ConnectBox Issues

[GeoDirk]

Posting from one of our users:

I have been busy with other things so only just yesterday had time to get around to playing with the box and I have run into a couple of issues. 

The first issue is that I cannot easily connect. I have tested with  3 phones; Samsung S8, Samsung S4, Asus Zen2, and with a laptop. All have the same issue.

I can see the SSID and select it. The phone connects to the wifi and it opens a browser with the captive portal splash screen telling me to go to http://go. I click on the button and my phone tells me I have successfully logged on. However, no matter what I type in the browser, I can't get past the splash screen, unless I type http://connectbox. At that point it opens up the connectbox page and everything appears to function. I can access the admin page and all of the settings. I could change the password and the SSID name, etc. Everything seemed fine at that point, other than the only way to connect was to physically type in http://connectbox.

Following the directions you provided, I was able to successfully install PHP and then I ran in to the next issue when I tried to enable the static web page from the settings menu. I selected to 'enable' and ten 'saved' but nothing happened. I rebooted and it still loaded to the default connectbox list interface. I check the settings again and the static web page was back to the default 'disabled'. I went through this process a few times before it seemed to stick. I then tried to load onto the USB a basic index.html page. This worked ok. Then I ran out of time last night. This morning, I am having problems with the device turning on.

Occasionally it will not boot. When I turn on the power, the green LED comes on, as does the red LED on the NanoPi, the the Ethernet jack lights flash a couple of times and then the whole thing goes black. If I power off, reseat the microSD card and power on again it will go through the process again but after the ethernet LEDs flash, the Orange LED illuminates, which I presume is the wifi and it seems to be on. I could connect (but only if I typed http://connectbox into the browser)

I wondered if my installing php or changing settings yesterday had done something to the boot process. When it was on, I selected the 'Reset' option in the setting menu and rebooted. It did reset in that the SSID name, password etc are all back to default, however, I am still having issues with it turning on. Sometimes, as I mentioned, after reseating the sdcard it comes on ok, but others not. It is currently in an 'in between' state. The green LED on the USB Hat is on steady, the orange LED next to it is on with two flashes every few seconds. The Red LED on the NanoPi is steady on and the green LED next to it is constantly flashing in an on, on, off sort of sequence. The SSID is not viewable on any device.

[GeoDirk]

You got some challenges going on here for sure.  It doesn't help that the unit that you ordered is without the OLED so that makes debugging a bit more difficult.  To that end, we plan on sending you a few things to help with debugging the issues you are encountering.  Jim will send you an OLED display, a good charger, and probably a normal case for the OLED.  They should arrive to you on Tuesday or Wednesday.  With the OLED, it will help seeing if the unit is booted or not plus the added benefit of being able to see the battery level.

On Friday, January 18, 2019 at 10:10:04 AM UTC+3, GeoDirk wrote:

The first issue is that I cannot easily connect. I have tested with  3 phones; Samsung S8, Samsung S4, Asus Zen2, and with a laptop. All have the same issue.

I can see the SSID and select it. The phone connects to the wifi and it opens a browser with the captive portal splash screen telling me to go to http://go. I click on the button and my phone tells me I have successfully logged on. However, no matter what I type in the browser, I can't get past the splash screen, unless I type http://connectbox. At that point it opens up the connectbox page and everything appears to function. I can access the admin page and all of the settings. I could change the password and the SSID name, etc. Everything seemed fine at that point, other than the only way to connect was to physically type in http://connectbox.

I'm not seeing that type of behavior.  Using the same firmware image as you, I created a short video showing how I connect: https://youtu.be/mtgkeZWGaD8  Are you doing anything different than that? 

 

Following the directions you provided, I was able to successfully install PHP and then I ran in to the next issue when I tried to enable the static web page from the settings menu. I selected to 'enable' and ten 'saved' but nothing happened. I rebooted and it still loaded to the default connectbox list interface. I check the settings again and the static web page was back to the default 'disabled'. I went through this process a few times before it seemed to stick. I then tried to load onto the USB a basic index.html page. This worked ok. Then I ran out of time last night. This morning, I am having problems with the device turning on.

This might be related to what I suspect are power issues described below.

