No wifi acces point after mega flash NodeMcu

[JR-Customs]

HI,

I am new to the forum but am using ESPEasy for a few years now, I have always had problems flashing the latest firmware but was satisfied with the r120 firmware but now I need to do stuff that is not possible with the R120 firmware.
I am using a NodeMcu board, on the board is written LoLin new NodeMcu V3.
When I flash the board with the latest or any of the 2.0/mega firmware I don't get a wifi access point online, when I read the data with the Arduino serial monitor I get one line starting with sd and then al kind of symbols.
I did try all kinds of sizes and waited more than 2 minutes after flashing before unplugging and I used the 2 step uploader in between, when this is flashed, an access point shows up but after connecting I can not reach the web page.
When I flash the board with the R120 firmware everything works perfectly, I get an access point and can configure the board from the web page.
Does anyone recognize this problem and have a workaround or an idea of what I am doing wrong?
I hope someone can help me. Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Joppe.

[TD-er]

First thing that may come to mind is maybe that there is some data left of a previous installed firmware which left traces of WiFi configuration on the flash that doesn't get wiped when you flash a new firmware.
Can you test with flashing a blank image first and then a recent build of your liking?

[JR-Customs]

Thanks for your reply, I did flash the blank image that I downloaded from the GitHub page. I even flashed a brand new board (3 years old but still sealed) with the same result.
could it be a hardware incompatibility? the board uses the CH340G serial chip, could that be a problem, obviously I installed the driver.

[Ath]

Does the Flash size of the image match with that of the board? You can flash a 4M image on a 1M board, but that's not going to work, the other way around it should work though, that could also be a test.

[JR-Customs]

I did indeed also try the 1Mb version without success, the R120 4Mb version works perfectly so that basically tells me I have at least a 4Mb unit.

[Ath]

I have had some trouble upgrading (only) one of my Sonoff S20's, that wouldn't 'take' the latest build, and I ended up gradually upgrading, version by version, and got to a November release, then I got tired of the step by step method, so I tried and it upgraded fine to the current build.
There have been some Wifi related changes during September/October 2020, so you could try a build from August first, and see if that works, and if it does, do the step-by-step upgrade into the October releases. If that still works, you can probably skip a few and upgrade to the 20201227 release (or later when it becomes available).

[TD-er]

The 3-year old NodeMCU board should be one with a proper voltage regulator (a big AMS1117).
Later boards have very flaky voltage regulators which do cause lots of issues.

For WiFi instability, there are the 'standard' checks to test: (Most of them in Advanced settings, bottom page)
- Force WiFi B/G mode
- WiFi no sleep
- Do not use "eco" mode
- Try using another access point (preferably a different brand)
- Use fixed WiFi channel (setting in access point)
- Make sure no metal is close to the antenna. Some plastics like ABS also may de-tune the antenna.
- Add extra capacitor over 3v3 and GND (experiment with 22 uF ... 330 uF, mind the polarity of the capacitor)

[jloc]

Hello, exactly the same thing happens to me.
I only manage to configure a D1 mini pro with firmware from three years ago. With the current firmware it loads well and generates an SSID to which I connect without problems, assigning me 192.168.4.2, I can ping 192.168.4.1, but I do not enter the home wifi configuration page.

[JR-Customs]

Thanks for the replys
@Ath, I had the same problem flashing these board with 2.0 firmware 2 years ago, so I don't think that will work
@TD-er,
- Force WiFi B/G mode -->I don't even get an access point after flashing so I can't configure anything
- WiFi no sleep -->Same
- Do not use "eco" mode -->same
- Try using another access point (preferably a different brand) --> I switched router in these 3 years, does not make a difference, as I told, the ESP does not create an access point for the first set up and this has nothing to do with my home access point right?
- Use fixed WiFi channel (setting in access point) -->I have but does not matter for first set up
- Make sure no metal is close to the antenna. Some plastics like ABS also may de-tune the antenna. --> the unit is not enclosed and I tried all kind of positions
- Add extra capacitor over 3v3 and GND (experiment with 22 uF ... 330 uF, mind the polarity of the capacitor) --. I can try this.
@jloc, It is not exactly the same because I don't even get an access point after flashing.

Does somebody know where I can get the R147 firmware? at least it is newer than the R120?

[TD-er]

If it doesn't start an AP, are you sure it is flashed correctly?
For example do you see ESPEasy logs on the serial port when booting it?

[JR-Customs]

If it doesn't start an AP, are you sure it is flashed correctly?
For example do you see ESPEasy logs on the serial port when booting it?

As told in the first post, when I read the data with the Arduino serial monitor I get one line starting with sd and then all kind of symbols.

[chemmex]

You can set the serial port speed in your terminal to 74880 baud to check ESP bootloader debug (which is sd-something stuff). But I suggest you flashing the module with blank file before uploading latest firmware

[TD-er]

If it isn't sending ESPEasy logs at 115200 baud, then I think it was not flashed at all.

[JR-Customs]

You can set the serial port speed in your terminal to 74880 baud to check ESP bootloader debug (which is sd-something stuff). But I suggest you flashing the module with blank file before uploading latest firmware

What do you mean by blank file, the blank file "blank_4MB" of the GitHub page, or do I need to open a file with notepad end clear all the information or something?

If it isn't sending ESPEasy logs at 115200 baud, then I think it was not flashed at all.

I think you are right, but why, I do exactly the same thing as when I flash the R120 Firmware, I don't have my own firmware so everything I use comes straight from GitHub and I use the in-between Firmware before I flash the Blank_4MB firmware. I tried two different boards, one of them was new so I have no clue where I do something wrong.

[TD-er]

There is a number of things that can go wrong when flashing:
- GPIO-0 must be pulled to GND at boot to enter flash mode (more on that later)
- GPIO-15 must be low & GPIO-2 must be high, which is done on the boards using pull-down and -up resistors, so make sure nothing is connected to the ESP at boot/flash.
- Board is not reset to trigger flash mode
- Power supply is too weak. -> use different USB cable and/or connect directly to PC, preferrably to an USB3 port as those can deliver more current.
- Wrong baudrate. Set to 115200 to be sure the USB to UART chip can handle it without issues. (CH340 may not always work correct on higher baud rates)

About GPIO-0 at boot.
What may help is to keep the "Flash" button pressed during boot of the ESP (thus when trying to flash it).
If you have no "flash" button, for example on Wemos D1 mini boards, connect GPIO-0 to GND. (when available use a 470 Ohm resistor, if not available, just connect it to GND)

Make sure nothing is connected to the GPIO pins to make sure no extra current is drawn and also to have the pins 0, 2 and 15 at their required state.

And last-but-not-least; Double check you're flashing to the correct com port (happened to me a few times)

Flashing a "blank" image is indeed one of those "blank" bin files in the ZIP. They contain 0xFF as that's the "erased" state of the flash we're using.

[jloc]

In my case, the firmware stopped working when I changed the type of distribution.
It only works until release v2.0.0-dev12 (Release date: Fri Sep 22 01:25:29 CEST 2017), in which they were due to memory size and development (normal, device and test).
As soon as I flash an Easy-Mega-xxxxxxxx distribution, the same thing happens again