CLOUDY BAY 6inch Smart Wifi LED Recessed Lights, RGBCW

I mean, for sure I will be disconnecting from my UART to USB device but.... the wires that I have soldered to the chip, I was about to secure them so they don't touch anything / or each other in any way.... and then I want to connect the device to my little on/off switch to mains for testing purposes....
that should not cause any harm, unless I am missing something ... which at this point ... I am asking before I do that.

I would really, really recommend you desoldering all wires from WB3S before connecting device to mains. You don't need them. You can update OBK via WiFi (OTA). You can configure via WiFi. It's safer with them desoldered.

A new development ....
unplugged all .... desoldered wires... so it is like stand alone.... got it hooked up to power.... but does not show on my network anymore and behaves as if it is dead.

hmmmm ... back to the drawing board....

Disconnect power, wait 5 seconds, and reconnect it. It should connect to your WiFI. It may connect under different IP. Check your router DHCP page for new IP of your device.

yeah, i tried a few times to power off.... wait... turn on.... my router actually shows me nicely all devices and definitely no new device is connecting.... hmmm I wonder if this is what is up with those devices they suck on that board they are mounted. I even moved it like 6 feet away from my access point to make sure it gets signal.... and funny part is that .... when I had it connected to UART to USB device... it was like maybe 20 feet away from the access point.
I think i am going to solder back the wires and see if it connects again while thru UART to USB.
<fml>

Ok so wait, now let's try to run safe mode.

Do 5 times, power off, wait 3 seconds, power on, wait 3 seconds.

This should boot device in AP mode and create access point called OpenBK-something...

hi, ok did and I see it as AP on my phone....

So it's not dead, connect to it and configure your WIFI SSID/password, hm

I think a dumb question: how do I connect to it on a phone?

Added after 28 [minutes]:

Nevermind..... poking more in forum I got this:

Open a browser and connect to http://192.168.4.1...

Added after 1 [minutes]:

It shows my wifi CONFIGURED with SSID and password. hmmmmmmm.....

If it's in safe mode, and says configured, then if you reboot it (after 15 or so seconds) it should return back to normal mode and connect to your WiFi

This light I think is a piece of garbage... For some reason does not connect while standalone, I do not understand why it would do that, but was fine while connected thru the. uARt to USB device.

I will be out tomorrow, so I will not be working on it tomorrow, however researching online.

Did you see AP of OBK when it's standalone (powered from mains)? Or was it powered via USB to UART?

AP of it I saw when powered to mains.

This is very strange. For WB3S, being powered via USB to UART converter or via mains should not make any difference.

Maybe you just powered it on and off quickly 5 times and enabled Safe Mode yourself? By an accident?

I enabled the AP mode per your instructions one time, to see if the settings of the WiFi, and just to make sure the password value is right, I entered that again. There was a spot for a second ssid connect info, I filled it out too with another WiFi I have for testing this stuff.
Then saved, it reboot.. tried... Then turned it off completely from power ... A few times that was done ... Never gets connected to WiFi when on .. I even left it for a ln hour for it to just maybe start up 🤪

But when powered via USB to UART, it connects to your WiFI?

Yes.
When I am back from work today I will wire it back to confirm 200%.

Added after 9 [hours] 37 [minutes]:

soldered wires, connected to uart to usb device, hooked up to my pc ... and it right away showed connected to the wifi, signal GOOD, etc..
can no problem get to it from my pc:

now back to experts to tell me but I suspect something on those white boards that this WB3S is connected to is just a crap?

any ideas thoughts

Are you really sure about that? Can you, well, carefully, disconnect wires from USB to UART converter, make sure there are no shorts, and connect lamp to mains and check if it connects to your WiFI?

Added after 54 [seconds]:

I apologize for asking, but I literally flashed more than 100 devices already, and I don't remember seeing that kind of problem yet. Especially not in case of a brand-new device. Hmm.

OK, there is a new development... I have Dream Machine Pro.... and one thing I noticed while connected thru UARTtoUSB device is that this device shows PHY Mode: 802.11b, I went to my wifi settings and modified my 802.11 Data Rate Control and set for 2.4 GHz min 12Mbps, so it does not use "b" ... I disconnected again all and connected normally to mains as it should and now PHY Mode: 802.11ng and connected fine!
WTH?!
I definitely don't want any of those devices on 802.11b so I will definitely keep Data Rate Control set like explained above ...
However.... I thinking of undoing this change and test what happens and if this thing goes back to being problematic with connecting to wifi again, some time later today.

I am puzzled.

PS: I think I was able to make it connected to MQTT service, but have to now see how to get it in HA discovered....
MQTT State: connected RES: 0(ERR_OK)
MQTT ErrMsg:
MQTT Stats:CONN: 1 PUB: 12 RECV: 3 ERR: 0
and how to have it remember last light configured state (color/brightness).... etc...
Update: looks like Flag 12 - [LED] Remember LED driver state (RGBCW, enable, brightness, temperature) after reboot, well will be playing with those flags.

Added after 38 [minutes]:

quick update: discovered the thing in HA. I enabled some flags for [MQTT] in [configure general/flags] section. etc...
I guess from now on I have to play with it all and figure out specific flags/configurations/etc.

