Installed firmware 0.7.0 and I started to have all kind of problems, like getting disconnected, not able to connect anymore until device was power off/on, etc, etc. I thought it was a router/WiFi problem, so I called provider, provider said all is good. Tried to go back to 0.6.3, I couldn’t. I installed the latest beta, devices are working fine. once again.
Same here…been fighting with two installations that ran without a hitch on 0.6.3 and since the upgrade to 0.7.0 I get anywhere from 15-30 dropouts a day. Usually lasting about 10-20 seconds. Usually takes a hard power-down to clear up. A simple reset doesn’t do the trick. Nothing specific I can put my finger on so I’m suffering in silence. I keep adding code to try and work around the constant dropouts. The easy answer is it’s my code or something related to my network infrastructure but all I can say is that under the previous code these devices ran for weeks without a hitch. Now it requires daily babysitting and lots of frustration to keep it running. And, it’s not a simple, “show us your code”, as the whole project is close to 2,000 lines of code. Who is going to read through that other than me? Just wanted to say I feel your pain.
I’m glad to know that wasn’t only me having issues with firmware 0.7.0 I am sure somebody else is going nut right now trying to figure why the Particle Photon is getting disconnected, etc., using firmware 0.7.0 I also have two projects. One is just a simple weather monitoring device using the BME280 sensor, but I have a more complex project that monitor the garage door(open and close door, auto-close door if left open for more than 15 minute), unlock the attic door using a solenoid, turns on/off attic’s lights, monitor the temp in the attic and turns on/off a fan if the temp reaches a predetermined values, etc.
I thought all my work was lost. I was so excited to bring my Garage Door project to China, compact it and mass production, selling it, and become rich. I guess that hope still in place 
I took your lead and upgraded two of my Photons to 0.8.0-rc.4. We’ll see how that goes.
For example, here is the IFTTT log from one device, just for today:
It’s always the same…offline/online. Every once in a while, that turns into actually dropping the cloud connection and my Freeboard goes crazy until I power off and back on.
Good luck with your project…hope you strike it rich.
You know, in my case, I even installed an external antenna on the weather device, that did not help, of course. I even went farther, I install an Access Point near the device, of course, that did not help as well. Yes, I get some “device went off line” messages once in a while, but the device stays up. I use Blynk on these projects. Here is drawing of my garage door project, so you can have an idea of it.
!
Garage%20Door%20Control|690x404
I have had the exact same experience at UNC Charlotte. My class has over 80 photons. Once we updated to 7.0.0 the wifi connections became very unstable. 0.6.3 worked. I would like a way to revert without using the command line.
I upgraded two devices to 0.8.0-rc.4 and one had a rash of disconnects/connects last night. The other one, doing absolutely nothing, only disconnected once.
I’m going to go back to 0.6.3 and see what happens. I just hope the next time I flash that I don’t get “force” upgraded to 0.7.0.
I just upgraded to 7.0.0 from 0.6.3. I too noticed that it acts funny. Had 6.3 running on 25 units 24/7 for 2 months with no problems. Upgraded to 7.0.0 and when you power the unit up the led flashes red for 4-5 seconds, then it restarts and goes cyan. Yet, pressing reset does not cause the same issue.
1 Like
I think this topic relates to this topic:
And this bug report:
https://github.com/particle-iot/firmware/issues/1526
I’m a little surprise that the developers have not confirmed or denied this issue. I was ready to scrap two projects that I have using the Photon, and move to the Raspberry. I guess they dont care.
I have pinged them a bit over a week ago about this (and other 0.7.0 related) issue, but at that time they were deep into the preperations for Bay Area Maker Faire 2018 and had little time to respond, but I can assure you they are taking things serious and I can also tell you that they are putting a “task force” together to investigate and try to tackle the issues.
1 Like
I believe Particle will be investigating 0.7.0 in this sprint.
1 Like
That’s right @peekay123. We do take these issues seriously, and have set aside time next week to investigate.
A major change in 0.7.0 was an upgrade of the Wi-Fi stack from Cypress, which included support for WPA Enterprise.
@italex Could you please provide some more details. For example, the channel number that your router is using, and the RSSI levels reported on your router against the device that disconnects, both on 0.6.3 and 0.7.0. If possible you might try changing channels to see if that helps.
As you might imagine, we haven’t seen any of these issues in our testing and have as yet been unable to reproduce them, so any and all information you can provide will be helpful in helping us track down the cause.
5 Likes
mdma:
Right after I upgraded the Photon to the latest beta, and without changing anything else, problem solved. The point is: something is not working properly with firmware 0.7.0
I changed WiFI channels around, I think I went to 2 then 5, etc., that did not help at all. Other devices using the 2.4Ghz WiFi like the house’s thermostat, did not show up any problem, same for a VOIP desk phone, etc. They all worked good, and still working good.
Thank you for the details. Could you please also check the RSSI levels before and after the upgrade, since I feel this sounds like a change in transmission power.
1 Like
mdma: I think you are correct on the transmission power level. I’m attaching a picture. The 70% level you see here, it was 80 when I had the problem. No matter what I did, that level did not change. I even brought an access point near the Photon, the level remained the same 80%. I installed an external antenna , that did not help either. Now, the vertical bars you see here are stamped every 5 minutes, if the photon misses one, you will see a missing vertical mark. As you can see here, there is not missing vertical mark, so the Photon has a stable signal.
Thanks for the details! How does that compare with before the upgrade, i.e with system firmware 0.6.3?
I have about 1000 online in the field and I see they going online and offline very frequently using system v0.7.0.
Does Particle has an update on the issue @mdma?
The only common behaviour is that most of the time, the problem stops for a few/many hours after a reset cycle.
I couldn’t find strong evidence that rssi levels have great influence. Sure devices with very low rssi levels will go offline here and there, but I can’t see a link between low rssi and the current Cloud instability.
During some tests, I found that the firmware gets stuck between loop cycles everytime a device loses Cloud connection.
Just to clarify, the problem you describe only came along once you upgraded to 0.7.0 and 0.6.3/0.6.4 works without issue without any reset "indefinetly"?
Also your symptom descriptions
would fit some code related problems too. So just to make sure, your code doesn't in any way run the risk of heap fragmentation?
I probably should not say this because I would not be able to take my devices off line to do it. But I wonder for those of us who are having problems with 0.7.0 could instead flash a very simple app to say blink a led every second and let that run for several days to see if all the problems go away. doing so would start to point to the cause.
I am kinda on board with @ScruffR about heap issues, or something hanky that the user may have done in code. As I too get unreliability with 0.7.0, but what changes my mind about this is that with 0.6.3 the same code works fine.
I would like to add, that I made a plant light using a Photon over a year ago using 0.6.3. Been powered up solid without a reset for over a year. Never had an issue. Didn’t touch a line of code, and updated to 0.7.0, recompiled and flashed it and noticed that far to often it would go off line and require a reset to fix. So I put it back to 0.6.3 and been running perfect for months now.
1 Like