Soft AP mode enabling

[martusi61]

It may be useful to activate the function soft AP for direct connection with a wifi device such as smartphone or other. In this way, the possibilities of using the 8266 with Tasmota would be expanded, being able to directly control devices such as for example in the automotive field.

[sfromis]

Soft AP mode is already used for initial configuration, with no plans for making a "full" standalone mode. Tasmota should be able to connect to a smartphone running a wifi hotspot.

[martusi61]

Yes, I know, but my idea was precisely to free yourself from a hotspot, via a direct smartphone-esp8266 connection, in order to directly control a device

[sfromis]

Suggested quite a few times. It is at odds with how Tasmota is structured, and nothing has been done.

[martusi61]

Too bad, because it could open up new uses. Thanks and good job

[GregESP19]

Hello,
AP mode works fine with AIThinker firmware (AiThinker_ESP8266_DIO_8M_8M_20160615_V1.5.4.bin)

[sfromis]

I'd say that all those ifs and buts make it not feel like a "feature", but instead what it is, a hack.

[philfleck]

this is likely true for a number of things that do not come with the prebuilts. what would it take to turn into a legit feature instead of a hack?

[pkkrusty]

Probably for someone with a deeper understanding of the wifi driver and webserver driver to integrate it a bit better. I'll keep messing with it a bit and see if I can solve the problem when joining an in-range wifi network. But primary developers don't seem interested in taking the time for it. Not a huge deal, since it's pretty easy to implement the hack for the few of us that find it useful.

[pkkrusty]

Digging into the code a bit, the Startwebserver function needs a mismatch between Web.state and type to activate the webserver correctly, so an #ifdef making Web.state HTTP_NONE at the beginning of the function enables the webserver correctly. However, because that function runs once a second, need to find a flag that lets it happen once but not more than that. Will keep playing with it.

Next problem comes when the hotspot is disconnected. Once again, the web manager function needs to re-activate the webserver with the 192.168.4.1 IP address. Not a huge deal, since the device can just be power cycled and if the hotspot isn't available it activates soft-ap after 20 seconds. But would like to figure it out without a restart.

[pkkrusty]

Made some progress. Now, if hotspot is available on startup, Tasmota will join, and activate webserver correctly. When hotspot is turned off, Tasmota will start scanning for it, and after 20 seconds, re-activate the soft-AP plus webserver.

So webserver is available in all modes. Again, need to

#define USE_ALWAYS_AP
#define WIFI_CONFIG_TOOL       WIFI_MANAGER
#define WIFI_SCAN_AT_RESTART   false
#define WIFI_SCAN_REGULARLY    false

to make things work smoothly.

I've only tested this on ESP8266. Note that in the weblog WifiManager active for 3 minutes doesn't mean anything any more. It will not restart, even if you have wifi credentials entered.

xdrv_01_9_webserver.ino.zip

[GregESP19]

[philfleck]

Hi all,

i had a look throughout the forum, there are two other discussions related to tasmota standalone AP.
As mentioned here, the main usecase is likely for remote location with no or no persistent wifi, connecting via smartphone.

i only tested with a esp32 modul and it remains responsive in AP mode.
My main fix was to force the HTTP_ADMIN and to call BUTTON_MAIN.

MQTT is turned off.

xdrv_01_9_webserver.ino.txt
my_user_config.h.txt

please link that to the other topics.

best g

[pkkrusty]

Update - If you're going to use the above linked altered xdrv_01_9_webserver.ino (12.3.1 version) with 12.4.0.2, you'll need to alter line 1580 in support_tasmota.ino to if (!WifiIsInManagerMode()) { StartWebserver(Settings->webserver, WiFi.localIP()); } instead of if (!WifiIsInManagerMode()) { StartWebserver(Settings->webserver); }

[philfleck]

obviously we cant be hot fixing for every new update, i still have the feeling it should be an option via a define if one wants to compile an soft-ap version ... i guess, this would be easy ...

many thanks for the update on the changes, since we are running the builds remotely on a hard to access space, we will stay for a while our current compiled vesion

[sfromis]

Changing from a hack to a feature is more than just a define for having the hack in the project source code

[philfleck]

i know, more than you might think. but i have too little insights into the necessary parts of tasmota to do the necessary changes.
best philipp

[Jason2866]

This discussion has the label wont/cant fix. So do not expect this hack will be added in source code.

[lalo-uy]

It happened to me, some tomes the telephone hotspots share 5he internet acces, but do not allow diferet devices to communicate in the Wifi net. Some kind of security. El El mar, 4 de abr. de 2023 a la(s) 18:34, pkkrusty < ***@***.***> escribió:

…

I tried entering a wifi network with hack AP mode always enabled, and on startup, tasmota looks for it for about 10 seconds then activates the Soft AP and things work 'normally'. However, if I activate my phone's hotspot (the wifi network I entered) and it's visible to Tasmota on startup, it will connect. However, webserver does not work on the hotspot assigned IP or the Soft AP (which does not activate). However, Tasmota is still functional for NTP requests, MQTT, etc. I wonder if there's a simple change we can make to the webserver driver that will activate webserver correctly when Tasmota starts and finds the wifi hotspot. I haven't dug into the code yet, but @philfleck <https://github.com/philfleck> might have your head wrapped around it already. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#13362 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACXBW4IRJKDPSKDHKJOYTXDW7SHW7ANCNFSM5F7UVWCA> . You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[jeroenvermeulen]

I have created a patch based on #13362 (comment)
It is created against Tasmota 13.1.0 but will probably work on other versions too.
Tasmota-Soft-AP-mode.patch
Apply in Tasmota root dir with command:

git  apply  /path/to/Tasmota-Soft-AP-mode.patch

[Rqbln]

I tested your firmware with an Athom smart plug, and it appears to be partially functional. When I reset the plug, I can connect to it without encountering a captive portal. However, when attempting to connect to the IP address, I receive an ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED error, rendering the plug unusable...
I'm also considering integrating MQTT and MDNS for my projects. Do you anticipate any issues with this?

[Jason2866]

MDNS will make trouble. It has serious bugs. It prevents running a device stable.
Tasmota has uptimes without MDNS counted in years. With MDNS you can be happy to reach days of uptime.

[Rqbln]

It will only be enabled for the wifi connection, that's all
I think my smart plug will survive :)