So it works? That's good, but what was the problem? You had 5G WiFi instead of 2.4GHz?

OK, before I revert the change on my wifi as described in above post, I went on and turned on the lights I have not modified\flashed... and I was able to add with the same wifi ssid two lights to my wifi on original firmware, almost right away. o.O

So for others out there.... I have UniFi Dream Machine Pro here with U6-LR APs.
When WiFI network is created, the "Minimum Data Rate Control" is set to AUTO and well... allows 802.11b support. But you do not want that. I did not even realize that it was like that in a first place, but investigated differences when, with UART2USB device it was added fine to wifi on the custom firmware, but when connected to mains it was not. I will later today revert the changes on the wifi to "allow" it to do "b" again and see how my flashed device behaves, and will update what happens.

When you change to MANUAL and modify for 2.4GHz the Density to 12 Mbps it will disable 802.11b support.
Those lights default to 802.11b if I guess AP allows it, and here you go I went thru hell to figure it out

I will be flashing them all as I want to get them anyways on my HA and have it not talk to China

@p.kaczmarek2 it was an honor to work with you on this one, but dont go anywhere as more questions to come about other stuff haha. I've learnt a ton and I have a ton more to learn with this new firmware You are the best

the two wifi I test with have no 5GHz enabled on them at all, just 2.4GHz.

Added after 1 [hours] 7 [minutes]:

OK I confirmed that if I allow on my UniFi network in WiFi settings support for 802.11b, even with a device flashed with OBK firmware it will not connect to my wifi.... while the device is connected on the mains.
Here is a configuration that works for me:

so in short... don't do AUTO. Make it Manual and slide to 12Mbps.

FYI
(and I already confirmed that this is not a case, while WB3S is connected to UART2USB directly, and it will connect in the AUTO mode, and show up on a network as connected thru 802.11b)

Very good job on figuring the WiFi issue, I was not aware about it. Your finding will surely help other users reading this thread.

Let me know once you have any more questions, and if you have any other IoT devices for teardowns/flashing, please open separate threads for them. We want to reach 500 entries soon here, on our list:
https://openbekeniot.github.io/webapp/devicesList.html

EDIT...I got it to work but I don't understand why.

I flashed it again but unchecked the "automatically configure OBK on flash write". This time my phone did not get the no internet connection error but the phone never switched into the config screen like Tasmota usually does. I manually typed 192.168.4.1 into a phone web page and I am now at the config screen. I entered my SSID info and then pulled it up with my local address.

Next go to the configure module tab and enter the following:

P6: PWM/5
P8: PWM/4
P9: PWM/1
P24: PWM/2
P26: PWM/3

Now the light should work and be controllable from its web address page.

I also like to have the light turn back on to its last previous state when I flip the wall switch or if there is a power failure so check flag 12 on the configure general/flags screen.

I hope this helps someone or at least I will have it document for myself if I ever get another pack of these lights.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm looking for some help. I purchased a 6 pack of these and never installed them. I now have time and wanted to get all 6 flashed and operational.

I flashed one of these almost 2 years ago (post #12 in this thread) and it is still working fine. I can access it through a web address and control all of the config pages. Obviously, this was flashed with an older version of the tool and the firmware than what is available today.

Today, I went to work on the rest of the 6 pack and I successfully flashed one with the recommended online tool. It successfully reads, erases, and writes the new firmware. I disconnect the light from the PC and hook it back up to mains and I am getting the AP (Open-BX7231T_xxxxx) on my phone. I click on it and it successfully connects but then I receive an error message of no internet connection. So, I am never getting the initial config page to enter my SSID info.

Any ideas?

if I join an open access point with no internet access on my Android I have to confirm I want to stay connected otherwise it boots me off to rejoin home network. Same thing perhaps? Do you have another device to try connecting to it?

I've seen the same on my phone, maybe you can try on a laptop?

If you think that "automatically configure OBK on flash write". may be at fault, then please try reading back OBK config and show us what it says, maybe include the binary? Do you think that some flag or setting may be causing issues?

divadiow wrote:

if I join an open access point with no internet access on my Android I have to confirm I want to stay connected otherwise it boots me off to rejoin home network. Same thing perhaps? Do you have another device to try connecting to it?

Good idea, but I don't think Apple IOS does this. I can successfully connect to Tasmota web AP no problem on the same phone. I did try using a laptop as well and it comes back with:

Hmmm… can't reach this page
192.168.4.1 took too long to respond

Added after 7 [minutes]:

p.kaczmarek2 wrote:

I've seen the same on my phone, maybe you can try on a laptop?

If you think that "automatically configure OBK on flash write". may be at fault, then please try reading back OBK config and show us what it says, maybe include the binary? Do you think that some flag or setting may be causing issues?

Thanks for the quick reply. I didn't mention it but yes, I did try on a laptop by manually entering 192.168.4.1. It comes back as
Hmmm… can't reach this page
192.168.4.1 took too long to respond

On your second thought...I'm not super computer savvy. I am good at following guides, threads, and videos. Is there a guide or video to show how to read back the OBK config and get the binary? I still have the CBU chip soldered up with the 5 wires (3.3, gnd, tx, rx, cen).