How is the wifi signal strength where the SensorNode is not responding? I can’t see the wifi and signal information on the screen. It may be that the SensorNode sometimes fails to connect and send data before starting deep sleep again.
While in deep sleep the ESP is switched off and reboots every time, with consequent pink startup log, it’s normal if it doesn’t respond to ping during the sleep period.
As a first attempt to fix the issue, I suggest you connect the board to a PC, and through a serial monitor read the logs provided by ESPHome, it may be that there are problems in the connection/IP settings.
The use of a good power supply and cable can help as, during the wifi communication, the ESP32 has current peaks and brownouts can occur.
Another suggestion would be to disable the wifi power save from your configuration because it could affect wifi strength and you can also temporarily disable deep sleep so that you can identify the problem correctly.
Plenty of wifi strength, I don’t think that is the issue. I did try a different USB cable and power supply, and the SensorNode has been up for over an hour now reporting in normally. I’ll keep monitoring throughout the day. Any specific requirements for the power supply? The power supply I was using is rated for 5v/1.35a. (The working SensorNode was using 5v/1a though, and hasn’t had any issues.)
Glad to hear the pink startup log is normal.
EDIT: Guess I spoke too soon, after 40 minutes the 40s/3min SensorNode stopped transmitting again, and the ESP32 was warm to the touch. I have connected it to my computer and am running esphome-flasher to view the logs. We’ll see what happens in about an hour or so.
Let me know if you get a log when the device stops responding. I have never had this problem but I have an idea what the problem might be, I will investigate.
Still trying to capture a log for it. I have now reproduced the issue with 3 power adapters and 2 cables. The same power adapters and cables work fine for my second SensorNode (which has never stopped responding in all my testing). It sure seems like one board has the issue and the other does not. I have adjusted my ESPhome config to be identical now except for names and static IP’s. We’ll see if I can manage to capture it today.
That said last night I did see it appear to restart over and over again before starting the normal Deep Sleep cycle. It looked like it was boot looping, but it did eventually start working normally.
EDIT: In case anyone else runs into this issue, after working with Nico it turns out on the capacitors on the board (C6) must have fallen off somewhere. If you also have this issue, check C6 and C7 to make sure they are present.