Ethernet Gateway problem
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@Anticimex Don't use linux but am certainly willing to learn. I do need some way to monitor what is happening with regard to the gateway. It looks like that is what you are proposing.
@Dan-S. You can use PuTTY if you like as well.
My proposal is that you establish if it is the GW that stops sending data on Ethernet or the controller that stops receiving it.
Example:
You run your GW until you think it has died (controller stops reacting to sensor input).
Then you connect using your monitor (PuTTY or NC). If you get anything there then you can determine if your GW receives sensordata or not. And you can also determine if GW is alive (if you have a inclusion button). When pressed, it should show in that monitor.What workaround are you currently using for your ethernet module? SOFT SPI or SW patched management of SPI_EN?
SW patched management of SPI_EN works with this module but not this module.
If you use any variant of W5100 you need some workaround due to the W5100 hogging MISO. Supposedly there are shields that mitigates this flaw in HW (using inverter on CS signal to handle SPI_EN) but I have none of those so I cannot confirm which ones.The SPI problem can potentially hide (luck and timing play a role here) for a while, and that could be what you experience.
Other factors I have noticed when I debugged my module was that DEBUG flag can have an effect (I am again guessing timing) so if you have that enabled, try disabeling it). Also, the HW SPI bus speed could be too high (if you have "dirty" wires) and that can be worh a try to lower as well (see here). -
@Anticimex said:
What workaround are you currently using for your ethernet module? SOFT SPI or SW patched management of SPI_EN?
SW patched management of SPI_EN works with this module but not this module.What do you say about just have one ethernet sketch always running SOFTSPI for radio. This should be working on all variants of W5100 ethernet moduls/shields?
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@Anticimex said:
What workaround are you currently using for your ethernet module? SOFT SPI or SW patched management of SPI_EN?
SW patched management of SPI_EN works with this module but not this module.What do you say about just have one ethernet sketch always running SOFTSPI for radio. This should be working on all variants of W5100 ethernet moduls/shields?
@hek I think it should be a sufficient solution. Personally I am going to stick with my own patch though because I am going to need every byte program memory available. But generally speaking SOFT_SPI should satisfy most ethernet gw users.
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Dan S.
Not to hijack your tread, but I've had similar problems. First the "check wires" thing, next dropping out at random times.I started with this R3 and this shield which is a ENC28J60, but couldn't get it to work properly.
Then I bought this shield , plugged it in, and uploaded the Ethernet GW without mods, except IP of cause, and it has worked ever since.
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Dan S.
Not to hijack your tread, but I've had similar problems. First the "check wires" thing, next dropping out at random times.I started with this R3 and this shield which is a ENC28J60, but couldn't get it to work properly.
Then I bought this shield , plugged it in, and uploaded the Ethernet GW without mods, except IP of cause, and it has worked ever since.
@Hausner My board looks like the one you got to work. I am back up and running with soft spi and separate power supply for the radio. Will see how long it works. Had stopped running soft spi since it seemed to work without it, but Anticlimax says the SPI problem can hide, so I put the soft spi back in. Wish mine was plug and play like yours. I have a genuine Arduino UNO and W5100 shield, but the knockoff version of each that I have acted the same way. Anticlimax: I do believe its a radio problem since I get the OK at the end of the sensor message line on the serial monitor even if the gateway is not connected to the controller but when it stops it says fail at the end of the sensor line, which to me means either the gateway radio is not receiving and/or sending when it fails.
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@Hausner My board looks like the one you got to work. I am back up and running with soft spi and separate power supply for the radio. Will see how long it works. Had stopped running soft spi since it seemed to work without it, but Anticlimax says the SPI problem can hide, so I put the soft spi back in. Wish mine was plug and play like yours. I have a genuine Arduino UNO and W5100 shield, but the knockoff version of each that I have acted the same way. Anticlimax: I do believe its a radio problem since I get the OK at the end of the sensor message line on the serial monitor even if the gateway is not connected to the controller but when it stops it says fail at the end of the sensor line, which to me means either the gateway radio is not receiving and/or sending when it fails.
@Dan-S. I assume you refer to me (Anticimex) :) and yes, the problems I have found with w5100 manifest themselves through the radio. It is the radio that suffer from the misbehaving w5100. But by monitoring the tcp traffic you can see what happens in the gw even with debugging off (which might also be a factor). So by looking on the tcp traffic (NC or putty) you can see if radio messages reach the gw or not. If not then the radio has been knocked out (or your sensor is not getting its messages through).
Do you feel secure today? No? Start requiring some signatures and feel better tomorrow ;)
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@Dan-S. I assume you refer to me (Anticimex) :) and yes, the problems I have found with w5100 manifest themselves through the radio. It is the radio that suffer from the misbehaving w5100. But by monitoring the tcp traffic you can see what happens in the gw even with debugging off (which might also be a factor). So by looking on the tcp traffic (NC or putty) you can see if radio messages reach the gw or not. If not then the radio has been knocked out (or your sensor is not getting its messages through).