 

Occasionally it will not boot. When I turn on the power, the green LED comes on, as does the red LED on the NanoPi, the the Ethernet jack lights flash a couple of times and then the whole thing goes black. If I power off, reseat the microSD card and power on again it will go through the process again but after the ethernet LEDs flash, the Orange LED illuminates, which I presume is the wifi and it seems to be on. I could connect (but only if I typed http://connectbox into the browser)

I wondered if my installing php or changing settings yesterday had done something to the boot process. When it was on, I selected the 'Reset' option in the setting menu and rebooted. It did reset in that the SSID name, password etc are all back to default, however, I am still having issues with it turning on. Sometimes, as I mentioned, after reseating the sdcard it comes on ok, but others not. It is currently in an 'in between' state. The green LED on the USB Hat is on steady, the orange LED next to it is on with two flashes every few seconds. The Red LED on the NanoPi is steady on and the green LED next to it is constantly flashing in an on, on, off sort of sequence. The SSID is not viewable on any device.

We think that this is probably due to the battery being drained and the charging mechanism that you are using isn't sufficient to keep up with the ConnectBox.  If you could get your hands on a microSD charger (wall wart) that is 5V 2A, that would give the unit enough power to not only charge it but run it at the same time.  If you are charging via a USB cable connected to your laptop, that isn't going to be enough juice to run the unit on an empty battery charge.  Please get yourself a good charger and let the battery fully charge before using the unit.

Let us know how it all goes after a good solid charge.  Also, once the OLED comes, give that a go and see if you are getting anything different.

- Dirk

 

[jeff...@gmail.com]

Thanks for the quick reply. It would appear, as you suggest, the not booting up was possibly related to low battery issues. I had fully charged it before I got around to working with it and for most of the first day, when I was installing the PHP etc, I left the power connected, but before disconnecting the ethernet cable used to install php, I had turned it off and disconnected the power. I did not reconnect the power again thinking thta the battery would suffice and not realizing that the power LED did not give me any indication of low power. With the TP-Link units that I am more used to working with, the power LED turns from green to orange when the battery is low.

[jeff...@gmail.com]

 -------I'm not seeing that type of behavior.  Using the same firmware image as you, I created a short video showing how I connect: https://youtu.be/mtgkeZWGaD8  Are you doing anything different than that? 

Yes this is what I am doing.

On Thursday, January 17, 2019 at 11:10:04 PM UTC-8, GeoDirk wrote:

[Edwin Steele]

Hi Jeff,

  Firstly, sorry that you’ve had a poor first experience - we’ve had lots of successful deployments but this clearly hasn’t gone so well!

To your feedback:

The first issue is that I cannot easily connect. I have tested with  3 phones; Samsung S8, Samsung S4, Asus Zen2, and with a laptop. All have the same issue.

I can see the SSID and select it. The phone connects to the wifi and it opens a browser with the captive portal splash screen telling me to go to http://go. I click on the button and my phone tells me I have successfully logged on. However, no matter what I type in the browser, I can’t get past the splash screen, unless I type http://connectbox. At that point it opens up the connectbox page and everything appears to function.

It sounds like you’re saying that entering http://go at the browser (after you’ve received the successful login message), doesn’t take you to the connectbox page. Is that correct? What does happen when you type in http://go  ? 

However, no matter what I type in the browser, I can’t get past the splash screen, unless I type http://connectbox

The only thing that will take you past the splash screen is http://go or http://connectbox (or whatever the hostname is, if you’ve chosen to change it via the admin interface), so with the exception of the http://go situation, this is expected.

For the phones: Can you please provide the Android version for each and the browser that you’re using? Is there an active cellular plan on any of the phones?

For the laptop: Which OS, and which browser? Did you have an active ethernet connection when you were trying to connect?

Also, have you connected the NEO to your local network via its ethernet port?

Cheers,

Edwin.

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[DorJ...@comcast.net]

Hi Jeff... Just to clarify, when you did the full charge of the battery, were you able to observe the red LED light on the HAT board? (The HAT board is the one with the square hole in it... has 3 small LEDs grouped together (green, amber and red), of which you probably will only see the green (power on) and red (battery charging) light up.) Was the red LED on when the charger was plugged in? And did the red LED eventually go off with the charger still plugged in? Most important... Were you charging with a "wall wart" and do you know the capability (ie, current it can supply)? With the unit turned off and a capable charger attached, the HAT will charge the battery at a 1 Amp rate, which means it should take about 6+ hours to fully charge (charging rate slows down as the battery approaches full charge.) The unit itself will typically draw 0.5 to 0.75 amps from the power source (battery and/or charger) so trying to both run the unit and charge the battery (at the full rate) at the same time will require a charger capable of 1.5 to 2.0 Amps. 

