WiFi DHCP Problems


 
David Crawford said:
Yes, I just built a 4.2.4 board and installed the latest software. I tried several attempts at getting these to work with no luck. I put both of them in my laptop and they worked just fine, so I know it is not the devices.
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The software on the HM can be a bit confusing... there's the firmware part and then there is the LinkMeter package... You would need to be running the newer LINKMETER packages to have support for the newer WiFi dongles, the firmware alone wont do it...
 
RalphTrimble said:
The software on the HM can be a bit confusing... there's the firmware part and then there is the LinkMeter package... You would need to be running the newer LINKMETER packages to have support for the newer WiFi dongles, the firmware alone wont do it...
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I am 99% sure that I am running the latest release of both. I know that I have access to HeaterMeter Device Manager, which was released with Linkmeter v12 right?
 
Steve_M said:
Are you sure your wifi adapter has the RT5370 chipset?
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Yes in fact I have three Edimax adapters, four WU715N adapters and two RT5370 adapters...adapter poor huh? Out of all of these, exactly one works and it is one of the Edimax's. I have done a lot of testing, I have used every security configuration setting on my Router. WEP-Open, WEP-Shared, WPA-PSK (TKIP), WPA2-PSK (AES) and combo WPA-PSK (TKIP) and WPA2-PSK (AES). I get the same results with each, only the one Edimax adapter works (this tells me that I am following the procedure). There is a clue though...when going thru the Wifi setup procedure that Bryan has in the documentation, "Step 6: This is where you think things have gone wrong because the "Waiting for changes to be applied..." never goes away." It does go away and says "Configuration Applied". Up in the right hand corner of the screen it says in red "Unsaved Changes: 1" When I navigate to the Network-Interfaces page the WWAN has this info:

MAC-Address: 00:00:00:00:00:00
RX: 0.00 B (0 Pkts.)
TX: 0.00 B (0 Pkts.)

No IP address as you can see.
 
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I've had good luck with the Edimax adapter (though not in Access Point mode), and have used a couple rather generic RT5370 adapters that all worked as well, and worked great in AP mode too....

I did, however, have a HM that was originally running an Edimax fail to recognize a RT5370 when I plugged it in (and was showing all 0's for MAC address etc). I unplugged alll USB dongles and removed all the "radio"s from the WIFI tab and everything associated with WiFi from the INTERFACES tab, and also installed the latest Linkmeter package available at the time. Then I reboot with only the RT5370 connected and got it working in pretty short order, but I don't recall exactly which of these actions did the trick...

Are you sure there isn't a MAC filter in place on the router that is blocking connection by device? That would be one reason why only the one adapter that is already connected will work. If I were you I would remove all WiFi dongles, use a LAN cable to connect and clear out all radios from the WIFI section, then clear out all wireless related Interfaces, then power down the rPi. Now temporarily disable all security on your WiFi router and boot up the HM with the RT5370 connected. Watch for IP on the LCD, most likely you will see the IP of the wired LAN adapter, connect to the HM on that IP and go through the steps to setup the WIFI connection and hope you get through, then re-enable WiFi security.
 
RalphTrimble said:
I've had good luck with the Edimax adapter (though not in Access Point mode), and have used a couple rather generic RT5370 adapters that all worked as well, and worked great in AP mode too....

I did, however, have a HM that was originally running an Edimax fail to recognize a RT5370 when I plugged it in (and was showing all 0's for MAC address etc). I unplugged alll USB dongles and removed all the "radio"s from the WIFI tab and everything associated with WiFi from the INTERFACES tab, and also installed the latest Linkmeter package available at the time. Then I reboot with only the RT5370 connected and got it working in pretty short order, but I don't recall exactly which of these actions did the trick...

Are you sure there isn't a MAC filter in place on the router that is blocking connection by device? That would be one reason why only the one adapter that is already connected will work. If I were you I would remove all WiFi dongles, use a LAN cable to connect and clear out all radios from the WIFI section, then clear out all wireless related Interfaces, then power down the rPi. Now temporarily disable all security on your WiFi router and boot up the HM with the RT5370 connected. Watch for IP on the LCD, most likely you will see the IP of the wired LAN adapter, connect to the HM on that IP and go through the steps to setup the WIFI connection and hope you get through, then re-enable WiFi security.
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I was going to try this, but I don't see how to remove the radios. There is a "Scan" button and an "Add" button on the Network-Wifi page, but there is no button to delete or remove the entries.
 
David Crawford said:
I was going to try this, but I don't see how to remove the radios. There is a "Scan" button and an "Add" button on the Network-Wifi page, but there is no button to delete or remove the entries.
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My next step would be to use 'no restore' option and start from scratch. Make sure AP mode works by connecting to 'Heatermeter' SSID. If that's ok then remove all security from router, reboot router, config HM as a client and connect to router. If that works add security to router and rescan for your WiFi.
 
I finally had a chance to work on this again and got it working. I used the SD Formatter tool and did a Full Format (Overwrite) with Format Size Adjustment to get the SD card cleared and then did a fresh install. After that everything worked like a charm. Thanks for the help!
 
I guess I spoke too soon. I was successful in getting Wifi communication working, but it will only run for 3 or 4 hours then it stops communicating. I have tried several different adapters plus two different Rpi's and get the same result. I have noticed that when the communication is fine the light on the Wifi adapter will flicker occasionally, but when it stops communicating the light is on constantly with no change in intensity. Any ideas what this might be?
 
