Any trick to getting wifi working?

[notjosh]

Hiya 👋

I ordered a prebuilt device a couple of weeks ago, and I'm only getting around to setting it up now (due to travel).

At first it seemed like the "fallback hotspot" wasn't configured correctly as it wasn't showing up in wifi scans, so I connected it to my PC to debug it (and to flash it with a correct SSID/password). I updated it to turn off fast_connect to force it to do a full scan, and I don't get any results:

[20:21:17][D][wifi:495]: Starting scan
[20:21:23][D][wifi:510]: Found networks:
[20:21:23][D][wifi:512]:   No network found!

This is in contrast to my laptop, which can see a pile of networks from my neighbours:

So even if my network was incompatible (say, 5ghz weirdness), I'd still expect at least one of my neighbours' networks to appear in the scan!

I saw a few issues on the esphome github suggesting to downgrade the version, or (temporarily) turn off some of the entities, but none seem to work for me. I was even worried the 5v power supply I had was a bit underpowered somehow, so I dug out a 5v brick, which can do 5v @ 10A. No difference.

I could see in earlier logs that it had been trying to connect to (I think, from memory) a wifi network called HA-TEST or similar, so I assume you'd gotten it working before shipping it out. But I can't seem to make it work! Any ideas why this might be, or what else I can try?

[PricelessToolkit]

Hi, let me check the latest firmware. I will report back.

[PricelessToolkit]

Please share your full YAML

[PricelessToolkit]

ok, I updated to 2025.6.1, commented out Fast Connect and its scans. If it is connected to your PC, can you power it up with a programmer, "Take 3.3v from programmer" and connect to GND and 3.3v. if it still does not work, please write to the shop.

[notjosh]

my current yaml is:

substitutions:
  name: doorbuzz-lite

esphome:
  name: doorbuzz-lite
  name_add_mac_suffix: false
  project:
    name: pricelesstoolkit.espbell-lite
    version: "1.0"

esp8266:
  board: esp12e

dashboard_import:
  package_import_url: github://PricelessToolkit/ESPBell-LITE/Code/ESPHome/espbell-lite.yaml@main
  import_full_config: true

# Enable logging
logger:
  level: VERBOSE

# Enable Home Assistant API
api:

ota:
  - platform: esphome
    # For boards after around 2024-10-01: password is "password"
    password: "password"

wifi:
  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password
  # fast_connect: true
  power_save_mode: none

  # Enable fallback hotspot (captive portal) in case wifi connection fails
  # ap:
  #   ssid: "${name} Fallback Hotspot"
  #   password: "password"
  #   ap_timeout: 10s
#
# captive_portal:

sensor:
  - platform: uptime
    name: "${name}"
    id: uptime_seconds
    update_interval: 60s

  - platform: wifi_signal
    name: "${name} WiFi Signal"

binary_sensor:
  # Doorbell Sensor
  - platform: gpio
    pin:
      number: 4
      #inverted: true
    name: "DoorBell"
    icon: "mdi:bell"
    filters:
      delayed_on: 100ms

  - platform: status
    name: "${name} Status"

switch:
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 2
    id: LED
    restore_mode: ALWAYS_OFF
    inverted: True

  # Door Lock Opener "Momentary Switch" Keeps SSR ON for 1.5s.
  - platform: gpio
    pin: 5
    id: Lock
    name: "Lock"
    icon: "mdi:lock"
    restore_mode: ALWAYS_OFF
    on_turn_on:
      - switch.turn_on: LED
      - delay: 1500ms
      - switch.turn_off: Lock
      - switch.turn_off: LED

  - platform: restart
    name: ${name} restart

(I use the secrets on other esphome projects, so the secrets work fine. This is my only esp8266 device, as all the others are esp32.)

Specific steps:

• connect tx(->rx), rx(->tx), 3.3v, gnd from programmer to espbell-lite
• hold button espbell-lite, plug in programmer
• run esphome run --device /dev/cu.usbserial-1420 ./doorbuzz-lite.yaml --no-logs, which uploads successfully
• unplug programmer, plug programmer back in (i.e. reset it in normal mode)
• run esphome logs --device /dev/cu.usbserial-1420 ./doorbuzz-lite.yaml, to tail logs

At this point I still get the "No network found!" log message. I've tried i with the ap and captive_portal too, but deactivated them in case they were consuming too much power or somethin'.

If those steps seem correct to you (did I miss anything?), then I'll write to the shop.

[PricelessToolkit]

I am on Windows, but I don't think it's uploading differently :), Write to the store so I can understand what the order number is, so I can resend it.