No uart console ELIVCO Power Outlet Tuya BK7231T Module Firmware 1.17.262

Hi,

I recently discovered your firmware and flashed it to one of my ELIVCO power outlets running a Tuya BK7231T module.

When I flashed it, I used the tuya-cloudcutter tool and didn't check what version it was at the time. Turns out it was a year old version (1.17.262).
After flashing it successfully I tried to set it up to connect to my WiFi, which failed miserably because I did not input the correct SSID.
After that, I tried to diagnose what was happening by disassembling it, desoldering the BK7231T module and trying to connect to the UART console.
In the meantime, I had opened an issue on GitHub, that I closed after being told to reboot my device 5 times to go into recovery mode.
Recovery mode helped me correct my mistake, but it wasn't connecting either.
So I jumped back into recovery to just remove the WiFi setup for now and maybe try to update its firmware via OTA update (who knows how many bugs you can find in a year old firmware).
Sadly, now the WiFi connection is unstable and barely usable so I can't update it via OTA. Whenever I try to connect to its WiFi with my Android phone it tries to connect and fails with "Access denied". And on my laptop (running Arch Linux) NetworkManager tells me that it can't see the WiFi when I try to connect.
So I disassembled it again to try and go into the UART console, with no success. Nothing on the UART console.
I tried the log console (2TX/2RX), nothing in it either ... and cherry on top of the cake, I broke the 2TX pad when I had a wire soldered on it.

Console setup: in minicom -> /dev/ttyUSB0 115200 8N1

What is your WiFi network setup? How far are you from router?

The following schematic will not work. You need TTL levels on UART, not RS232. Please check out our tutorials here, they show flashing process step by step:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6d42IMGhHw&list=PLzbXEc2ebpH0CZDbczAXT94BuSGrd_GoM
We have tutorials for many chips, you should check specifically the ones for BK7231

p.kaczmarek2 wrote:

What is your WiFi network setup? How far are you from router?

I'm less than a meter away from it. Because I make my laptop be my WiFi router for testing.
Oh yeah so maybe I should use entirely my CH341B programmer in uart mode then instead of RS232 port? Only issue that I currently have is that I can't successfully put it (CH341B programmer) in uart mode, even with jumper on 2 - 3 pins ... my laptop still sees it as an EPP/I2C adapter ...

Added after 3 [hours] 9 [minutes]:

>>21220316
Also, whenever i try to connect to OpenBK WiFi, i can only succed to connect from my phone that doesn't have any other connections to it, if i try to connect from my current phone which have 4G/5G turned on, i can't connect to it... i feel like i am missing something but have absolutely no clue what ...

The first step is to get your USB to UART converter to show as a COM port. It has to be an USB to UART converter like the one on our vid, RS232 will not work because it has like +12 or so -12 levels, as far as I remember. I haven't seen RS232 in years.

CH341B for me sounds like a flash programmer, not the USB to UART converter. Is CH341B really able to do UART? I would need to check, I have never tried....

well, you may have a point, but still, it's a new thing for me. @DeDaMrAz @divadiow @max4elektroda has anyone of you used CH341 in UART Mode?

Regarding WiFi issue, I am not able to test it right now because my phone does not have mobile data packet enabled. I'm usually using my laptop to connect to OBK access point and configure that.

Still, are you able to reach the 192.168.4.1 page?

I haven't used it for UART yet but I have switched the jumper over to see it detect as a USB-TTL in Device Manager.

This is it in SPI mode currently (I'm using libusbK driver at the moment)


and when the jumper is changed



this is my device


Added after 2 [minutes]:

does your device PID change between modes @lenien77

p.kaczmarek2 wrote:

Still, are you able to reach the 192.168.4.1 page?

Yes I do. I am sometimes able to connect to my WiFi, but only under certain conditions that I describe earlier. Which is only on my old smartphone, if I try on my current phone with 4G/5G it just won´t connect to it.

divadiow wrote:

does your device PID change between modes @lenien77

And this is one of my problems, I can´t get mine to go in UART SERIAL, and I indeed put my jumper between pin 2 and 3. And this is the model I have : https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R...Wl_UNn6_Rbts2CX/s1600/blackminiprogrammer.jpg

Wait a sec. Are you, by any chance, referring somehow to 5G WiFi? All Tuya products can work only with 2.4GHz networks. This is by design and a hardware limitation. You can't connect them to 5GHz router.

Ienien77 wrote:

this is the model i have

I also have this and the CH341A serial port mode device is present in DM when jumper is bridging pins 2-3, as with my other one.



jumper definitely bridging your pins? got any others or something else to bridge pins 2 and 3?

>>21220925 When I talk about 4G/5G? Nope, it´s not WiFi that I´m talking about here, I understood that most if not all IOT devices run on 2.4Ghz.

divadiow wrote:

I also have this and the CH341A serial port mode device is present in DM when jumper is bridging pins 2-3, as with my other one.

I´ll check tomorrow if it is a good connection, I have to check if it´s not OS related I´m running Linux. Will check on a windows machine.

I've just checked on my side, and indeed, CH341 can work as USB to UART converter. I didn't even know that earlier, so I learned a new thing today, thank you! Here is how it looks line on my Win 10:

Note that on my photo jumper is not in UART mode. Refer to @divadiow photo for that.

All right, so I've tried to get my CH341B to work in my Linux machine and to output things on /dev/ttyUSBx, I didn't succeed.
Thankfully I bought some CH340G USB to TTL which just arrived today, but I might do something wrong, I don't get any serial output.

So, I read that BK7231T module was outputting things at 115200 baud, as for the rest I don't know if I select the right parameters.
I tried it again in minicom 115200 8N1, but I have nothing. Maybe my wiring is still incorrect?

your CH341A needs to share a ground with the external power source.

>>21230748 and sadly it doesn't work either, though maybe now my wiring is at least correct...

I have never managed to flash with 3.3V from USB to UART converter. I often flash like:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzbXEc2ebpH0CZDbczAXT94BuSGrd_GoM