I'm having an issue with getting the Serial / Network card to connect
I download RomTerm (1.26) and I was able to get into ZiModem. I do at+config and set the host name (X16). everything is good to this point. However, when I try to join my wifi network I can not connect to anything. It sees the networks however it always fails on connecting
Things I've tried:
1) joining the wifi network with the correct password (doubled checked by joining the network with other devices)
2) changed the network settings on the access point to use only wpa2 (it was wpa3/wpa2 mixed mode)
3) created an open "guest network" without any passwords (the X16 will show this wifi without the star (still fails even though other devices can connect)
4) tried using the hot spot on my phone
5) updated the firmware on the card
None of these worked.
I also tried to see if there where any debugging information on the esp32, however when you plug into the usb it will power the X16. (no diodes on the power pins to prevent back feeding? Not good design) So I stopped
Also as a side note I am a security network engineer (high end router support (level 3 support)) and I understand networks at the protocol levels. As a hobby I make projects using these micro controllers, so I known what I'm doing... I know that this sounds kinda snarky however I'm more than frustrated at this.
921.6 Kbps Serial / Network card issues
Re: 921.6 Kbps Serial / Network card issues
Sorry to hear having trouble. I've used these serial cards across several different networks without issue.
Does the password contain any "weird" characters? IIRC, the password will be entered as PETSCII (or whatever the terminals current textmode is). So things like { } and _ may not work. Or the "case" on your alphabet characters might be inverted. You can try changing character set modes.
Does the WiFi signal seem weak? Maybe below -30dB or so? That might suggest a bad antenna or antenna connector/connection (one of my earlier cards had that issue), maybe characters are getting dropped.
One of my networks requires wireless devices to be authorized to go out the router - so each new device I have to authorize. I'm sure with your experience you're familiar with all that, but just mentioning it in case.
Does the password contain any "weird" characters? IIRC, the password will be entered as PETSCII (or whatever the terminals current textmode is). So things like { } and _ may not work. Or the "case" on your alphabet characters might be inverted. You can try changing character set modes.
Does the WiFi signal seem weak? Maybe below -30dB or so? That might suggest a bad antenna or antenna connector/connection (one of my earlier cards had that issue), maybe characters are getting dropped.
One of my networks requires wireless devices to be authorized to go out the router - so each new device I have to authorize. I'm sure with your experience you're familiar with all that, but just mentioning it in case.
Re: 921.6 Kbps Serial / Network card issues
I ran through the steps again on another Network/Serial card and new wireless network, without issue.
From the Zimodem github page (list of supported AT-commands):
I'd first do "ATI" to show status/information about the connection. And make sure there are no dropped characters in the response (if there are dropped characters in the response, the baud rate might be off, or some other issue is going on).
I've noticed sometimes even if you're at the "wrong" baud rate, sometimes you can still send commands to WiModems, but the responses might not be correct. I've found this is useful for setting the baud rate (ATBxxx command) if you're not at the matched baud rate initially, then you still have to ALT+F1 to get back to the menu and adjust the terminal to the baud rate you just set it to. Doing both "AT" and "ATI" is a good double-check that both the terminal (ROMTERM) and WiModem (Zimodem etc) are at a matched rate.
Instead of AT+CONFIG, try using "ATW" (to list the set of wireless points; do wait a few seconds for it to search and report that list) and then
ATW"<SSID>,<PASSWORD>"
to join that connection.
And just tonight, RSSI (wireless strength) was pretty low (in the -70dB range, about as far from the wireless router as could be). There was a time where I did have to enter the password a couple times,
Do make sure you are in ANSI terminal mode (ALT+T to change terminal modes, per the ROMTERM instructions). But I noticed even in ANSI mode, I couldn't type tilde, underscore, or curly-braces (which can be an issue if your password contains any of those).
Prior to connecting to a CBM BBS (like Particles BBS), adjust the terminal to CBM.
