Appendix E – Recovering the Passkey
Like any secured WiFi network, you need two things to connect… the SSID and the passkey.
The default SSID of your Quasar will be “Quasar_nnnnnn” where nnnn is the last 6 hexadecimal
digits of your device’s MAC address (a unique address given to every Ethernet device). The
SSID is broadcast, so you should be able to see it in your device’s WiFi manager.
The passkey is an eight-digit number generated by a random number algorithm the first time that
your Quasar is powered on, and is saved in EEPROM memory at that time. It’s going to be
unique for every Quasar. There should be a label on the little baggie that the WiFi module came
in with the passkey (you kept it, right?), but it’s easy to get it if you lose it…
To get the passkey, connect a USB-Serial cable (the same cable that’s used with all Eggtimer
Rocketry products) to the 3-pin header as follows:
BLACK wire (GND) – GND on the Quasar’s header
WHITE wire (RXD) – TX on the Quasar’s header
GREEN wire (TXD) – not used
Using an ASCII terminal program such as TeraTerm or HyperTerminal, connect to the serial port
at 9600 baud, 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit. Now connect the battery on your Quasar. You should
see the following information:
(a few lines of garbage… part of the boot process)
Quasar v1.02a
SSID: Quasar_F87C6E
PASSKEY: 3718 6501
Note that there is a space between the first four digits of the passkey and the second four digits,
that’s just to make it easier to read; when you actually enter the passkey don’t type the space.
Disconnect the battery, and remove the serial cable. You won’t need the cable again unless you
forget the passkey, or you need to flash the software.
Now, fire up your device’s WiFi manager. Connect the battery to your Quasar… you’ll hear the
buzzer beep 3 times then stay on for a second, and in about 10-15 seconds you should see your
Quasar’s SSID on your WiFi manager. Connect to the SSID using the passkey that you obtained
earlier (but don’t put the space between the digits!), and you should see the Quasar’s status page.
You’re now connected to your Quasar, and ready to start using it.
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