I have an ESPHome node that contains a Seeed Studio Xiao ESP32C3 MCU that is installed just outside the garage. It works intermittently with the main WiFI access point that is on the other side of the garage (i.e. 2 brick walls in between) and so I have created a ‘WiFi Extender’ AP on the other side of the garage wall next to the node.
Due to the intermittent nature of the access (only about 5% of the time if I’m lucky even though my iPhone records only a slight signal drop) I have tried to update the firmware so that it will access the WiFI Extender SSID but without much success.
I can connect to the nodes WiFi AP from my laptop and it brings up the web page to let me do an OTA upload from a local file in the laptop.
I can see the update start but after about 20 to 30 seconds it just says “Update Failed”.
I’m still connected to the nodes AP with a good strong signal.
The Home Assistant and ESPHome Builder software are all up to date and the compile was performed just now as well.
Any ideas (or requests for further information) about what I can do next?
Susan
(BTW I have a number of other nodes that use the same processor and they have no issues.)
WiFi is a two way road.
What you see of signal strength in your devices, like ESPHome and laptops are the power the AP is transmitting with.
What you do not see is the power the device is transmitting with, which can be significantly lower and insufficient.
The ESPHome WiFi module have a output_power setting you can play with, but usually the only real solution is to get a board with a better antenna, maybe even one with and external antenna.
Afaik the seeed Xiao esp modules have the option for a small antenna to be plugged in. This might significantly improve your connections: 2.4GHz FPC Antenna for XIAO ESP32S3
If it has a connector for an external antenna, then it needs an external antenna to actually work.
There is nothing else that acts as an antenna, so the transmit signal is EXTREMELY weak.
Thanks everyone but I suspect that you are not answering the question I have asked,
(The board does have an external antenna BTW.)
The REAL QUESTION is why, when I’m standing about 1 metre from the node does the AP living inside the node fail the update.
To quote my original post:
I can connect to the nodes WiFi AP from my laptop and it brings up the web page to let me do an OTA upload from a local file in the laptop.
I can see the update start but after about 20 to 30 seconds it just says “Update Failed”.
I’m still connected to the nodes AP with a good strong signal.
@WallyR - regarding your first post: i’ve have thought of that as well and I have set the WiFI power to the maximum that the ESPHome YAML will allow.
Susan
Aha you are right I did miss that. Is it an option to flash it through USB?
What do the logs of the device say except the failed part?
Maybe the storage on the device is defective and once the upload hit those sectors with error then it fails.
@afsy_d - it is an option to flash via USB but that will take several hours due to the location of the node. If all else fails then that may be the option. As for the logs, I’ve caught myself out there as I turned off the logs on the device to save the bandwidth of the poor link.
@WallyR - I’m not sure how I can check this out. Thanks for the suggestion.
Susan
Poor link?
That is probably the cause then.
The percentage you see is the upload process and even though it may get to 100%. It is not the same as it is error free.
The ‘poor link’ I referred to was to the main house WiFi AP. THis is the underlying issue that I’m trying to solve by getting the node to use the WiFI extender - but I need to reprogram the node to refer to the extenders SSID name.
When I’m standing close to the node (and while I can get close to it, that does not mean I can physically access it easily) I can see the signal from the nodes AP is “full bars” and I know that the laptop will be sending a strong signal (in normal use I can easily see the laptop’s signal strength as very good at the main house AP even when I’m at the other end of the house). Therefore I think I can rule out signal strength issues when trying to upload the firmware from the laptop directly to the nodes AP.
Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, the web page served up by the node does not show the percentage of the upload in progress. Therefore all I see is that I click on the upload button and after a while I just get the text “upload failed”.
I am afraid you need to get it out of its normal place and then get it to a place where you can hook it up with cables instead.
This makes the flashing more stable and you get more info in the process and also on the following startup, where error might occur thatakes it revert to previous firmware.
I guess this is now moot.
I managed to get a connection between the node and the old house AP for long enough to update the node firmware to use the WiFi extender SSID and it is now working well.
While this does solve the problem I initially had, it does not solve the issue of why I can’t use the nodes AP to update the firmware when I’m standing very close - but, as I said, it is now moot.
Thanks all.
Susan