WisMesh Pocket - died after 1 week

WisBlock
1

Hey folks,

I received my WisMesh Pocket last week, and set it up with latest Meshtastic firmware, it worked flawlessly… for 1 week. I had it always on and wired into a USB port in my car as a mobile node to replace the T-Echo.

Yesterday I discovered that the device no longer turns on. The screen is dead, and buttons do nothing. When the USB power is plugged in, I see a solid red light at the bottom. Battery voltage is at 3.9v.

When I plug it into a computer I hear the USB connected/disconnected sound every ~2s. Device Manager shows that USB Serial Device (COM9) connect/disconnect loops.

I tried holding the reset button + plugging in the USB power - did nothing.

Is the device borked? I waited for for it for a few months, so this is a huge bummer.

Any ideas?

2

Some progress. I double tapped the reset button, got a flashing green light. Plugged in the USB and it mounted!

I tried to re-flash the latest Meshstatic firmware (firmware-rak4631-2.4.2.5b45303.uf2) - no joy. Same behavior as originally.

INFO_UF2.TXT is

UF2 Bootloader 0.4.3
Model: WisBlock RAK4631 Board
Board-ID: WisBlock-RAK4631-Board
Date: May 20 2023
Ver: 0.4.3
SoftDevice: S140 6.1.1

I figured I’d update the bootloader, got this version: WisBlock/bootloader/RAK4630/Latest/wiscore_rak4631_board_bootloader-0.4.3_s140_6.1.1.zip at master · RAKWireless/WisBlock · GitHub

Flashed successfully.

C:\Users\XXXXXX\Downloads>adafruit-nrfutil.exe --verbose dfu serial --package wiscore_rak4631_board_bootloader-0.4.3_s140_6.1.1.zip --port COM10 -b 115200 --singlebank --touch 1200
Upgrading target on COM10 with DFU package C:\Users\XXXXXXX\Downloads\wiscore_rak4631_board_bootloader-0.4.3_s140_6.1.1.zip. Flow control is disabled, Single bank, Touch 1200
Touched serial port COM10
Opened serial port COM10
Starting DFU upgrade of type 3, SoftDevice size: 151016, bootloader size: 39000, application size: 0
Sending DFU start packet
Sending DFU init packet
Sending firmware file
########################################
########################################
########################################
########################################
########################################
########################################
########################################
########################################
########################################
############
Activating new firmware

DFU upgrade took 21.05813956260681s
Device programmed.

Tried putting the the latest Meshtastic firmware, no joy. Behavior is identical to what I started with.

3

Well, I got it working after using the nrf_erase2.uf2 file, and re-flashing Meshtastic with firmware-rak4631-2.3.15.deb7c27.uf2

Thanks for listening to my TED talk.

Although I’m still puzzled why it died in the first place.

2 Likes
4

That’s good @yegor .

The NRF Erase FW usually do the trick.

Btw, it is already in the Meshtastic Flasher. Much easier to clear flash now.

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5

Yes, that’s exactly what I used.

Will continue running the device as I did before and see what happens.

6

Hey, I have a new node that has done the exact same thing. It was working for a couple of days and then it just died. When I plug it into the client.meshtastic.org and try to view the firmware, I get “unknown” for everything. I had flashed it with 4.5.2.5b45303. Is that the same firmware you used? I was just about to mount this to the roof of my house, but now I’m second guessing. Maybe there is a bad batch?

7

you mean 2.4.2.5b45303 …

There was a recent bugfix regarding the space of the config file system. What you describe sounds like you hit this problem.

this was fixed in version 2.4.3.91d6612 and although still in alpha i recommend updating to it.

8

Thank you for sharing @caveman99 .

Welcome to RAK forum as well. Your contribution/expertise is really help here :blush:

9

Another update: I’ve been running 2.3.15 for 1 month and the node was completely unstable/unusable. This included the follow issues:

  • Node would self-reset to firmware defaults every few days
  • After some time, it stopped charging completely and would only work while plugged in
  • Finally (yesterday) it reset itself again and I was unable to even pair with it

Yesterday, I re-flashed i with 2.5.4 alpha, on first boot I received fault code #12. After a few reboots the error went away and it appears to be stable for the last 12hrs and is holding a charge.

So far I’m less than impressed with the device, which is kinda odd since I have a Wisblock (which uses the same radio module I believe) in a solar enclosure on my roof for like 8 months and that thing is rock solid. Been on the whole time, with zero issues.

10

Don’t you think it is unfair to blame the hardware for an imperfect firmware?

As you stated, you have WisBlock hardware running for months without problems, and so do I. My indoor temperature & humidity sensor is now up for 2 years, with recharging the battery every 5 months.

On the other side I have a Meshtastic Sensor network setup with RAK4631’s that were used without problems in other projects before without any problems. The 6 devices in this Meshtastic Sensor network are not working reliable, I had (like you) hanging devices, self-rebooting devices and one case of complete self-erase of the flash.

Meshtastic is good, but it is under development and it has its problems. You might better complain about your problems to them, not to us.

1 Like