EGGTIMER - PASSKEY - TeraTerm

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MGL

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I can not get results, followed the instructions but I must be doing something wrong.


To get the passkey, connect a USB-Serial cable (the same cable that’s used with all Eggtimer Rocketry products) to the 3-pin header as follows:
BLACK wire – GND WHITE wire – TX GREEN wire – not used
Using an ASCII terminal program such as TeraTerm or HyperTerminal, connect to the serial port at 115,200 baud, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit. Now connect the battery on your WiFi Switch. You should see the following information:
(a few lines of garbage… part of the boot process)
WiFi Switch v1.02 SSID: WIFI_SW_F87A6E PASSKEY: 3718 6501
Note that there is a space between the first four digits of the passkey and the second four digits, that’s just to make it easier to read; when you actually enter the passkey don’t type the space.

I think my mistake is with TeraTerm setup. Can anyone coach me through step by step?







 
I can not get results, followed the instructions but I must be doing something wrong.


To get the passkey, connect a USB-Serial cable (the same cable that’s used with all Eggtimer Rocketry products) to the 3-pin header as follows:
BLACK wire – GND WHITE wire – TX GREEN wire – not used
Using an ASCII terminal program such as TeraTerm or HyperTerminal, connect to the serial port at 115,200 baud, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit. Now connect the battery on your WiFi Switch. You should see the following information:
(a few lines of garbage… part of the boot process)
WiFi Switch v1.02 SSID: WIFI_SW_F87A6E PASSKEY: 3718 6501
Note that there is a space between the first four digits of the passkey and the second four digits, that’s just to make it easier to read; when you actually enter the passkey don’t type the space.

I think my mistake is with TeraTerm setup. Can anyone coach me through step by step?








A few questions for you...

- Are you using the Eggtimer USB to serial cable?
- Have you successfully used this product in the past? In other words, has it worked for you previously?
- Do you have the passcode and are attempting to verify serial operation, or was the passcode lost?
- When you power up the Eggtimer device, do you see Its SSID on your phone or tablet?

That’s a good start to make sure we understand more about the history of the Eggtimer product and what you are trying to accomplish.
 
A few questions for you...

- Are you using the Eggtimer USB to serial cable?
- Have you successfully used this product in the past? In other words, has it worked for you previously?
- Do you have the passcode and are attempting to verify serial operation, or was the passcode lost?
- When you power up the Eggtimer device, do you see Its SSID on your phone or tablet?

That’s a good start to make sure we understand more about the history of the Eggtimer product and what you are trying to accomplish.

g.pitts - Yes on the cable
Never used TeraFirm or any emulator ever
Lost Passcode
Hooked to desktop, no SSID, all I see is info about the port 'm using, I think
 
g.pitts - Yes on the cable
Never used TeraFirm or any emulator ever
Lost Passcode
Hooked to desktop, no SSID, all I see is info about the port 'm using, I think

Well... I've never tried it before, so here's what I did:

  • Installed Tera Term, and ran it
  • In the Tera Term menu, I selected Setup / Serial Port
  • Verify that the COM port matches your Eggtimer USB serial port cable
    • Mine came up as COM4
  • Change the Baud rate to 115,200
    • All other defaults were as described in the Eggtimer documentation (no parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit)
  • Click "New Open" in the Serial Port setup window
  • Connected battery to my Eggtimer product (Quantum in my case)
I saw the gobbledegook characters as the Quantum booted up, and eventually saw the snippet below. However, digits seem to show up as expected, but characters only show up here and there. But... I am able to get my passcode as circled in the snippet below.

Annotation 2019-12-27 213730.png

<edit>

One other thought - are you powering up your Eggtimer product with a battery after opening the Tera Term text capture window?

</edit>
 
I use Tera Term and often times the com port that is assigned to the cable is different that what is in Tera Term. Plug just your USB cable in, go to device manager, and check to see what com port is assigned to your cable. Then check Tera Term and if they are not the same change them to match.
 
Well... I've never tried it before, so here's what I did:

  • Installed Tera Term, and ran it
  • In the Tera Term menu, I selected Setup / Serial Port
  • Verify that the COM port matches your Eggtimer USB serial port cable
    • Mine came up as COM4
  • Change the Baud rate to 115,200
    • All other defaults were as described in the Eggtimer documentation (no parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit)
  • Click "New Open" in the Serial Port setup window
  • Connected battery to my Eggtimer product (Quantum in my case)
I saw the gobbledegook characters as the Quantum booted up, and eventually saw the snippet below. However, digits seem to show up as expected, but characters only show up here and there. But... I am able to get my passcode as circled in the snippet below.

