Freedom Technologies PTTC Wifi Issue

I upgraded (downgraded?  ) from an iPhone 8 to an iPhone 12 (IOS 14.6) and ever since can't maintain a solid wifi connection with the  Freedom Tech PTTC. On first power-up of the PTTC, the wifi network is visible to the iPhone and it makes a connection (displays a weak security notification) and works for a few seconds and then drops the connection altogether. Have to disconnect the power from the PTTC and re-power up for the iPhone to detect the PTTC again, only to see the wifi connection dropped after a few seconds. Always worked very reliably on the iPhone 8, and the settings for the connection are the same, so not sure what the issue may be.
I tried to go to the Freedom Technologies website to contact Fenton, but the site seems to be down. Any ideas or is anyone else having the same issue?

Did you try his email? freedomtech@yahoo.com

I had trouble with his web site before and he said he forgot to renew it

Fenton told me in a private email that he has closed his shop.  He might be able to help.  Did you keep the old iPhone 8?

Look at your wifi settings to see if the network you're connecting to has the option of both 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz. If both are available, you may find better performance on one or the other, depending on your particular environment. You may have to tell your phone to "forget" the wifi connection to force it to connect to the other frequency.

The iPhone 8 got traded in for the 12….talked with Fenton…..
I tried connecting with an older iPad 2 Air, but no dice with that as well. I think the issue is with IOS 14 and the wifi security settings within. The connection to the PTTC wifi network gets flagged as “weak security” (PTTC wifi has no security, obviously) by the IOS and it subsequently dumps the connection in a few seconds.
I’ll communicate the issue to Tom(TT) and see if he has a workaround for the IOS security settings. I can access the controller directly via browser connection and IP address and as long as there is constant communication with the controller (edge and face commands) the connection stays up, if the communication is paused just a few seconds it dumps the connection. May have to go an old tablet to use the PTTC for now….not sure yet if the BE Application will run on the tablet.

It runs fine on my Android phone, but I don’t have a target turner.

TonyH wrote: May have to go an old tablet to use the PTTC for now….not sure yet if the BE Application will run on the tablet.

My app runs on everything, tablet or phone are both fine. It does need iOS >= 9.0 or Android >= 4.4. It runs on Windows 10 too, remember.

Have you checked whether the "auto join" setting is on for the PTTC saved network in the phone? If there are other saved wifi networks in the area, the phone will often decide to switch to them, so you may need to turn off auto join for them, as well.

I chose auto join for the PTTC wifi network and asked both devices to “forget” all other wifi networks that were present. Both devices still dump the PTTC wifi after a few seconds. Once the PTTC network is dumped, the devices don’t even see the PTTC wifi, unless one powers off/on the PTTC, then the cycle repeats itself.
I’ll go find the other old devices I have and give it a shot…sure would be nice if I could get it to work on the phone I carry daily.

Lovely. This is obviously a phone issue, but your observation that it only happens when the connection is inactive is interesting. How many seconds of inactivity, exactly?

I tried a few times this morning to time it, and the time interval was not a constant. Anywhere from 30 seconds to 1.25 minutes.

It's a hopeful sign that the connection can last for up to a minute or two, and that it seems to be triggered by idling the connection. I wonder if it's maybe a wifi power savings thing kicking in. But losing the SSID completely is bizarre. I tested with an iPhone 6S running 14.6 (very similar to your iPad Air 2), and it connects perfectly with no wifi security. So it's more than just that.

Let's chat offline.

First, a huge shoutout and thanks to Tom (-TT-) for spending a lot of his personal time and expertise in helping me resolve the issue with the PTTC. Folks like him make the Bullseye-L community a great resource and a wonderful place to hang out. Hope to meet him in person one day on the line and shake his hand.
To make a long story short, it ended up being the "smart" power supply that I was using. Replacing the power power with a cheap $10 "dumb" power supply from Wally World resolved the issue. The "smart" power supply would power up the PTTC initially and then power down in under a minute, hence losing the wifi connection. Realized that along the way as we systematically tried to resolve the issue, and once I opened up the PTTC housing and was able to observe the two LEDS on the circuit board.
The mystifying part still (to me), is that the "smart" power pack worked for quite a while with the PTTC and still does in its normal mode to charge devices such as phones and tablets.
Hope this helps fellow PTTC owners if experiencing similar issues.