Device bricked? (Aisirer Mini WiFi Plug, fresh with Tasmota 6.5-basic OTA via tuya-convert)

[Manuel]

I'm experiencing issues with an Aisirer Mini WiFi Plug. A second device of the same type works flawlessly with the Blitzwolf SHP module.

The situation is as follows:

The sonoff-* access point shows up and I can connect to it. However, after about 5 seconds, the connection is lost again and the access point is no longer visible. The device gives off what sounds like a relay click, the access point reappears and the process repeats.

During one attempt I was directed to the Sonoff Wifi setup page but immediately lost connection again. I was not able to reproduce that.

I've already tried to do a reset via a >40s button press.

I've described the flashing process immediately prior to this situation in https://github.com/ct-Open-Source/tuya-convert/issues/171

Is the device bricked or is there still hope?

Thanks in advance for any advice and assistance!

[Michael Ingraham]

Manuel,

What version are you flashing? 6.5.0.4 introduced an issue when activating device templates. Your experience sounds like that's what's happening. The problem was resolved in 6.5.0.6. If you haven't already, update your firmware to the latest development version and try activating the template again.

Mike

Michael Ingraham
Spartanburg, SC

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[Glenn Chapman]

Don't give up hope.  Sounds like you're still able to access AP mode.

Review Dr Zzs video where he talks about reviving "bricked" units

https://youtu.be/MxiPRBd5HEg

On Thursday, April 11, 2019 at 3:04:20 PM UTC+1, Michael Ingraham wrote:

Manuel,

What version are you flashing? 6.5.0.4 introduced an issue when activating device templates. You experience sounds like that's what's happening. The problem was resolved in 6.5.0.6. If you haven't already, update your firmware to the latest development version and try activating the template again.

Mike

Michael Ingraham
Spartanburg, SC

On Thu, Apr 11, 2019 at 9:38 AM Manuel <manuel...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm experiencing issues with an Aisirer Mini WiFi Plug. A second device of the same type works flawlessly with the Blitzwolf SHP module.

The situation is as follows:

The sonoff-* access point shows up and I can connect to it. However, after about 5 seconds, the connection is lost again and the access point is no longer visible. The device gives off what sounds like a relay click, the access point reappears and the process repeats.

During one attempt I was directed to the Sonoff Wifi setup page but immediately lost connection again. I was not able to reproduce that.

I've already tried to do a reset via a >40s button press.

I've described the flashing process immediately prior to this situation in https://github.com/ct-Open-Source/tuya-convert/issues/171

Is the device bricked or is there still hope?

Thanks in advance for any advice and assistance!

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[Manuel]

Thanks Mike!

How would I know the version? It's the binary that came with tuya-convert. The info page on the working device just says 6.5.0.

As for updating, I can't even access the device for wifi setup, so how would I update? Also, since I never was able to complete the wifi setup, I've not used any template on this device so far.

Cheers,

Manuel

[Manuel]

Hi Glenn,

On Thursday, April 11, 2019 at 4:53:54 PM UTC+2, Glenn Chapman wrote:

Don't give up hope.  Sounds like you're still able to access AP mode.

Yes, but only for a couple of seconds – not long enough to even do the wifi setup.
 

Review Dr Zzs video where he talks about reviving "bricked" units

https://youtu.be/MxiPRBd5HEg

 
Thanks for the link! I've watched the video but I think my situation is different: The device does broadcast the sonoff-**** AP so it will probably not join the tuya-convert network any more. I'll give it a go anyway, no harm in trying, even though I think I tried this approach this morning without success – but I might very well misremember.

All the best,

Manuel

[Michael Ingraham]

Manuel,

If the device does give you enough time to get to the web GUI, go to the Console and set the OTAURL. The latest development version of the Tasmota firmware is located at http://thehackbox.org/tasmota. I have the best results with the 2.3.0 ESP core so I use the versions for that core located at http://thehackbox.org/tasmota/020300/. I recommend that you use sonoff.bin (not sonoff-classic.bin).

If the device does not stay connected long enough to access the web GUI and initiate an OTA update, perhaps you can use the latter steps of the Tuya-Convert flashing process to do it. Download sonoff.bin from the Tasmota firmware repository (above).  There are some instructions in the Tuya-Convert directions about what folder to place "your own" binary so it picks that up instead of the default binary (i.e., currently 6.5.0 sonoff-classic). I don't have the directions in front of me so just look through their readme. Once you have placed the binary in the correct location, I think you can run the Tuya-Convert script again to re-flash the device.

