Firmware update with atom plugin of PyMakr?

[lollisoft]

Hi,

I was advised to not use PyMakr and instead using atom PyMakr plugin. I am able to basically se that.

Now I found that I need to update my LoPy but I don't know if that is possible with the atom version of PyMakr.

Can I update via telnet or do I need a board with an USB (I have one)?

Thank you,

Lothar

[robert-hh]

@lollisoft For firmware upadtes you need the Pycom updating tool, which is available for the usual OSes. See https://www.pycom.io/resources/, firmware updates. The update is performed using the Serial/USB interface. That works best with the expansion board. Please follow the instructions carefully.

[lollisoft]

Hi,

I have found that tool and updated my board. Actually I have put it back to my breadboard, but it no longer shows up with an active wlan access point. But it blinks as of before.

I had some software on it to run a nano gateway. May it be the case, that this is actually running and the access point is off?

The wifi password is an old WEP based password that I have configured in binary form, as of that way I have to put it in when I connect to my mac for example. Is that an issue?

How to reset the flash contents? Is it now only possible to reset that content over USB or can I hard reset it without going back with the firmware version?

[RobTuDelft]

@lollisoft If you don't have access over Wi-Fi it's easiest to just plug in it with usb.
You can format the flash memory (sd or internal), check out the documentation.

[lollisoft]

I found a way to reset with a save boot. Then it starts again the ap mode and not my code.

Is there any way to try the wlan connect and if it fails, fall back to ap mode, so that I do not always have to save boot?

I think the connect to wlan function in tne nano gateway code is using an endless loop to connect to the configured wlan.

If the fallback idea is not possible (what I do not believe), then I assume the best would be to resort to USB serial mode with atom and pymakr, to see the error messages, because otherwise, I keep disconnecting the telnet session when I try to connect to wlan - what is naturally the case.

[robert-hh]

@lollisoft You can always in your code set the mode(AP or STA, or both) you want. Look into the network.WLAN module. the method wlan.isconnected() tells you, whether your device is connected to an Access point.
Look also at the WLAN section in the tutorial https://docs.pycom.io/pycom_esp32/pycom_esp32/tutorial/includes/wlan.html
And, like @RobTuDelft said, until WLAN works as wanted, you can always use the USB connection. But better use the most recent version of the firmware. You can tell the version with

import uos
uos.uname()

The actual version is 1.6.12b1

[lollisoft]

@robert-hh Thanks for that specific detail. It is especially interesting to have a mode for both. I was not aware of that to be possible. Currently I got my LoPy connected (to my other wlan). It was a failure to get an IP address in the first wlan. I may have some issues with that wlan.

Now I have setup a dns name in my lan and can reach the gateway by it's name. The next step is to get it registering with TTN :-)