So, there are a ton of useful guides out on the internet and YouTube on how to do this as they are really detailed, for example, I was using this one by DrZzs and this is a great tutorial and this post this my “issues” and troubleshooting would not have been possible without the great tools mentioned by DrZzs, such as Termite and of course the amazing Tasmota firmware by Theo.
So I was carefully following the process of using the FTDI adapter and then selecting the correct firmware, sonoff.bin from the repository and I was able to successfully flash the firmware onto my Sonoff Basic and “backlog” the required settings, I was feeling pretty good. So now it was time to start playing and connecting my device to my wireless network. So, 4 button presses and wait for a new WiFi network to appear so that you can connect and make the required changes on the web interface. So after around 2 minutes of waiting and nothing appearing, a simply power cycle might resolve this issue. I followed this process a few times in the hopes that the “glitch” would go away. No such luck, TROUBLESHOOTING TIME.
Troubleshooting
So thanks to Termite this was made a lot, simply open the software and start following what is going on at a serial level, so I start following the messages and it tries to connect to the network and fails and when it fails, it still does not create a network. I even think hey maybe it is my hidden SSID and try to get the Sonoff to connect to my mobile hotspot, no joy. So far,
Device flashed ✅
Device does not create the required WiFi network for configuration ❌
Device does not connect to hidden SSID ❌
Device does not connect to shown SSID ❌
So enter our dear friend, Uncle Google and I start searching and I came across an entry of the Github page for Tasmota and someone mentions that flashing to the minimal firmware can help. So I find the required file and flash it onto Sonoff Basic as below and it magically works, so for the troubleshooting this has helped as I now know that my flashing process and understanding of the settings with Termite is correct.
So now that I have a working Sonoff Tasmota interface, try to perform in inline upgrade to the Sonoff.bin firmware and the same issue occurs as before. So what now? More searching and I come across a sonoff-classic.bin, slightly smaller in size and I follow the process I know to be working and it starts working. I am busy investigating the issue with the sonoff.bin file with my Sonoff Basic.
So, if you run into a strange issue, like me, this might just be a hardware issue. Remember there is a sonoff-classic.bin, with some limitations.
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