Good afternoon. Sorry for the long post. I’ve completed the mechanical and electronics portions of the build for my new LEAD 1515, which arrived a couple weeks ago. I’ve jogged, homed, run the air cut, etc. All seems to be working ok as far as I can tell. So far, I’ve been controlling the machine with my laptop connected to the USB port of the BlackBox32. Now I'm having difficulty with the OpenBuilds Interface pendant. To get started with the Interface, I took these steps: Turned off the BlackBox32. Unplugged the USB cable from the BlackBox32. Connected the Interface to the BlackBox32 with the supplied RJ cable. Turned on the BlackBox32. The Interface welcome screen indicates that it’s running firmware version 1.57. During boot up, the Interface indicates: [4/7] Wifi: [entered setup mode:1] After boot up, the top right-hand corner of the interface shows a red wifi icon, the words INTERFACE-0084FB and the address 192.168.4.1. The WIFI icon on the Interface is lit green intermittently. So far, all as expected and in accordance with the instructions. However, on my iPhone 14, with WiFi turned on, Interface was not listed in the available networks. Only the couple of networks that I normally see. I turned my phone wifi off and back on, same thing. I opened a browser page on the phone and entered the IP address manually several times, it never connected. I opened the wifi list on my nearby laptop, and there was no wifi network identified as Interface, nor could I connect to the IP address manually on the laptop. I tried with my phone a few inches from the Interface, as well as across the room. My wife attempted to connect on her iPhone 11, no network showed up and the manual entry of IP address also did not work for her. I’m not running a VPN or anything else that would get in the way of a connection. Despite the green wifi indicator on the Interface, my best guess was that the Interface was not actually broadcasting a wifi signal. Being stubborn…I tried the Reset button...several times. I also rebooted the BlackBox32 a couple times. Eventually, after several of these cycles, it finally broadcasted a signal and I connected with my iPhone. At the next screen, I selected CONFIGURE WIFI and then entered my SSID and the verified correct password and tapped SAVE. At that point, that window closed and my phone went back to the its wifi screen, the Interface was no longer on the network list, and I was automatically reconnected to my normal default home wifi network. I tried again several times, even restarted our wifi router. Same sequence every time. The Interface is either not broadcasting a signal, or it drops the signal shortly after broadcasting it. And after the signal drops…it never broadcasts again unless I hit the Reset button. Then, same sequence again. The WIFI status LED on the Interface is on only intermittently. The USB status LED flashes green rapidly constantly, although there is nothing connected to the USB port. For the inevitable first wave of questions…I’ve read the grbl wiki, all of it. I’ve read all of the OpenBuilds documentation. I’ve watched all the relevant instructional videos and followed all steps in order as outlined. Of course, I may have missed something. I have a home wifi router of current technology which is configured to be open to new connections. I have a recent mobile phone with the latest OS. Both my phone and laptop have connected to other wifi networks successfully. Other phones, as well as other types of devices, have connected to our home wifi network successfully. What next? Thx, rink.
Setup mode only comes up in Jog mode. It's a 2.4ghz local only AP just to host WifiManager. Pretty simple and always works. Double check your timing (interface booted up to Jog screen). Then check the LCD, if the Interface-??? AP is available that will show in the top right screen along with the local IP. Otherwise it will show your network SSID and dhcp IP.
Thanks, Peter. Still early here, I’ll check a bit later today. But yesterday, the Interface did boot up to the job screen. But the only thing ever displayed in the LCD (top right hand corner) was “Interface”. It never actually connected to my home wifi. .
Video wouldn't really help The wifi manager is so simple and has been around for years - it itself works. The stack itself is as simple as it gets: 1) If no SSID/Password is saved > launch local AP 2) if SSID/password is saved > Try to connect > try to get DHCP IP. If it fails > launch local AP We use the standard GitHub - tzapu/WiFiManager: ESP8266 WiFi Connection manager with web captive portal - widely used. Its not that. Then it failed to connect to your network. And fell back to the local AP as expected. Reasons it might fail: Bad signal (doesn't have external antenna, so be sure to have good signal), DHCP server didn't give out valid IP in time, or Network is not a 2.4GHZ B/G/N
Our WiFi signal should be strong enough, our phones and other devices connect ok. And it’s 2.4GHZ b/g/n.
You can view the signal strength as the Interface sees it in the Setup page, just to be sure Also, your router might have some useful logs you can check out.
Ok, I got the Interface connected to my wifi network. Apparently, the window of time for entering credentials is too short…or I’m too slow. I had been typing in my credentials every time. A couple times, the credentials window closed before I even got the credentials typed in. Finally, I copied my credentials to the clipboard. Then I could paste them in and hit SAVE more quickly, and it connected. So then I reset the Interface and it connected again automatically during boot up. So I think it’s now working as intended. I don’t know what controls that open window of time for entering credentials (my phone, the Interface app, whatever else?), but it seems too short!! Anyway, problem solved, and thanks for the suggestions. Maybe this thread will help someone else. Now to install the RoutER11… Thx, rink.
Or your phone might be thinking its clever and "saving you" from this AP that doesn't allow its manufacturer to snoop on your activities by disconnecting you so it can go back to one that does... Some phones disconnect you from local-only APs because "they don't provide internet" - and that might happen in the time window you observe... Check for a "feature" called smart wifi or something like that - some feature pretending to try to provide you with optimal internet at all times About Wi-Fi Assist - Apple Support. "With iOS 9 and later, you can use Wi-Fi Assist to automatically switch to cellular when you have a poor Wi-Fi connection." Sounds like the culprit. The setup tool AP is after all "a poor wifi connection" in that is the phone and the interface and nothing else, no internet... "Wi-Fi Assist is on by default. If you don't want your iOS device to stay connected to the Internet when you have a poor Wi-Fi connection, you can disable Wi-Fi Assist. Go to Settings > Cellular or Settings > Mobile Data. Then scroll down and tap the slider for Wi-Fi Assist." docs:blackbox-x32:connect-dewalt-iotrelay [OpenBuilds Documentation] and
I read some posts about WiFi assist, but I thought they appeared to be related to android devices so I passed over that. But…you are correct…it’s on iPhone as well..and my WiFi assist is turned on. So had I turned that off, I may not have had any problems at all. Oh well, live and learn. Sorry for the trouble.
