Using FlashAir with a Macbook

[Mamabird]

Hi all, I am new to the forum and new to being able to track my sleep. I have read everything I can find on this and other boards and cannot for the life of me figure out how to get the Toshiba FlashAir III to work on my S9-H5i Auto CPAP, specifically with a MacBookPro. I have tried to use FlashPap, tried to set it up first with the FlashAir program, then tried to use the SleepyHead ap but nothing seems to work. One of the problems I'm having is all the instructions say to edit the SD-WAN or WLAN, etc, however there is no way that I can find to edit anything on the SD card or on the MacBook. There is just nothing that shows any files like that anywhere.

Although I know people have gone above and beyond to provide this information, if there is someone who would be willing to put down in steps 1, 2, 3....x, etc., specifically for a Mac, I would be eternally grateful! I used to be very good at this kind of thing (changing config files and such), in Windows, but I have gone completely over to Apple products and my job is so consuming I haven't had time to really learn how to go about changing configuration files in a Mac - and I haven't really needed to until now so this has been very frustrating for me!

Thanks ahead of time for any help that might be forthcoming!

[AlanE]

The SD_WLAN is a hidden folder on the Flashair. Not sure how to show those on a MAC but once you do that you can click into that folder (or just pop the SD card into your mac and whatever drive letter it gets, lets just say G: for this example, type in G:\SD_WLAN and press Enter.

Once in that directory, load CONFIG into a text editor.

Here are lines you should have in the CONFIG file.

[Vendor]
APPMODE=5
APPSSID=(whatever your wifi SSID is)
APPAUTOTIME=0
APPNETWORKKEY=(whatever your wifi password is)
NOISE_CANCEL=0
STA_RETRY_CT=0

If you need to set a static IP, you can do this:

[WLANSD]

ID=Whatever
DHCP_Enabled=No
IP_Address=192.168.0.10
Subnet_Mask=255.255.255.0
Default_Gateway=192.168.0.1


Here are all the options for [WLANSD]:

Enable DHCP Client (DHCP_Enabled)
Set whether to enable or disable DHCP client as follows.
YES (Default) Enable DHCP client
NO Disable DHC client

IP Address (IP_Address)
When DHCP client is disabled, set the IP Address. Default value is "0.0.0.0".
When "DHCP_Enabled=YES", values are ignored.

Subnet Mask (Subnet_Mask)
When DHCP client is disabled, set Subnet Mask. Default value is "0.0.0.0".
When "DHCP_Enabled=YES", values are ignored.

Default Gateway (Default_Gateway)
When DHCP client is disabled, set the Default Gateway. Default value is "0.0.0.0".
When "DHCP_Enabled=YES", values are ignored.

Preferred DNS Server (Preferred_DNS_Server)
When DHCP client is disabled, set the Preferred DNS Server. Default value is "0.0.0.0".
When "DHCP_Enabled=YES", values are ignored.

Alternate DNS Server (Alternate_DNS_Server)
When DHCP client is disabled, set the Alternate DNS Server. Default value is "0.0.0.0".
When "DHCP_Enabled=YES", values are ignored.

Enable Proxy Server (Proxy_Server_Enabled)
Set whether to enable or disable Proxy Server as follows.
YES Enable Proxy Server
NO (Default) Disable Proxy Server

Proxy Server (Proxy_Server_Name)
Set the domain name or IP Address of Proxy Server. Default is empty.
When "Proxy_Server_Enabled=NO", values are ignored.
Example:
Proxy_Server_Name=yourproxy.com
Proxy_Server_Name=123.123.0.1

Proxy Server Port Number (Port_Number)
Set the Port Number of Proxy Server. Default value is "8080".
When "Proxy_Server_Enabled=NO", values are ignored.

Now we can set a static IP address, subnet mask and gateway. Handy for those that have issues with DHCP assigning an IP to your card.

[AlanE]

To be more clear

Non static IP needs at least these lines:

[Vendor]
APPMODE=5
APPSSID=(whatever your wifi SSID is)
APPAUTOTIME=0
APPNETWORKKEY=(whatever your wifi password is)
NOISE_CANCEL=0
STA_RETRY_CT=0

There will be others and you should leave those lines but change existing or add the above.

If you need to set a static IP your CONFIG will contain at least this:

[Vendor]
APPMODE=5
APPSSID=(whatever your wifi SSID is)
APPAUTOTIME=0
APPNETWORKKEY=(whatever your wifi password is)
NOISE_CANCEL=0
STA_RETRY_CT=0

[WLANSD]
ID=Whatever
DHCP_Enabled=No
IP_Address=192.168.0.10
Subnet_Mask=255.255.255.0
Default_Gateway=192.168.0.1

As above, there will be other lines just leave those. Change or add the above.

