[SOLVED] ESP8266 WDT reset

[Yveaux]

@AffordableTech WDT resets are caused by a hang or too long loop in the software. Your topic describes a null pointer dereference, which is a different issue.

[Kosika]

Had gotten my hopes up on this solution, but as it don't apply to 2.0 dev branch it was not the answer.
I'm no programmer so I can't really do any real bug searching. I only noticed that two types of messages makes it restart. What they mean or what they do it beyond my knowledge.
I'll just sit tight and hope some smart person comes up with a suggestion, meanwhile I'll continue to google the web :)

[172pilot]

I THINK I'm having the same problem.. I'm building my first WiFi gateway.. I used a Sparkfun Thing Dev board because it was handy and accessible. Only oddities were that since the Sparkfun board has an LED on GPIO 5, I set the LED pin to 5 instead of 7, and the inclusion pin to 2..

I haven't tried the dev branch (will do, and report back) but with 1.5, I get a connection to my wifi, then a reboot:

ets Jan 8 2013,rst cause:4, boot mode:(3,6)

wdt reset
load 0x4010f000, len 1264, room 16
tail 0
chksum 0x0f
csum 0x0f
~ld

Over and over again.. Vera says it's connected, but then says it cant communicate. As mentioned, this type of problem is usually a tight loop not giving time for the WDT on the 8266 but I'm not familiar enough with this code to track it down.. Any ideas?

-Steve

[Yveaux]

@172pilot please try with 2.0.0 development. 1.5 does not contain all fixes for ESP that 2.0.0 has.

[AffordableTech]

Hi @172pilot

PLEASE NOTE: I gather there are three different problems which have similar results:

• A power supply with insufficient current to drive the ESP causes it to crash / reboot.
• A NULL message (somewhere in the process) can cause ESP to restart.
• Something called a 'WDT Reset' , which I have never encountered (?possibly only applies when using a Vera controller?).

Because all three produce similar looking results, I posted my fix here, even though I had not seen a 'WDT Reset' message (??possibly because I wasn't running a Vera controller??).

My Symptoms
My system appeared to have been running 'fine' for a solid week (as a test), using MYScontroller, I didn't notice anything abnormal. I also had a telnet (Potty) connection to the ESP. It wasn't until I started testing OpenHAB that OpenHab would report that it 'could not communicate'. At the same time my telnet connection and MYScontroller just stopped, no error message etc.

Then, OpenHab log reported that it was 'creating new connection', and resumed communicating, BUT both the telnet link and MYScontroller never resumed communications. I would have to disconnect / reconnect both, then they would continue for a few minutes until OpenHab reported the error again, when they would 'stall' again - this kept repeating.

If I stopped OpenHab, then the Telnet and MYScontroller worked flawlessly. At first I assumed that the OpenHab binding was the problem. Lots of testing, inserting debug 'print' statements into the drivers etc etc... Eventually I discovered that the 'MySensors ESP driver' was receiving a NULL pointer, when it was expecting a char pointer to a message, this was causing the ESP to reset.

I've since been told this problem was fixed in the MySensors 2.0 (beta) drivers and only applies to the 1.5 version (current ver at this point in time).

I hope this helps others clarify which of the three 'causes' apply to their issue. For example, my ESP was resetting, I didn't have a clue if it was a "WDT" reset, it could have been an "ABC" or "XYZ" reset as far as I knew. I still don't know what a WDT reset is?

Cheers... Paul

p.s. The first thing to check with any radio device (ESP, nRf2401 or GSM etc) is that you MUST have a good power source. When these devices transmit their current requirements go up significantly, which can cause all sorts of weird and wonderful thing to happen. Whenever I have a problem with a radio device, I will (temporarily) power the (3.3v) RF device direct from a Lipo battery (3.7v) with a 1N4001 (or similar) diode in series, this drops the voltage to 3.1v. Even though the voltage is a tad low, the Lipo (or NiCad) can deliver tremendous 'grunt' (amps) thus its a 'clean' and stable power source!