If you could let me know about the above, that would help me sort out your power situation and what might be happening. Thanks!

[jeff...@gmail.com]

Thanks all for your replies and suggestions. Could it all be power related? As I mentioned in the reply to Dirk the device had been on charge for actually a couple of days. I put it to charge when I first received it, but then didn't get to it again for a couple of days. The during the time I was installing the PHP, I unplugged it from the charger and, as I mentioned, didn't think about charging it again since the LED was still green.

I am using a USB powerbank (Anker Powerport 10), the type that plugs into the wall and has 10 USB charging ports with a max of 2.4A per port. So I am providing enough power to charge it.

It has been on charge now again for about 4 hours. Should the red LED charge indicator stop illuminating if it is fully charged?

Today it appears to be working with regards to connecting, if I enter http://go into the URL, it redirects to my html page. Is there any way that this device can redirect regardless of what is typed, or does it always have to be http://go? With the the MR-3040 it did not matter what you typed, so long as it wasn't an address that may have been cached by the phone if you had previously visited, then it would try to load that page but if the cache was clear, or a URL that had not been visited it would just redirect to the devices html landing page.

Though it is working today, it did not work yesterday when I could only get there by typing http://connectbox (http://go did not work) I was trying with 3 different phones and the laptop. The phones are a Samsung S4 running Android v4.4.4, an Asus Zenfone running Android 5.0 and a Samsung S8 running Android 8.0.0. The laptop is running Win10 Professional. I am not doing anything differnt today than I did yesterday, other than it is plugged into the charger.

I did connect the Nano Pi to the network/internet via its ethernet port when installing PHP. A side note, it was a little tricky getting the ethernet jack into the port without depressing the switch on the HAT labeled PB1 (or P81, it is hard to read) which is directly in front of the port. Fortunately, I had a homemade cable so the plug is a little shorter than what is typical with a purchased cable and so I could ease up the Nano from the HAT just a little to push the ethernet plug into the socket and press the nano back fully into the socket on the HAT. What is the purpose of PB1 and PB2?

Jeff

[DorJ...@comcast.net]

Hi Jeff

So "could it all be power related?"… Certainly the part about the lights all going out is power related. I don’t know the Power Port 10 so I did a quick look on Amazon. It indicates that it does do rapid charging of devices that use the PowerIQ system, but then also cautions that it isn’t compatible with 3 iPods, the HP TouchPad and Asus tablets. So it isn’t clear that it is a general purpose charger. (If, for example, it looked at our electronics and thought they looked more like, say, an Asus tablet than an iPad, then I’m wondering if it would think our HAT is “not compatible”.) Best answer I can give is put the ConnectBox on the charger and see how long it takes for the red (charging) LED to go out.

Yes, the red LED will turn off once the battery is fully charged.  Let's see how long it takes to get the red light to go off. That will give an indication of how much current the Anker unit is delivering for the charge. (The HAT circuitry will allow up to 1A of charge current to the battery… so with the 6000 man battery in the unit, I would guess a 1A current would have it up to full (from empty) in about 7 hours or so, given that the charge tapers off as it gets to almost full.)

About the push buttons... glad you figured out that the ethernet port could push down the button (it is "PB1") and that you have a way around it. On my setup, I cut the bottom side out of the connector (cable side) so it would not depress the button. So PB1 and PB2 are the "forward" and "backward" buttons used in scrolling through the different pages of the OLED display. They aren't strictly necessary if you have a unit without the OLED, but in an effort to make a common HAT board, they are included on both OLED and non-OLED versions. In this case, you are going to like them because once you get the OLED that is coming in the mail, you will be able to use the buttons to access the screen that tells the current into and out of the battery, which is going to be very useful in giving use a clue on the capability of the Anker charger you are using. By the way... if you are interested, since you seem to have achieved SSH access to the NEO, I could set you up with some Python code that would let you query the smart chip on the HAT to find out that same charging information (charge current, discharge current, % of battery remaining, battery voltage, etc). Nowhere near as convenient as scrolling to the second page on the OLED, but still do-able.

Sounds like you are making progress. Once the red led turns off, I'd be interested in how long it took... also in how the unit behaves with a full battery.

Jim

[jeff...@gmail.com]

Jim,

I would be interested to get the Python code you mention that could query the HAT re it's charging state.

