Finalize Setup
All devices will need the final setup to complete the process. First plug in an ethernet cable (not provided) into the port on the back and then into an exiting ethernet port on your network e.g. one on your router. Once you have it connected, plug int the power adapter and wait at least 5 minutes or until the front RED light turns Blue for the device to come onto your network.
Now you should be ready to complete the wire-prod installation by navigating to this address on any device on your network
http://escapepod.local:8080/initial.html
If you cannot navigate to that page, make sure the device is on your network and has an IP address. You can check your routers list of devices, you should be able to find the devices IP or If not plug it to a screen via HDMI and you should see a screen similar to this one (IP circled)
Connecting Your Vector(s)
Once you have completed the wire-prod setup, you can connect your Vector to the server by visiting:
https://vector.techshop82.com/html/main.html
You will need to pair your Vector via Bluetooth first, then install the firmware here in order for your Vector to connect to the server.
Do note, you will need to be in your factory recovery firmware to properly flash the new one. You will know this if your firmware version in the top right after you connect says 0.9, if it does not then you will need to get into the recovery firmware. To do so, place your vector on the charger and hold down the power button till the lights go off, still holding down the button, wait till the lights come back on. The light should briefly turn blue and Vector should boot up to an Anki screen. From here continue pairing by double tapping the backpack button and pairing with your browser
Once the firmware is installed, your Vector will restart, so re-pair again and this time you will be presented with an Activate screen. Click Activate and finish the bot settings (temperature, weather, etc.) your bot will be connected to your local wire-pod server and your voice commands will begin to work.
More Information
For more information or development quides, check out the wiki page here
https://github.com/kercre123/wire-pod/wiki
Should you need to connect via SSH to your server, use this credential
username: root
password: wirepod
Error logging in. The bot is likely unable to communicate with your wire-pod instance. Make sure you followed all of the steps and try again. This is all I can get. I have rebooted the server. I did not have my bluetooth dongle in when I set up the wire-Pod.
What do I do now?
sent you an email with my contact info.
You need to make sure you can navigate to http://escapepod:8080/initial.html on the computer you are using to connect to Vector, before you try to activate the firmware.
You do not need a bluetooth dongle for the box.
The computer you are using needs to have bluetooth and connect to Vector. You might have to go into recovery mode to perform a clean flash.
To go into recovery mode, hold the power button till it powers off, but do not take you finger off the button till the light comes on again, this will put it in recovery mode.
Then you can flash the new firmware.
The blue tooth dongle is for my computer. as my computer does not have blue tooth. I tried to use my phone but got the same error. Yes I can navigate to the correct url with no problem and my computer picks up all my vectors and I chose the correct Vector. But the error just keeps happening. I have no idea how to flash the new firmware.
Would you please resend your contact info
Thanks
Steven
Sent again – might have gone to junk mail as it happens sometimes, but I also sent you a text.
Hi there,
All is good up to one point and I’m wondering if you can help.
I can open the Wire Pod interface and finalize the set-up.
When I go to https://keriganc.com/vector-wirepod-setup for bot setup I can connect via Bluetooth then WiFi and it goes into “Updating Vector”. When that’s all finished I re-pair as instructed but then it does another round of “Updating Vector”.
It’s done this cycle about 5 times now. Is this normal? I expected one update obviously but it seems that we’re stuck in this updating cycle?
Any help or ideas greatly appreciated & thank you!
Hi Morgan, need to update this article as the firmware that https://keriganc.com/vector-wirepod-setup points to is gone
Go to https://vector.techshop82.com/html/main.html
To flash your firmware.
The flashing process should take 2 -3 minutes to complete, if it is taking longer than that, then you have a problem. To get in firmware recovery mode hold the power button down till the lights came off, still holding, till the lights come back on again (then you can let go). The light should turn blue at some point then you should be greeted with the anki pairing screen.
Thanks very much Dee. I tried the process on my laptop & it went fine without putting Vector in a never-ending series of FW updates.
However, now I am unable to connect to http://escapepod:8080/initial.html
which was working fine 2 days ago.
