Digistump Forums
The Oak by Digistump => Oak Support => Topic started by: FastEddy on January 05, 2016, 04:43:01 pm
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Now that the Oaks are arriving (excellent... thank you!), it would be nice to have some links to resources. Mine were purchased for a teenage beginner.
Especially how to get started working with Particle.
It'll take a bit of effort to get the momentum up after all this time but this forum should start to buzz soon, I hope :)
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It's not ready yet, see this thread.
http://digistump.com/board/index.php/topic,1925.0.html
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How do I get a particle account? When I try to access it off the Arduino Oak guide, it hangs.
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Hey FastEddy,
Sign up to Particle here: https://build.particle.io/signup (https://build.particle.io/signup)
Configure your Oak to connect to your WiFi here http://rawgit.com/digistump/OakSoftAP/master/config.html (http://rawgit.com/digistump/OakSoftAP/master/config.html)- full details are on the tutorial here http://digistump.com/wiki/oak/tutorials/arduino (http://digistump.com/wiki/oak/tutorials/arduino)
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Well, the Particle stuff is not working yet and with the Arduino method, I never get past the "Config file not found..." error upon uploading the first sketch. Running Oak.exe from the command line has no effect as there are "No devices available.
I have connected to the ACORN-XXXXXX network, which shows as an Unidentified Network.
I guess I'll wait a few more days :)
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Hey FastEddy, Give the Config.html a few tries, the oak needs to flash fast for 30 odd seconds. Seems to take some people a few attempts depending on internet quality etc. One of mine took a couple of tries.
Once it does complete sucessfully your oak will show up in the Particle dashboard under Devices. Then you can run oak.exe and select your board.
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It can take a few tries to get it to download the update, we're continuing to update the config app to help make this retry process easier, please try the newest one if you haven't yet
Thanks,
Erik
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I take it this means:
1. oak firmware is still not ready (particle, etc)
2. there's therefore no point of me trying to figure out how to upload it
is this correct?
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So... here's where I have got to:
- Have two Oaks. Each when plugged into power (1A USB cell-phone power supply) powers up steady and gives a heart beat a bit faster than .5 seconds on and off
- I have noticed that they enumerate on the wifi network with a much stronger signal than my regular wifi router
- I have successfully registered on the Particle network, config.html starts successfully and the login accepts my email address and password (giving an error message, as expected, if I type inaccurately)
- On a Win7 laptop, I am connected by wired ethernet to the internet (reasonably fast Comcast cable connection) and wirelessly to the appropriate "ACORN..." SSID
- "Once connected click Next" yields a progress bar but no response in terms of LED behaviour from the Oak and the "Unable to connect or save settings to your Oak, please ensure you are connected to the Oak's network and retry." error message
- Refreshing the web page... no change
- Retrying MANY times in different permutations and combinations... no change
I'm sure it will work in the end and, once it does, I'll post the details.
In the meantime, I am open to any and all suggestions.
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Try to unplug your Ethernet connection to the laptop once you logged in to your oak account when you do the setup on when you get the webpage telling you to connect to the acorn-xxxx
http://rawgit.com/digistump/OakSoftAP/master/config.html
Once you get the info page telling you that it's connecting the oak to the network and have the option to check the cloud connection plug the Ethernet cable back in again.
I just setup 2 Oaks to connect to the cloud and updated their firmware. Arduino was installed on a regular workstation so no wifi on it so I just used my phone web browser to go through the cloud connection. Went to web page above, logged in to my particle account, once told to connect to acorn-xxxx I connected to it with my phone, and did next step once it gave me the page with info that how the leds would be flashing and ability to check the cloud connection m phone had automatically reconnected to my regular wifi since the acorn ap had stopped broadcasting and connected to my wifi network. Now I could run the CLI tool on my workstation and configure it so I could upload sketches from Arduino to this particular board (seems you have to do the CLI each time you swap boards tho?)
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Dear Eje_G,
This sounds like good advice, I will be working with it this weekend, once I am back at my home desk.
Fingers crossed... I'll post the results in detail.
Thanks!
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I have finally been successful in adding my Oaks to the Particle cloud.
In summary:
- Using a laptop to run config.html never worked for me.
- The first time I tried using my cell phone, it worked with one of the devices. I simply followed the webpage instructions that come up when you run config.html, switching wifi connections as instructed (just as I had on the laptop - go figure. When something works, it just works!)
- The second device took several tries but also updated eventually. I power cycled everything just before it finally worked but I have no idea if that helped or it was luck.
- Both devices now show up in Particle.io, as expected.
Now on to test the Arduino uploading.
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Here is the fundamental problem that those of us who cannot get the cloud connection are having (if I can speak at least from my experience). I would love to help debug this from a users perspective but I have no idea what the expected behavior should be at various steps going from new setup to cloud connection. When it works, it works (not for me yet). But when is doesn't it's hard to know where the fail is.
1. Successful firmware update? (how do I know that the update succeeded other than it looks the rapid flash lasted long enough).