I have a little Drok USB power meter and have run some tests on my Anker Power Port, the Connect Box and, for reference, my different phones. The results are as follows:

Samsung S8 (powered on) 5.15V 1.75A

Samsung S4 (powered on) 5.15V 1.70A

Asus Zenphone (powered off) 5.22V 1.02A

Connectbox (powered on) 5.08V 0.43A

Connectbox (powered off) 5.11V 0.00A

It is interesting to me that the Connectbox appears to draw 0A when powered off. The red Charging LED is illuminated. At first I wondered if it was because it was fully charged. So I disconnected the power source, turned on the Connectbox and left it overnight. The next morning, the battery was completely drained and the device would not turn on. I again connected it to the power source, but get the same result; when the connectbox is turned off, the meter shows 0A draw. When it is turned on, it fluctuates quite a bit for the first few minutes, between 0.47A and 0.15A and then is steadies. It is currently showing 0.16A, and I believe it is probably very near fully charged.

The red charging LED does not go out, at least so far. If power is connected, the LED is illuminated, if the power is disconnected the red LED is not iluminated. It does not appear to have anything to do with the state of the charge.

Out of interest, and since you suggested that the issue may be with my Anker power port, I also tried using the charger that came with my Samsung phone, and also one of the chargers that come with the TP-Link MR3040 hardware that we all used to use before they were discontinued. The readings for the connectbox are the same. When it is turned off the Drok meter shows zero amp draw, when it is powered on it draws between 0.15A and 0.47A

It will be interesting to test with the charger you have sent when it arrives. I will let you know what happens.

Jeff

[James Adams]

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the info. Very interesting. Something is clearly not right because with a charger connected, you should be seeing about 800 mA or so charging the battery when it is below 80% or so of full charge. I’m looking at mine right now and the OLED display is showing 922 mA charging (battery is at about 10%) so either you have a rash of charger issues (I’m betting not) or there is something wrong with the board in you ConnectBox. Would you be comfortable with swapping out the HAT board (the one that the NEO plugs onto)? I think the only tricky part is the disconnect and re-connect of the WiFi antennas. Those little connectors hold pretty tight once you get them connected and you would need to be careful to disconnect them without ripping the mating connectors off the wifi board. Let me know on that. I have a spare board I could send you 2-Day priority (so there by Thursday).

OK… about the Python code. I’m attaching my code module, RW_AXP209-5.py. So to use it, do the ssh logon to the NEO. Once there you will need to move the RW_AXP209-5.py up to the NEO root. You can do that with a terminal command “scp ./RW_AXP209-5.py  ro...@10.0.0.76:/root”. You must be in the directory containing the RW_AXP209-5.py file when you type in the command. Also, you would use the IP address that you have established for your NEO in place of the “10.0.0.76”. Once the python script is in the NEO root directory, you will need to install the python-smbfs library in the NEO. So log into the NEO, and at the root directory type, “sudo apt install python-smbus”. Once that is loaded you should be able to use the script by typing “python RW_AXP209-py”. That will give you a list of things you can do (read register, write register, etc) but the easiest one (and most helpful) is the command “s” (followed by the Enter key). That should give you something like this…

root@connectbox:~# python RW_AXP209-5.py 

RW_AXP209.py tool instuctions

You can choose to either Read [R] or Write [W] a register in the AXP209

You will be asked for the register address (in HEX) and, (if doing a

write) the data to be written (also in HEX).

Written data will be verified with an automatic read following the write

and the success or failure will be noted along with the read data.

Typing an S will give a summary of some interesting information.

Typing an D will give a summary of SD of that interesting information.

Type an X to exit the program.

Would you like to [R]ead, [W]rite or E[X]it?  s

IPS_OUT voltage reads:     3.329 V (0XBD 0X2)

Battery voltage reads:     3.927 V (0XDF 0X2)

Battery charge current:    0.865 A (0X6C 0X1)

Battery discharge current: 0.000 A (0X0 0X0)

Chip temperature:           89.5 C (0X92 0X6)

Battery Fuel Gauge:         33.0 % (0X21)

Would you like to [R]ead, [W]rite or E[X]it?  

So try that and let me know how it goes. I’m out for just a bit around noon here, but will be back by 1:15 or so. Also if you want to call (or text), my cell is 303.905.2081. 

We will get this!

Blessings,

Jim

[Jeff Gregory]

Jim,

Yes, I would have no problem swapping out the HAT board.

