Use ESP32 Web interface also as GVRET CAN device?

[uhi22]

The ESP32 web interface
https://github.com/jsphuebner/esp32-web ... an-backend
has as initial hotspot name "ESP32RETSSID". This sounds like it could be used like ESP32RET, as a interface for SavvyCAN.
The original ESP32RET lives here: https://github.com/collin80/ESP32RET

At the moment, I use two ESP32, one for the esp32-web-interface, and one as interface for SavvyCAN (https://github.com/uhi22/wifican). Both of these have CAN on the one side and Wifi on the other side, so basically this is topic to optimize both into one project.

Is there a plan, to provide the ESP32RET functionality in the esp32-web-interface? Or are there reasons why NOT doing this? What I learned some years ago is, that the CAN interface of the ESP32 is crap (hardware buffer overruns lead to corrupted data until resetting the complete interface). Also the TWAI software driver seems to have stability issues.

[johu]

The twai works fine when limited to the few ids needed for SDO transfers. I use hardware filtering but you can only specify two ids. Some say on a busy bus without filtering CAN on the ESP becomes unstable. This would be the only reason to not add the function. At least not without the option to disable it

[RetroZero]

For info, I bought an ESP32-S3 wroom and will attempt your setup.
I (think) I have setup my Nucleo board to send a message in loopback.
Plan now is to copy your .io file using Arduino to ESP32. What I understand is that once that is done, I can connect it via Savvycan and 'listen' to CAN bus .
Then connect the 2 boards via CAN and hope to see traffic....

[RetroZero]

"At the moment, I use two ESP32, one for the esp32-web-interface, and one as interface for SavvyCAN (https://github.com/uhi22/wifican). Both of these have CAN on the one side and Wifi on the other side, so basically this is topic to optimize both into one project"

@uhi22, are you using Arduino or Espressif to run your wifican code for Savvycan configuration?

[uhi22]

I use arduino IDE, the version etc is mentioned in the readme of the github.

[RetroZero]

Almost there.
I don't see the reason for:

"Connect a switch, which connects the pin35 either to ground or to pin 47"

[uhi22]

The switch is intended to select between "at home" (where the device connects to the home wifi) and "outside" where the device creates an own hotspot where the laptop can connect. Maybe this can be replaced by a kind of auto-detection or both-in-one, but for testing I found it better to have a clearly defined behavior. pin47 is just an output which is set to high, so the switch can be also between ground and 3.3V directly, to pull pin35 eigther high or low.

[RetroZero]

Sorry @uhi22, but I have spent days trying to get this running.
I am not at ease with all this coding....after numerous de-installing all Arduino files, I "sort of" managed to create a sketch.
Now I have spent te last few hours trying to fix all the error messages
Any ideas where I am going wrong?
Arduino made me install each .h file individually....this doesn't make sense and might lead to where the root of my problems are.
Thanks in advance for your reply.

[Jacobsmess]

Sorry @uhi22, but I have spent days trying to get this running.
I am not at ease with all this coding....after numerous de-installing all Arduino files, I "sort of" managed to create a sketch.
Now I have spent te last few hours trying to fix all the error messages
Any ideas where I am going wrong?
Arduino made me install each .h file individually....this doesn't make sense and might lead to where the root of my problems are.
Thanks in advance for your reply.

I recently got mine running and it was hassle free with no errors from memory. I'm also no coder.
Have you installed the whole GitHub WiFican directory in the Arduino folder?
I'd start a fresh, delete your whole Arduino folder or change it's name and reinstall it all if you've made changes. Follow the instructions on the wifican GitHub also.

[RetroZero]

I'll try again, thanks.
Yes, I installed the whole Wifican directory - Add Zip library.
When that did not work, I added the .h files manually.
I have nothing wired up to the ESP for now, just trying to configure and setup the wifi link.

Thanks again and will give it a whirl..

[uhi22]

You write "Add zip library", this sounds wrong. You need to get the sources from github, either using git clone, or downloading as zip from github. If you chose the zip download, unzip the project, and the unzipped folder IS your sketch folder. Just "open sketch" and select the folder with the unzipped files. You do not need to install extra libraries (at least I hope).

[RetroZero]

I've done that a few times.I however get the options of Wifican and Wifihandler. I have selected Wifican. Then added Wifihandler file.
Am I correct in piutting my wifi details in the main wifican.ino file?

