CC3000 on 802.11n

[espruino-discuss3]

Posted at 2015-06-19 by Coder2012

I don't seem to be able to get any connection to the CC3000. After looking at the spec of this little WiFi board I saw that it is for 802.11b/g networks.

My router is a 802.11n, is it possible to use this board on my network at all, maybe by changing the router settings or something?

[espruino-discuss3]

Posted at 2015-06-19 by @gfwilliams

I think WiFi routers are backwards compatible to older standards... What kind of error are you getting?

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Posted at 2015-06-19 by Coder2012

OK, what happens is that it seems to hang on the first line, the connect doesn't seem to return anything, if I add a console.log before and after that line, only the first line is output.

console.log("start"); // yes i see this
var wlan = require("CC3000").connect();
console.log("damn it");// I don't get here
wlan.connect( "AccessPointName", "WPA2key", function (s) { 
  if (s=="dhcp") {
    require("http").get("http://www.pur3.co.uk/hello.txt", function(res) {
      res.on('data', function(data) {
        console.log(">" + data);
      });
    });
  }
});

I am not the best in the world at soldering, it's possible that my pins are not soldered perfectly, I'll need to check those I guess. Do any of the LEDs on the CC3000 light up at all, nothing seems to on mine.

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Posted at 2015-06-19 by @gfwilliams

Ahh ok, it won't be getting to the stage where it's connecting to your network.

The .connect() line takes a while, but if all is well it should return after maybe 5 seconds.

You have the Adafruit CC3000 module? There's a power LED on it near the 'RXD' silkscreen marking - and that lights up regardless of what's happening in software.

If that's not lighting then I'd check your connections - specifically the Power and Gnd wires, but it'd be worth re-checking everything.

Are you connecting to an original Espruino board, or a Pico? The power markings on the Pico are be a bit confusing because the pin marked Bat is actually 'Battery In', for connecting a battery. What you actually want is to connect to the one marked '5V'.

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Posted at 2015-06-20 by Coder2012

I got it working, I have both the Espruino v1.4 and the Pico. I'm using the Pico in this case. After re-soldering the pins I got the green light on the CC3000 (thanks for the 5V tip!) but still no connection.

The issue was I had just assumed that B3 - B8 were all along the same edge, after checking the diagram closely on the ref card I got with the Pico, I noticed my mistake and once I connected B8 it all worked without a hitch!

Could I just ask, what's the best way to connect wires to those smaller points on the short edge of the Pico? I'm using the jumper wires but the holes on the edge are tiny so I can't put a pin in there.

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Posted at 2015-06-21 by DrAzzy

Well, you try for one thing to avoid using them unless you've got the Pico soldered down to something that breaks them out to pins, like Gordon's Wiznet shim https://www.tindie.com/products/gfwilliams/espruino-pico-wiznet-w550io-ethernet-shim/ , or my Espruino project board https://www.tindie.com/products/DrAzzy/espruino-pico-protoboard-discount/

Or, you might use the ESP8266 shim https://www.tindie.com/products/gfwilliams/espruino-pico-esp8266-wifi-shim/ and use the ESP8266 instead.

You can get 0.05" pin header, but that's not much easier to work with.

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Posted at 2015-06-21 by Coder2012

Oh wow, these look like great ways to make prototyping simple. Thanks DrAzzy.

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Posted at 2015-06-22 by @gfwilliams

Just to add, if you're planning on making your own PCB, there is an Eagle part library (check the Pico page) that has a footprint with the 0.05" pins brought out.

The CC3000 should work on any set of pins though - which could make your wiring easier? The feature wasn't too well documented, but you can call connect with arguments - exactly the same way you do with the WIZnet board.