I am having this same issue with 2 Arilux AL-LC01’s. Both appear to have flash correctly based on cmd output, but after I power cycle them, I don’t see an access point. Are the Arilux device’s suppose to work the same as the H801’s?
If I get an H801, how do people power them up? I see the VCC and ground, but wasn’t sure of the source. The good thing with the other one is it works with the power supply that came with the led strip. I guess I’ll have to fabricate something if I go the H801 method… This keeps getting more and more trouble and expense potentially.
Hey Rick Just give a few more days, they will figure it out… But if you want to go forward with the H801 there is more information if you scroll up on this thread it will show you how to do it step by step… and there is a youtube video also…
Thanks. One other question - The FTDI serial USB adapter I bought - they shipped the knock-off model like the one he shows in the video. I also tried to flash a Sonoff, and it shows that it flashes successfully from the cmd prompt, but it will not work. I flashed it multiple times, one time it actually advertised the sonoff ssid, but kept saying the password was wrong. I tried from cmd line changing the speed trued 19200, 38400, etc, all the same. I’m wondering if I also have a bad adapter.
I bought this again yesterday, this time from Amazon, hopefully it will not be the knock off. Hoping this works, I bought 4 sonoff boxes to flash. Thanks for the help,
Rick
I have both and they both worked for me (FTDI USB) when I flashed the Sonoff. Just make sure you put it in program mode by unplugging and plugging the vcc in while everything else in connected. After flashing sometimes it takes a few minutes for it to show up on your wifi network. I used both my computer and my phone to see which one it shows up on first. And the password is configme. Once you put in the password Configme it will disappear from your network and that’s when you can discover it within your Smartthings app after you install the script into the IDE. Hope that explains it a litter better, Drew’s video is spot on so take another look and go step by step and you should be fine.
Thanks @GoldRiverKid for following up for me. If this doesn’t get resolved in the next couple days I would say jist go with the H801. There’s already a good video on here showing how to setup one of those.
Drew
@Drew650 Sounds like a plan… I was looking in this thread and it looks like there is no good Tutorial how to do the H801 without problems. Maybe you can do one with all the fixes. Your Videos are very clear and precise. Just a thought…
Yeah, the flash finishes but then the sketch doesn’t boot. Watching the boot via serial connection, I never see any logging from the sketches so it doesn’t even make it to the “setup()” method. At the same time I have a controller that did have the metal shielding that was purchased in May that works just as it should.
The frustrating part is that there seems to be two issues. 1) Bad FTDI adapters that are causing corrupt flashes and 2) An AriLux change in production that is making the esp8266 unflashable (or it requires some totally different process that hasn’t been discovered yet).
Here is an image of the non-working vs working AriLux. The left picture is the working one. I removed the metal shielding to take a closer look. To me they both look like the metal shielding was removed, but the one on the right (the non working one) came that way.
Yeah, I know that is frustrating, by looking at your photo it looks like the working one had ESP-S Series written on the board and the other one doesn’t… Don’t know if that would make a difference in the product or not. I guess I will go to the H801 but that one cost so much more since I have to place my strips in four different places…
I don’t have an H801 on hand or i’d make a video on it no problem. I was under the impression that the video made was well made. I havn’t wathed it myself.
It’s ok, I don’t like knocking anyone’s work as if i could do better… It’s just i’ve watched that one and i’ve watched your videos and yours is very detailed and you can tell by the very few questions that are asked after watching yours to explain any part of the video.
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Hey Eric, do you think there is a difference between the LC01 and the LC02? Maybe the LC01 will take the program your thoughts?
well, thank you i appreciate that. It may not seem like much but I do work hard on my videos!
I can’t say with certainty since I just tried this process for the first time a few days ago on two LC01’s and seem to have had the same issue. I have the output from the flash saved for reference, but the access points never show up after powering up. I am willing to test any theories if anyone has something to try. I got my LC01’s from banggood.com as well. I also got one of the knockoff FTDI’s from banggood so I got two legit ones from amazon to verify that wasn’t my issue. My H801 just arrived today (haven’t tried flashing it yet), but I really would like to get the LC01’s working as well.
Well thanks for that info because you answered my question because I was going to buy the LC01 just to try… I have the LC02 and it has the same problem. I too just ordered the H801 so please if you get it working let me know how you did it…
EDIT: I thought this was down to encrypting the firmware, but it seems very limited on the ESP8266 compared to the ESP32 (which does allow for full encrypted firmware). Instead I wonder if they have used some custom boot steps with secondary boot loaders or something like that, otherwise I cant think of anything without taking a look. Can you do a trace of the RST pin connections and see where it ends up? (perhaps they are doing something where you need to keep a certain pin low/high in order to prevent the chip from resetting during boot - it would likely be done on the blue PCB as the black one is probably still factory default)
Can you do a chip read and see if the response matches the firmware that you just wrote onto the chip? If that comes back ok then it helps narrow down what else might be going on. Also worthwhile trying to do a complete chip erase in case there is something in the hidden sectors that is causing a problem. After that I would be tempted to desolder the ESP part and see if it works on its own…
I have a new issue that I hope someone can help me with - I did a bunch of searching, and I don’t see this problem anywhere.
As of recent, when I shout out a color to Alexa, or if I use CoRE to select a color, it does not show up correctly at all. For instance, when I say “Turn Cabinets Blue”, they no longer turn blue, but magenta. HOWEVER - within the smartapp, the faders that control each individual channel work fine.
Furthermore, the color selector (Where you can just choose any color you wish) also provides an inaccurate color.
I believe this has something to do with the way that either my H-801 device is interpreting hex codes, or maybe it’s something with smartthings.
Has anyone encountered this?
I did encounter it. Turned out it was the power adapter not delivering enough current. Trying switching your power adapter or try with a shorter light strip. If you choose any primary color (RGB) it would work just fine, but if you use any other color dosent work properly.
Interesting. I don’t think it’s the case because at one point in time it did work, and if I use the individual RGBW sliders, the color changes are accurate. This weird behavior is only, I believe, when a color command is given in HEX. I verified this via the custom color default area - when I punch in a color that isn’t white, it comes out wrong. I AM completely able to match the color I want to a degree via the sliders, but no where else.
I think my next step is to log directly into the H-801.
As I mentioned, if you use the Individual Slider with only one Color with the rest set to 0 ( basically the primary colors) they would work fine. Its just with other colors that you might face this issue, especially a color that needs red. If it worked for any combination of colors with the slider that it could be different as you mentioned.