I have again manually added the .h files
I can Verify the Sketch.
I can upload the Sketch ( even though there is no 'code' on my screen).

When I go to Debug, I get openocd errors.
Is there a fault setting to change in Debug?
Also, in ArduinoIDE, the closest Board I could select was the Adafruit Feather ESP32-S3 2MB PSRAM. Is this maybe causing problems?

[uhi22]

I never used debugging in Arduino, so regarding openocd I have no idea.
Tried a workflow:
1. Create a new folder C:\Sketchfolder
2. Open in a browser https://github.com/uhi22/wifican
3. Green Button "Code", choose "Download zip". This creates a wifican-main.zip in the downloads folder.
4. Copy this zip into C:\Sketchfolder
5. Unzip, and arrange the folders in the way that you have the folder C:\Sketchfolder\wifican, and in this is the wifican.ino. This is because the Arduino IDE takes the folder name as name of the sketch, and the main ino file needs to have the same name.
6. Start the Arduino IDE. In my case it is Arduino IDE 2.2.1.
7. File -> Open..., navigate to C:\Sketchfolder\wifican\wifican.ino. This should directly show all files, with the wifican.ino as most left, because it is the main file.
8. Choose the board "ESP32S3 Dev Module"
The result should be:

9. Rename the wifi_credentials_template.h to wifi_credentials.h, and enter your wifi credentials there.
10. Press the upload button. This takes some minutes to compile. Then it tries to upload.

Besides the failing upload, because I do not have the device connected at the moment, I did not see any error message.

[RetroZero]

Thank you very much. I'll give this a try tonight or in the morning

[RetroZero]

Thanks for the description. I now have a wifican device available in my wifi list!!
Next step is to see why SavvyCan doesn't find the device or connect if I put in my IP adress....

Edit, I have connected pin 35 to GND and then to Pin47.Both ways do not allow for SavvyCan connection.
Wifican is found in my Wifi list, so I assume it's on the same network, but I cannot connect to it. Is this maybe an indication of the problem?

[RetroZero]

I downloaded Savvycan again. Then I downloaded the GVRET update. I ran the .exe file (as I haven't seen how to update Savvycan). Still no way to connect wifican with Savvycan

[Jacobsmess]

I downloaded Savvycan again. Then I downloaded the GVRET update. I ran the .exe file (as I haven't seen how to update Savvycan). Still no way to connect wifican with Savvycan

You are connected to wifican on your computer? For me, it just automatically appears when I select network connection under the connections window.

Also, have you configured the WiFi details as per your WiFi credentials as described in the instructions?

[RetroZero]

I cannot connect to it. It just appears as a new wifi network.
I put in my current home wifi adress and password in the credentials instructions.
Basically, I opened the zip file, changed the template file, put in my wifi details and saved it back in wifican file.
I then connected it to Arduino, opened wifican, verified it, then uploaded it to ESP32-S3.

[Jacobsmess]

Savvycan will not connect to the WiFi can device unless you are connected to the WiFi being broadcast from your WiFi can (at least that's how it works for me)

[RetroZero]

So if I cannot connect to Wifcan from my computer, there is something wrong?

Edit:: on first setup, Pin32 should be pulled High? Connected to Pin 47?

Edit 2 - Should I be connecting a second wifi (dongle) to connect wifican whilst remaining on my home wifi network?
I ask because each time I try to connect to Wifican, I loose home connection first, then computer attempts to connect to wifican,asking to put in my password for home connection as per credentials. This I have done a few times.

[Jacobsmess]

I just used the password in the wifican.ino file, "topsecret" this allows me to connect to the wifican SSID and it connects as previously described on savvycan

[RetroZero]

Thanks, I'll look at it in the morning. Appreciate all the help, but feel really useless at the moment.....

[RetroZero]

@Jacobmess, thankyou for this info!! This was my problem. The Wifican password is "topsecret" and not my home network password.
So once the "credentials.h file has been modified with local your wifi details", load the sketch and connect to the new "wifican network" using "topsecret" as the password. (I assume we can change this directly in the wifi.ino if we want to)
It might seem so simple, that it not need saying. Many days of rebooting later, I have a wifican up and running. I'll add this to the wiki alongside @gregski's CanDue.
Many thanks again....Happy Can sniffing!

[RetroZero]

I assume it's normal to have some kind of data loop going through 2 ID when you start up Savvycan without any Canbus connected?

[uhi22]

Yes, the wifican privides some debug data as "virtual" CAN messages.