ESP.restart() interaction

[DevilXD]

Hello,

For some basic context, I'm using:

• Board: ESP32 DevKit ESP-WROOM-32 V1
• PlatformIO via VSCode
• ESP32Async/ESPAsyncWebServer@^3.9.2
• ESP32Async/AsyncTCP@^3.4.9

I'm having some issues with accessing the server after a software restart via ESP.restart(). I've been looking for some information on this topic, specifically:

• Should I expect it to work with just AsyncWebServer server(80); being declared at the top of the main file, outside of the loop or setup routines?
• If not, I'm assuming I need to specify the server as a pointer, shutdown the server and cleanup the old instance before the restart, and then create a new instance afterwards on the same port?
• Do I specifically need to use ESP.restart() inside the loop routine, or is something like this called from a response handler okay?:

xTaskCreate(
    [](void *p) { delay(2000); ESP.restart(); },
    "RestartTask",
    2048,
    NULL,
    1,
    NULL
);

My coding and debugging skills aren't exactly great, and this "small" web application I'm working on has grown too complicated for me to be able to pinpoint the exact cause, so I wanted to cross out some basic "unknowns" I'm not sure of yet. I've figured that asking here would be the best course of action, since someone else could already have some experience with this topic. A simple "yes", "no" or "it depends" would suffice. If more information would be needed, please let me know as well.

[mathieucarbou]

ESP.restart() is a hardware restart. It completely restarts the board as if you disconnect and reconnect the usb cable.

[mathieucarbou]

Yes. Look at how the examples are made in the project.

[DevilXD]

Thank you. I'll revert the current changes back to using that then, and see where I can go from there. I'll report back if I manage to reproduce the issue, and/or fix it for good.

[DevilXD]

Okay, so I've managed to ask around, and a friend of mine has temporarily supplied me with a second board, that I could do some on-bench tests on. This one is identical to the one installed in the electrical box, that I'm having issues with. Turns out I've slightly incorrectly stated the board model in my initial post - it's the DevKit V1 one, not V2. I've edited the initial post to reflect that.

The result of this on-bench test is quite confusing to me though. I've reverted the changes back to using just AsyncWebServer server(80); as you've confirmed, and it seems like all of the code works after all, at least when flashed to this second board I have now. The second board can correctly perform a working OTA at least twice in a row, while showing the test changes made for each update.

When I try this on the first board though, the first OTA changes are still shown, but the second OTA fails to pass the authorization middleware - specifically, the _CheckOTA doesn't seem to run, and the following _authf call returns 401 instead. The initial code flashed to both boards is identical. I now have two boards, that behave differently with the exact same code being put on them. I even tried to do the initial flash to the first board via USB, trying to replicate the same testing conditions for both boards, but the results are the same.

I don't know if this is still in scope of this discussion here, but I'm kinda lost now. How do I proceed from here?

[mathieucarbou]

I am pretty sure that the web sever code has nothing to do with it.
Just make sure you begin the server when you are connected (ap mode or wifi/eth connected).
Not before.

Make sure you select the right board also, either in arduino ide or platformio.

[DevilXD]

Right, I see. Will do.

Thank you for your help =)