Trouble setting up ESP8266 controller

[nborof]

Hi there -

I've been trying to tentatively expand my use of Fermentrack to function as a controller. I bought one of these ESP8266 modules:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B081CSJV2V

But I've been having trouble setting it up. I managed to flash it with the most current BrewPi firmware, and I got it to connect to the network (where it can be successfully pinged). But when I set it up, it doesn't seem to connect to Fermentrack entirely. When I try to Debug Device Connection, it passes all the tests except for the Connection Test.

I also tried flashing it as a serial connection. When I did this, everything except the USB Serial Number Test passed during the debugging. However, when I went to Configure Sensors/Pins, I was unable to set a pin (there were three pins available) for either the chamber or the room (outside) temp. I could set a pin for the heating or cooling relays, but when I tried to configure a thermometer, it said, "Failed to write the configuration to the controller. If this continues, try resetting the EEPROM on the controller." I tried resetting the EEPROM, and this did not help.

So my questions is, is this particular ESP8266 not really compatible? They were the first search result on Amazon for "ESP8266", so I figured it was a reasonably safe bet. Since I bought the multi-pack, I did test all of this with two different units, and had the same results each time, so I don't think it's just a single defective unit.

[thorrak]

Although Fermentrack doesn't enforce the restrictions for historical reasons, pins can only be used for heating/cooling relays & door sensors, and OneWire temperature sensors must be used for chamber ("fridge"), beer, and room sensors. Additionally, OneWire sensors must have their data pin connected to pin D6.

Although the board I recommend is the Lolin D1 Mini, (especially in conjunction with one of my PCB designs) the boards you linked are "NodeMCU" boards and should work just fine - both for Serial and WiFi - as long as you wire everything to the correct pins.

As far as the issues you are having with WiFi are concerned, what happens if you telnet to 192.168.4.150 and type a single "l" and then hit enter? You should get something like L:["Mode Fridge Const.","Beer 70.1 --.- �F","Fridge 68.6 28.4 �F","Wait to Cool 09m28"] back (the text that would be displayed on the LCD screen of your controller, if you had one connected).

[lbussy]

It sounds like WiFiManager is not fully disconnecting/disposing, causing a routing issue.

[nborof]

That would make sense. I'm guessing that's not a simple fix, right? It's not a huge deal to change the addresses on my home network, so that's probably the best way for me to go. Hopefully this will help anyone else who runs into a similar problem.

[thorrak]

I just uploaded a set of firmware that has updated libraries. It might solve this issue if you want to give it a try. It's available in Fermentrack/BrewFlasher as BrewPi-ESP8266 (Beta) v. 0.13.

[nborof]

I tried it, and Fermentrack wasn't able to discover the BrewPi, even when they were on a different subnet (.3). I re-flashed to Version: 2.4.2, Revision: 0.11, and it works fine again (just not if the network is on the .4 subnet).

[thorrak]

One thing to note (not sure if it applies here) - mDNS responses can't cross subnets. While Fermentrack should absolutely be able to reach/locate devices located on a different subnet than it is on (assuming routing is set up) it won't be able to autodetect devices set up this way.

[vanosg]

I'm confused as to how you can ping it though- it shouldn't be able to be pinged if it's on .4 subnet unless you have some unexpected routing already added. If you can ping it, you should be able to telnet to it. And of course I'm not there to know what steps you have and haven't done so we enter pure spectulation, but it sounds like you didn't connect to the ESP directly via wifi, as mentioned in https://github.com/thorrak/fermentrack/wiki . Just a thought, hope it helps

[nborof]

I am confused by this as well. The pinging on the .4 subnet was inconsistent - sometimes it would work, and other times it would not. The telnet however, never worked on the .4 subnet, and Fermentrack was never able to connect successfully.

[lbussy]

Ping is ICMP and stateless, Telnet is TCP and stateful. If the AP does not go away, two different 192.168.4.0/24 networks will be alive on the ESP and while sometimes it will connect, sometimes it will not. It makes sense that the ping works "enough" to get returns (albeit inconsistently), and mDNS is UDP (also stateless) and could sometimes resolve depending on the client.