Problem with adding new hub

Tempest Owners
1

Per my previous thread, I was having strange power issues with my hub, and a new one was sent to me. I received the replacement hub sent to me and followed the directions to add it to my account. However, I have run into a couple of issues, one of which I can’t seem to get solved.

  1. I followed the directions to add a new station. I got to the point where I needed to hold the LED button on the sensor for 5 seconds. I did so and the light began flashing red instead of green. I waited 4-5 minutes to see if this would correct to flashing green, but it didn’t. I power cycled the Tempest sensor and tried again with the same result. Finally, I held the button down just long enough for to start flashing green. It still went to flashing red, but when I power cycled the sensor this time, it came on flashing green. This currently isn’t an ongoing problem, but wanted to report it for bug fix/documentation improvement (I didn’t see flashing red light included in manual) purposes.

  2. Now that I have the sensor flashing green, I clicked on the “Next” button in the app to continue the process, and it will not pass the stage of “Checking hub connection”. It just sits on “Checking hub connection” for a minute or two and then says “Hub not connected”. The current state of the sensor is blinking green light and the current state of the hub is solid red light. Here is everything I have tried to do to get past this:

  1. Closed and restarted app - no change.
  2. Power cycled hub - no change.
  3. Reset hub (unplug -> pin on reset button -> plug back in -> wait 10 seconds) - no change
  4. Checked app permissions and verified access to Bluetooth and location - no change
  5. Force stopped app, removed all cache and data files, then restarted - no change
  6. Uninstalled and reinstalled app - no change
  7. Manually connected to hub via Bluetooth (connected via Android Blutetooth interface) - light on hub turned blue, but app didn’t see/recognize the connection.
  8. Tried resetting/power cycling all components (sensor, hub, phone) - no change

Does anyone have any idea what is going on and how to fix this?

Here are setup details to help:

Phone is Pixel 3 XL running latest Android update and security patches
Sensor is mounted on pole on deck outside.
Line of sight from sensor to hub through a standard window and sliding glass door.
Phone kept at various distances to hub during setup attempts, including ~5 inches, 1 foot, 2 feet, 5 feet.
WiFi signal at -48 dBm at hub location/

2

what sometimes seem to help is to temporarily disable the 5Ghz network on your router. So only 2.4 is up.

3

Did you delete the Tempest from the previous station first?

4

@sunny I tried this just now and no change.

@gizmoev Yes, I removed the previous station first.

5

This is part one of the problem. As long the hub is red it can’t connect to the servers and no pairing will be able.

Can the hub see internet ? On your account I see a hub but it is offline for 4 hours now. Was this the old hub or the new one on that account ??

In any case before attempting to add the “Tempest” get the hub online again.

1 Like
6

The hub you’re seeing on my account is most likely the old hub.

I’m not able to get the app past the initial stage of connecting to the hub via Bluetooth to configure the hub for WiFi so it can connect to the internet. I was under the impression that the process involved first connecting to the hub via the app, the app then sent the Wi-Fi credentials to the hub, and then the hub connected to the internet which would then allow me to proceed to attaching the sensor. Is this correct? If so, the process is failing on step 1 (i.e., the app is not finding/connecting to the hub to send the WiFi configuration). The phone itself sees the hub via Bluetooth, but the app does not.

I hope this helps clarify the issue some.

7

Let’s try something else

can you try this procedure

https://community.tempest.earth/t/reset-procedure-for-the-hubs-radio-in-case-of-lost-or-bad-connection-with-tempest-sky-air/6153

once done see if the normal procedure and wifi comes back ; no guarantee but at least we tried that one.

you did already but at this point …

other thing : you have a guest network in your wifi ??
Do the different channels have the same name or weird characters in it (sometimes this can go bazooka)

8

I tried the reset procedure and it didn’t work. There is no Guest WiFi, and no strange characters in it. There was no issue with the WiFi on the previous hub.

I think I’m confused on the overall process and where this seems to be failing. I may be misreading, but it sounds like you’re saying that I should just plug in this replacement hub and it should just connect to my WiFi. However, how would it be able to do that without knowing which network is mine or the WPA2 key?

