New Heatermeter build - a couple questions..

[RKHanso]

I just finished my first heatermeter last night. I didn't get much time to mess around with it, and I don't have any temp probes or a case for it yet. I used a Raspberry Pi A+

Two questions:

1. The display says 18 C even though there are no temp probes. I didn't put the thermistor on the PCB, either. Is this normal? Is my build messed up?
3. I tried to change the WiFi so it connects to my home SSID instead of it using its own. I can get it to work, but each time it's rebooted, the settings go back to default. I was able to see the main heatermeter web page when it was connected to my home WiFi SSID. I also did click on the number of changes not saved indicator in the upper right hand corner, but it just sits and spins and those unsaved change numbers never go down, just up as I make more changes. I've tried multiple times to get the changes saved with no luck. What am I doing wrong there?

I searched the forum to find answers and for item #2, found that some people had the same problem but it just started working for them with no explanation. Others just didn't know about applying the changes by clicking in the corner and committing the changes.

 

[Steve_M]

1) I'm going to assume you built the thermocouple version, so you need to change Probe 0 to type Thermocouple in the web config

2a) Use the latest snapshot on your SD card. Download the zip file from here

2b) Once you have the image written to the SD card, edit the config.txt file the card, filling in the wifi_ssid and wifi_password fields.

# SSID (network name)
wifi_ssid=myhomewifi
# Password for encryption
wifi_password=rainbowunicorn

Make sure to remove the leading # on both wifi_ssid and wifi_password before saving it.

It should now boot and connect to your wifi network. You can check the devices page to see if it's online.

 

[RKHanso]

Yes, I did build the thermocouple version.
I'll try these things when I get home from work.
Thanks for the help.

 

[RKHanso]

1) I'm going to assume you built the thermocouple version, so you need to change Probe 0 to type Thermocouple in the web config

2a) Use the latest snapshot on your SD card. Download the zip file from here

2b) Once you have the image written to the SD card, edit the config.txt file the card, filling in the wifi_ssid and wifi_password fields.

# SSID (network name)
wifi_ssid=myhomewifi
# Password for encryption
wifi_password=rainbowunicorn

Make sure to remove the leading # on both wifi_ssid and wifi_password before saving it.

It should now boot and connect to your wifi network. You can check the devices page to see if it's online.

The config.txt file is getting reverted back to put the # in front of the lines.

I've made the changes and removed the # as you suggested above, but the HM never connects to the WiFi. I then looked at the config.txt file and somehow the # gets put back in front of the lines again. I double check before putting the SD card back into the Raspberry Pi and the # are not in there.

So, the Raspberry Pi must be putting those # back in front of the config lines (in red, below).

This is after putting the SD card in the Raspberry Pi and booting....

gpu_mem=32
arm_freq=800
arm_freq_min=700
sdram_freq=400
core_freq=250

##
## wifi configuration
##
# SSID (network name)
#wifi_ssid=makcomm1
# Password for encryption
#wifi_password=mypassword
# 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

 

[RKHanso]

Well,
I had a typo on the SSID.

It connects now, but takes at least 3 minutes before being reachable on the network. I've given it a static IP also.

Thanks for the assistance Steve.

Now, gotta get a thermocouple and thermistors. And a case. And learn a lot more about this thing.

 

[Steve_M]

The re-adding of the # comment in the config file is purposely done as to not have the system try and re-configure your wifi with every boot, since it's not required.