OK, so
What’s the current set of steps to get into AP Mode?
Note from August 14 - Problems with hookup were the motivation for this question as things “were not working”.
Those problems resolved when the problems were identified as derived from the partly fried laptop being used. The degree of fried was clarified in this exercise.
The moral of the story, make sure your control point is stable itself. The PB setup seems super stable and easy to access.
For V3, you can set that from in the interface on the WiFi tab.
Otherwise hold the button for 5 seconds to put it in setup mode. Once in setup mode, connect to the Pixelblaze_XXXXXX network and use the interface to configure AP mode. Just like in initial setup.
I seem to get on here only when things are not working, Dang, sorry, I do wish I could make a better contribution but… This logon system is being a bear and I don’t know why. Lets see if we can figure it out.
And thank you for your patient input, I will forever be a noob.
First, some notes for clarification purposes:
I - Client mode is configured like this (I guess)
USER INTERFACE DEVICE (laptop, desktop, phone?, etc) <> ROUTER <> SERVERS “SOMEWHERE IN THE SKY” <> ROUTER AGAIN <> PIXELBLAZE
Perhaps that is right?
Anyway my laptop that melted down partly a while back seems to have been hacked… ( I know, I have all the luck, right?) So, what are the security protocols involved here in this configuration, if I might ask?
II - AP Mode is configured like this I’m pretty sure -
UI DEVICE <> PB… OR DOES IT GO THROUGH MY ROUTER? (I know amateur hour questions here)
Are there security questions here, also?
ANYWAY, the laptop I was running last night shut down around 2AM (all sleep modes were turned off) and now won’t do much of anything. I think I was in AP mode, testing stability of operations in that mode. All kinds of funny shenanigans ensued including clicking on desktop icons for news services and voilla, the PB is launched… um …
Running on my backup Chromebook this AM I got things running in Client Mode, then setup AP mode, got a Chrome message about a “data breach”…
So now I’m wondering about security protocols in AP Mode.
As I understand it this is how to hook up in AP Mode with the V3 WiFi tab
As this morning’s final adventure, I can no longer log on to the PB even in client mode. It is “discovered” but I get this message
http://192.168.10.101/ is unreachable.
Well, I hope and expect its something simple because I have a pretty big presentation to give tomorrow using this system. Murphy’s Law I suppose. Think I’ll go take a shower.
In AP mode, the Pixelblaze effectively is the router. It makes its own wifi network, separate from all others, having no connection to the internet at all. No devices except the Pixelblaze and whatever you connect to it are involved.
Client mode is really not much different. Your router assigns the Pixelblaze an IP address on your local network, and other devices on your local network can use that address to communicate with it. Unless you have a public facing IP address, or have allowed certain types of traffic that most routers by default don’t allow, nobody on the internet can see what’s on your local LAN.
When you use a web browser to communicate with a Pixelblaze on a LAN, it’s just your browser and the Pixelblaze. No “cloud” is involved, and none of this is visible to the internet at large.
The “data breach” thing is a Chrome system message telling you that the username/password combo you’re using to log into a website or service has been compromised. The site’s database got hacked - not you, and it unfortunately won’t tell you who it was. Just that the particular username/password combination is in a database of hacked ids somewhere.
That’s bad in and of itself, but you can still use that setup for AP mode in your office without any worry. (If you’re using it on any websites though, you should change it immediately.)
That laptop is the one with the dead graphics card, right? It’s pretty likely that it just finally died. But if you want to join me on the Path of Paranoia, a good place to start is to power cycle everthing on your network. Router, computers, phones… everything. Power down for 30 seconds, then restart the router, then add the devices back one at a time.
Ah, muchas gracias por las respeustas magnificas.
The code is running!!!, and will percolate through the night I reckon.
Perhaps the story will be told tomorrow, but not tonight. Sleep calls early on this one.
Good news! Code has been steadily chugging along in AP Mode since last post, 15 hr. ago. Praise be!
There are a few hook up details to sort out, but that, for a following post.
Further update includes over 40 hours of stable runtime. That followed by smooth transitioning from AP to Client mode and back.
This was all accomplished on a cheap Chromebook… a “clean machine”.
The problems noted above
I believe were solely derived from use of an unstable laptop machine. The instability included random switching of WiFi connections, insertion of random(?) graphics in place of desktop icons, and accessing the electromage discovery/logon screen when other desktop icons were pressed.
This was, indeed, making me feel a bit paranoid for a while.
The conclusion now is that the old laptop is unsuited for PB operation since there is more damage there than loss of the higher-end of two installed graphics cards as previously noted.
I should also say, thanks for outlining things in terms of simple functionality and security @zranger1 and @Wizard… for the basic steps outlined in setup et al.
As always, thanks. A really great community level of support shown here.