Hello dear group, 

After reading the whole internet for a gazillion times, I've finally made an account to take up this discussion on the onstep group here. I'm quite happy to be here and thank you in advance for any help you can ever provide!

I'm the semi-happy owner of an Instein ESP32 & 8826 Onstep unit which I've had for over a year now. Bought last year with those new TMC 5160 drivers, I've had success using it for quite a while, with good performance too. 

Until now. 

For reasons I can't identify , the unit disconnects/times out after ~2-3 minutes up to 10 minutes after booting up. I have 3 channels for coms : - USB / WIFI / Bluetooth . They all have the same symptoms : - successfully boots up , starts align and motor power up routine, slews , starts tracking , then the power cuts out to the steppers and the mount becomes unresponsive until next power on (times out receiving data) 

Now I have done a lot of things before coming here, including some code modifications with Instein who is responding to my emails, so we worked together on this. 

What I've tried so far: 

- Flashed ESP 32 & 8826 to the latest Onstep versions (including the PDF guide from Guilherme Venere which worked for me) . Currently using : WiFi Server 2.1v / (OnStep 4.24f)

- Booted with no cables attached ; then with no stepper drivers ; then with everything taken out and the axis1&2 drivers disabled from the .INO. 

- Modified parts of the code pertaining to Instein specifics : Like LEDSTATUS mode OFF, different baud rates, Bluetooth OFF, etc.  then reverted to the original code. 

- Tried operating the mount with USB cable only, disabled Wifi/BT . 

- Prayed a lot. 

Symptoms :

- No matter what kind of (careful) modifications I do to the code , the unit works normally for a few minutes then it will crash with no visible reason. 

- Sometimes I get a "Open Load AB" report but I've heard it's normal when slewing or in standstill state, anyway the steppers work fine, no weird sounds, no stalling ,etc. before it crashes for good and cuts power. 

- Either by usb cable (ascom or onstep driver) , Wifi or BT , the unit will freeze and stop responding after a few minutes, with a timeout waiting code, it can't be reconnected, I have to power off and wait a few minutes for it to be visible again. 

- The TMC 5160's get warm , like  hot coffee  warm, but I've been using the unit for over a year now with no problems. I think it's normal. My IHOLD & IRUN is - 900 ; IGOTO - 1400 . Motors do not get hot, they barely get warm,  Motors are 400 steps .1.7A nema 17. 

- This seems to be like some internal COM or power issue, since it crashes the same way no matter how I communicate with it and if there are stepper boards/cables/ motors connected or not. 

- If I either connect to it or leave it alone just to broadcast , it will still crash after some elapsed minutes. (wifi/bt dissapears, cable will connect-timeout  ) 

- Before crashing everything works normally, nothing software related seems to be crashing it. Sometimes the motors disconnect but the mount will stay connected so I can restart the coils using Reset (at home) and aligning again, but that's a rarity. 
- I'm using RJ45 cat5 to 4 pin DIN connectors for the motors , which I've been using for an year now. Never had any trouble. They are soldered in twisted pairs to go from 8pins to the 4 pin panel. 

- The ESP32 only lights up the red LED , it stays on steady, no blinking, no nothing, not even when flashing. 

- Now I've had this problem in the past ,occasionally, but always managed to reboot and get it working one way or another. It just seems this isn't the case anymore. 

Using :

ESP32-DEVKITC-32U 

ESP8826

2X TMC 5160 in quiet mode

Instein pinmap and PCB. 

I'm really low on ideas and stuff left to tryout , I've ordered a new ESP32 Expressif board , the exact same model Instein is putting on their units , I'm going to try reflashing with a new board. His board had a transistor soldered between   GPIO 0 and 3.3V line , probably will duplicate that too. 

I was wondering if you have any suggestions I haven't tried yet. I can gladly offer any other information necessary to find this ghostly problem that I can't seem to diagnose. 

Thanks a lot!

Andrei 

Dear Howard Could you please explain how the Spam and Zero values work in the DewHater settings ? I couldn't find it in the wiki. Thank you
Roman

No, too noisy. I run a 12 volt fan at 5 volts, nice and quiet. Don't worry about the PPS, the clock on the ESP32 is just as good. Leave AUX7 open for now.

Maybe something Teensy specific in the code, or the Ethernet code in there.
Because I am able to compile the latest SWS code for an ESP8266 (WiFi) and there are no issues ...

Note that I successfully uploaded the "old" addon Ethernet server (not the SWS) unto the Teensy 3.2 with no trouble/first try, so it seems to be something about SWS or something I am doing incorrectly. 

or can i handly move the scope when all is not powered?

When you have a scope with OnStep controlling it, then all movement should be from OnStep, not manually. Otherwise OnStep will lose track of where it is pointing. But a small number of users add encoders that tell OnStep (via the Wemos WiFi module) where the scope is pointing.

The ESP32/CNC combination does NOT provide WiFi.
It does provide only Bluetooth.
Although the ESP32 does have WiFi hardware, there is no support in OnStep, because of technical reasons too long to explain here.

If WiFi is needed, then this board is not a good fit.

i m new here with the project of convert my dobsonian skywatcher 250p to goto with onstep.I read almost all of the wiki but i m a bit lost with all of the board and stepper motor. my first idea was mks board l 2.1 +TMC 2209 + wemod d1 mini pro

but no idea for motor (i see everywhere nema 17) because i m total noob with motor and gear ratio.

my second idea was esp32 + cnc to have wifi & bluetooth direclty on the main board.

another question is must i have a shc to move the scope

or can i handly move the scope when all is not powered?