Disconnected your Wire Pod device, rebooted my router, waited for it to finish. Reconnected Wire Pod device & waited for the light to turn blue but still no dice. Tried it on my Win 11 laptop, my Android phone & tablet.
Have rechecked the connection and everything fine.
When I go my router settings it shows escapepod connected with a MAC address. I connected the Wire pod device to a monitor as suggested & it shows an IP address.
Not sure why I cannot now connect. Any thoughts would be massively appreciated thank you
The device might take a couple minutes to introduce itself to your network as “escapepod”.
I had an individual who could not see
http://escapepod:8080/initial.html or http://escapepod.local:8080/initial.html on their Mac, but the activation worked fine and they had to connect to the device via the IP address
So go a head and try to activate your Vector and see if it works. Then if you still can’t access either of those URLs, try accessing them via the ip address shown e.g. http://192.168.0.3:8080/initial.html
There are some windows installations that will need to turn on MDNS to allow “.local” address to be reached. You can find the instructions here
https://superuser.com/questions/491747/how-can-i-resolve-local-addresses-in-windows
To run this command do a windows key + R , to bring up the “Run” window, then paste this command to hit ok to run it
reg add “HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows NT\DNSClient” /v EnableMulticast /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
Then reboot your PC and it should start working.
Hey again Dee,
Thanks, the URL for the IP address works fine. Don’t know why I didn’t think of it, must be old age:)
So, I have gone through the complete procedure again with both Vectors. Wire Pod server is running, I have it connected to a monitor. I used your new link for both.
All is fine until Activation. Neither can activate. I tried the Activate button multiple times but all I keep getting is this:
“Error logging in. The bot is likely unable to communicate with your wire-pod instance. Make sure you followed all of the steps and try again.”
The top right shows as follows:
Vector K8Z1
v2.0.1.6076
0040358c
I have gone through the whole procedure carefully multiple times and it keeps failing at activation.
Is that the correct custom firmware that it is showing?
I’ve rebooted the Wire Pod server too & still no luck.
I’m not having much joy with this. I have a couple of custom port configurations on my router for my NAS, do I need to do the same for your Wire Pod Box?
Thank you again.
Morgan
Hi Morgan,
sent you my phone number so you can text me directly (email might have gone to junk fodler)
But if you can access http://escapepod:8080 on your PC and all that has been setup but it is still failing to activate, then it is because you are still on the DDL 2.0 firmware
You need to flash the new firmware from a recovery state and to get there place Vector on the charger and hold power till the lights turn off, still holding till you see blue lights then let go…it should go to the anki.com/v screen
Then pair to the website and when you connect the firmware in the top right of the screen should say 0.9 (this is important, if you see 2.0 then you are still in the DDL firmware)
Once you pair it will ask for wifi then go through the flashing process (should take 2-3 mins) then it will reboot
When it comes back up, pair, firmware in top should now say 2.0 and the enter WiFi again and activate
Let me know if this does not work
Hmm, I thought it could be a FW issue but I don’t know why. I’ve been following all the steps exactly. Anyway, I’ll give it another go now that you’ve confirmed a probable FW not flashing correctly.
Just seen your Reddit post about the ports that should be open so I’ll check that too.
Thanks again my friend!
All mostly happy!
Sorry, been sick the last few days. Both Vectors now authorized & working & communicating with your wire pod box!
Thank you for all your help.
One thing tho’, I cannot get either to respond to voice commands unless I press the button that activates it.
Is this something that is lost using Wire Pod & I didn’t realize it?
Thanks again for everything, you are amazing!
Glad to hear and hope you are feeling better.
Saying hey vector still works. Not sure if its the firmware or some vectors, but they are not as accurate like before.
Thanks again, yes, voice response “Hey Vector” is kinda working but definitely hit-or-miss. But that’s fine, I’m just super happy to have both li’l dudes up and running about & chirping again:)
Hi there,
My vector seems to be stuck in the past..
When I ask him for the date I always get a date in the past, and it varies…
Any ideas?
