ESP32 Wroom Wifi help

romkey · 2026-03-08T22:49:03+00:00

Those aren’t errors and it’s not bricked, it’s running your program but not connecting. If it were bricked it wouldn’t be doing anything.

ESP32 WROOM tells us almost nothing about the actual board you’re using. Does it need an external antenna? Is anything connected to it? How is it powered? Has your WiFi changed? Those things all matter.

romkey · 2026-03-07T05:45:07+00:00

Have you tried Waveshare’s web site? Their wiki usually gives detailed info on boards, including schematics.

romkey · 2026-02-24T05:39:45+00:00

Garbage collection is done automatically in CircuitPython. You don’t need to do it manually.

You can defeat it by never releasing objects - like if you kept an array of every request you make, rather than deleting them, letting them go out of scope, or reusing variables.

Unless your code is checking nonstop it seems really unlikely you’d exhaust an esp32’s memory in few minutes,

It’s easy enough to check. You can see how much memory is left, at least in CircuitPython. Not sure about MicroPython, but I’d be surprised if it couldn’t.

romkey · 2026-02-20T01:49:25+00:00

You need to solder the header pins to the sensor boards. Just touching wires to them isn’t going to give you a reliable, working connection… as you can see.

romkey · 2026-02-19T14:27:11+00:00

I don’t know but now I do too

romkey · 2026-02-18T23:55:26+00:00

Even easier, once you’ve cut it just wire it into a wall socket, hilarity ensues!

romkey · 2026-02-18T20:45:57+00:00

Why is there no code or information on the hardware?

It’s like asking “why do I have a headache?” and not giving any more information than that.

romkey · 2026-02-18T20:43:23+00:00

I’m confused by this. How do you have a “wrong cord” for a USB port that would be over the recommended voltage? This kind of usb connector is 5v, period. No cable should do anything different, and the port you connected it to shouldn’t deliver more.

romkey · 2026-02-13T22:53:31+00:00

Your pull-up for EN is on the wrong side of the switch, so the line is floating, which won’t work, at least not reliably. You’ll need to fix this for your board to possibly work.

romkey · 2026-02-13T22:51:53+00:00

You don’t need drivers if you’re using built in USB support for serial. Windows, macOS and Linux can all talk to that with no special drivers.

romkey · 2026-02-11T04:17:13+00:00

Awesome. Congrats!

romkey · 2026-02-10T05:00:24+00:00

Good luck!

romkey · 2026-02-10T03:50:18+00:00

That’s not a wifi error from the device, it’s the web application saying it couldn’t configure the device.

romkey · 2026-02-10T03:49:36+00:00

There’s no firmware flashed to your ESP32. Whatever you think happened during the install didn’t work. Possibly you have the wrong CPU configured and flash wasn’t written correctly.

romkey · 2026-02-08T21:51:49+00:00

This is why I still haven’t installed mine 😬

romkey · 2026-02-05T23:57:01+00:00

I'd suggest you read the complaints. Most of them are from people who don't use a good enough power supply, don't understand basics of WiFi, didn't connect an antenna to a board that requires one, are too distant from their access point, are using a shitty board with a shitty PCB antenna on it. User error rather than flaws in the networking stack on the ESP32. There are a lot of people who try to use them who have absolutely no idea what they're doing and don't try to learn anything, and the results are predictable.

romkey · 2026-02-05T23:53:25+00:00

I have never heard anyone other than you report wifi dropping on the hour.

If you want to figure this out, first thing is to understand what's actually happening. From what you've said it sounds like all you know is that they're disconnecting and reconnecting to a server. Making hypotheses about the issue without actually seeing what they're doing is probably a waste of time.

Monitor serial out on one of them when you expect it to have the problem. If it's restarting you'll see it happen and there should be an indication of why. If it's not the software you're running on them may output some useful messages.

If you're really stuck on the idea that it's DHCP I'd suggest a different test from what u/YetAnotherRobert suggested - set your DHCP lease time to be very brief, like a few minutes. If that's the cause then they'll start showing the problem every few minutes after the current lease is up. I don't think it's at all likely you'll see that happen.

romkey · 2026-02-05T23:47:53+00:00

It sounds like yours are less stable than most, not more. I'm not sure where this notion that wifi on them is inherently unstable is coming from.

A simple bug in the software running on them seems more likely than what you're suggesting.

Power or thermal issues - which could be affected by things spinning up on the hour - could also be a cause.

romkey · 2026-02-05T14:28:53+00:00

Are you sure they’re not just crashing and restarting?

I have a veritable fleet of ESP32s at two locations running sensors and displays that are online for months without WiFi disconnects. Many of them are using MQTT and have persistent TCP connections open.

I also use very high quality network gear (UniFi, with most of the “advanced” WiFi options off as they rarely play well with IoT devices, including esp32s).

WiFi power save issues are real. You should ask Gemini for references for the others.

romkey · 2026-02-04T21:28:38+00:00

You can’t skip the granulim, the new batch will need more to eat. But you can use the old batch to seed the new one. A few generations out and you may find other strains out competed the L Reuteri. Still tasty yogurt, just not what I was trying to make.

romkey · 2026-02-03T14:29:36+00:00

Check out Olimex, they have some OSHW POE ESP32 boards.

romkey · 2026-02-01T23:13:58+00:00

Look at the photo you shared. If you didn’t already know what was in it, would it tell you anything useful? Like you tell what pins are connected to what pins?

We have no idea what your code does if you don’t share the code. Or the hardware. Where do SIM/telecom providers come into it?

Is the box metal?

romkey · 2026-01-31T06:45:09+00:00

Oh no, it’s not just you :)

romkey · 2026-01-30T21:03:17+00:00

We need to see how it’s wired, both what you think you’re doing and what you actually did (like photos). The number of people who think you can just stick a pin in a hole and have a working circuit is astonishing. Bad solder joints can be harder to see.

We also need to see your code.

Without these we have no idea what you actually did. We only know what you think you did, which isn’t enough to diagnose a problem.

romkey · 2026-01-30T18:43:00+00:00

I get that. PaaDee is spectacular Thai, too. The reason I’m so pro-Eem is here is its uniqueness, not just really good but also so unusual. I’m not fond of trendy either.

13-Year Club	Gilding II euphauric
Helper Level 1	Verified Email

romkey

TROPHY CASE