[hek]

The esp (and AVR) has something called a watchdog timer. It's actually there to help if something goes wrong, resetting the MCU. The watchdog timer can be disabled and reconfigured to allow longer interval. On ESP it's enabled by default and on AVR you have to enable it yourself (requires a special bootloader).

Its works by using a timer which gets "reset" by calling yield() or delay(). Normally you don't have to worry about it as yield() is called automatically in the main loop().

If yield() isn't called each second (which is the default timeout on ESP) the MCU will reset.

If you have some long blocking tasks you can disable the wdt temporariily like this:

 wdt_disable();
 <some blocking task>
 wdt_enable();

https://github.com/esp8266/Arduino/blob/master/cores/esp8266/Esp.h#L29-L46

[Yveaux]

@hek are you sure disabling the WDT does actually work for ESP? The fact that the function exists, doesn't automatically mean it works :smirk:
In the past there were numerous issues of users who tried to disable it but kept getting WDT resets. But again, maybe that's been fixed in 2.x

[172pilot]

@Yveaux
Thanks for the response.. I actually did get the 1.5 to at least come up, by putting some WDT resets around in various places that may take a while in a loop, for example, BUT, based on yours, and several other recommendations, I decided to try the 2.0 dev branch.. I deleted everything in my librarys\MySensors directory, and downloaded the DEV branch, and re-extracted the code, and now I can't compile.. I'm getting this:

Arduino: 1.6.9 (Windows 10), Board: "SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev, 80 MHz, 115200"

Build options changed, rebuilding all
In file included from C:\Users\sjones\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\esp8266\hardware\esp8266\2.2.0\libraries\ESP8266WiFi\src/ESP8266WiFi.h:39:0,

                 from C:\Users\sjones\Documents\Arduino\MyDevelopment-2-0-GatewayESP8266\MyDevelopment-2-0-GatewayESP8266.ino:70:

C:\Users\sjones\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\esp8266\hardware\esp8266\2.2.0\libraries\ESP8266WiFi\src/WiFiClient.h: In instantiation of 'size_t WiFiClient::write(T&, size_t) [with T = char*; size_t = unsigned int]':

C:\Users\sjones\Documents\Arduino\libraries\MySensors/core/MyGatewayTransportEthernet.cpp:163:66:   required from here

C:\Users\sjones\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\esp8266\hardware\esp8266\2.2.0\libraries\ESP8266WiFi\src/WiFiClient.h:123:36: error: request for member 'available' in 'source', which is of non-class type 'char*'

     size_t left = source.available();

                                    ^

C:\Users\sjones\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\esp8266\hardware\esp8266\2.2.0\libraries\ESP8266WiFi\src/WiFiClient.h:127:5: error: request for member 'read' in 'source', which is of non-class type 'char*'

     source.read(buffer.get(), will_send);

     ^

exit status 1
Error compiling for board SparkFun ESP8266 Thing Dev.

I found some recommendations to put the "#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>" close to the top, and it fixed it for other users, but I'm having no success with that..

Any idea what this may be?

Thanks in advance..
-Steve

[Yveaux]

@172pilot I'm not behind a PC right now, so it's hard to replay the situation.
I'd say you either didn't clean everything out completely (use e.g. a completely separate Arduino folder for sketches and libraries), or it's the ESP Arduino port you're using (which version did you install through board manager?)

[172pilot]

@Yveaux Thanks.. Good to know what I'm doing SHOULD work.. :-)

I have been storing everything in what I think is the default directory, which under my \users\sjones\Documents\Arduino\libraries. This is what the Arduino IDE is pointing to.

Under that directory, I removed the MySensors directory and extracted the new 2.0 one.. BUT, I do see that there are more modules than just those under MySensors, so even though I think those are supposed to NOT conflict with the default ones, I missed one?

Also, I dont understand why, but I see SOME arduino extension stuff under \program Files (x86)\arduino although I didn't see any MySensors information..