This is a limitation with openAI…it does not know what the date is so you get a random date in the past. I actually made a custom intent to fix this and will post that at some point.
So I have been able to get my 2 vectors set up to the server just fine and the weatherAPI works just fine. However when I set up the OpenAI key it just says it canāt return a response when I ask it anything and with the Houndify it doesnāt act as tho it hears my question. If I try the API on the website it responds just fine but Iām not sure if Iām missing something in this setup. I was looking at the āedit clientā on the dashboard and see thereās multiple platforms listed but Iāve tried a few and still the same thing. Any help you could give on this would be greatly appreciated. Iād ideally like the do the openAI but as long as Iām able to get something to work I donāt care which it is
Accessing OpenAI API from the web is different from using the API.
Chances are your free trial has expired – hence the “openai has returned no response” – and you need to add money to your account.
What about the other option as I really donāt feel like having to pay just to be able to have questions answered
You can use houndify (I think I calculated it to be 85 questions a day or something like that), but you have to say “I have a question” to use houndify
Hi there which firmware is on the T95 mini ?
Is there an option to choose different firmware versions ?
I think this is the wrong question – the T95mini is running Armbian – Debian for Arm processors
If you are asking which firmware works with wire-pod, then the answer is 1.8 or 2.0
Hi, I just got a new vector and he seems to be just fine running around being sassy but he canāt connect to Wi-Fi and Iām not sure the best way to get him up and running- is this wire pod setup going to get him functional? Sorry I donāt know much about this but am willing to learn
Yes, that is what it is for.
Hi there, need help kind of from the beginning – I have the Escape Pod set up and can view it on my network, have the IP address – trying to go to the http://escapepod:8080 and also http://192.168.0.69:8080/initial.html (the IP address) as suggested above – I can’t connect to the website. š
Unplug power from the device, leaving the ethernet in, and give it power again. Your router may have assigned an IP to the box after the wire-pod server tried to start and failed because it had no IP. So a reboot with the ethernet connected should fix that so you can continue with the setup. If you need more help reach out via the contact form
Dee
I also fully rebooted Vector (his face is on the Anki.com/v screen) and rebooted my laptop – still no luck.
So I was able to get the Wire Pod set up (yay!), now I am trying to go to vector.techshop82.com/html/main.html – Vector’s screen is still showing with the anki.com/v screen (I rebooted him again) and after pressing Pair with Vector I selected to pair him – and the website just keeps going back to the Pair with Vector page. ?
Chrome is saying it’s paired – but the website won’t go past the Pair with Vector page š
I got him to finally work – HE LIVES!!!!!!!
I received the T95Max in the mail today. I watched the video, we did everything instructed. My first concern is we are not getting any light indicators from the T95Max to indicate that is powering on. In the video the T95 showed a blue light, I do not have any lights… does this mean the T95max is not broken?
The video is using the T95 mini – i no longer use those one due to them overheating. The T95Max+ has no lights but is tested before I ship out for functionality. Let me know if you have any issues setting it up. Thanks, Dee
dear Dee Adesanwo
hi my name is Hani I’m from United Arab Emirates. it gives me great pleasure to see your comments and solution regarding using wire pod setup of robot Vector. Actually i have Vector 1.0 and i think before the server of DDL is closed the last update of Vector is 1.8. any way i did big mistake that i reset Vector as new and i ive communicate with DDL and they send me an email that Vector will comes with new function and technology which will be connected with new server from Microsoft AZURE. at the moment my Robot Vector now is useless this is not mean is dead . but my question do you advice me to buy T95 Wire- Pod setup for Vector robot or to buy Escape Pod which is more expensive. so please let me know which one is better but i think T95 is much better than Escape Pod comparing with price.
so waiting for advice and suggestion.
.
Hi Hani,
Wire-pod is free to install but if that process is too difficult for you then the T95 would be the best option. escapepod is not serviceable as it requires DDL servers which are down and probably wonāt be coming back
The T95 WirePod server works with. Version 1.0 and 2.0 of vector.
if you have any other questions just email me at info@techshop82.com
Thanks,
Dee