Possible CP5 Wi-Fi module failure #WiFi
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I've been using the CP5 Wi-Fi successfully for several months now. My primary method of connectivity to my PC is serial over USB, but I always connect the CP5 to my home Wi-Fi network so I can simply control it via my iPhone using SkySafari Pro when I want.
Recently I was having issues connecting to my home network from my observing site which is less than 100 feet from the router. I brought my Mach2 inside today to troubleshoot and was unsuccessful. The CP5 Wi-Fi will not connect in station mode, or allow a connection as an access point. With the mount 10 feet from the router it won't connect to my home Wi-Fi network (which is working); no IP or hostname shows up in APCC for Wi-Fi. I've tired several antenna orientations. I made a direct LAN connection to check the settings The CP5 did connect to my home LAN network and populated the IP in APCC (still not Wi-Fi IP shown in APCC) The CP5 would not connect to my home Wi-Fi network from the setting page (I confirmed the password is correct) I started up the built in access point, connected, but could not join the access point network; all access point settings started out as OEM including the password I tried several passwords, several power cycles, turning the Wi-Fi off and on, but even when the access point was created (sometimes it failed to even transmit the host name) I would get "Unable to join the network "GTOCP5_NET_102". It sure seems like this Wi-Fi modules is toast. Any ideas from users or A-P? Thanks, Eric |
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As a follow up:
After tinkering around I was able to connect to my home network, but I didn't do anything different. Then I noticed this odd behavior: 1. The Wi-Fi connection would only show up in APCC-FIND if I unplugged the LAN cable and refreshed FIND 2. If I initialized using "serial" in APCC I could not connect to the CP5 Wi-Fi using SkySafari Pro 3. I could connect to the CP5 Wi-Fi but only if I initialized using SkySafari Pro (iPhone) or the LAN connection, but the SkySafari connection was very sketchy. Any slew commands resulted in a runaway scope. I had to do an emergency stop using APCC. SkySafari locked up in the button pushed position and even doing a hard close didn't stop the slew. Timeout was set for 3 seconds in SkySafari. 4. Even when the settings page showed I was connected to my home network, I could still not connect or initialize the mount via Wi-Fi using APCC (2000ms timeout set). The Wi-Fi address would not show up using APCC-FIND, and APCC would not connect when I manually entered the IP shown on the settings page as connected to my home network. Subsequent power cycles resulted in the Wi-Fi module not connecting to my home network as described in the original post. When I would try to manually connect through the setting page I would often get an error which says, " 169.254.0.102 says Join Failed, General Error." This Wi-Fi module is definitely flakey. It seems like it isn't initializing upon power-up most of the time, and when it does initialize it still doesn't operate correctly. |
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One last observation,
More often than not after a power cycle (power off, wait 2 min, power on, wait 2 min) there would be no networks available on the Wi-Fi Network Connection Selection settings page. Smashing "Re-scan for available networks" would result in zero returns. Not even the access point.  |
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***SOLVED*** Eric |
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Jeffc
I was going to suggest “reboot the router”… I’ve suspected bad arp tables on my pfsense box (not with the Mach2 tho where I only use USB; I’ve found WiFi too fiddly and SkySafari lacking compared to a good ok keypad). Which mesh are you using? Fwiw , I’m using pfsense for the router/firewall and UniFi access points — one outside in the backyard and another inside. The UniFi APs are hardwired on Ethernet. On Aug 1, 2021, at 6:10 PM, Eric Weiner <weinere@...> wrote:
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Rebooting the router was the first troubleshooting step I took.
I'm using three Orbi AC3000 which provides excellent coverage throughout my house and across my property.
These new router settings did the trick. The Wi-Fi connections to the CP5 are consistent, immediate, and solid now regardless of how I initialize the mount.
A key indicator that I didn't pick up on these past few months is the signal strength meter on the CP5 settings page. Before I made these changes the CP5 setting page showed my home Wi-Fi network listed, but the signal strength as "??." I just assumed this was a function of having a mesh network, and not just a single router. After making these changes it now shows a signal strength of -47dB at 50% Tx pwr (it was at -52dBm at 25% for reference).