And, the only other thing I saw which I didn't know how it got there was the one referred to in the error: "C:\Users\sjones\AppData\Local\Arduino15\packages\esp8266\hardware\esp8266\2.2.0\libraries\ESP8266WiFi" Since that specifically was referred to in the error, I thought maybe I had an old version there, so I renamed the ESP8266Wifi directory to "old", figuring that whatever put it there in the first place would replace it with the current version if needed, but it didn't happen - it just failed to compile, complaining that it was missing, so I put it back..

I'm not near my home computer now, but maybe when I get home I'll try with a completely new windows profile (create a new user) and reinstall Arduino from scratch

Thanks for your help and patience!
-Steve

[AffordableTech]

Hi @172pilot

I'm fairly certain from what you have described that you have NOT done this, but just in case I will mention it. Remember, simply renaming a folder within libraries (eg. 'MySensors' to 'MySensorsOLD') can cause grief as the old and new will both be compiled / seen by the linker.

I think your 'new user' idea will work.

FWIW: Some time ago I had a similar issue with a different library, I can't remember the details, but I found/fixed it by doing a global search of "C:" for various keywords (e.g. "ESP8" and "MySen" in your case). I ended up finding files I didn't realise were there.

Good luck!

Paul

[172pilot]

@AffordableTech @Yveaux
Thanks!

I uninstalled Arduino completely, deleted everything I could find, and reinstalled from scratch, and after a bit of patience and rebooting the vera, I now have a functioning Wifi gateway using a Sparkfun 8266 Thing Dev board, and an NRF radio.. Then I was able to build a quick "Arduino switch" with an Uno and an NRF just to test, and it works great!!

Now it's time to get creative and build some stuff!

Thanks again!!

-Steve

[afeno]

@Kosika said:

Problem now to figure out is how to connect a new sensor, as it restarts as soon as it's powered on.
Any ideas?

I have the same problem. I'm using the Esp8266Gateway sketch in the Lib v1.5 and have a NRF24 radio as described in the instructions.
Every time that I connect a new sensor, the MCU is restarting as you described. This is only happening when the Gateway is connected to a controller (Homeassistant or MYSController). If the gateway is not connected to any controller then it receive the data without any problem.

@Kosika, How did you solved the problem?

[Kosika]

@afeno
I have not solved this problem. But I have put this project on ice the last 2 months, but I will soon continue by doing a complete reinstall of all libraries etc.

[Yveaux]

@afeno @Kosika please switch to the new 2.0.0 library, for your gateway, repeaters and sensors.
Esp support has been improved in there, and developer support will be faster.

[afeno]

@Yveaux said:

@Kosika please switch to the new 2.0.0 library

Ok. I will switch to 2.0.0 and let you know.
Thank you.

[afeno]

@Yveaux said:

please switch to the new 2.0.0 library, for your gateway, repeaters and sensors.
Esp support has been improved in there, and developer support will be faster.

Hello,
I switched to the new 2.0.0 and I still have the same problem:

connected with AFENO_DD, channel 6
dhcp client start...
0;255;3;0;9;TSM:READY
f r-40, scandone
.....ip:192.168.1.82,mask:255.255.255.0,gw:192.168.1.1
.IP: 192.168.1.82
0;255;3;0;9;No registration required
0;255;3;0;9;Init complete, id=0, parent=0, distance=0, registration=1
0;255;3;0;9;TSP:MSG:READ 6-6-255 s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0:
0;255;3;0;9;TSP:MSG:BC
0;255;3;0;9;TSP:MSG:FPAR REQ (sender=6)
0;255;3;0;9;TSP:CHKUPL:OK (FLDCTRL)
0;255;3;0;9;TSP:MSG:GWL OK
pm open,type:2 0

Soft WDT reset

ctx: cont 
sp: 3ffef6b0 end: 3ffefa30 offset: 01b0

>>>stack>>>
3ffef860:  00000000 3ffefd08 3ffefd08 402048bb  
3ffef870:  40107050 00000000 3ffefd08 402048bb  
3ffef880:  00000000 3ffefd08 00000000 4020230f  
3ffef890:  001e8480 3ffe0001 3ffefa8f 40202376  
3ffef8a0:  00000000 0000000e 00000000 00000006  
3ffef8b0:  00000000 00000000 00000006 00000006  
...

