Esp32 hangs after several hours

I switch off the WLAN at the router, wait a short time and switch it on again. Then it works again for a while. I can’t really reproduce it, sometimes it runs for 2 days and sometimes only a few hours. But it never repairs itself on its own. If it no longer works, then unfortunately it stays that way.

I also waited extra once a few days with the error, I then simply no longer come to the web server. It is completely silent. I tried it with a Windows PC and Firefox, no chance.

Currently I use an ESP32 with external antenna, I have full WLAN connection to my router. I first thought it has something to do with the reception. I also tried a repeater directly next to the ESP, also without success.

What router are you using and which exact model of esp32 are you using? There have been problems with some APs/routers in the past and usually it is due to out-of-spec APs/routers or poor wifi signal strength resulting in timeouts in periodic pings to the AP resulting in one side or the other disconnecting.

I use a Fritzbox 7590 with Fritz OS 7.50
WiFi settings:
2.4GHz channel 1
Encryption: WPA2 only

I use an Espressiv ESP32-Wroom-32U with external antenna.
I can check the other ESP32 models I tested next week.

Now I just have the problem again. The ESP has a very good connection to the router and when pinging comes a time of 10-15ms. Even with long pings, no packet is lost.

I have never had this problem with other ESPs in the network with Tasmota

With me the issue didn’t happen since a time.
The Fritzbox is a 7530. The signal is good in the area of the ESP.
The ESP is a Wroom32U with external antenna.
The controller board is a V4.4 in the meantime with software about 2 months old.

What has changed: the temperature.
I had room temperature above 20°C when the ESP hung.

Now I have around 10°C. The controller is fitted on the wall.
With the clear cover installed.
The ESP was quite warm when it hung.

I suspect it’s a temperature problem or/and a problem with the energy supply.
I use the Victron USB port for supplying the controller.
The picture is the older V4.2 board with the ESP with internal Antenna.
But the setup on the wall is the same.

There have been a number of reports of WiFi issues with FritzBox routers (especially for mesh setups). There is/was an issue with Tasmota esp32 firmware for quite some time and lots of discussion around it.

Is it possible to capture the console output around the time that it “goes offline”? It should have some clues unless an event being received is not processed (there is no default catch-all that would dump details to the console unfortunately).

The supply current WILL have a strong factor on the WiFi operation, when the supplied current dips to below ~550mA it’s very likely the WiFi PHY will not have enough current to operate reliably.

The ESP32 datasheet declares a bare minimum 3v3 current of 500mA, all Espressif boards come with a 1A 3v3 LDO. There have been a number of reports of non-Espressif “devkit” boards using the bare minimum 500mA 3v3 LDO even if they claim to use a 1A 3v3 LDO, as a result they experience brownouts and WiFi issues due to undersized LDO and insufficient bulk capacitance on the board. There were a number of “fixes” circulating many months ago involving soldering a 100uF (or larger) capacitor to the 5v and 3v3 power rails or directly on the ESP32 module, I do not recommend either of these except as a last resort.

Today my ESP did not show anything.
Ping did work.
Switched off the 2.4g Wifi at the Fritzbox and on again.
The ESP answers now.

Strange…

I recorded the console output.
Unfortunately, you don’t see anything unusual when it comes to the problem. Log files are attached in the post above.

Possibly it makes sense to build a debug firmware and run it. However, I have only ever used the pre-built binaries so far. Since I would have to deal with the build first.

I have now noticed the following.
I have the whole day via notebook (Firefox) the webserver without problems running. where I wanted to look with the Android phone, the website was not available, but from the phone the ping worked. Also in the Fritzbox overview everything looked normal with a good connection 135 Mbit/s.
Also with a Windows PC and 2 other devices the website was not accessible.

On my notebook the website was still reachable and also navigable.

I then turned off my notebook and after that still no device could access the website. Even the notebook no longer when I restarted it.

Somehow the connection to the notebook seems to be still open and another one is not allowed.
Would something like that be possible?

Today the same.
Ping works.
Webserver not reachable.
Toggling WLAN at Fritzbox off then on.
Webserver reachable.