Photon not connected since SYSTEM_THREAD(ENABLED); was added

Troubleshooting
1

Hi all,

I’ve created a project to open and close a chickencoopdoor based on sunset time. Because I want to open and close even if Wifi is not available, I use a piece of code to calculate the sunset hours. Open time is fixed. Wifi is only used for opening and closing via app and timesync.

When wifi connection is losed, It does not come back automatically and my code is also not running anymore.

How can I write my code so that is also working without wifi and when wifi is back, sync time. Or is there something why he is switching from offline to online whole day?

This is my code: Shared app

2

You should really do a quick forum search regarding this, as this is the single most repeadetly asked question around here, and there are countless topics already discussing this.

Alas, to point you in the right direction, check the docs for 'system modes' and threaded operation.

3

Thank you, I thought that my code should run witthout WiFi after reading serveral posts and documents. I will have a look again.

4

My Photon does not get online after adding the following. Do I forget someting?

SYSTEM_MODE(SEMI_AUTOMATIC);
SYSTEM_THREAD(ENABLED);

I also added the timers for reconnecting when he is offline (found in the forum)

const uint32_t msRetryDelay = 5*60000; // retry every 5min
const uint32_t msRetryTime  =   30000; // stop trying after 30sec

bool   retryRunning = false;
Timer retryTimer(msRetryDelay, retryConnect);  // timer to retry connecting
Timer stopTimer(msRetryTime, stopConnect);     // timer to stop a long running try

void retryConnect()
{
 if (!Particle.connected())   // if not connected to cloud
 {
   Serial.println("reconnect");
   stopTimer.start();         // set of the timout time
   WiFi.on();
   Particle.connect();        // start a reconnectino attempt
 }
 else                         // if already connected
 {
   Serial.println("connected");
   retryTimer.stop();         // no further attempts required
   retryRunning = false;
 }
}

void stopConnect()
{
   Serial.println("stopped");

   if (!Particle.connected()) // if after retryTime no connection
     WiFi.off();              // stop trying and swith off WiFi
   stopTimer.stop();
}

The complete code:
shared code

5

You may want to check the return values of your WiFi.setCredentials() calls and also power cycle the WiFi module (with apropriat delays) before calling WiFi.connect().

Also this doesn’t make too much sense

  WiFi.connect();
  if (!waitFor(Particle.connected, msRetryTime))
    WiFi.off();                // no luck, no need for WiFi

With only calling WiFi.connect() you will never get to the Particle.connected state you are waiting for.
I guess you’ll rather want waitFor(WiFi.ready, msRetryTime)

1 Like
6

Thank you for helping.

And when the wifi is ready, call Particle.connect(); ?

7

That depends entirely on your use-case.
Since you have some (re)connect logic in your code already, I’d say that part should be covered.