View attachment 401950

<edit>

One other thought - are you powering up your Eggtimer product with a battery after opening the Tera Term text capture window?

</edit>

g.pitts, that did the trick, it was a com port mixup by me. I didn't see the com port listed on TT after I plug in the usb. Thank you very much Sir.
upload_2019-12-28_0-11-51.png
 
G has given you the info you need above.

I don't have a WiFi switch any more, but the Quantum altimeter is the same for this process.

Connect the USB cable to the WiFi Switch and PC

Open TeraTerm and select "Serial"


image1 (2).jpg

Check you have the correct serial settings.


image3 (2).jpg

Connect battery to WiFi Switch and you should see some characters on the terminal. The last 3 lines have the info about the WiFi Switch, although a bit scrambled. The last line has the code you want. In my case it's 3737 4120.

image4 (2).jpg
 
I use Tera Term and often times the com port that is assigned to the cable is different that what is in Tera Term. Plug just your USB cable in, go to device manager, and check to see what com port is assigned to your cable. Then check Tera Term and if they are not the same change them to match.

Thanks sl98, it was com port confusion on my part.
 
I am in the habit of keeping the stickers with the passkey. I also photograph the sticker with my phone for another record of the number.

I now have a pic file for organization, thanks for the suggestion. I numbered each device and photographed with corresponding passkey label.
 
Last edited:
G has given you the info you need above.

I don't have a WiFi switch any more, but the Quantum altimeter is the same for this process.

Connect the USB cable to the WiFi Switch and PC

Open TeraTerm and select "Serial"


View attachment 401955

Check you have the correct serial settings.

Great detail Voyager1, thank you. That opening screen through me off track also.


View attachment 401956

Connect battery to WiFi Switch and you should see some characters on the terminal. The last 3 lines have the info about the WiFi Switch, although a bit scrambled. The last line has the code you want. In my case it's 3737 4120.

View attachment 401957
 
I am in the habit of keeping the stickers with the passkey. I also photograph the sticker with my phone for another record of the number.

This is great advice. I wrote my pass keys on the top of the WiFi module’s metal case using a Sharpie indelible marker, but keeping photos is a great idea.
 
We've seen a lot of gear over the years that either a) changes rate during init sequence or b) has one or more pins floating about undedined until initialized thereby emitting psuedorandom noise
 
We've seen a lot of gear over the years that either a) changes rate during init sequence or b) has one or more pins floating about undedined until initialized thereby emitting psuedorandom noise

I suspect that the random characters at the beginning of the capture are due to an uninitialized UART (at that point in time). What I'm struggling to understand is how a line of characters can have "good data" (my passcode as well as the firmware revision number as examples, see below) and the rest is garbled data - and do it consistently. RS-232 is a very noise immune electrical protocol, so I honestly cannot imagine this being a noise-related phenomenon. I will drop Cris a note on this to get his input.

Annotation 2019-12-27 213730.png
 
Yes, it’s not surprising to see the random characters. The battery has just been connected and there might also be connection (switch) bounce where the processor has multiple interrupted initialisations.
 
Yes, it’s not surprising to see the random characters. The battery has just been connected and there might also be connection (switch) bounce where the processor has multiple interrupted initialisations.
I believe we may be talking past one another. The part that I'm questioning is the ASCII characters around the SSID and passcode. From the Eggtimer Quantum User’s Guide, Appendix E on page 46 states:

Using an ASCII terminal program such as TeraTerm or HyperTerminal, connect to the serial port at 115,200 baud, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit. Now connect the battery on your Quantum. You should see the following information:
(a few lines of garbage… part of the boot process)
Quantum v1.02b
SSID: Quantum_F87A6E
PASSKEY: 3718 6501

Note that none of us who have posted a screen capture have the text in bold below:

Quantum v1.02b
SSID: Quantum_F87A6E
PASSKEY: 3718 6501


That's the point I'm trying (inartfully) to make - what we are all seeing does not match what the manual says we should see.

It seems that all of the lower case letters have been converted to something entirely different. I checked the ASCII codes, and did not see anything obvious about why "Quantum" is transformed to "Q┤█┼├┤└", for example. I'm still confused...
 
Yes, I understand your point. I have seen the full and correct last 3 lines on previous occasions when connecting to the WiFi switch, Quantum and Proton . It's just that often you might get some of it messed up, but by the last line it has settled.

However, I've just tried a different terminal app and it's fine. Have a go with RealTerm at https://sourceforge.net/projects/realterm/

realterm_1.jpg
 
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