[Mamabird]

Hi AlanE,

Thanks for your answer, but there is no such thing as a drive letter on a Mac. And no where to be able to type those lines that I can find. Also, I can't find any way to get the card to reveal that hidden folder.

Is there anyone on this message board that could help me with this? Maybe it's something fairly simple that I just don't know about because it's easier than I think it should be (which is typical for Apple products). I admit, I have had problems with Apple products because I keep trying to make things as hard as I've been used to with Windows!

I do appreciate your help Alan but I just can't figure out how to even get to step one.

[chill]

I use this with my Mac: http://www.sleepmaster.org

You don't need to edit anything manually. Just click Add New User and follow the instructions. The app is NOT a Mac app and can be a little confusing to follow. Go slowly. And be aware that getting these card to work can be a bit trying.

[Mamabird]

Thanks for trying to help, both of you. But nothing was able to work until I could figure out the very first step, which is to edit a hidden file on a Mac. If I were on a Windows machine I would have had this resolved a long time ago!

As it happens, I finally had several hours to donate just to this issue (hoping it will save time down the road), and I finally figured out, first, how to reveal the hidden files on a Mac, and second, how to edit them. Now that is done, I am Golden!

Since no one else on the board seems sure how to go about that - or it's so basic that no one can believe someone could be that dumb which is more likely - I thought I would lay out all the steps from beginning to end so it would be available in case someone else needs it. So here are the steps for setting up a FlashAir on a Mac:

1. Show those hidden files in Finder by opening up Terminal (in a Folder marked "Utilities" in Applications). Then type in (or copy and paste from here:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE

Hit the Enter button, then:
killall Finder

2. Go to Finder, click on your SD Card, now you should see the WLAN folder and under that, the CONFIG file. Now, after finally figuring out how to reveal the hidden files - took a lot of Google searching because apparently Apple doesn't want to make it simple, like giving a GUI option to just "show hidden folders" - this part got really tricky, for me anyway. The only thing I could find on the Internet was putting in complicated commands via terminal or script editor. I would right-click on the file and just click open which made it open with Script Editor and that was just a mess. I was about to give up, but then, after reading a bunch of postings here again about all that, I tried again but this time I tried opening with "Open With", "other", then found TextEdit. Bingo! Then all I had to do was follow the instructions I found here:

apneaboard.com/forums/Thread-WiFi-SD-Card-Data-transfer-to-ResScan-SH-for-The-Rest-of-Us

...and that was basically it. I never could get SleepMaster to work, but FlashPap works fine. I will say that after messing around so much in/on the FlashAir card, I saved the Data logs, but then formatted the card and started all over from the beginning with FlashAir Tool and FlashPap.

After I was done with all that late last night, I put the card in my machine and when I got up this morning, was able to start FlashPap and it found my files right away. I've checked a few times throughout the day and every time, FlashPap finds it and I don't have to touch the card at all. The FlashAir program can't find it, but FlashPap can and that's all I care about it at this point.

Anyway, I'm thankful for all the help that is available on this board, bits and pieces of all of it have been helpful in different ways!



Oh - and P.S., if you want to hide the files again, you go to terminal and do everything you did to reveal the files, except in instead of "TRUE", you put "FALSE" and all the files will be hidden again. I'm leaving mine revealed though, because no one gets into my laptop but me.

BTW, if anyone is interested, I have an early 2011 MBP running Yosemite.

[Sleepypokey]

I have a Mac as well and was frustrated trying to make it work, so was very excited to see your post. I tried it all, step by step, following your notes, but alas, it did not work for me. I didn't have the patience to try it more than twice, so perhaps when I have some time I'll try it again. Would you be willing to take a screen shot of your terminal window after you made the changes? If not, guess I'll just keep popping the card in and out for now. I was able to see the folder and the config, got to textedit, etc., so maybe I did something wrong after that step. Thanks!

[Mamabird]

Well, I was going to run through the steps and copy my config file for you, but after removing my card so I could copy the file for you, now I can't get it to work at all!! It truly is frustrating, as you said. This tells me if the power ever went out, or if I go on a trip and have to unplug my machine, which of course will happen, then I'll have to go through this all over again. And apparently whatever I did the first time to make it work, won't work this time at all.

I'm starting to be of the mind that this is not worth the effort. Yes it would be very convenient if it worked consistently without going through such a long drawn out hassle every time it's unplugged.

Such a disappointment!