Help wifi config not working for 6x2017 emonpi loggers

JonStinson · 2021-06-15T14:39:16.539Z

Hello all,

I’m hoping someone within the technical community can assist us.

We’ve inherited 6 x emonpi loggers with PV and electricity logging capabilities. The instructions left with the loggers said ‘these are all set up. previously working fine. All good to go.’

Unfortunately, I can neither get them to connect to the Wifi nor update their internal clock. I think that they are logging, but time stamped in 2018 and 2019.

My abilities in this area are just above zero. I’ve been digging through the community feeds since last Friday and I’m no further on. I can’t get to the blue-screen in the setup instructions in the emonpi Guide webpage. I assume that this is because they were previously setup.

I managed to “reimage” one of the SD cards with the GitHub version of the 26Oct17.img. The “Inputs” remained but the “Feeds” cleared, and it didn’t solve my issue with connecting to the Wifi and updating the internal time and date.

When i turn on any of the 6 loggers the wee display still shows “WIFI: YES 0% 192.168.42.1”
I can find the “emonpi” listed in the Wifi signals.
the wifi password in the emonpi Guide page works fine
I can access the logger through emonpi.local/emoncms/, both in wirelessly and through the ethernet.
I can see the list of Wifi hubs, in the emoncms>setup>wifi. Including our home and business hub.
I can add the PSK and press [save and connect].
After 60 seconds the emonpi restarts.
the wee display says “WIFI: NOT CONNECTED”
the words on the emoncms displays : Status: Disconnected

All 6 do the same thing, and have done with many, many attempts since last Friday. The date is stuck to 2018 or 2019 - when it was last connected - I presume.

Is there any characters that would affect the emonpi accepting the wifi hub’s password? (! or & etc.)

Any help would be very much appreciated.

P.S. I have absolutely no idea how to type in any codes. I don’t even know where the I can type in codes in the emoncms settings - i.e. the sudo command line that is referenced by the community.

Thanks in advance.

Robert.Wall · 2021-06-15T15:40:31.021Z

Welcome, Jon, to the OEM forum.

Those must have old versions of emonCMS that are based on obsolete versions of the Raspberry Pi operating system.

My advice would be start again with the present download, which you will be able to update as new capabilities are added. I have the latest stable version running on a Pi 2B, so there’s not likely to be a problem with the hardware, apart from mine is a bit slow creating a big (in time) graph.
While you’re at it, and for the price, it might be a good idea to start with new SD cards, unless you’re sure those haven’t seen any significant use.

JonStinson:

Is there any characters that would affect the emonpi accepting the wifi hub’s password? (! or & etc.)

None that I’m aware of - I’ve got a lot of those in my Wi-Fi password (courtesy of Keepass’s random generator).

JonStinson · 2021-06-15T16:51:08.299Z

Thanks @Robert.Wall, very much appreciated.

Sorry if I am taking things back to basics here.
The stable version of the .img file appears to be dated - emonSD-24Jul20 (Stable) which is 14.4gb, the SD cards in our loggers are 8gb. So, I should purchase the new cards straight from emonpi.

emonSD Industrial - Pre-loaded SD card - Shop | OpenEnergyMonitor
Would that be a good course of action?
I’ll buy 1 to begin with.

Just curious - how can you tell if your logger is compatible?
you mention Pi 2B,
the SD card shop pages says - “Compatible with Raspberry Pi 3B+, 3, 2”
Would the 6 that we have be a 2?- states “emonPi Building: emonSD-26Oct17” on the wee display, would that give any indication?

Thank you for clearing up my initial thoughts, about it being linked to the characters in the Wifi hub’s password.

Robert.Wall · 2021-06-15T19:39:37.001Z

JonStinson:

SD cards in our loggers are 8gb. So, I should purchase the new cards straight from emonpi.

For a reason I can’t fathom, the download is a 16 GB image. It can be shrunk down to 8 GB, but it’s a right pain to do so (though having done one, you have your own 8 GB image for all the others).
I’d go out and buy 16 GB or 32 GB cards and flash them myself, but you can equally buy them from our shop. You end up with the same thing.

JonStinson:

Just curious - how can you tell if your logger is compatible?
you mention Pi 2B,

(We don’t call it a logger here - just ‘emonPi’.)
The emonPi is a Raspberry Pi with what is effectively a 2-channel emonTx sitting on it (sold separately as the “emonPi Shield”), plus a case and display. You’ll have to either get it working so that it can tell you, or take one apart and look at the RPi to see what model you have. That’s easy enough - everything slides out together, the display and the Pi/emon are connected together, (preferably take the end where the ct sockets are off), and don’t damage the fine wires to the push button. Or, if you know the purchase date / order number, Gwil should be able to tell you.

As far as I know, the present image will run on every Pi since the 2B, and I’m simply not sure about earlier ones.

JonStinson · 2021-06-17T10:25:34.825Z

Thanks again @Robert.Wall

Robert.Wall:

You’ll have to either get it working so that it can tell you

Is that listed somewhere in the emoncms page? >setup >server information
or
under the board?

emonpi01 bottom of board1600×1200 289 KB

I believe that they were purchased on Feb or March 2018. @Gwil does that help to narrow down the Pi version, would our 6 be Raspberry Pi 2?

Robert.Wall · 2021-06-17T10:46:19.475Z

JonStinson:

under the board?

You need to look at the Pi itself to see what version it is. Alternatively, there are plenty of pictures elsewhere of all the different RPi variants.

JonStinson:

Is that listed somewhere in the emoncms page?

It’s under Setup → Admin (the Pi section is right near the bottom of the Admin page) – but that only helps when it’s all working .

JonStinson · 2021-07-06T15:22:40.014Z

New SD card arrived on Saturday - less than 24 hrs after ordering it on Friday : phenomenal service OpenEnergyMonitor Team !! thank you

inserted the new SD card, all working - problem solved!
Thank you @Robert.Wall