If the MQTT server is offline

[Satellietje]

I have a Wemos D1 in my car.
There are 4 relay modules connected and 4 physical buttons.
If the temperature is below 4 degrees, the wemos turn on the webasto (heater) in my car.
But if I'm on my way and I want to turn on the webasto with the physical button I have to press a few times before the Wemos responds. This is because the MQTT server is not found on the way.

How can I bypass the wemos waiting and giving a timeout if the MQTT server is not online?

[davidelang]

This is a known bug with the libraries, see the troubleshooting page. unfortunantly, there isn't really any work-around.

[arendst]

Or disable mqtt when on the road.

[Satellietje]

But then I have to log in to the wemos every time i use the heater to turn off the MQTT.
Then it's faster I press the button a few times :-)

[khcnz]

I'd suggest
a) Change the retry time - its 10 seconds but in your case 5mins would probably be fine
b) Hook a GPIO into when the car is running and disable MQTT when running
c) I presume when on the road there is no wifi? Could we add a check just before MQTT connect to check wifi is connected? WiFi.status() != WL_CONNECTED?

[arendst]

Option C is already implemented.

Considering the amount of inconvenience people have with the retry timeout I'll introduce a command to change the 10 seconds to a higher value and leave the consequences to the user.

[khcnz]

Yes you are correct (of course :)

It does raise an interesting question though, if wifi is not connected why does try connect and stall? Could be related to this arduino issue where still reports connected but RSSI =0 is it is disconnected? arduino-libraries/WiFi101#86

[arendst]

I don't think the arduino-esp8266 project is using wifi101.

[Satellietje]

Perfectly resolved in v5.0.6
Thank you 👍