2. Cloud connection? (how do I know that it is actually trying? I see the bar move but did it try to connect? If so, why no connection?)
Would love to have a network sniffer but that's not available.
I've tried setup from phone, laptop, two different internet connected networks, externally logged in (and not) at particle.io.
Would love to help but need some sort of real world indication of state of config / connection to cloud. I've also tried opening an unrestricted pinhole for the Oak on my router as just a stab at it. I'm bordering on thrashing (as we used to say) for a solution, if not already there.
Some LED flash patterns might help to at least provide some state information information to go on. E.g. your firmware is fine but having a problem connection to particle cloud because, a, b, or c.
Seems like those that have had success don't know why. They are just happy that it work.
Those that have had fails and willing to help figure out what may be going on are at a loss without any debug info.
Without anything to go on I guess I'll set everything aside until it's resolved and/or continue to monitor the forum for possible things to look at.
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Just throwing in my notes -- I've successfully provisioned 3 of the 4 oaks I have right now, and I cannot for the life of me get the fourth one to activate.
With the previous three, the only way I was able to activate them was after the "10 second" dance failed a few times I would pull the power on the oak and then power it back up. It seems to rapidly connect to the cloud and start blinking almost immediately. If I can get it to keep blinking in excess of 20 seconds (which seems to be the longest period before dying) I have a shot at that "cycle" getting activated.
The other odd thing about pulling the power is that even if I go through the gitsetup page from scratch, put in an SSID and password that I know works but it doesn't blink on the reboot, the power cycle can get it blinking (once, then its "start over" time). Looking at my router, I do see that when it "blinks" it holds onto an IP address for at least a few seconds before it falls off the radar.
To my mind, its struggling to maintain a connection to the routers (I've tried two different routers and a hotspot). I'm tempted to drive up the hill away from all my neighbors (There's a lot of wifi around my house) and see if a hotspot with no competing access points will help.
All of the successful activations were before the server changes mentioned a few days ago.
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exeng,
- If the update has been successfully completed, you will see a device on Particle.io
- When the update starts, the regular heartbeat flashing stutters and then the activity led starts to flash quickly. If this continues to completion, it seems as if the Oak reboots and immediately connects to the SSID that you pointed it at from the prompt. Go to Particle.io and you should see that a device has been added there.
I reiterate, nothing worked until I did the process from my cell phone (and I tried hard).
Good luck!
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Are you kidding me???? Decided to run the OakSoftAP in developer mode (on Firefox) and watch the network traffic. Failed the first time through, so I started over and watched intently trying to understand what was going on. Of course it all seemed a bit cryptic and then bang. I looked up and I was informed that I was connected to the cloud (ran this on my laptop with the Oak powered by it's USB port). Went to particle.io and there it was, a device id with no name. I unplugged the Oak and left particle.io, came back to particle.io and the id was still there but not shown as connected. I then connected the Oak and shortly there after, it showed up as connected.
I wish I could tell everyone that has not been able to connect to the cloud what the magic was but I can't. I can say that if you get the long rapid flash (about 20 seconds) you mostly likely loaded firmware successfully. So I'm guessing the fail has something to do with connecting to the cloud.
At this point I'm more interested trying to understand why is does or doesn't work. So rather than trying to load and run sketches, I'll remove my device from particle.io and try to repeat the success or fail and try to understand why. I mostly likely won't figure it out but I just can't let it go.
Now here is the really interesting part (big grain of salt required). I don't put much stock in it but somewhere on the forum in the last few days someone said they tried to shield the Wifi signal with their body (I'll have to find the post). Well guess what, on the last and only attempt that worked, the Oak was tucked under my leg (I was willing to try anything). Probably a red herring, but if I continue to have fails after I remove the Oak from particle.io, you can bet I will try it again.
Damn I wish I could say "It worked because..." or "It fails because...".
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FastEddy,
Just saw your post after I posted my post. Yep, I saw the fast LED heartbeat many times and for what appears to be about 20 seconds. So I probably loaded firmware successfully many times without really knowing it because of the cloud connect fails. So at least we can surmise that the pattern you described is a good indication of the firmware load. It is the connect to cloud that I would like to understand even though I now have a device on the cloud. If you see my post you'll see that it was my laptop that succeeded. So I'm guessing the cause of success or failure has something to do with network traffic, protocol, timing, who knows.
If I gain any insights or clues I'll post, but I'm an ex eng and by no means an expert.
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OK an update before I close my eyes for the night...
I'm beginning to think that the failures to get Oak setup up and on the cloud are timing issues related to switching between networks, that is, Oak's ACORN-XXXX wireless net and the internet connected wireless routers as you go through the steps. At least that is the direction I'm going now.
exeng
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Been able to repeat successful setup and successful connection to the cloud this morning, but still not able to explain why it works. Also managed to get it to work without running OakSofpAP in developer mode. Still think has something to do with timing of network changes from ACORN_XXXX to and fro to Internet Router Access.
