Wled: power cycle makes WLED "forget" previous (wifi/mqtt) configuration

[prankousky]

Hi everybody,

I just flashed the most recent pre-build bin to a nodeMCU. It will open an AP and let me enter my wifi (and mqtt) credentials. When I then restart, it will connect to my network (I can ping it and wled/# will receive mqtt payloads).

When I then unplug it and attach my WS2812B 8 led stick (GND => GND, 5V => VCC, Pin D4 => IN) and start it up, it will not connect to my network any longer! Instead, it will open an AP again.

When I connect to that AP, I will be able to control the ws2812; I can change colors, start/change effects, etc. etc.; but I need the device to be in my network, not to always connect to its AP. Anybody know why this might be?

What I did and am using

• sudo esptool.py --port <port> erase_flash
• sudo esptool.py --port write_flash -fs 1MB -fm dout 0x0 WLED_0.8.6_ESP9266.bin
• device nodeMCU v3
• power supply / extender NodeMcu Ver 1.0

The nodeMCU is inserted in the power supply / extender; this will allow me to power the nodeMCU with a power supply that is powerful enough to also power larger LEDs; I am successfully using this very power supply with multiple ESPHome nodeMCUs connected to much larger LED strips, so it should be sufficient for this as well (also, WLED does work when I control it via its AP, so it looks to me like it does get sufficient power).

Did I make an error erasing and/or writing the flash? The command I used is taken from the Tasmota wiki; I have previously flashed countless devices (ESP8266, nodeMCU, all sorts of Sonoff devices, etc. etc.) with this very command and it worked fine. But I don't understand why else the device would "forget" the entire configuration after I power-cycle it just once.

Thank you in advance for any ideas on how to fix this :)

[raoulteeuwen]

2 questions:

1. after you've unplugged the NodeMCU, attached it to the LED strip and find WLED is back in its own AP mode again, can you at that moment enter your wifi details etc and does it work (as long as it's powered on)?
2. there might be a thing with permanent storage of settings. Please check https://github.com/Aircoookie/WLED/issues/271#issuecomment-547420819 and see whether his way of working around a possible 'save bug' works for you as well.

[prankousky]

Thank you! Yes, the device will stay in the network until I turn it off again.

I am not sure if I understand correctly... Here is what I did

• connect to AP
• enter my WiFi credentials
• save & reboot
• connect to device via WiFi
• change some other settings
• save & reboot

I cannot ping the device and it opens the AP again. However, once I accesss the device via WiFi, the correct credentials (or at least the network) are displayed. So they did save (or does the device not reboot upon me entering the credentials in AP mode?).

I should probably also mention that the device is forbidden to access the internet. This shouldn't matter, but perhaps it does?

UPDATE

I just manually build the firmware so that it would include all relevant credentials; now everything works fine (as far as I can tell).

update 2

nevermind! The initial setup had LEDs set to GRB; I changed it to RGB (manually in web UI), which worked; but after restarting, it reset itself back to GRB. So there is definitely a problem with saving any data that is manually entered...

[raoulteeuwen]

I get the impression @Aircoookie is already on/knows about the problems with saving config, so for now i would wait for his findings. Maybe watch https://github.com/Aircoookie/WLED/issues/271 ...

[Aircoookie]

@prankousky thank you for the report! Yes, very similar issues were also reported, #271, #297, and #309. You could try two things:

• Try flashing the bin with less parameters. This should also work and may fix the flash:
  First: sudo esptool.py --port <port> erase_flash
  2nd: sudo esptool.py --port write_flash WLED_0.8.6_ESP8266.bin
• Try the binary with the lwip1 suffix.

I hope we'll be able to solve this issue :)

[prankousky]

Thank you @Aircoookie

As far as I can tell, it works now. Reboots seem to survive reboots. Awesome :+1:

[paulfecht]

Settings saved and persist after reboot here. My Binary was: lwip1

[scargill]

I tried BOTH files this morning (1/NOV/2019) - set the unit to rainbow, set edit preset, pressed 1, unset edit, save.... lights were on rainbow (I could see).... reboot - back to solid orange in both cases... am I missing something? If I give it a preset to use, then after power up it WILL retain rainbow, but if I leave that setting at zero and tick "Set current preset cycle setting as boot default" and then reboot - when I come back it is back to solid orange and that tick box is unticked.

Also, WLED_0.8.6_ESP8266.bin - Alexa, change name to "lighting" - save, reboot - still says lighting, but tell Alexa to find devices... nothing. Tell Alexa to "turn off lighting" - nothing...

[Duckshousemacservice]

i tried every version (085 and 086) on 2 wemos d1 mini and they forget everything after reboot. i have one running on 0.8.5 (build 1909121) and thats ok -- but i cant find that build anymore must have deleted the bin. otherwise super great software. i love it.