Photon setup problems: Android App and Windows 10

March 12 2017 - Just received my Photon and thought it would be a breeze to get setup and start blinking LEDs. Unfortunately it’s been anything but easy.

Android App v1.6.3 - Doesn’t connect to the Photon from my Samsung Galaxy S5. I know it’s not the latest greatest phone but I’ve never had trouble connecting to ANY network before. The app sees the Photon’s network but will NOT connect. I reset numerous times via reset switch, unplugging USB cable etc… same result. So on to the USB setup…

Installed the particle CLI via the Windows installer. Robooted. Device shows up in Device Manager under COM4. Ran particle setup and logged in to my account. The setup utility looped forever trying to find my devices (I let it run at least 10 minutes). I eventually ctrl-c’d out of the utility.

Running particle setup again recognizes that I’m logged in and asks if I want to change logins… I reply “N” and the utility crashes with an error.

Running “particle serial wifi” likewise crashes with “Error loading command… Syntax error, unexpected token…”

Right now I can’t imagine designing a product around this board.

Important note… the whole time the Photon is blinking blue… as it’s supposed to.

Hey there, welcome to the community.
Sorry to hear your experience has been less than pleasant so far, it really shouldn’t be this complicated.
To adress your concerns:

  • the android app is a known sore point since the original contractor ‘vanished’. There is, however, a new version in the works that should hopefully adresses most of the issues.
    -CLI Particle setup: not exactly sure what went wrong, but I’ve personally never have been a great fan of the whole ‘magic setup’ thing, since hardware variations seem to be black magic and those are incompatible magics… Which leads us to…
    -CLI Particle serial wifi: that should’ve worked, and always has on my end. If you could show us the full error output that might help narrow down the issue.

Thanks for the quick response! Below is the output from particle setup (after the initial run):

C:\Users\Doug>particle setup

C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\particle-cli\commands\KeyCommands.js:213
        keyAlgorithmForProtocol(protocol) {
                               ^
Error loading command C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\particle-cli\commands\KeyCommands.js SyntaxError: Unexpected token (
Error loading command C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\particle-cli\commands\SerialCommand.js SyntaxError: In strict mode code, functions can only be declared at top level or immediately within another function.

 _ __             _   _      _
| '_ \  __ _ _ __| |_(_) ___| | ___
| |_) |/ _` | '__| __| |/ __| |/ _ \
|  __/| (_| | |  | |_| | (__| |  __/
|_|    \__,_|_|   \__|_|\___|_|\___|
                 https://particle.io

> Setup is easy! Let's get started...
> It appears as though you are already logged in as doug@solipsis.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.

TypeError: Cannot call method 'findDevices' of undefined
    at SetupCommand.findDevice (C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\particle-cli\commands\SetupCommand\index.js:293:9)
    at accountStatus (C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\particle-cli\commands\SetupCommand\index.js:150:3)
    at switchChoice [as completed] (C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\particle-cli\commands\SetupCommand\index.js:115:4)
    at PromptUI.onCompletion (C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\particle-cli\node_modules\inquirer\lib\ui\prompt.js:57:10)
    at AnonymousObserver.Rx.AnonymousObserver.AnonymousObserver.completed (C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\particle-cli\node_modules\inquirer\node_modules\rx-lite\rx.lite.js:1550:12)
    at AnonymousObserver.Rx.internals.AbstractObserver.AbstractObserver.onCompleted (C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\particle-cli\node_modules\inquirer\node_modules\rx-lite\rx.lite.js:1489:14)
    at Subject.Rx.Subject.addProperties.onCompleted (C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\particle-cli\node_modules\inquirer\node_modules\rx-lite\rx.lite.js:5871:19)
    at Subject.tryCatcher (C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\particle-cli\node_modules\inquirer\node_modules\rx-lite\rx.lite.js:63:31)
    at AutoDetachObserverPrototype.completed (C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\particle-cli\node_modules\inquirer\node_modules\rx-lite\rx.lite.js:5796:56)
    at AutoDetachObserver.Rx.internals.AbstractObserver.AbstractObserver.onCompleted (C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\particle-cli\node_modules\inquirer\node_modules\rx-lite\rx.lite.js:1489:14)

C:\Users\Doug>

Output from particle serial wifi

C:\Users\Doug>particle serial wifi

C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\particle-cli\commands\KeyCommands.js:213
        keyAlgorithmForProtocol(protocol) {
                               ^
Error loading command C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\particle-cli\commands\KeyCommands.js SyntaxError: Unexpected token (
Error loading command C:\Users\Doug\AppData\Roaming\npm\node_modules\particle-cli\commands\SerialCommand.js SyntaxError: In strict mode code, functions can only be declared at top level or immediately within another function.
particle: Unknown command: "serial"

C:\Users\Doug>

What are the reports of?

npm --version
node --version
particle --version

How have you installed CLI?
If not via the installer, would you mind uninstalling CLI

npm uninstall -g particle-cli

and reinstall via the installer?
https://binaries.particle.io/cli/installer/windows/ParticleCLISetup.exe

yes, I npm install’d the particle-cli… will uninstall and reinstall thoughL

C:\Users\Doug>particle --version
1.20.1

C:\Users\Doug>npm --version
1.4.28

C:\Users\Doug>node --version
v0.10.32

C:\Users\Doug>particle --version
1.20.1

Both NPM and Node seem to be quite severely out of date, with NPM being at 3.X and Node being at 7.X. If you could try to update those, that might make a difference.

updatng node.js now since it’s a real old verison

Updating node and npm fixed the CLI crashes…thanks… that’s my bad for sure although I did assume the CLI installer would take care of ensuring the proper dependencies were installed.

My PC won’t connect to the Photon network either. The PC also sees the network but won’t connect. Photon is happily blinking blue.

A Samsung Galaxy S7 - via “Settings” (not the particle app) sees the Photon network but will NOT connect

The original Samsung S5 - via “Settings” sees the network but will NOT connect

An LG G4 - via “Settings”… same story… sees the network but will NOT connect

I feel like this is an issue with the Photon’s network and/or firmware. They all seem to fail to get an IP address from the device as if DHCP isn’t enabled or something.

Using “particle serial wifi” I could get the particle on my wifi network… it’s breathing cyan… I feel like there’s still a step missing though since I never named the device or formally added it to my account.

Put the device in listening mode, and then use particle serial identify to obtain its device ID. Reboot the device and then do particle device add YOUR_DEVICE_ID to claim it to your account.

1 Like

Done. All is working… amazing support team!!!

FWIW:

  1. Tinker wasn’t installed by default (had to flash it)
  2. The Photon DEFINITELY has a problem in wireless AP mode!!! None of my devices would connect to it.

Thanks again!

2 Likes

I just want to add an FYI addendum to this thread in case anyone else reads it:

  1. I bought my photon with the maker kit. Someone I know bought standalone photons and my devices had no problem connecting to them in listen mode (wireless AP mode). My theory is that fewer maker kits are sold and they have an older revision of something. As I said before… the devices stall waiting for an IP address from the Photon as if DHCP is not enabled.

  2. The original version info:
    Bootloader v7
    System Module: v11

  3. After "particle update"
    Bootloader v11
    System Module v105

  4. Even after the firmware update, devices won’t connect to the photon in listen mode.

Anyway, I was able to get the device connected to my wifi network thanks to this community and the CLI. Knowing that not all Photons have the listen mode problem is a big relief and gives me confidence that the Photon/P0/P1 platform may be viable for product development.