Any chance you're located in California or Georgia? Any particular reason why (at least I don't think) you haven't posted on the GPStar FB group? Worst case, do you have Discord? I'm in California and wouldn't mind helping you out.
I have zero clue what conversations you've had with Michael (those are between you and Michael, none of the GPStar e-mails go to anyone but Michael, us devs don't have anything to do with the website or sales) so fair warning that you'll essentially be starting over in the diagnostic process with me. But as far as diagnostics goes, I always suggest the same thing to everyone--start with the minimum viable configuration and go from there.
What it sounds like based on your description (that no WiFi network appears until you plug the wand in) makes me think that your pack board has bad/old/wrong firmware installed and is not actually working. When you plug the wand in, it gets power from the pack's 5V rail but since it does not see a working pack on the serial data line, it turns its WiFi radio on (if the wand successfully connects to a pack, it shuts its WiFi off to save power since the pack should be handling WiFi duties).
You say you have a phone and a Chromebook. Is there any chance whatsoever that you would have access to a Windows PC? The easiest, simplest, one-step way to make 100% sure that the pack board has the correct firmware would be to just plug a Windows PC into the USB-C port on the pack board and use our flash tool to upload the latest firmware. Heck, could even do the same to the wand board if you wanted, at least to get to a baseline "known good" state on both boards.
Absolute worst case, if you're not anywhere near California or Georgia, and you're completely unable to get anywhere near a Windows PC, there is the option to just mail the boards to me, and I'll do the initial update for you and make sure they're working, then mail them back to you. Sorry you're having a terrible experience, but let's see if we can't get you sorted.
I have zero clue what conversations you've had with Michael (those are between you and Michael, none of the GPStar e-mails go to anyone but Michael, us devs don't have anything to do with the website or sales) so fair warning that you'll essentially be starting over in the diagnostic process with me. But as far as diagnostics goes, I always suggest the same thing to everyone--start with the minimum viable configuration and go from there.
What it sounds like based on your description (that no WiFi network appears until you plug the wand in) makes me think that your pack board has bad/old/wrong firmware installed and is not actually working. When you plug the wand in, it gets power from the pack's 5V rail but since it does not see a working pack on the serial data line, it turns its WiFi radio on (if the wand successfully connects to a pack, it shuts its WiFi off to save power since the pack should be handling WiFi duties).
You say you have a phone and a Chromebook. Is there any chance whatsoever that you would have access to a Windows PC? The easiest, simplest, one-step way to make 100% sure that the pack board has the correct firmware would be to just plug a Windows PC into the USB-C port on the pack board and use our flash tool to upload the latest firmware. Heck, could even do the same to the wand board if you wanted, at least to get to a baseline "known good" state on both boards.
Absolute worst case, if you're not anywhere near California or Georgia, and you're completely unable to get anywhere near a Windows PC, there is the option to just mail the boards to me, and I'll do the initial update for you and make sure they're working, then mail them back to you. Sorry you're having a terrible experience, but let's see if we can't get you sorted.
Statistics: Posted by Nomake Wan — January 4th, 2026, 1:35 pm