aursinc pizero will not connect itself to wifi (solved)

Help setting up WiFi
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AA1FR
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2022 7:26 pm

aursinc pizero will not connect itself to wifi (solved)

Post by AA1FR »

Hello, I just setup my Aursinc pi Zero unit and was able to program it for my wifi through 192.168.50.1 but it will not connect itself to my wifi.
I can access the pi-star Setup by either my laptop or phone.
I made an image of the sd card before first powering up, and have re-burnt it to the card to start over.
I made my phone into a hotspot, and it would not connect to it either.
After setup, I powered down or rebooted gracefully by the dashboard, unplugged power, etc.
last I did was d/l latest image, checksum OK, and same exact problem.
Tried new sd card, power supplies.
Only display I have gotten is "startup" or "close".
No spaces or special chars in either router or phone hotspot wIfi.
rebooted everything.
Pi Zero card activity light looks normal, pi-star card has steady green led abd a blinking red led.
I am about to return it to Amazon.
edit: all above is using 2.4ghz.
Thanks,
Jim
Last edited by AA1FR on Mon Mar 21, 2022 6:38 pm, edited 2 times in total.
AF6VN
Posts: 821
Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2018 1:15 am

Re: aursinc pizero will not connect itself to wifi

Post by AF6VN »

Since the WiFi part is handled strictly by the R-Pi, one suggested test would be to remove the MMDVM board and write a standard RaspOS image https://www.raspberrypi.com/software/op ... -os-32-bit to the SD card. Debug the WiFi using that -- when you succeed duplicate the WPA supplicant file to the Pi-Star image. After all, if the Pi-Star Auto-AP came up, the WiFi hardware IS WORKING; the only reason for failure to connect would either be incorrect configuration in the WPA supplicant file, or routers with some sort of security rejecting unknown devices (connect to your router status page(s) and look for something that lists WiFi).

NOTE: the R-Pi Zero W, as I recall, is ONLY 2.4GHz. If your router and/or phone are using 5GHz band, you will NOT get a connection.

--
AF6VN
Dennis L Bieber
AA1FR
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2022 7:26 pm

Re: aursinc pizero will not connect itself to wifi

Post by AA1FR »

Thanks, I added that it was all 2.4ghz, and I had turned off any 5ghz wifi. Also the phone hotspot was without any router. Also working well for setup up to the point to not connecting to the phone. Simple passwords, no special chars.
Since the unit came with the latest build on the sd card, why would the wifi be wrong? I did notice it was set to JP, but changed everything to US.
I can't easily get the case off, and don't want to damage it if I am returning it.
Another route to try if I can remove the rf board, will it just plug into my spare rpi2?
Can I ssh into it with a usb cable or while it is in setup mode?
and maybe I have a pi3. I have a pi4 but don't want to risk it using for troubleshooting as they are unobtainium for now.
Thanks, any more detailed wifi tweaking is welcome.
Jim
AA1FR
Posts: 3
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2022 7:26 pm

Re: aursinc pizero will not connect itself to wifi (solved)

Post by AA1FR »

UPDATE: I believe I wasted two days trying to solve this, but it must have been connecting from the start.
Although I checked my router clients in the beginning, I must have missed that it was connected, and shows in the DHCP list.
Now I can be on my normal WiFi and see the pi-star dashboard under pi-star.local in my Firefox browser.
Now next step is how to use the system. I will try d-star with my Icom id-51. I think I registered some time ago to the local d-star critters.
73, jim

Update: I am confused, maybe it only just connected. Until now I never got the green "interface is up", which shows now. And I guess the blinking red led is normal.
I shall now image the sd card and start adding in my parameters.
AF6VN
Posts: 821
Joined: Fri Jul 20, 2018 1:15 am

Re: aursinc pizero will not connect itself to wifi

Post by AF6VN »

AA1FR wrote: Mon Mar 21, 2022 4:47 pm Thanks, I added that it was all 2.4ghz, and I had turned off any 5ghz wifi. Also the phone hotspot was without any router. Also working well for setup up to the point to not connecting to the phone. Simple passwords, no special chars.
In the situation with the phone -- the /phone/ is the /router/ (routing internal LAN connections to the WAN via cellular data service)
Can I ssh into it with a usb cable or while it is in setup mode?
In my (limited) experience, most R-Pi models have USB /host/ ports (the rectangular ones with a "tongue" blocking one half), with the "client" port being just a power source. Low-level debug is done with a 3.3V FTDI chip connected to certain GPIO pins (boot console serial port).

For SSH, you'd probably need a USB<>Ethernet adapter, and run a CAT-5/CAT-6 cable from the unit to your router. (Having a couple of these can be useful if you ever need to test things isolated from your regular network)
AA1FR wrote: Mon Mar 21, 2022 6:37 pm Update: I am confused, maybe it only just connected. Until now I never got the green "interface is up", which shows now. And I guess the blinking red led is normal.
I only have an older DV-Mega, not a true MMDVM board, and all it has is a single blinking red LED, and the R-Pi 3B it sits on just has the standard red and green -- and as I recall, the red on just indicates it has power. The green flickers when it is performing "disk" (SD card) activity.

--
AF6VN
Dennis L Bieber
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