This is seeming more and more to me to be a problem with the app. The app seems to be “stuck” in the “Add Device” procedure, which I interpret to be adding a new sensor to a hub. The first screen that comes up when I open the app is the instruction screen on how to push the clear LED button for 5 seconds on the Tempest sensor and wait for the blinking green light. I can’t back out of this screen (if I hit the back arrow at the top the app just closes), and the only other option is Sign Out. If I follow the instructions and hit the “Next” button, it tries to check the hub connection, which it wouldn’t be able to do since the hub is not configured with any WiFi settings yet.

Just to quickly summarize what it seems to me may be happening:

Normal procedure for new system: download app, create account, add/configure hub (app does this via bluetooth), hub connects to WiFi, and then devices (sensors) are added to the hub.

What seems to be happening with my new hub: download app, account is already created, somehow logging into my account tells app I already have a hub so the app skips this step, hub is not configured for WiFi since app did not go through the steps of doing this, and app has skipped to the part to try and add a sensor (which it can’t do since hub is not configured to connect to internet yet).

Is there an account maintenance portal that I can view through a web browser that will allow me to see/modify/remove any devices associated with my account? I am asking because I am wondering if there is any interface that will allow me to delete any hardware devices (hubs, sensors, etc.) associated with my account and basically let me start over.

I appreciate your effort to help get this solved, and I apologize if my explanation is convoluted.

9

normally a new hub first connects via bluetooth to your phone. if your phone is on the 2.4Ghz wifi network it will ask you if you want to connect to that network and it takes the info from your phone. The first thing that needs adding is the hub, not the tempest.

Indeed that is the normal way.

Did you select to replace the old hub? or did you delete it?

10

I was trying to setup a new station per the instructions emailed with my support ticket, but step 1 basically got me to where I am currently, so I didn’t get very far.

11

these are some details from the hub linked but offline, old or new ??

image

A new hub needs indeed to be added via the app and then linked to the wifi. and from there on devices etc

In the past there was another problem with Android, are your location services on and allowed ?

online page of your station : https://tempestwx.com/station/19307/grid

12

That is the old hub there. Before I started the process, I was unable to find in the app where you could actually delete/remove a station.

Location services is on and the app has permissions for it.

The question is, how can I get the app to allow me to configure a hub? No matter what I do, it constantly goes straight to the Add Device screen and I can’t do anything else. Would it be possible for you to delete all stations from my account on your end, or tell me how I can do it somewhere besides the app? I don’t care about retaining any data associated with the current station. I’m thinking if my account doesn’t have a station on it, the app will then take me to the option to configure the new hub. Does this sound like it might work?

13

Here are an Important tip from dsj (Dave) from late last year:

dsjWeatherFlow Staff

Nov '19

Oooh, good point. Yes, if you have another Hub and use the Android app, it’s safest to turn off your other Hub (or be out of range) when you set up your new Hub. Note, this does not apply to iOS users - it’s only a weird Android/Bluetooth issue.

14

I can’t but have asked technicians, hope someone is on guard right now, will let you know …

15

right now i can’t use my phone, so I can’t look for you where the option to replace or delete the hub is located. If you still can see the old hub, I think this would be a possible path (If you delete a hub, all data is lost, I assume that when you replace it (I never did that), that the old measurements are kept)

16

deleting a station is done by swiping the desired station left in the list of stations.

17

So you aren’t able to tap the settings icon and select stations to get a screen like this?

Screenshot_20200613-115334_Tempest
Screenshot_20200613-115334_Tempest1080×2193 108 KB

This is the page where you can tap the + to add a new station.

18

@gizmoev Correct. I can’t get to that page at all. Immediately when I open the app, it goes straight to the Add Device screen and there is no way that I can find to get to anything else.

@sunny Thank you for that. I will remember it in the future. I will submit a suggestion that they make this easier to find or called out more prominently in the documentation. It is more intuitive to click on a station and have a button in there (possibly red and at the end of the station screen) that allows you to remove/delete a station. I would have never guessed to swipe left.

1 Like
19

Do you have another mobile device you could use, even temporarily, to attempt a setup? I ask because on one of my stations I can’t get the whole screen where RainCheck is set to show up on my Android device but it shows fine on iOS and the web.

1 Like
20

Unfortunately, I don’t have another mobile device. I have plenty of computing devices, but I don’t believe there is a web interface for the system, is there?

@eric Was there any luck having the old hub removed from my account?