Cannot connect using android app or particle setup

Troubleshooting
1

Hi!

This is my first post and I hope it won’t being the last one, I can’t wait to work with this board. Since is my first post, I would love to introduce myself, I’m Luis and I work at the deparment of education of a spanish company teaching kids and adults to understand technology and being able to develop their own products and not just to have them.

I’m involved in programming (Arduino, python, android, javascript), robotics, 3D design and printing.

So, let’s heds up to my trouble. I’ve been trying to connect my photon and I’m not able to do this. I’ve used the photon Android App and the particle-cli command line tools. With both I’ve passed the wifi connections, but the devices doesn’t connect to the cloud.

I didn’t need to changed my router settings to fulfilling the said in the docs because it was already my config:

2.4GHz capable router
Channels 1-11
WPA/WPA2 encryption
On a broadcasted SSID network
Not behind a hard firewall or Enterprise network

What can I do to connect to the cloud?

Thanks so much.

1 Like
2

Hey there, welcome to the community!

I’ll skip my introductions, and go straight for the issue :wink:
does your router broadcast on both 2.4GHz as well as 5GHz? If so, then try making sure they don’t have the same name, since that can cause issues.
For the mobile setup, does it show you an error somewhere? Does it stop somewhere unexpectedly?
The same goes for the CLI, did it give you an error, and if so, what was it? Also, did you make sure it was in listening mode?
While in listening mode, could you try particle serial wifi and see if that helps?

Finally, what does the LED do? What colors and what patterns does it show? The LED shows the status of the device, so it’s a rather valuable debugging tool :slight_smile:

3

Hi Moors,

Thanks so much for the quick answer.

My router just broadcast in 2.4GHz in n+g+b mode. I got an old one, so I can try to connect that modem, but I don’t have any space free in that closet hahaha

Also, they don’t show any error message, it just says that the photon cannot connect to the cloud. Once the app FC itself.

When using CLI, I was able to put all the data, then when reaching the cloud connecting it says something like “Seems that photon wasn’t able to connect to the cloud yet”.

When I connect the photon to the usb power of my computer, the leds blinks in greens, so I hold the setup button until it blinks blue (I think that is called listening mode) and after doing the setup steps (both app and cli) it keeps blinking blue forever.

I can’t check right now particle serial wifi because I don’t have the board here (I’m at work).

Grettings.

4

@luis_diaz, are you using an external antenna on the Photon? Does the router password or the SSID name contain spaces or odd characters? How long (# of chars) are they? What model router are you using?

5

Hi! I’m not using a external antenna. My Router SSID IS Movistar_XXXX (XXXX are four alphanumeric chars) and password is alphanumeric with 20 chars.

The model of my router is a Mitrastar HGW-2501GN-R2. I’ve two devices to connect to internet. One is a ONT (Optical Network Terminal) and then it goes trough cable to a Wifi router. I don’t know right now the model of the ONT.

6

@luis_diaz, either of your WiFi routers including the Mitrastar could be blocking port 5683 which is required for cloud connectivity. I reread your original post and now realize that you can connect to WiFi but not the cloud. I am not sure of the LAN topology on your network. That is, if the Mitrastar acts as an AP and connects to the other WiFi router to get to the internet. Regardless, you need to open TCP/UDP port 5683 on any router leading to the internet.

1 Like
7

Thanks! Will try when I get home :smiley: Will try to open the ports and then try to connect again.

Thank you so much.

1 Like
8

Hi!

I've testing particle setup and this is the output:

I have detected a Core connected via USB.
? Would you like to continue with this one? Yes
? Should I scan for nearby Wi-Fi networks? Yes
? Select the Wi-Fi network with which you wish to connect your device: MOVISTAR_
? Security Type WPA2
? Wi-Fi Password password-here
! Something went wrong: Serial timed out
! Something went wrong
! Serial timed out
Potentially unhandled rejection [2] Serial timed out (WARNING: non-Error used)

This is using ubuntu 15.10.

When I plug in the usb the led start too blink quickly in a combination of white/light blue and red color (most of the time in white/light blue).

I've tried to setup the photon in mac osx and this is the terminal output:

Setup is easy! Let's get started...
It appears as though you are already logged in as luisdiazugena@gmail.com
? Would you like to log in with a different account? No

! PROTIP: Hold the MODE/SETUP button on your device until it blinks blue!
! PROTIP: Please make sure you are connected to the internet.

I have detected a Photon connected via USB.
? Would you like to continue with this one? Yes
! The Photon supports secure Wi-Fi setup. We'll try that first.

! PROTIP: Wireless setup of Photons works like a wizard!
! PROTIP: We will automagically change the Wi-Fi network to which your computer is connected.
! PROTIP: You will lose your connection to the internet periodically.

? Found "Photon-HPB9". Would you like to perform setup on this one now? Yes

! PROTIP: You will need to know the password for your Wi-Fi network (if any) to proceed.
! PROTIP: You can press ctrl + C to quit setup at any time.

Obtained magical secure claim code.

Hey! We successfully connected to Photon-HPB9

Now to configure our precious Photon-HPB9

! PROTIP: If you want to skip scanning, or your network is configured as a
! PROTIP: non-broadcast network, please enter manual mode to proceed...

? Would you like to manually enter your Wi-Fi network configuration? No
? Please select the network to which your Photon should connect: MOVISTAR_73F0
? Please enter your network password (or leave blank for none): password-here

Here's what we're going to send to the Photon:

Wi-Fi Network: MOVISTAR_73F0
Password: password-here
Security: WPA2 AES

? Would you like to continue with the information shown above? Yes

Obtaining device information...
Setting up device id 3A002500064734313833XXXX
Requesting public key from the device...
Setting the magical cloud claim code...
Telling the Photon to apply your Wi-Fi configuration...
The Photon will now attempt to connect to your Wi-Fi network...

Configuration complete! You've just won the internet!
? Would you like to return this computer to the wireless network you just configured? Yes
! It doesn't look like your Photon has made it to the cloud yet.

? What would you like to do? Check again to see if the Photon has connected
! It doesn't look like your Photon has made it to the cloud yet.

9

@luis_diaz, in the first case, Linux is finding a Core instead of a Photon so something isn’t right with the linux setup. On the Mac, it finds the Photon but I’m not sure why it fails at the end. What does the Photon RGB LED show?

10

After running particle setup under ubuntu (again) it seems the photon is trying to connect to the cloud. It’s flashing cyan.

Also, the led on D7 is on, but with a very low bright.