[Patrick]

Hmmm. No activity and spam messages showing up. I guess it is essentially gone.

[Patrick]

Just a follow-up. The GameFrame has been running without an issue for 4 weeks now. I am rebooting once a day via task scheduler/command line which seems to keep everything going.

[Patrick]

With the reboot twice a day the GameFrame seems to run all the time now. I suspect something in the code is the issue but I’m too lazy to go through it to determine the issue. For now it keeps working which was my goal.

I know Jeremy doesn’t get paid and supports this (and the web site) with NO MONEY coming in which is a labor of love.

Is it possible for anyone to donate some money to offset the costs of the website or the support supplied? Maybe a PayPal account to send money to?

[Patrick]

Well it lasted a couple of days before it would no longer take commands. I am setting the scheduler to reboot twice a day to see if that keeps the unit running continuously.

[Patrick]

So far the GameFrame is still going with no reboot and still taking commands via udp. I don’t want to jinx myself but it has gone further than it has in a long time.

[Patrick]

I’m sorry. I should have indicated that return values were coming back from my calls via UDP.

IPAddress ipaddress = IPAddress.Parse(ipAddress);
IPEndPoint endPoint = new IPEndPoint(ipaddress, 8888);

Socket s = new Socket(endPoint.Address.AddressFamily, SocketType.Dgram,
ProtocolType.Udp);

byte[] msg = Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(command);
var result = s.SendTo(msg, endPoint);
Console.WriteLine(result);
s.Close();

The screenshot showed what the packet sender displayed which I hoped would be more helpful but I didn’t see anything there either.

I got on the particle console (via the web site) and the wifi_signal shows “100” for me. I do have the antenna attached and used the command to use the external antenna.

I will leave it without rebooting for a few days and see what happens. If it still loses connection for some reason I can always turn on the scheduled reboot

[Patrick]

Got the external antenna installed and used the command to change to external.
The wifi_signal still shows “11” so I am still suspicious that the return code I am getting back isn’t what I think it is. I attached the readout from the Packet Sender. What am I doing wrong?

I tested the auto-reboot command. I had it running every four hours which seems to keep it going but I want to try the antenna so that is currently disabled.

Either way I should be able to keep it going all the time now.

Which brings me back to my original post. I have two adapter boards that I will mail to anybody that wants them. I have a spare Photon (soldered to the adapter board) which apparently wasn’t broken so I have a spare now.

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[Patrick]

I should have the new antenna by Thursday or Friday this week.

Is there a command to reboot the GameFrame? If the antenna doesn’t help I could reboot every fifteen minutes and see if that keeps it alive over time.

I also ordered a wifi extender to see if connecting to that might make a difference. Also will be nice to extend the range of my wifi around the house.

[Patrick]

I tried various locations and the two values really didn’t change much. I even placed the GameFrame against the router and the values stayed the same. I don’t have another router but tried using my phone as a hotspot but the photon wasn’t able to connect for some reason. (Device and password were correct)

So I will wait until the antenna arrives to see if that helps or not. I appreciate you helping me troubleshoot this issue but I feel bad that bothering you during Thanksgiving.

[Patrick]

I ordered the antenna and flashed the new firmware.

I’m sorry but I don’t understand the “wifi” commands. Is the integer value that is returned from the UPD command the value I am looking for? When I tried the signal I get “11” and the quality is “12” so that can’t be right.

[Patrick]

Well my theory fell flat. The new Photon did the same thing after about 10 hours or so. I don’t see anything in my router config that would kill the connection after a period of time.

I guess I could try the antenna as another route since this didn’t work.

[Patrick]

Yes these are the UDP commands or from IFTTT. I would notice that it wasn’t turning on/off or changing modes when it was scheduled. I could restart the GameFrame and then I could send the commands and it all worked again. It seemed to be getting worse recently. Previously I might have to reset once every few weeks. Currently it couldn’t go more than a day without rebooting. I felt that the Photon might be the issue but wasn’t sure. I decided to replace the Photon and see if things improve. If not then back to the drawing board.

[Patrick]

I’d be surprised if it needed an antenna. The GameFrame is literally 10 feet from the router in the same room. Nothing but air between them. Even the same height from the ground.

I noticed that the back cover for the GameFrame is darkened where the Photon rests against it. Maybe it got too hot and was going bad? Not sure. Maybe I should cut an opening in the cover where the board touches it.

Anyway I currently have the GameFrame sitting on my desk with no back cover right now and waiting to see if it stops responding to commands sent. Currently still working correctly but it will be few days before I am convinced this fixed it.

[Patrick]

No, I had a Photon already but it was constantly losing connection to my router. I had to reset the photon a few times a day in order to be able to send requests to it. I have other devices (like an octopi) which never seem to lose connection. Both devices are on static IPs on my LAN. I decided to get a replacement Photon board which meant I would need the GameFrame adapter board too. I ordered from OSH Park (you get three) and then soldered it together. I went through the setup for the Photon and loaded the latest GameFrame bin file.

So far so good. I will have to let it run a few days to see if the behavior has changed. I’m hoping so.

[Patrick]

Yes I set the Game Frame on a static IP address so I don’t have to search for its IP whenever I want to access it. I have other devices (Octopi for example) also set with a static IP and they don’t lose access. It seems like it has gotten worse requiring rebooting a few times a day now. I suspect the Photon is dying. I will buy a new Photon board and see if I can get it back to running. It has been a fixture in my home office for a long time and I’d hate to throw it away.

[Author]

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