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in ESP8266 WiFi Color Kit by (120 points)
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HI, I purchased a ESP8266 WiFi Color display. I cannot get it to connect to my network using any of the example programs. The exact same code works on my alibaba express 8266 board (not connected to the display shield.

When I run the scan example on the one from your kit I rarely see my network, but when I run it on the one from "AI-THINKER" ESP8266MOD

If I run WiFiScan on the Wemos D1 Mini Pro I get 3 or so visible hotspots, but when I run it on the ESP8266MOD I get 10-12 so I think that it's a power/antenna issue.

/*

 Udp NTP Client

 Get the time from a Network Time Protocol (NTP) time server
 Demonstrates use of UDP sendPacket and ReceivePacket
 For more on NTP time servers and the messages needed to communicate with them,
 see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Time_Protocol

 created 4 Sep 2010
 by Michael Margolis
 modified 9 Apr 2012
 by Tom Igoe
 updated for the ESP8266 12 Apr 2015
 by Ivan Grokhotkov

 This code is in the public domain.

 */

#include <ESP8266WiFi.h>
#include <WiFiUdp.h>

char ssid[] = "myssid";  //  your network SSID (name)
char pass[] = "mypassword";       // your network password

unsigned int localPort = 2390;      // local port to listen for UDP packets

/* Don't hardwire the IP address or we won't get the benefits of the pool.
 *  Lookup the IP address for the host name instead */
//IPAddress timeServer(129, 6, 15, 28); // time.nist.gov NTP server
IPAddress timeServerIP; // time.nist.gov NTP server address
const char* ntpServerName = "time.nist.gov";

const int NTP_PACKET_SIZE = 48; // NTP time stamp is in the first 48 bytes of the message

byte packetBuffer[ NTP_PACKET_SIZE]; //buffer to hold incoming and outgoing packets

// A UDP instance to let us send and receive packets over UDP
WiFiUDP udp;

void setup()
{
  Serial.begin(115200);
  Serial.println();
  Serial.println();

  // We start by connecting to a WiFi network
  Serial.print("Connecting to ");
  Serial.println(ssid);
  WiFi.mode(WIFI_STA);

  if (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {
    WiFi.begin(ssid, pass);
  }
    
  while (WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED) {
    delay(500);
    Serial.print(".");
  }
  Serial.println("");
  
  Serial.println("WiFi connected");
  Serial.println("IP address: ");
  Serial.println(WiFi.localIP());

  Serial.println("Starting UDP");
  udp.begin(localPort);
  Serial.print("Local port: ");
  Serial.println(udp.localPort());
}

void loop()
{
  //get a random server from the pool
  WiFi.hostByName(ntpServerName, timeServerIP);

  sendNTPpacket(timeServerIP); // send an NTP packet to a time server
  // wait to see if a reply is available
  delay(1000);
  
  int cb = udp.parsePacket();
  if (!cb) {
    Serial.println("no packet yet");
  }
  else {
    Serial.print("packet received, length=");
    Serial.println(cb);
    // We've received a packet, read the data from it
    udp.read(packetBuffer, NTP_PACKET_SIZE); // read the packet into the buffer

    //the timestamp starts at byte 40 of the received packet and is four bytes,
    // or two words, long. First, esxtract the two words:

    unsigned long highWord = word(packetBuffer[40], packetBuffer[41]);
    unsigned long lowWord = word(packetBuffer[42], packetBuffer[43]);
    // combine the four bytes (two words) into a long integer
    // this is NTP time (seconds since Jan 1 1900):
    unsigned long secsSince1900 = highWord << 16 | lowWord;
    Serial.print("Seconds since Jan 1 1900 = " );
    Serial.println(secsSince1900);

    // now convert NTP time into everyday time:
    Serial.print("Unix time = ");
    // Unix time starts on Jan 1 1970. In seconds, that's 2208988800:
    const unsigned long seventyYears = 2208988800UL;
    // subtract seventy years:
    unsigned long epoch = secsSince1900 - seventyYears;
    // print Unix time:
    Serial.println(epoch);

    int hour =  (epoch  % 86400L) / 3600;
    int minute = (epoch  % 3600) / 60;
    int seconds = epoch % 60;
    

    // print the hour, minute and second:
    Serial.print("The UTC time is ");       // UTC is the time at Greenwich Meridian (GMT)
    printTime(hour, minute, seconds);
    // print the hour, minute and second:
    Serial.print("Local time is ");       // UTC is the time at Greenwich Meridian (GMT)
    printTime(hour - 8, minute, seconds);
    
    
  }
  // wait ten seconds before asking for the time again
  delay(10000);
}

void printTime(int hour, int minute, int seconds)
{
  Serial.print(hour); // print the hour (86400 equals secs per day)
  Serial.print(':');
    
  // In the first 10 minutes of each hour, we'll want a leading '0'
  if ( minute < 10 ) {
    Serial.print('0');
  }
  Serial.print(minute); // print the minute (3600 equals secs per minute)
    
  Serial.print(':');
  // In the first 10 seconds of each minute, we'll want a leading '0'
  if (seconds < 10) {
    Serial.print('0');
  }
  Serial.println(seconds); // print the second
}

// send an NTP request to the time server at the given address
unsigned long sendNTPpacket(IPAddress& address)
{
  Serial.println("sending NTP packet...");
  // set all bytes in the buffer to 0
  memset(packetBuffer, 0, NTP_PACKET_SIZE);
  // Initialize values needed to form NTP request
  // (see URL above for details on the packets)
  packetBuffer[0] = 0b11100011;   // LI, Version, Mode
  packetBuffer[1] = 0;     // Stratum, or type of clock
  packetBuffer[2] = 6;     // Polling Interval
  packetBuffer[3] = 0xEC;  // Peer Clock Precision
  // 8 bytes of zero for Root Delay & Root Dispersion
  packetBuffer[12]  = 49;
  packetBuffer[13]  = 0x4E;
  packetBuffer[14]  = 49;
  packetBuffer[15]  = 52;

  // all NTP fields have been given values, now
  // you can send a packet requesting a timestamp:
  udp.beginPacket(address, 123); //NTP requests are to port 123
  udp.write(packetBuffer, NTP_PACKET_SIZE);
  udp.endPacket();
}

1 Answer

0 votes
by (10.0k points)
Can you please check if the bridge resistor is connecting the ceramic antenna or the SMA antenna plug? If it was connected to the SMA plug it would explain the bad reception...

Daniel
by (120 points)
Just looked here because I was having the same problem.  Had a small antenna from another ARM board and it now works great!  What do I have to do to get the board to use the ceramic antenna? Id like to know prior to unsoldering it (if I have to).  Something about a bridge resistor?
by (10.0k points)
Sadly the original poster of this question never got around to have a look at this resistor. There is a copper trace leading to the ceramic antenna and on it's path is a SMD resistor which connects either the antenna or the SMA plug. Maybe this resistor sometimes gets misplaced slightly and the module still passes all tests... I'm curious what you find out!
by (120 points)
I soldered a small jumper from the chip side of the SMD resistor to the small pad just inboard from the SMA jack. The ceramic antenna works great!

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