Local access point stops working after power cycling

Software
1

Hello,

I use my pioreactor in a university lab, so I’ve always used the local access point to avoid going through university network security issues. I found that when setting up the SD card/pioreactor for the first time, it works perfectly. However, when I turn the pioreactor off and then try turning it again another day for a new experiment, the network no longer works.

The blue light flashes quickly once, indicating network issues. The pioreactor network doesn’t show up, so I can’t connect to it through my computer or phone. I tried accessing the SD card on my computer and replacing the local_access_point file and it still doesn’t work. The only fix I found is to basically erase everything on the SD card and start from zero with the software installation, then it works again.

However, now that I’ve already ran an experiment, I’m afraid that if I start from scratch erasing everything on the SD card, I will lose my previous data. Is there any way I can back up the data by accessing the SD card files on my computer, since I can’t connect to the pioreactor through the network? Or, is there a way to fix this issue with the local access point without having to install the software all over again?

Thanks!

2

Hi @juliafulber,

Hm, tomorrow we’ll try to replicate this. We should fix the local-access-point, and not rely on having to export/import/backup data constantly. We’ll let you know tomorrow.

Can you tell us which Raspberry Pi you are using?

3

Hi @CamDavidsonPilon,

I’m using the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 that came with the Pioreactor. Thank you for helping out, let me know if there’s any other information that could help!

4

Hi @juliafulber, unfortunately we weren’t able to replicate the issue here. A few more questions:

  1. Is there another Pioreactor nearby with a local-access-point active?
  2. Does the computer you use to access the Pioreactor UI have an ethernet port?
  3. What is your Pioreactor leader’s name?
5

Hi @CamDavidsonPilon,

Sorry for the delay!

  1. We don’t have any other pioreactors
  2. Typically, I use my phone to connect to the pioreactor but I believe we have computers in the lab with ethernet ports. I’m just not sure if we can use those if the internet is coming from protected university network
  3. I believe the name is “pioreactor1”, it was the default setting when setting up the software and I just didn’t change it
6

That all seems okay. Can you try this?

  1. Power off the Pioreactor, remove the SD card from the Pioreactor, and put it into a computer,
  2. On the bootfs drive that comes up, add the following file to the folder:
    config.ini (204 Bytes)
  3. Eject the sd card, and put it back into the Pioreactor. Power on.

Hopefully, after a moment, you should see a wifi network pioreactor_wifi. Do you? Any problems connecting to it?

7

Hi, so here’s what I’ve tried:

1- Adding the new config.ini file without changing anything else: the Pioreactor never turned on (I never saw the blue light). When I tried putting the SD card back in my computer after adding the config.ini to try taking a look, I got this message: “D:/ is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable.”

2- Deleting the existing config.ini file in the SD card before adding the new config.ini file: the Pioreactor turned on, I didn’t get a longer (2s) blue light flash, instead I got 8 short flashes (like 4 sets of two quick flashes). I was able to connect to the wifi and the UI, but none of the controls were working. For example, when I tried turning on stirring or temperature control, it wouldn’t turn on and the log states that it’s disconnected. When I click to identify the pioreactor, the blue led does turn on (same 8 flash pattern), so it seems there’s some connection, but the functions aren’t working properly.

I can keep playing around with the order I’m doing things or how to add this file, but I wanted to share what happened so far in case you have any other ideas! Thank you so much for the help