If neither of these work, I'm afraid you'll have to try to open the device and flash it using the serial interface...

Mike

Michael Ingraham
Spartanburg, SC

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[Manuel Reiter]

Thanks again Mike!

By now, I can’t connect any more at all. Trying the various parts of tuya-convert was unsuccessful as well, so I guess it’s time to consider the device bricked. I’ll just get another one and see if anyone with more inclination towards soldering wants the „brick“.

Big thank you to everyone trying to help!

Cheers,

Manuel

[Phil]

the utube vid shared in this post list runs through a recovery of a 'bricked' device with tuya-convert if its any help.. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sonoffusers/LBJyd9qSexE

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[Manuel]

Thanks Phil! That's the same video Glenn shared earlier. I tried the method pointed out there but it didn't work.

[Helge Weissig]

Once you have had third-party firmware up and running on a device, none of the tuya-concert methods will work. Your best bet is to hook it up to a USB to serial connection. 

cheers,

h.

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[Manuel]

Followup: I've since flashed three more devices. One worked without problems, the other two showed almost the same behaviour as described. The only difference was, fortunately, that the cycle was a bit slower which gave me enough time to enter my wifi setup (did take a few tries till I was fast enough though).

Interestingly, for both problematic devices the tuya-convert download of the original firmware stalled and eventually timed out.

Both devices seem to work flawlessly now that I managed to complete the wifi setup. Do you think I should open an issue on the sonoff-tasmote github repo?

[Michael Ingraham]

I think there's something not right with your devices. Or maybe your keyboard to chair interface ;-)

Mike

Michael Ingraham
Spartanburg, SC

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[Manuel]

Care to elaborate?

The devices seem to work fine once I've managed to get the wifi setup to them.

It's of course quite possible this is due to some mistake of mine but in that case I'd really like to find out what I did wrong. Any help with that is greatly appreciated. I'm at least not aware of anything I did different between the successful and the unsuccessful flashes. Any ideas?

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[Michael Ingraham]

Manuel,

Just pulling your leg ;-)

On one hand, I'd have to agree that it would be strange for multiple devices to exhibit similar behavior and it not be software related. On the other, the fact that the software does work on some points to the hardware.

Rather than flashing new devices with the default binary that gets installed with Tuya-Convert, did you try to flash an alternate binary (e.g., the 2.3.0 development version of sonoff.bin)? Or sonoff-minimal.bin. In other words, something other that sonoff-classic 6.5.0.

For those devices where you were able to quickly get the Wi-Fi credentials set, have you updated the firmware (just for safe measure)?

I can't point to anything specific you might be doing. The fact that your Tuya-Convert is successfully installing Tasmota tells me that's probably OK. I'm pretty sure that it takes the extra precaution of erasing the flash before installing the new firmware... but I am not 100% certain of this. If it doesn't, it might be that, for your particular device model, there may be remnants of the factory firmware or settings that are causing issues. One of the common troubleshooting steps with Tasmota when there is strange behavior is to erase flash completely and flash again. The issue is, when you do that, you have to then flash using the serial interface... avoiding which is the whole point of Tuya-Convert.

Mike

Michael Ingraham
Spartanburg, SC

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[Manuel Reiter]

Hi Mike,

thans for your continued support on this!

> On one hand, I'd have to agree that it would be strange for multiple devices to exhibit similar behavior and it not be software related. On the other, the fact that the software does work on some points to the hardware.

Agreed, I’m really not sure how to place this.

> Rather than flashing new devices with the default binary that gets installed with Tuya-Convert, did you try to flash an alternate binary (e.g., the 2.3.0 development version of sonoff.bin)? Or sonoff-minimal.bin. In other words, something other that sonoff-classic 6.5.0.

I did indeed. When the second device showed the same behaviour, I got http://thehackbox.org/tasmota/020300/sonoff.bin for the next device. Behaviour was exactly the same.

> For those devices where you were able to quickly get the Wi-Fi credentials set, have you updated the firmware (just for safe measure)?

Not yet, no. Since it showed the same behaviour I thought I’d hold back a bit and wait whether we can bring some light into this.

> I can't point to anything specific you might be doing. The fact that your Tuya-Convert is successfully installing Tasmota tells me that's probably OK. I'm pretty sure that it takes the extra precaution of erasing the flash before installing the new firmware... but I am not 100% certain of this.

I’ll check that out, thanks for the pointer.

Cheers,

Manuel