I can only hypothesize, but it sure seems like it was a matter of RF interference across the Wi-Fi channels I had selected for the CP5 and my router (both are set to Channel 1 now), too much throughput allowed on the mesh network (CTS/RTS at 500 vs 2346), and perhaps too much power out at my mesh transmitters (50% vs 100% now).
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Roland Christen
From your description it does not sound like the WiFi is toast.
Call George or Howard at AP and they can assist you in connecting to your WiFi.
Rolando
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Weiner <weinere@...> To: main@ap-gto.groups.io Sent: Sun, Aug 1, 2021 2:45 pm Subject: [ap-gto] Possible CP5 Wi-Fi module failure #WiFi I've been using the CP5 Wi-Fi successfully for several months now. My primary method of connectivity to my PC is serial over USB, but I always connect the CP5 to my home Wi-Fi network so I can simply control it via my iPhone using SkySafari Pro when I want.
Recently I was having issues connecting to my home network from my observing site which is less than 100 feet from the router. I brought my Mach2 inside today to troubleshoot and was unsuccessful. The CP5 Wi-Fi will not connect in station mode, or allow a connection as an access point. With the mount 10 feet from the router it won't connect to my home Wi-Fi network (which is working); no IP or hostname shows up in APCC for Wi-Fi. I've tired several antenna orientations. I made a direct LAN connection to check the settings The CP5 did connect to my home LAN network and populated the IP in APCC (still not Wi-Fi IP shown in APCC) The CP5 would not connect to my home Wi-Fi network from the setting page (I confirmed the password is correct) I started up the built in access point, connected, but could not join the access point network; all access point settings started out as OEM including the password I tried several passwords, several power cycles, turning the Wi-Fi off and on, but even when the access point was created (sometimes it failed to even transmit the host name) I would get "Unable to join the network "GTOCP5_NET_102". It sure seems like this Wi-Fi modules is toast. Any ideas from users or A-P? Thanks, Eric -- Roland Christen Astro-Physics |
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Roland,
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After sending that first group.io call for help I spent several hours of testing and tweaking the CP5 and my home Wi-Fi network settings. I found what seems to be a very stable solution. No offense was meant by the “toast” comment. It was simply that it had been working fine for several months, then starting 2 nights ago I couldn’t connect to either my home network or the CP5 access point no matter what I tried. There have been no changes to my home network, so it sure did manifest like it was Wi-Fi module failure. It wasn’t, and everything works great now. I shared my experience and settings with everyone since I’ve read on the boards about others who had similar, if not identical Wi-Fi connections issues with the Mach2 which A-P stated they were unable to recreate in the lab. Cheers, Eric On Aug 2, 2021, at 10:36, Roland Christen via groups.io <chris1011@...> wrote:
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Roland Christen
No problem. I ran into a similar issue at my recent Hawaii outing. My WiFi would not connect. I knew it wasn't the WiFi that was not working, i knew instead that my brain wasn't. After configuring my laptop properly everything worked.
Rolando
-----Original Message-----
From: Eric Weiner <weinere@...> To: main@ap-gto.groups.io Sent: Mon, Aug 2, 2021 3:57 pm Subject: Re: [ap-gto] Possible CP5 Wi-Fi module failure #WiFi Roland,
After sending that first group.io call for help I spent several hours of testing and tweaking the CP5 and my home Wi-Fi network settings. I found what seems to be a very stable solution.
No offense was meant by the “toast” comment. It was simply that it had been working fine for several months, then starting 2 nights ago I couldn’t connect to either my home network or the CP5 access point no matter what I tried. There have been no changes to my home network, so it sure did manifest like it was Wi-Fi module failure. It wasn’t, and everything works great now.
I shared my experience and settings with everyone since I’ve read on the boards about others who had similar, if not identical Wi-Fi connections issues with the Mach2 which A-P stated they were unable to recreate in the lab.
Cheers,
Eric
On Aug 2, 2021, at 10:36, Roland Christen via groups.io <chris1011@...> wrote:
-- Roland Christen Astro-Physics |
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