From the Zimodem github page (list of supported AT-commands):
I'd first do "ATI" to show status/information about the connection. And make sure there are no dropped characters in the response (if there are dropped characters in the response, the baud rate might be off, or some other issue is going on).
I've noticed sometimes even if you're at the "wrong" baud rate, sometimes you can still send commands to WiModems, but the responses might not be correct. I've found this is useful for setting the baud rate (ATBxxx command) if you're not at the matched baud rate initially, then you still have to ALT+F1 to get back to the menu and adjust the terminal to the baud rate you just set it to. Doing both "AT" and "ATI" is a good double-check that both the terminal (ROMTERM) and WiModem (Zimodem etc) are at a matched rate.
Instead of AT+CONFIG, try using "ATW" (to list the set of wireless points; do wait a few seconds for it to search and report that list) and then
ATW"<SSID>,<PASSWORD>"
to join that connection.
And just tonight, RSSI (wireless strength) was pretty low (in the -70dB range, about as far from the wireless router as could be). There was a time where I did have to enter the password a couple times,
Do make sure you are in ANSI terminal mode (ALT+T to change terminal modes, per the ROMTERM instructions). But I noticed even in ANSI mode, I couldn't type tilde, underscore, or curly-braces (which can be an issue if your password contains any of those).
Prior to connecting to a CBM BBS (like Particles BBS), adjust the terminal to CBM.
Re: 921.6 Kbps Serial / Network card issues
ATI output
Zimdoem ESP32 Firmware v4.0.2
sdk=v4.4.7-dirty chipid=3 cpu@240
tot=4096k heap=235k fsize=1287k
INITIALIZED
READY.
OK
Looks good to me, no dropped characters. In my initial debugging I did try a few different baud rates to see if I would get different responses, without much differences.
I had though of the password special character thing as well, that is why I tried my phone hotspot (single word ssi, and just numbers for password) I also set up a guest network (two word ssi (with space) and no password). No luck with any of them.
Thought of the antenna as well
If i have the antenna attached, any of the 3 wifi ssid i want to connect to are around -33. The ones for the offices next door are -55 up to -63
If I remove the antenna I lose all but my phone which I have on top of the case (I'm using the official pizza box case with the top removed)
if I do the ATW command, I get the list however trying to join any wireless just returns ERROR
I was hoping that I could connect my linux term to the usb serial port while trying to connect via the X16, however I was a bit surprised when it started to back feed into X16, so I didn't continue. However it looks like there isn't really a lot of debugging messages so it wouldn't help.
I'm going to start hacking the code to do more debugging statements. I can also upload a simple sketch to test the ESP32.
More later once have some more results
Zimdoem ESP32 Firmware v4.0.2
sdk=v4.4.7-dirty chipid=3 cpu@240
tot=4096k heap=235k fsize=1287k
INITIALIZED
READY.
OK
Looks good to me, no dropped characters. In my initial debugging I did try a few different baud rates to see if I would get different responses, without much differences.
I had though of the password special character thing as well, that is why I tried my phone hotspot (single word ssi, and just numbers for password) I also set up a guest network (two word ssi (with space) and no password). No luck with any of them.
Thought of the antenna as well
If i have the antenna attached, any of the 3 wifi ssid i want to connect to are around -33. The ones for the offices next door are -55 up to -63
If I remove the antenna I lose all but my phone which I have on top of the case (I'm using the official pizza box case with the top removed)
if I do the ATW command, I get the list however trying to join any wireless just returns ERROR
I was hoping that I could connect my linux term to the usb serial port while trying to connect via the X16, however I was a bit surprised when it started to back feed into X16, so I didn't continue. However it looks like there isn't really a lot of debugging messages so it wouldn't help.
I'm going to start hacking the code to do more debugging statements. I can also upload a simple sketch to test the ESP32.
More later once have some more results
Re: 921.6 Kbps Serial / Network card issues
Version numbers in your ATI result match what mine has.
