Flashing Dreamcatcher with new firmware - 1.0.5 released 2023-05-30

The changes in 1.0.3 include the addition of logs being saved and an hourly reboot. The purpose of the reboot is to temporarily solve the issue of lost reception after a few hours. Rebooting only takes a second and the device should automatically reestablish wifi settings. The log file can be found on the footer of the page.

Other changes include adding UTC to the footer, fixing the US frequency setting, and fixing a bug related to SD card formatting.

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Updated firmware (on linux, commands below for any one else who might need them, I did have to update my esptool, older version didnā€™t connect.)

It started receiving packets with out me re-saving the receiver settings, so thatā€™s an improvement. Thanks for the update Syed.

(working on parts to improve my snr, parts are printing)

pip install espflash
esptool.py --chip auto --baud 115200 -t write_flash --flash_mode dio --flash_freq 80m 0x0 -- bootloader.bin 0x10000 dreamcatcher.bin 0x8000 partition-table.bin

Are you printing a cone and then lining it with aluminum foil?

Printed some brackets to hold it (pringles can, shape files are on the forum some where, and out on thingiverse) to replace my solo cup lined with foil stuck over the top of the LNBā€¦

It just finished and the solo cup wrapped in foil actually did better than the Pringles canā€¦ (but the brackets hold the solo cup better too, so calling it a winā€¦) might get the tin snips out and try to cut some metal flashing into a cone later this weekendā€¦ Iā€™m headed out of the city later today so I might set it up for a bit and see if just less noise helpsā€¦ long term plan is to use it when camping to get the weather so I might not need as much outside of the metroā€¦

How much SNR improvement did you get from the solo cup?

Hard to say, it went from nothing to something when I put it on.

Between -14 and -12 with the cup, was getting -17 to -15 with the Pringles can (and only crc errors).

Wow, thatā€™s definitely something. I imagine a solo cup with metallic vapor deposition would produce even better results. If nothing it could be something to include in the kit.

Top right corner of the Dashboard screen, where it normally would say ā€œConnectedā€, it shows ā€œConnection Errorsā€ and the unit is disconnected from the wifi, and occasionally needs the receiver frequency to be saved also when this occurs. It does not stay connected for very long.

This particular connection lasted about ten minutes.

@maxboysdad Could you please post your logs?

It is pretty large, do you really want it on this page?

Are you able to post it as an attachment?

My Dreamcatcher 2301 is now port forwarded (as both External Port 80 and 8090), and can be seen at http://98.204.166.71/ and http://kenothernet.duckdns.org/

It is located outside of Washiington, DC, in Annapolis, MD. I see it on the Othernet Status Dashboard. All appears to working fine. Ken

image

I guess I donā€™t know quite how to do that. I can access the log file, but not seem to know how to get it from the 2301 as a file. I can copy it to the clipboard, and then deal with it as an ordinary text file, but it is pretty large (352 K)

I just got my port forwarding working, you can access it at: aeroute.ddns.net, I just got it connected, and the forwarding is working.

@maxboysdad @kenbarbi Thanks. Iā€™m reviewing it now. I hope these Dreamcatchers are on separate wifi networks (separate from your home network)? I am concerned that the device could be easily taken over and then act as an entry point into your home network.

Mine have always been on my home network.

I have two Routers - - the first (which does my port forwarding) only has Othernet, YouTube, etc. And my Fire Walled Home Network with VPN and a PiHole handling everything else.

Do you think that will be OK? Ken

@kenbarbi Iā€™m no network security specialist. I would err on the side of caution and simply remove the device.
@maxboysdad I donā€™t think exposing this device to the internet and also putting it inside of your home network is safe. I strongly advise against this.

At some point in the future Iā€™ll put a Dreamcatcher on the internet so itā€™s easy for others to see what it is.

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I appreciate your concern here. Also, the assistance with the 2301. Did the logs reveal any reason or possibilities of why I canā€™t stay connected? No other devices on the network are experiencing this problem, nor did the old 3. series DCs.

Jerry and I just realized that connecting to the Dreamcatcher (DC) is automatic without any password protection like the old Skylark login. So under these circumstances, anyone can get into our DCs and make changes etc. Is that true? Ken

Yes, thatā€™s correct.

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