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Tried a different tactic. Setup DNSMASQ w/dhcp on a RaspPi so I could see the requests. On a provisioning attempt, I'd see the IP Request come through, then 5 seconds later a second ip request from the same device. If this didn't happen, it doesn't do the rapid blinks. I haven't figured out if that behavior is normal (asking for an IP 5 seconds after it got it) or an artifact of my hopping around from router to router.
Also found a ticket (https://github.com/digistump/OakCore/issues/20) that provided helpful information.
http://192.168.0.1/info will give you basic info in JSON including Firmware_Version (look for 1.0.0)
http://192.168.0.1/particle either gave me a "Not Found" or "Connected" response. Connected was a bit of a shock as I couldn't tell it was online.
Waited a few minutes, kept checking particle. Finally copied the ID string from my /info page, manually added the device on particle and was instantly connected.
I've got one more oak "in the box". If I have time I'll try to recap the procedure for the final one this weekend including what I see on the DNSMASQ side. At this point I'm simply obsessed with figuring out the on-boarding process.
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I was wondering about something I read in the light of an observation I had that the WiFi signal from the Oak is MUCH stronger than my wireless hub (even when both are right next to the Android phone running WiFi Analyzer). When I saw this, my initial reaction was to move the Oak to the other side of the house and try updating at a distance (thinking that reflections might mess up reception in a home environment). I have no idea if this would have helped since I was successful with the update in a different room of the house right afterward. Still I had moved from the kitchen (with much metal around) to the dining room (perhaps with a simpler environment). And, come to think of it, I had hung the Oak inside a heavily-leaded Waterford crystal vase by the cable so that I could see the blinking LEDs.
I'm thinking that signal attenuation could help.
Maybe????
I am certainly going to look at the strength of the signal from inside the vase Vs outside this weekend.
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Using the advice in this thread I was able to update the firmware on my first Oak.
It took two attempts but it went through. Then, like most people, I couldn't get through the connecting to the cloud part.
I followed tcarleton's advice and checked the "info" page of my Oak. It had the 1.0.0 firmware so I knew I was okay there, then I check the "particle" page and saw the connected message.
I went to the particle dashboard but didn't see anything connected so I again followed his advice and copied the ID number and registered it manually. It instantly recognized it and connected me.
I'm a little hesitant to try to flash it with a new program but I really want to get busy using it.
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olman011,
So far for me the sketch upload experience has been pretty smooth. At worst I've had to hit upload from the arduino idea twice. Once the flash starts (If you're watching the Oak) its really obvious its going through.
The only bad situation I got into (pre .92?) was by accidentally uploading a demo ESP8266 sketch without changing the SSID/pw info -- and the recovery options might be better now (https://github.com/digistump/OakCore, haven't done it yet but see the bit about pulling pin 10 to ground for WifiConfig Setup Mode)
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Well, I've managed to get all 3 of my Oak's setup and on the cloud. The last one took the least amount of retries (who knows why?) but on that last try I did configure my laptop not to automatically connect to my AP (router). Only after the long rapid flash sequence (of expected length) and some quiet time (40 seconds or so) in slow flash, did I manually connect to my AP to provide internet access to OakSoftAP to do the Check Cloud Connection. Got an immediate response that it was there. I've never had to manually register the Oaks.
In prep for possible bricking, I've recorded all of my device IDs in a table with SSID, Name on AP, Name on Particle (the ones I assigned) just in case.
Used 192.168.0.1/device-id to see the ID when connected directly to the Oak or whatever IP address you AP assigns/device-id when it is connected to your AP.
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tcarleton,
can you tell us what demo ESP8266 sketch you used?
and did it work after you fixed the SSID/password information?
thanks
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Has anyone used the particle web IDE to program their Oak?
I can't get anything to compile, probably because the details for my Oak under "Particle Devices" list "No firmware available".
I assume that means that things aren't ready yet for that part of the system?
All I'm trying to do is use the "web-connected-LED" example to see if it works.
Do I have to use the Arduino IDE locally and then go to my particle dashboard so see if the Oak is communicating with the web?
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theevl,
I'm pretty sure it was the IRServer example from https://github.com/markszabo/IRremoteESP8266 (which works fine). I neglected to change (or omit!!) the explicit ssid password default values: Literally this:
const char* ssid = "........";
const char* password = "........";
In my mind I had just uploaded a sketch that basically said "yeah, boot up and then spend your life connecting to nothing" and I couldn't find any recovery info at the time so I went the OakRestore route.
Typing this out, its possible that I didn't even bother trying to hit upload again with a "good" sketch -- I don't really know (beta or even roadmap wise) what scenarios we can recover from.
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Things seem to be moving faster now.
Thanks again Erik!
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That sounds pretty much the same as my experiences FastEddy... I had too many issues with my laptop trying to connect to the Oak's AP, and instead used my tablet, and that was pretty solid.
olman011: The Particle Web IDE isn't ready for Oak yet - only supported method at present is via the Arduino IDE, which then delivers the compiled binary OTA via Particle. Expect some progress on the Web IDE once the firmware for Oak has stabilised.