Pi Zero 2 W WiFi Troubleshooting

Software
1

Hi Everyone,

I’m trying to troubleshoot a problem with a worker that has stopped connecting to WiFi.

The worker is a Pi Zero 2 W. If I install base Raspberry Pi OS, I am able to connect to WiFi and can ssh into the worker.

However, when I flash either leader_worker or worker images (24.7.18), I get the single blink blue LED and am not able to connect via ssh.

I tested this with the Pi Zero connected to the HAT in both cases - Pi OS and worker images - and in both cases without the HAT. The HAT does not appear to have any effect on this activity.

I also booted a second pioreactor running off a Pi 4 using the SD card that doesn’t connect to WiFi, and it is able to connect.

So this seems to be a Zero + Pioreactor OS issue. I’m not sure what to try next to get this to work!

Is there a way to install the pioreactor software on Pi OS perhaps, without having to create the worker image?

Any troubleshooting suggestions would be very welcome.

-dylan

2

Hi @dylanrahe,

How odd. The tests you ran are reasonable and suggest a Zero + Pioreactor OS issue. We don’t do much (or any I believe) tampering with wifi connections, so I’m not sure yet where the problem could be introduced.

There are two next steps we can try:

  1. When the wifi fails in the Zero with the Pio image, can you remove the SD card, place it into your computer, and check the contents of the network_info.txt file in the bootfs folder? Please share the results here if they are not sensitive.

  2. If the wifi is failing, we can still access the Pi using ethernet. Now, the Zero doesn’t have an ethernet port, but you can purchase a microUSB to Ethernet dongle from eg: amazon. This ethernet can be connected right to your computer or router. With this new interface in place, we can SSH in and try to debug why the wifi isn’t connecting.

Can you tell me more about the wifi network you are trying to connect to? Is it a Pioreactor local-access-point running on the leader, or a router in your institution / office?

3

Odd indeed!

Unfortunately, sometime along the way of moving SD cards around and getting network_info.txt info from both pi 4 and zero, the zero is no longer working - no boot, no blue light, doesn’t work even with Pi OS.

Must have been something wrong with the zero, and was in the process of dying :confused:

Alas. Thanks for entertaining the troubleshooting!

-dylan

4

Try a different SD card just to be sure too (if the SD card is wonky, the LED won’t light up).