What could be the reason for the reset?
Is it OK to power the NodeMCU from the microUSB?

Thank you!

[Yveaux]

@afeno what esp arduino core are you using? Try updating to the latest version.
I have an esp gateway running (2.0.0, fixed ip, mqtt client, powered through micro USB) without any issues. Power could be insufficiently stable though, so you could also try switching the power supply.

[afeno]

@Yveaux said:

last arduino core version and different power supply.

Hi, I'm using the version 2.3.0. I tried with different power supplies and all the same.
I will try the mqtt client just to see if it is working.

Thanks.

[afeno]

@Yveaux ,
I tried with the esp mqtt client and I have similar issues. The node is reseting when receiving the radio signal.

This is the log:

ž¡9C~0;255;3;0;9;Starting gateway (RNNGE-, 2.0.0)
0;255;3;0;9;TSM:INIT
0;255;3;0;9;TSM:RADIO:OK
0;255;3;0;9;TSM:GW MODE
scandone
state: 0 -> 2 (b0)
state: 2 -> 3 (0)
state: 3 -> 5 (10)
add 0
aid 4
cnt 
chg_B1:-40
0;255;3;0;9;TSM:READY
f r-40, scandone
.
connected with AFENO_DD, channel 6
dhcp client start...
..ip:192.168.1.82,mask:255.255.255.0,gw:192.168.1.1
.IP: 192.168.1.82
0;255;3;0;9;No registration required
0;255;3;0;9;Init complete, id=0, parent=0, distance=0, registration=1
IP: 192.168.1.82
0;255;3;0;9;Attempting MQTT connection...
0;255;3;0;9;MQTT connected
0;255;3;0;9;TSP:MSG:READ 6-6-255 s=255,c=3,t=7,pt=0,l=0,sg=0:
0;255;3;0;9;TSP:MSG:BC
0;255;3;0;9;TSP:MSG:FPAR REQ (sender=6)
0;255;3;0;9;TSP:CHKUPL:OK (FLDCTRL)
0;255;3;0;9;TSP:MSG:GWL OK

Soft WDT reset

ctx: cont 
sp: 3ffef6d0 end: 3ffefa50 offset: 01b0

>>>stack>>>
3ffef880:  00000000 3ffefc24 3ffefc24 40204d27  
3ffef890:  40107050 00000000 3ffefc24 40204d27  
3ffef8a0:  00000000 3ffefc24 00000000 40202336  
3ffef8b0:  001e8480 3ffe0001 3ffefaaf 40202336  
3ffef8c0:  00000000 0000000e 00000001 00000006  
3ffef8d0:  00000000 00000000 00000006 00000006  
3ffef8e0:  00000030 0000000e 00001928 402023d1  
3ffef8f0:  00000001 3ffefaa8 00000006 402024ce  
3ffef900:  00000008 00000006 3fff129c 00000027  
3ffef910:  00000001 00000006 3ffefaa8 402035bc  
3ffef920:  40107050 3ffef981 3ffefc24 00000061  
3ffef930:  3ffef980 3ffefc24 3ffef980 40202336  
3ffef940:  401054b2 000e937d 3ffefc24 3ffefc68  
3ffef950:  4010556e 3ffee428 000e937d 00000000  
3ffef960:  40105740 000e937d 3ffefc68 00000006  
3ffef970:  000000ff 3ffefaa8 00000006 402026dd  
3ffef980:  3ffefa06 00000006 40203bc8 00000006  
3ffef990:  000000ff 3ffefaa8 00000006 402036fd  
...

:(