RPi (WiringPi method) garage door opener project goes offline after 10 seconds

Solved
1

My garage door opener project used a Centos 7 box for the local blynk server, RPi Zero W with a 5v relay and the blynk app is on an android phone. I’m using the default C++ sketch with the only change being uncommenting the debug define statement. After I log in on my phone, the app works for about 10 seconds. Then I get the error in the phone app that the app is offline. I’m monitoring syslog on both systems, the blynk server log and the debug output from the blynk client and I get no entries in any of them when the app goes offline. Any ideas how I can troubleshoot my issue? Thanks.

2

Hello. Have you enabled debug on Blynk Server? Most probably this is wiring, hardware, power supply, signal strength issue. Right now hard to say without more hints.

3

Are you using V0.5.0 by chance? After extensive testing over the weekend trying to figure out why a known working Blynk application would not work on a new, identical, hardware setup, we have found that V0.5.0 cannot maintain a connection when used with a Raspberry Pi 3. We were connecting to the standard Blynk server using a default installation on a Pi 3.

Steps to diagnose:

  • Removed our external hardware (no change)
  • Swapped for another Pi 3, Powersupply, etc (no change)
  • Removed Blynk, clean installation with default code untouched. (no change)
  • Moved device to another router on a different internet connection. (no change)
  • Added debug (didn’t tell us anything)
  • Noticed after about 6 seconds the Pi 3 “CPU Usage” jumps to 25% and stays pinned solid until Blynk is shut off.
  • Checked another Pi running our standard build to see what “Normal” usage was… in the process noticed the version was 0.4.10 vs. 0.5.0
  • Rolled back to 0.4.10
  • Default program worked
  • Installed our regular software & hardware - everything worked as per normal.
4

I am using V0.5.0. I’ll roll it back to 0.4.10 and give it a shot. Thanks for the heads up!

5

Problem solved! I’m running a Pi Zero W, so add that piece of hardware to the ones that have a problem with V0.5.0. Thanks for your help…great bit of troubleshooting!!

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6

At least when running WiringPi method… NodeJS is an altogether different library.

Just adding this in as it seems some RPi users are unfamiliar that there are 2.5 methods of using Blynk Client with RPi - WiringPi, NodeJS (Betaish?) and Python (Alpha stage).