Original Oak from kickstarter, can't get hit to update

[SouthernAtHeart]

I have the original Oak, and have tried for a few hours going thru all the procedures countless times.  changing my router, and doing the local update.  I have a 2 year old Macbook air.  In the step where is says, "Saving settings to the Oak", it never goes beyond that, when I'm using Safari.  With Chrome, it'll run thru the whole thing, but in the end it says the oak failed.  it'll advance to the next phase where the Oak tries get the update.  And the GR LED blinks rapidly for awhile like it says it should, but in the end it says it failed.  Trying the local update, I use my macbook and the terminal window.  That all works ok.  I use my iPhone to go to the webpage, log into particle, and set my router name (I have no password on it), but it, too, hangs on the phase where it says, Saving settings to Oak.
Any ideas?

[PeterF]

How are you powering the Oak? Try different power sources and different microUSB cables if you can.

If the over-the-air update doesn't work, you can do a serial update, but you'll need 3.3v USB to serial adapter (or similar) to do it, so you will be able to get your Oak working one way or another!

[mstapp]

I've had trouble getting some earlier Oaks through the initial configuration & update procedure, too.

Try this: in the setup tutorial under "wifi configuration", there's a link to the config page: http://digistu.mp/oakconfig

Save a copy of that page to your computer and use a plain text editor (i.e. notepad on windows) to search & replace the two URLs with the string "system-version" in the path -- change "system-version" to be just "version". Then save that file to disk, load that local file in your browser, and try configuring again.

That's what worked for me when I recently configured 2 or 3 Oaks. I think I found that tip through some tips in other forum threads as well as a combination of trial & error.

Note that it still can take 2 or 3 tries sometimes; they seem to be a little fickle with the initial update. But after that, it's a great little board.

Hope this helps!

[fireball]

PeterF   Could you please tell me where to find a how to post tutorial. I spent thirty minutes writing a post and can't send it because I can't figure out who to send it to!
Thanks

[PeterF]

To create a tutorial, simply (!!) go to the wiki page, log in (top right) using your forum credentials, and then edit the main page using the pencil on the right side, and add a link to for a new page. Once you've made it, it should show up in red (IIRC), and will take you to a page that says the pages doesn't exist yet, and asks if you want to create it. You'll then be able to edit that page and start putting the tutorial together.

[fireball]

PeterF   Thanks so much for your reply.  My post should have read,  Could you please tell me where to find out how to post a question. I spent thirty minutes writing a post and can't send it because I can't figure out who to send it to! 

I clicked on "My Messages - Send a message".  It opens up what looks like an email message form where the first field is To: .  I can't seem to figure out who to send it to.  I went to Help to find out how to Post a question, but it really isn't any Help:( (Pun intended ).  Or I'm looking in the wrong place.

I know this is not the correct place to post my question, but given my circumstance, if I may be so bold and forgive me for taking advantage of your good nature, please allow me to pose my question to you here.  I actually typed this about three times until I thought it smart to copy and paste it so that I could save it for later publishing.

Hello everyone. This is my first post(I think) on the Oak/Digistump Forum. I'm getting a late start bringing my Oaks to life. I have four Oaks, one of the Robo Car Kits, and the weather shield kit. Does any of the "cheap Chinese 3V3 CH340/CH340G USB to Serial adapters" work with the Oak? I've seen quite a few sellers offering them on Ebay. Do I just pick one and expect it to work? From reading the messages here concerning the first update that is required for Kickstarter Oaks and the problems some are having, I thought I would wait until I have one of the 3V3 CH340 USB to Serial adapters before I attempt to get my Oaks up and running. I assume that  this is the most popular USB to Serial Adapter that has been found to work with the Oak. Wouldn't want to spoil my Oak experience, as I do have high hopes for using it. I hope to introduce a number of people including at least two or three nieces and nephews as well as a neighborhood kid or two to the world of  Making and hopefully arousing an interest in the kids for programming and beyond. Also I notice in the tutorial for the weather shield kit it says "This is designed for use with the Oak development board, which is not included." I searched on digistump.com and didn't find the Oak development board. Is it not available yet? Or is the development board actually "The Oak"?  To be honest building a weather station was my intention as a first project.  Also, I can't seem to locate a tutorial for the Robo Car Kit.  Does one exist?  You may can tell that I am not familiar with navigating forums.  About all that I have done in Forums is read the questions and replies before, never actually posted a question.  Thanks for listening and for any answers or suggestions as to my getting ready to commission my four Oaks. You are a very kind person and I have noticed willing to step in and help those of us in need of what to do next.  Thank you so much.   Steve

[PeterF]

Ah ha... yes.. that is a bit tricky. You either need to know the username and start typing that in (e.g. PeterF), and once you have typed the third letter a dropdown box will appear trying to start matching usernames. If you see the one you want, you can select it, or keep typing more letters to refine the list. Or you can co to a forum members profile page (click on their username in on a forum post) and choose the 'send a private message' option on the left sidebar.

However, posting these sorts of questions is exactly what the forum is for, so you have chosen the best place to ask your questions Firstly, welcome! 

So, yes, my experience has been, and I think most of the posts on the forum will back me up on this, is that any of the cheap 3.3v/3V3 CH340/CH340G usb to serial adapters will do the job (as long as they're not faulty, that is!!). If you just want to follow the easy update tutorial, you make make your life even easier and just get on of the ones linked in the tutorial... Seller 1 ... Seller 2 ... and if you want two (as more is always better).

For the weather shield, it does indeed appear that it refers to the Oak itself... as these are written by both Erik and forum members, there is bound to be some minor inconsistencies in how things are described. I'll edit that so it doesn't confuse!

For the Robot Car kit, there is a tutorial, but it is under the heading of Robot Kit, so needs to have some mention of the car! Be warned this tutorial is actually for the Digispark, so there will be references to the digispark instead of the Oak, and although I don't have one, I suspect there will be some minor differences regarding connection, etc.

You're welcome. We're all here to have fun and share what knowledge we have, and I hope to see you on the forum in the future

[emardee]

Fireball,

If I read your message correctly, you were hoping to post your question as a new post on the forum, but couldn't work out how to do that, and therefore ended up posting it on this thread as a reply instead of a new thread.

If this is the case, then the button you are looking for is called "New Topic". To find this, go to the sub-forum you want to post your message in (in this case go to "Oak Support") so that you can see all the existing thread topics listed. Then above this list to the right of the screen, you should see the "New Topic" button (see attached screenshot). This will let you create your own thread (just like SouthernatHeart did to create this one).

The "Send Message" you tried to use, is to send a Private Message to one other forum member and the discussion you have is private and hidden between just the pair of you (as you say just like an email!). Typically, for questions like yours, posting a new topic is ideal, as then anyone can help you... and also the help given can benefit others who read the forum afterwards too.

Hope this helps.

Mike

[PeterF]

:facepalm: I completely missed that...  thanks for picking that up Mike!

[fireball]

PeterF and emardee    Thanks for your replies. I will give'er a go and see what happens. I appreciate it very much.
gu'day