My project is still a work in progress but feel free to try it out. I think it does what you’re looking for. Works really well for me so far.
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Is there a way to connect the spark core directly to your phone wifi so that this will work off grid? The idea is that the core would access the web app through the phone’s cellular data without a wifi router in range?
Or, could it be done if app was an ios app instead but still directly connecting between the core and phone’s wifi?
I do this with my iPhone currently by turning it into a Wifi hotspot 
I thought about that but is leaving your hotspot on all the time practical? I’ve never done this before. Also, I have a tiny data plan with ATT and I don’t think hotspot is included with my plan.
What kind of range do you get?
I’m grandfathered into unlimited data, so that’s nice. Also my phone is JB just for this purpose. I only use it for the Core, so I don’t think anyone at ATT is going to mind. Receiving my email takes up more traffic than this. I haven’t range tested it yet… lemme see what it does.
JB my phone to enable hotspot might be worth it if that is still available. Thanks, I’m curious about that range.
Sorry didn’t get to it! Let me see… one sec…
40 - 50 feet line of site works great… 60 - 70 feet it started to fail, but would reconnect when I got back within 60 feet.
This is with a Core that has a chip antenna. An external antenna should definitely be better.
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Great, thanks doing that! I wish I had noticed the external antenna version before I ordered. Although I’m not sure they were in stock so the chip antenna will get me going. And if I buy another one later I’m suuuure I will find a use for the chip version, haha!
So do you just leave hotspot on all the time, or have you only been experimenting with this? I’m curious if you did that could anyone around connect and use up data or could you make the connection secure somehow with a password that only the core knew, like a wifi router with a password.
When you go out of range and come back how fast does the core reconnect when it sees the wifi hotspot?
It has a password and is WPA2 encrypted. It does always broadcast the SSID though, which is annoying if I don’t want people knowing my phone is a hotspot.
I don’t leave it on all of the time because it tends to be a battery hog… sometimes. Other times I’ve forgotten it was on and it doesn’t drain the battery. I think it’s really just because I don’t make my screen autolock, so it’s because my backlight is on draining power.
Sometimes the Core won’t connect to it, and I have to toggle Airplane mode, or Wifi mode … or the Hotspot itself. This usually happens if the hotspot has been sitting ON with no connection for a long time. Could be the Tether app… not sure. It works though, without too much trouble and that makes it all worth it to me.
It connects to the cloud through the hotspot usually pretty quick, sometimes not… dropping in and out of range is not a test I’ve done much at all. Bunch of factors will determine it… I don’t think it’s going to be super fast… but when I was testing the range and it dropped out, then came back… it was about 5-10 seconds maybe?
Thanks for the details!
Missed your post earlier.
You’re looking at the shared hosting. They have a 100% free tier. It’s also shared hosting but a bit more limited and free.
“Run up to 10 Web Sites per region for free in a multi-tenant environment. Seamlessly upgrade to a paid Shared multi-tenant or Reserved instance model as your traffic grows.”
I’ve currently got 4 websites running. Cost $0. It’s costing me around $4/month for my database.
I’m logging all my spark data(every 5 minutes) and so far it’s cost me a penny. Literally. $0.01.
Can’t go wrong trying.
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I just checked with ATT and was told my plan does include hotspot. So I tried it but the Tinker app says there is no wifi to connect to and won’t let me do anything. What is the procedure for using a hotspot to connect to the core when no wifi router is available?
Hi @pitchlynn,
It sounds like you want to configure your core to use your phone’s hotspot. One option might be to configure the wifi credentials over usb serial: http://docs.spark.io/#/connect/connecting-your-core-connect-over-usb
Thanks!
David
Ok, I can give that a try. Thanks!
Yeah that won’t work via Tinker, but Dave’s method is what I use and it’s faster than Tinker anyway.
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Hmm…tried it at lunch and couldn’t get it to work. I tested my hotspot with an iPad and that worked but only saw flashing green with the core. I cleared the wifi credentials before using the serial link to set the credentials for my hotspot. I tried WPA and WPA2 settings on the core. Could it be that it doesn’t like my SSID which has an apostrophe and a space? Or does it sometimes take a while to connect because I only gave it a minute or 2?
My SSID has an apostrophe and space as well and works fine, but is a PITA when I mistype it since backspace doesn’t work… so I have to type it really slow like I’m back in school practicing my typing for accuracy. WPA2 for iPhone.
Mine connects right away if I’ve just turned the hotspot on. If the hotspot has been on for a while, I have to turn it off… wait a sec… then turn it back on.
If that doesn’t work, maybe the way you are setting the credentials it messing up the core. Can you set your credentials for any other network after clearing them with a 10 second press of the mode button using the serial over USB?
Do not use the Arduino IDE for a serial terminal, use Putty, Cool Term or Tera Term VT.
I did clear credentials with a 10 sec push often mode button. And was suspicios that backspace didn’t work so was very careful to get it right. I was using hyper terminal and it seemed to work fine but I will try one of the others you suggested.
Also try to get whatever terminal program you are using to connect your core to some other known good Wifi network if you can. That will rule out bad line endings on the terminal program.
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I just tried putty and still won’t connect to my iphone hotspot. I also used putty to connect to my home wifi and it worked just fine.