Any success in getting the cellular modem to work?

[redhotchili0909]

I got this board recently for a project as well, but I'm having trouble getting the modem to initialize. It would be awesome if you could share your progress or insights regarding this part.

[laci22]

I got this board recently for a project as well, but I'm having trouble getting the modem to initialize. It would be awesome if you could share your progress or insights regarding this part.

Same me.. did you find something usefull?

[mhavill]

@redhotchili0909 & @laci22 - Sorry guys - I thought I had responded to this! I clearly remember writing a document but I must have not posted it to github!
The sample code from Waveshare doesn't work initially due to the values used for the USB in and out channel.
After a lot of trial and error I found a pair that does work. see line (6982) from my log below.

I (6945) USB_HCDC: Set Device Line State: dtr 1, rts 0
I (6951) USB_HCDC: Set Device Line State Done
I (6956) IOT_USBH: Pipe init succeed, addr: 88
I (6961) IOT_USBH: Pipe init succeed, addr: 04
I (6966) USB_HCDC: CDC Device Connected
I (6971) esp-modem: --------- Modem PreDefined Info ------------------
I (6978) esp-modem: Model: User Defined
I (6982) esp-modem: Modem itf: IN Addr:0x88, OUT Addr:0x04
I (6989) esp-modem: ----------------------------------------------------
I (6996) gpio: GPIO[33]| InputEn: 0| OutputEn: 1| OpenDrain: 0| Pullup: 0| Pulldown: 0| Intr:0
I (7006) USB_HCDC: rx0 flush -0 = 0
I (7006) modem_board: DTE reconnect, reconnecting ...

I (8015) modem_board: reconnect after 5s...
I (9015) modem_board: reconnect after 4s...
I (10015) modem_board: reconnect after 3s...
I (11015) modem_board: reconnect after 2s...
I (12015) modem_board: reconnect after 1s...
I (12015) modem_board: Modem state STAGE_SYNC, Start
I (12031) modem_board: Network Auto reconnecting ...

[mhavill]

This is set in menuconfig (I use the ESP-IDF extension in VSCode, but you should be able to find it in the native menuconfig.

Note I have set the SIM APN there also - you will probably need it later - some data networks do require the APN but in the performance improvements it is recommended anyway!

[mhavill]

When you do get it working you will find the security is 'weak' but this can be changed in the 'app' which you can access once you can connect to the AP - for me it is http://192.168.4.1 - under WLAN change it to WPA2PSK.

BTW I have translated the app to English from Chinese in the spiffs directory - I'll copy it across to this github repo

[zelms]

Hey friends, I think I have a related issue. I've received code from a friend that was written in the Arduino IDE, which utilized the modem. For him, everything works great and after the first time I upload his code to the board, everything works for me. If I then power cycle the device, then I am unable to initialize the modem. I installed ESP-IDF with the hope that it would fix this issue, but when I accessed menuconfig (either through VS Code or the command line) I couldn't find the parameters mentioned in the above comment. Is there any additional installation I need to do to get those parameters in menuconfig? For reference, I'm using ESP-IDF version 5.3 on Ubuntu 22.04 and I am able to get example programs compiled and uploaded to the board.

[laci22]

Hey friends, I think I have a related issue. I've received code from a friend that was written in the Arduino IDE, which utilized the modem. For him, everything works great and after the first time I upload his code to the board, everything works for me. If I then power cycle the device, then I am unable to initialize the modem. I installed ESP-IDF with the hope that it would fix this issue, but when I accessed menuconfig (either through VS Code or the command line) I couldn't find the parameters mentioned in the above comment. Is there any additional installation I need to do to get those parameters in menuconfig? For reference, I'm using ESP-IDF version 5.3 on Ubuntu 22.04 and I am able to get example programs compiled and uploaded to the board.

could you upload that arduino code?

[zelms]

could you upload that arduino code?

The code is probably too complicated to easily be understood, but here is an example from the tinyGSM arduino library where I've modified it to not use the autobaud feature.
DiagnosticESP32s3.txt

[mhavill]

Hey friends, I think I have a related issue. I've received code from a friend that was written in the Arduino IDE, which utilized the modem. For him, everything works great and after the first time I upload his code to the board, everything works for me. If I then power cycle the device, then I am unable to initialize the modem. I installed ESP-IDF with the hope that it would fix this issue, but when I accessed menuconfig (either through VS Code or the command line) I couldn't find the parameters mentioned in the above comment. Is there any additional installation I need to do to get those parameters in menuconfig? For reference, I'm using ESP-IDF version 5.3 on Ubuntu 22.04 and I am able to get example programs compiled and uploaded to the board.

Hi. Is this the first time using ESP-IDF? It is very different to Arduino IDE. Your loaded program from Waveshare WIKI should look similar to this with .../managed_components/espressif__iot_usbh_modem

Then in menuconfig you should see this

If you are new to ESP-IDF I strongly recommend https://learnesp32.com/

[zelms]

Hi. Is this the first time using ESP-IDF?... If you are new to ESP-IDF I strongly recommend https://learnesp32.com/

Yes it is, thank you for the link to help me learn more.

Your loaded program from Waveshare WIKI...

I think this is where my problem originates from because I wasn't able to find any ESP-IDF code from the waveshare wiki. All of the code I can find is for the Arduino IDE, which is not very helpful for me. I found the iot_usbh_modem component example through the espressif registry, which seems to not have the waveshare example code you've mentioned. Where can I find the example code?

Then in menuconfig you should see this

Ah ok, so each menuconfig correlates to a specific program. It is not the same configuration options no matter what.

[mhavill]

Hi @zelms
I have just added a message from WaveShare Support with a link to the demo software - it is in the Wiki but I missed it also!

[zelms]

I have just added a message from WaveShare Support with a link to the demo software

Thank you for adding that! I think I'm still missing something as when I download the zip file from the link I still can't find any code that looks like it's written for ESP-IDF. I can't find an example named ESP32-S3-A-SIM7670X-4G-example in the download, but I do have examples named GNSS-With-WaveshareCloud and SD. Is it possible that they've changed what demo software they're distributing?

[mhavill]

Hi @zelms
I think you are correct!
I have just added the original source to this repo under Waveshare folder

[zelms]

Thank you so much! I was able to get it running on my board, but I'm still having issues connecting to the modem. Since this is happening in both the Arduino IDE and ESP-IDF then I think that means it's an issue with the board. If I find a solution, then I will post it here for others to see

[mhavill]

Hi @zelms
Did you make the changes to menuconfig as above?