I had problems with wifi communications as well.

I wasn't able to reconnect to the webpage after the HM had been on for a while.
If I was patient enough, it would eventually load the page.

Or if I rebooted the HM, then I could connect to it no problem.

I thought I should disable the power management setting on the 8192cu.

That didn't work so I set up a script to ping my router every minute. This seemed to fix things as it forced the wifi adapter to stay on.

I use the android Pitdroid app to access the HM or the browser on my phone.
 
David Crawford said:
I guess I spoke too soon. I was successful in getting Wifi communication working, but it will only run for 3 or 4 hours then it stops communicating. I have tried several different adapters plus two different Rpi's and get the same result. I have noticed that when the communication is fine the light on the Wifi adapter will flicker occasionally, but when it stops communicating the light is on constantly with no change in intensity. Any ideas what this might be?
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Not sure how adventurous you're feeling, but this little hack should do the trick.

It's a script that will attempt to ping your gateway. If the ping fails, it will attempt to restart the networking stack. If after 60 seconds, the networking stack restart doesn't fix it, it will issue the reboot command to the raspberry pi.

ssh into the HM and create a file called /mnt/mmcblk0p4/net-watchdog.sh

The contents of the file:

Code: 
#!/bin/sh

test_host=`netstat -nr | grep "UG" | awk '{ print $2}' | xargs ping -q -w 1 -c 1 | grep "received" | awk '{ print $4 }'`
if [ "$test_host" == "0" ] || [ -z "$test_host" ] ;
then
/etc/init.d/network reload
sleep 60
test_host=`netstat -nr | grep "UG" | awk '{ print $2}' | xargs ping -q -w 1 -c 1 | grep "received" | awk '{ print $4 }'`
	if [ "$test_host" == "0" ] || [ -z "$test_host" ] ;
	then
	/sbin/reboot
	fi
fi

make it executable by doing: chmod +x /mnt/mmcblk0p4/net-watchdog.sh

You also need to enable and start the cron service with these 2 commands:

/etc/init.d/cron enable
/etc/init.d/cron start

Now login to the Web interface of the heatermeter and go to System > Scheduled Tasks

add this line:

*/5 * * * * /mnt/mmcblk0p4/net-watchdog.sh

and click on submit.

This check will now run every 5 minutes.
 
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Now my 2nd RT5370 based wifi adapter refuses to work with my v4.2.4 HeaterMeter. The rtl8192cu usb adapter I was using previously fired right up without a hitch.

What's interesting is that I'm using a Gen 1 256MB Model B RasPi for my v4.2.4 unit and a 512MB Model B for my v4.0 unit

If I plug my RT5370 based wifi adapter into my HM 4.0, it fires up right away, yet it doesn't on my 4.2.4 unit.

Guess the next thing to do is swap the RasPi units between them and see if the same thing happens.
 
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So I swapped the RasPi units between the 2 HeaterMeters, and the situation remains the same. I'm now leaning towards the assumption that the something in the RT5370 driver package is getting corrupted due to multiple power cycles / reboots. The v4.0 and v4.2.4 units are both running the same versions of OpenWRT and HeaterMeter firmware.
 
I have done a lot of testing too. I have one model B and two model A's and several Wifi adapters. The model B will run consistently for days on end without any problems using either the Edimax or WU715N adapters. Both of the model A's will consistently quit responding anywhere from about 3 hrs to 8 hrs of running while using either type of adapter. I have yet to be able to get this adapter to work at all: eBay adapter (supposed to be RT5370 chipset), which works fine in my Windows 7 machine. At this point I think I am going to sell the two model A boards and get another model B, I think I would like to have the ethernet connection available if I want to use it.
 
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Maybe the HM is running out of memory with the model A after a few hours and that is what is causing the wifi to stop responding?
 
RalphTrimble said:
Maybe the HM is running out of memory with the model A after a few hours and that is what is causing the wifi to stop responding?
Click to expand...

Maybe so, I just know that I don't like it working that way. If it would communicate consistently for at least 12 hrs, I could live with it. As I said, I am just going to sell the two model A's and get another model b so both units will be the same.
 
I've left my HM on 24/7 for weeks at a time with a Model B and have had no problems, so that is for sure a good way to go. One difference that comes to mind between the A and B models is the lower memory on the Model A, that's why I brought it up as a possible reason the wifi may crap out after a few hours on the Model A...

I have also had no problem getting several RT5370 adapters working (COMFAST CF-WU715N) on the Model B, including Access Point Mode, which is pretty cool....
 
RalphTrimble said:
I've left my HM on 24/7 for weeks at a time with a Model B and have had no problems, so that is for sure a good way to go. One difference that comes to mind between the A and B models is the lower memory on the Model A, that's why I brought it up as a possible reason the wifi may crap out after a few hours on the Model A...

I have also had no problem getting several RT5370 adapters working (COMFAST CF-WU715N) on the Model B, including Access Point Mode, which is pretty cool....
Click to expand...

I have several of the Comfast CF-WU715N adapters that work fine also, but this adapter: eBay adapter, which also uses the RT5370 chipset will not work, which of course makes no sense at all.
 
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