From afe70da24d797da05009471a1452a2b4d8fcf314 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "Adrian A. Baumann" <ade@adebaumann.com>
Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2026 19:57:22 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] MQTT trouble,still

---
 gauge.py | 13 ++++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 12 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/gauge.py b/gauge.py
index 4e13475..dc3aed3 100644
--- a/gauge.py
+++ b/gauge.py
@@ -28,6 +28,12 @@ import gc
 from umqtt.robust import MQTTClient
 from machine import UART
 
+# Activate WiFi driver before any heavy heap allocation so it can claim its
+# contiguous DRAM block before the Python heap fragments the address space.
+gc.collect()
+network.WLAN(network.STA_IF).active(True)
+gc.collect()
+
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
 # Logging
 # ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
@@ -530,7 +536,9 @@ _WIFI_CONNECT_ATTEMPTS = 3
 def _reset_wifi_interface():
     global _wifi_sta
     _wifi_sta = network.WLAN(network.STA_IF)
-    _wifi_sta.active(True)
+    if not _wifi_sta.active():
+        _wifi_sta.active(True)
+        utime.sleep_ms(500)
     try:
         _wifi_sta.disconnect()
     except Exception:
@@ -1301,10 +1309,13 @@ def apply_motion_defaults():
 
 
 def main():
+    gc.collect()
     info("=" * 48)
     info("Gauge MQTT controller starting")
+    info(f"Heap free: {gc.mem_free()} bytes")
     info("=" * 48)
 
+    gc.collect()
     connect_wifi(WIFI_SSID, WIFI_PASSWORD, force_reconnect=False)
 
     mqtt_attempts = 0