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I have an Onion Omega 2 which I haven't used for a year or more and would like to use for an IoT project.

I have attached it to the Expansion Dock, and connected it to my laptop with a USB cable.

Four white LEDs flicker constantly, but I don't see the Omega on my laptop's list of WiFi devices. Nor can I discover it with Bonjour.

Having looked through the troubleshooting docs, I decided to follow the instructions at

https://docs.onion.io/omega2-docs/connecting-to-the-omega-terminal.html#connecting-to-ssh-windows

However, when I try to use Putty to connect to omega-ABCD.local where ABCD are the last digits of the Omega's MAC address, using port 22, Putty says that it can't connect because the "Host does not exist".

Any ideas how I can connect?

Mawg says reinstate Monica
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because the question asked is fundamental to the operation of an embedded Linux system, rather than about applying that system to an IoT task. Once you get your system working again (see its community site for help) a question about using it for an IoT purpose could potentially be on topic here. – Chris Stratton Aug 25 '18 at 22:40

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With a malfunctioning system, you want to connect in a way that does not depend on networking. MT7688 systems including the Onion Omega have logic-level serial consoles.

The "Expansion Dock" should already have a USB serial function on it, if not you'll need to get a 3.3v logic level USB serial converter.

You'll have to see the onion docs to determine which pins have the serial interface and what the baud rate is, if I recall it is on a different port than is typical for MT7688's (though that's only relevant after looking up the physical module pinout) and may be 57600 baud vs the 115200 used by most other MT7688 systems. If using the USB serial on the dock, you should only need to worry about the baud rate.

There is also a button-based mechanism for doing a factory reset, though that would not work in the case of corruption of the flash partitions that user operations do not normally touch, such as might result from an incomplete firmware update.

Generally speaking you'd do better pursuing this on the Onion community site. While the company itself has a rather poor record (see the many issues documented on that site), there is a fair amount of community support there.

Chris Stratton
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    Thanks very much for the detailed help, rather than just the "I'm voting to close" comment :-) I truly appreciate it. So many questions on so many S.E sites could be better asked on forums elsewhere, but I tend to ask here to try to grow *our* community :-) I will post back if I get an answer, although the easiest solution is probably to buy another, or use one of the many Raspberry/Orange/Banana Pi which I have lying around. Thanks again – Mawg says reinstate Monica Aug 26 '18 at 06:57
  • It seemed easier just to buy another. A cop out, I know, but life really is too short :-) – Mawg says reinstate Monica Aug 26 '18 at 12:00
  • That's a bad idea, the problem will likely repeat. This really isn't something you can use unless you're willing to tackle basic serial terminal maintenance. – Chris Stratton Aug 26 '18 at 13:21
  • Well, as I remember, I didn't have any problems last time around. But now it has sat at the back of a drawer of junk for a year or more, so who knows? I am taking a two pronged approach: I ordered a new one & will continue to try to get this one working before the new one arrives. – Mawg says reinstate Monica Aug 26 '18 at 14:17