto-update class is MINOR
4

Although the unit is connected to WiFi, it does not seem to be able to access internet resources. Of primary importance is accessing internet time servers to set the time. Until that happens, the led will continue to glow red because it cannot log power until it knows what time it is.

Where are you located and is it possible that there is no reliable internet connection?

5

I am located at Athens, Greece. The internet is very reliable, vdsl. Are the time servers a hardcoded IP that I could try to contact or use dns like pool.ntp.org? If the latter is there a way to check DNS resolution or get more logs?

6

The firmware uses google time servers at time1.google.com, time2.google.com etc. Access is with the UDP NTP protocol. Is it possible that your router is not supplying accurate DHCP information?

7

You mean the DHCP DNS or DHCP NTP served by the router? Do the time1.google.com get overriden by DHCP ntp info? DNS seems to work for all other devices though.
UPDATE: it seems you were right, the first 2 DNS servers provided by DHCP were from the old provider, I fixed that and will get back.

Everything works fine thanks for your guidance, you have an unbelievable response time :slight_smile: It would be helpful in future versions to log the DNS resolution failure if such thing is possible.

1 Like