4.3 with rpi 3B not connecting to network


 

RyanStrawn

New member
Hi, help please. This is my second HM. That doesn't mean I know what I'm doing. This is a 4.3 pre assembled. I plugged the rpi 3B, which is supposed to have wireless built in, into the HM board. I "wrote" the dessignated ".Img" file to the micro SD card. Put the card in the HM but no ip adress shows up. No HM shows up on the devices page either.

What am I missing??
 
Did you dl the img file for pre-configured client mode wifi, including your wifi SSID and passphrase?
From here.... http://heatermeter.com/dl

Hey Ralph, yes and no. I did but I used the wrong pi version. Also I chose Access Point instead of Client. But it works now!
New question: I'd like to have a second configuration, where I can connect to the HM direct if I bring my smoker to a place with no Internet. How would I do that?
 
You can also just put the config.txt on a USB stick and when you boot it will read the config from USB. It just needs to be any ole flash drive formatted FAT/FAT32 (or exFAT too in the snapshot) with the same parameters (this is for an AP called heatermeter with password 'password'):
Code:
# SSID (network name)
wifi_ssid=heatermeter
# Password for encryption
wifi_password=password
# Encryption mode psk2 (WPA2-PSK default), psk, wep, none
wifi_encryption=psk2
# Mode ap (Access Point) or sta (Client mode, default). Must be lowercase!
wifi_mode=ap
# wifi channel, only used in AP mode
wifi_channel=6
 
Last edited:
July 7th, 2017 - It is handled a bit differently though in that it doesn't "comment out" or consume the configuration so if you have two flash drives with different configs on them you can just swap them back and forth as needed to switch the configs without re-editing the config.txt each time.

I've recently also considered adding a wifi_persist option to the settings which will just use those settings for that bootup but not persist it, meaning it would only use that wifi config while the flash drive is installed but then revert back to your previous settings if you boot without it. In practice I think this would create too many problems because it would store them as "unsaved changes" to the LEDE config system and if you ever "apply" anything in the webui your non-persistent settings become persistent. It also could get in that wedged state where the network configuration stops working altogether due to a mismatch of all the options a lot more easily so I've stopped considering doing that.
 
I know I have suggested this before, and was probably told the technical reason why this idea is DOA.... but couldn't we just put multiple config files the SD card, like config1, config2 etc, and then in the HM device menu add a screen to "load config" 1,2,3 etc? That would be the most straight forward and useful option. It would be nice to be able to save a config for special networks, like a friend or relative where you may bring your HM occasionally to do a cook.
 
Because it is an avalanche of work for an uncommon use case. The LCD doesn't know anything about being attached to anything, so it would need some sort of menu extension structure for being able to upload and maintain a selection list. Then the linkmeterd would need to keep track of the config files and keep the selection list synced up. Then there'd need to be a way to manage the separate config files via the webui LinkMeter -> Wifi section. Then something needs to be able to figure out what configuration its running even given than you can muck with it via USB or the webui or command line. It's just a lot to get all working together and adds more tabs and edit controls to the webui. And why can't it just autoconnect when it sees an AP that matches one of its config files? And why can't you just connect to wifi using the device buttons and the answer being that entering a wifi password arcade-high-score-scrolling-alphabet style is pretty much out of the question.

I do like the idea sort of, but I see all sorts of weird corner cases in my mind that could render it as much as a pain as it is helpful. I think the USB is the most straightforward and deliberate way of switching profiles, although it does need a computer.
 

 

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