SparkFun Forums

[roadfun]

I just received a WiFly with code version string is WiFly Ver 2.21, 07-11-2010. I'm using it with a Arduino Duo. The router is WPA2PSK and the SSID has spaces in the name. The passphrase has no spaces.

Run SpiUartTerminal and enter CMD mode. Use these commands:
set wlan phrase thepassphrase
set wlan ssid the$ssid
---
join <- fails "Auto-Assoc the ssid chan=0 mode=NONE FAILED" (the messageshows the real SSID with a space)

join the$ssid <- fails with the same error as above but it doesn't do the space subsitute and instead shows the $ in the ssid name

join the ssid <- fails and says ERR:Bad Addr (obviously doesn't like me including the space in the name

Now if I do a "scan" command and tell it to join the number associated with the$ssid everything is gravy. For example
join # 4 <- succeeds "Auto-Assoc the ssid chan=7 mode=WPA2 SCAN OK"
and it goes on to show a correctly allocated IP address and so on and the happy green light on the WiFly flashes.

I've tried reboot commands and "factory RESET" commands to no avail. I have also (in fact what I tried first) entered the credentials into WiFly_Autoconnect_Terminal and when I run this sketch I get the initial println and then nothing (no failure message nor a success message) and the two light blink indicating it is not properly associated. In the Credentials.h file I've tried entering the SSID with the space and with a $ instead of the space. Neither works. I'm not sure whether the $ is required.

I do note the scan output is a bit variable. Sometimes it will only return one SSID and sometimes it will return a half dozen. Sometimes the ones it does return are relatively distant and it won't list the SSID of my own router. But personally I don't think this is a real issue.

At this point I'm at a loss on how to proceed. Has anyone gotten this thing to join a WPA network with a space in the SSID? If so can you sure exactly how you're doing it?

[roadfun]

After more experiments I've discovered:
1. My original SSID had two spaces and was pretty long. I was never able to join this using name via the command line or the library. I could join the access point by doing the "scan" command and then "join # x" replacing x with the line number of the access point listed in the scan. Based on the next item I believe the SSID length may be a problem with the chip. But I didn't feel like hacking away to find exactly how long was OK.
2. So, I shortened the SSID name and left one space in it. As soon as I did this I could join from the command line without having to do a scan. I just did a set of the SSID (replacing the space with a $) and a set of the phrase (WPA) then a "join" command with no arguments. This works every time.
3. However, I could not join the networking using the library. See my reply on this thread viewtopic.php?f=32&t=25216&p=126384#p126384. In order to join my network I had to set the passphrase and SSID myself and then call the library's join method with a empty string.

[roadfun]

Reading through the library code I discovered why a SSID with a space in it won't work. Rather than setting the SSID using "set wlan ssid ssid_name" followed by a "join" it instead uses "join ssid_name". Unfortunately the chip doesn't work with this scheme. I.e. if you use the command ($ substituting for a space)
join ssid$name
you'll get an error back from the chip. If you do a set command on the name (with a $ for space) and then send "join" with no arguments the chip works fine. Presumably this would work in the library so I'm going to hack my copy and see.

[roadfun]

OK, I hacked the library and modified the WiFlyDevice.cpp::join(ssid) method and it does indeed work (i.e. it can join an SSID with a space in the SSID name if you manually substitute a $ character for the space character in ssid in Credentials.h and as documented in the Roving manual). Note this change should work even without a space in the SSID name but I have not tested it. Posting this in case it helps someone else. I suppose if this sort of change were going in the official library it might be best to programmatically substitute $ for spaces.

Code: Select all

// Ron Guest -- begin change to support space in SSID
  // First we set the SSID (putting the SSID on the join command doesn't work
  Serial.println("Setting SSID using Ron method");
  sendCommand("set wlan ssid ",true);
  sendCommand(ssid);
  if (sendCommand("join", false, "Associated!")) {
    // TODO: Extract information from complete response?
    // TODO: Change this to still work when server mode not active
    waitForResponse("Listen on ");
    skipRemainderOfResponse();
    return true;
  }
// Ron Guest -- end change. Uncomment the below block and delete this one to restore original code

  /*sendCommand("join ", true);
  // TODO: Actually detect failure to associate
  // TODO: Handle connecting to Adhoc device
  if (sendCommand(ssid, false, "Associated!")) {
    // TODO: Extract information from complete response?
    // TODO: Change this to still work when server mode not active
    waitForResponse("Listen on ");
    skipRemainderOfResponse();
    return true;
  }*/
  return false;

[xunjieli]

Thank you so much for posting this!!! You're a life saver!

[roadfun]

Cool, glad to know it helped someone.