I will install the python code after lunch and let you know what I find.

Jeff

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[Jim Adams]

Hi Jeff,

Great!

Once you have the code installed if you could shoot me a copy of the terminal data for the "s" command both with and without the charger connected, that will tell me a lot about what might be going on.

Thanks!

Jim

Sent from my iPhone

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<RW_AXP209-5.py>

On Jan 22, 2019, at 9:57 AM, jeff...@gmail.com wrote:

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[Jeff Gregory]

Jim,

Got the python-smbfs library installed in the NEO and the RW_AXP209-5.py copied to the root of the Connectbox (I have changed my hostname to HopeBox via the admin panel).

However when I try to run the program I get an error.

Before I tried to run the program I ran the ls command to ensure that the RW_AXP209-5.py file had indeed copied to the root

I have copied/pasted the session below. Any ideas

Jeff

login as: root
ro...@192.168.0.23's password:

Welcome to ARMBIAN 5.65 user-built Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch) 4.14.78-sunxi
System load:   0.59 0.16 0.05   Up time:       0 min
Memory usage:  38 % of 240MB    IP:            192.168.0.23
CPU temp:      23°C
Usage of /:    7% of 15G


root@HopeBox:~# ls
RW_AXP209-5.py
root@HopeBox:~# python RW_AXP209-5.py
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "RW_AXP209-5.py", line 12, in <module>
    bus = smbus.SMBus(0)    # 0 = /dev/i2c-0 (port I2C0), 1 = /dev/i2c-1 (port I             2C1)
IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
root@HopeBox:~#

On 1/22/2019 10:11 AM, James Adams wrote:

Virus-free. www.avg.com

On Jan 22, 2019, at 9:57 AM, jeff...@gmail.com wrote:

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[sophian...@gmail.com]

Hello,

I ran into this same issue.  It sounds like the only way to get through the splash page is to type in the link. Thanks for the information.  

Is there any other way to get through the splash page?  We are trying to distribute media content to people that would be connecting to the box at random.  Having an embedded splash page rather than an easy connection makes this really difficult because users are unlikely to connect once seeing the splash page.  Is there any workaround for this or can I modify the html on the static page directly somehow?

Also I'm on the latest pre-release firmware (42219 I think) and I'm having trouble connecting to ssh once enabled on the device, is there any way to accomplish this? I have followed the steps on the wp guide by creating the .connectbox directory and making the enable ssh file, is there anything else that can be done?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Sanjay

On Friday, January 18, 2019 at 10:10:04 AM UTC+3, GeoDirk wrote:

[James Adams]

Hi Sanjay,

I can’t help with your first issue, but perhaps I can lend some assistance on making ssh connection into the unit.

I loaded a fresh image of NanoPi-NEO_v20190420.img (I believe this is the one you are using) and was able to successfully connect via the ethernet port (requires removing the top cover to access the port). I think that perhaps the problem is the format of your USB stick. I have had a problem in the past with this and have found that what works for me is to format the USB as: MSDOS, Fat16, Master Boot Record. Then create the hidden file “.connectbox” (don’t forget the leading dot) and in that folder, create an empty file named “enable_ssh”. (Since it sounds like you correctly created the file structure, I’m thinking it more likely that the problem is the USB format). Turn on the ConnectBox unit and after it is booted (perhaps 30 seconds to a minute) I plug in the USB stick. Then you need to determine the IP address that your system has assigned to the ConnectBox. I use a network scanner program (iPhone app called “Scany”) and look for an IP address that has two ports enabled: http and ssh. Then using a terminal program on the network, try to log on with, 

“ssh ro...@10.0.0.76”  using the IP address assigned to your ConnectBox instead of the 10.0.0.76 address. 

Hope this helps. If you are still having issues, drop a line back.

Blessings,

Jim

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[Edwin Steele]

Hi Sanjay,

  Can you explain the workflow that you’re wanting your users to have? 

In the last few months (in the time since the original email in this thread) we’ve changed the captive portal address to http://wi.fi after finding that http://go didn’t work in some situations because it lacked a domain (we noticed it on Android 8, but it was probably more widespread). Are you still finding that http://wi.fi doesn’t work when you type it in your browser?

Cheers,

Edwin. 

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[Sanjay Suckoo]

Hello,

Thanks for the quick reply. I'm not going to be able to pursue this project at the moment like I thought, I'll touch base with you sometime in the coming months. Thanks so much. 

Sanjay