Note, I sometimes do ATI command several times in a row, to make sure no lost characters while ROMTERM is scrolling when it hits the text at the bottom of the screen (extra interrupt code to scroll the screen, can sometimes cause hiccups in the serial connection - more so on the wired side than the Zimodem one).
Although, did you typo on "heap-235k"? Mine is "heap=234k" [assume just a mis-type, but checking to be sure; I never had to firmware update this one, using whatever it came with]
The recent router that I connect to is using WPA2-PSK[AES]. Has worked on TPLink and Netgear brands.
I've had my WinPC (w/ usb serial) connected to the X16 using ZOC as the terminal. I've had two X16's connected to each other (wirelessly, this same TexElec network/serial card). And I've tested 9x of these TexElec serial cards - none of them had issue connecting to WiFi. If you got your Linux box talking to the X16, that's a good sign. by back feed you mean the little things like "CONNECT x"? I found you can connect multiple clients to the Zimodem.
Note, I sometimes do ATI command several times in a row, to make sure no lost characters while ROMTERM is scrolling when it hits the text at the bottom of the screen (extra interrupt code to scroll the screen, can sometimes cause hiccups in the serial connection - more so on the wired side than the Zimodem one).
Although, did you typo on "heap-235k"? Mine is "heap=234k" [assume just a mis-type, but checking to be sure; I never had to firmware update this one, using whatever it came with]
The recent router that I connect to is using WPA2-PSK[AES]. Has worked on TPLink and Netgear brands.
I've had my WinPC (w/ usb serial) connected to the X16 using ZOC as the terminal. I've had two X16's connected to each other (wirelessly, this same TexElec network/serial card). And I've tested 9x of these TexElec serial cards - none of them had issue connecting to WiFi. If you got your Linux box talking to the X16, that's a good sign. by back feed you mean the little things like "CONNECT x"? I found you can connect multiple clients to the Zimodem.
Re: 921.6 Kbps Serial / Network card issues
The heap seems to change depending on what I've done, which makes sense. When I first connect using ROMTERM it seems to be 284K. After I try to connect via the wireless it dropped to 235K.
Doing the multiple ATI commands scrolls correctly. So I don't think that it's baud issue.
By connecting my linux box, I mean that I was used a usb cable to connect to the usb port on the ESP32. By backfeed I mean that when I have the usb plugged and the power off on the X16 it will power the X16 when the card is slotted in. Not enough to full run correctly but it does come up to the READY prompt (with some memory errors) You do not probably want to have both the X16 powered and plug in the usb at the same time. Basically there should have been some diodes on the power lines from the card edge to prevent this from happening.
One of my main hobbies is building sensor networks with ESP boards. I normally use adafruit's feather system, but the one on the serial card isn't something strange to me. I was thinking I would just pull the card and then re-program it to see if I can connect to wireless without ZiModem. If I can then it means that the ESP32 board is fine. If not then there is probably something borked on the board and would not be worth further debugging.
I have not tried to plug a serial cable plugged in. I will try that later today and report back if that works or not.
Doing the multiple ATI commands scrolls correctly. So I don't think that it's baud issue.
By connecting my linux box, I mean that I was used a usb cable to connect to the usb port on the ESP32. By backfeed I mean that when I have the usb plugged and the power off on the X16 it will power the X16 when the card is slotted in. Not enough to full run correctly but it does come up to the READY prompt (with some memory errors) You do not probably want to have both the X16 powered and plug in the usb at the same time. Basically there should have been some diodes on the power lines from the card edge to prevent this from happening.
One of my main hobbies is building sensor networks with ESP boards. I normally use adafruit's feather system, but the one on the serial card isn't something strange to me. I was thinking I would just pull the card and then re-program it to see if I can connect to wireless without ZiModem. If I can then it means that the ESP32 board is fine. If not then there is probably something borked on the board and would not be worth further debugging.
I have not tried to plug a serial cable plugged in. I will try that later today and report back if that works or not.