Photon flashes white then blinks blue

I think I’ve erased the network credentials from a Photon that was working fine. It flashes white when I apply power, then flashes blue at about 2Hz. But the Particle app on my phone does not see it. So how can I recover?

Never mind - I figured out that I needed to add it as a new device in the Particle app, it wouldn’t connect as the original name.

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Thanks for posting your solution!

@KyleG, I spoke too soon. Now:

  • I put it in listening mode (blue LED at about 2Hz).
  • on the mobile app: select “Set up a Photon” .
  • select the Photon softAP it found
  • select my wireless network, enter the p/w, and tap Connect

The Photon flashes green for about 5 seconds then goes back to listening mode.
The mobile app says “Error! Setup process couldn’t configure the WiFi credentials for your Photon…”

I’ve repeated this several times with the same outcome. Very frustrating.

Try to reset the credentials by holding down SETUP for 10+ seconds (till rapid blue flashing)

And the try CLI

particle serial wifi

Also make sure your SSID doesn’t belong to a 5GHz network and avoid WEP encryption.

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Hi @ScruffR,
I’ve erased the Wifi credentials and reconfigured with both the Android app and CLI, and the result is the same: the Photon flashes green for about 5 seconds then goes back to listening mode. I’ve configured several other Photons (one today) right beside this one so I know the network is OK.
Maybe something is wrong with the on-board antenna? Is there a way to use CLI to force it to use the external antenna?

You are in luck, just yesterday CLI 1.24.0 was released and this has the particle device doctor command implemented for exactly that :sunglasses:

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@ScruffR,

The Device Doctor looked like exactly what I needed. But after selecting either Internal or External antenna (I tried both), then Dynamic IP, I got:

Reset Wi-Fi hotspot name in listening mode

? Select Continue when ready Continue
The Doctor didn't complete sucesfully. undefined

Please visit our community forums for help with this error:
https://community.particle.io/

I’m not sure what’s going on for you there, but you can hit Skip Step for this step to see if continuing with the other steps help.

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@jvanier & @ScruffR, I appreciate the effort to help! I don’t understand how this thing can connect to my phone but not connect to my wireless network when there are two Photons right beside it that work perfectly, but I’m giving up. I just can’t afford more time for a $20 device.

Thanks again,
Ray