@Anticimex Sorry about the misspelling. I'll blame it on the spell checker. It's up and running now for a couple of hours on soft spi plus separate power for radio, and in the meantime I'll look into NC and putty.
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I'm having the same problems described and I'm using the same hardware. Very frustrating. I previously tried the Serial Gateway, but it continuously dropped contact with Vera and now this with the Ethernet Gateway. I'm only trying to get 3 temp sensors connected. I'm a newbie, so hope someone with more experience has some ideas. Thanks.
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I'm having the same problems described and I'm using the same hardware. Very frustrating. I previously tried the Serial Gateway, but it continuously dropped contact with Vera and now this with the Ethernet Gateway. I'm only trying to get 3 temp sensors connected. I'm a newbie, so hope someone with more experience has some ideas. Thanks.
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This is probably unrelated but I thought it was worth mentioning. I had similar symptoms in a node (working great for up to 20h then it stoped, restarted it and again working for some time and then again stop). I fond that I had accidentally shorted the primary and secondary side of the regulator for the radio so the radio var running at 5v.
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Hi Dan,
Let me see ... try something like, connect it to another hardware router / switch.
Try change the IP adres on the Ethernet Gateway.
Why ? My experience is that my Fritz-box is not registering/showing ANY ethernet shields with Arduino, (don't ask me why) so if that happens and your DHCP box isn't seeing your Arduino it can give mistakenly the same adres to another device (I have actually see it happend here)
Maybe it's a common problem, I really didn't looked it op because I reserve a static Arduino IP-Range outside the range from the DHCP box.Just try to help you by looking from other directions to the problem, I know it's very unpleasant dealing with such problems.
(It's still working here btw. disabling debug) -
Been running fine now for the past 17 hours in the latest test. Have my fingers crossed but have been fooled before in thinking it was fixed. Time will tell.
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Going on 24 hours of continuous operation (with fingers still crossed). Operating with soft SPI and separate radio power source (the 2 biggest issues in my opinion).
Been investigating rf24 libraries and see that libraries are set up so that radio will stop if an error is detected in radio operation. Can then only be started be initiating the radio begin function. Since this is only in Ethernet startup code, explains why I need to unplug the gateway to get it going when it fails.
There is a debug option in RF24 to allow user action in event of failure. Would help if this could be used to provide notice of failure since this seems to be a common problem. Maybe even allow for restart of the radio with count of failures so that everything does not come to a complete stop and never to start again till you unplug the gateway and restart.
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@Dan-S. said:
There is a debug option in RF24 to allow user action in event of failure. Would help if this could be used to provide notice of failure since this seems to be a common problem. Maybe even allow for restart of the radio with count of failures so that everything does not come to a complete stop and never to start again till you unplug the gateway and restart.
Yes, i've also noticed the FAILURE_HANDLING option-define in the latest RF24 releases. Would be good if we could make use of it.
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Going on 27 hours of continuous operation of the ethernet gateway. Close to declaring success, but having been bitten before....
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After over 2 days of continuous operation without a hitch, I believe all my gateway problems (all of which related to the radio) are solved. If I had known early on that the radio libraries are set up to stop if an error is detected in radio operation, I would have focused on it from the start.
In the interest of others having similar problems, the successful UNO/Ethernet shield gateway includes:
Soft SPI--enabled using the latest iteration of the mysensor library and Ethernet gateway software which includes the proper RF24 componenets and DigitalIO library required for its implementation. See anticimex's instructions above on how to implement. Think this was the biggest factor in stability.
Separate 5 volt power supply fed through the AMS1117 to provide 3.3v power to the radio (with common ground to UNO/shield). The onboard 3.3V feed cannot be depended upon to provide enough peak current to power the radio.
Also downloaded and used latest Arduino IDE 1.5.8
Finally I can move on to sensor building! Thanks for all the help provided by this forum.
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Great news Dan! I hope it holds up. I have not noticed any hiccups in my gw, but it is Nano-based and hence uses a different ethernet module (but with my software spi_en fix). But I also run the radio off its "own" regulator. I have posted a topic under "your project" with my build (still ongoing).
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Good to hear Dan...
Hope it keeps going on, as last hope you can add a watchdog to your gateway.
Good Luck
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Thank you all--still going strong without any hiccups.
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Gday everyone - i was just looking up something else to do with the etherten board and read this snippet below...it may help apply to somone who reads this thread in future....
We probablky dont have this issue anyway as we startup radios too.... but anyway... it may help someone..
http://www.freetronics.com/pages/usb-power-and-reset#.VGSniPmUceA<quote>
"Ethernet Reset IC Delay
If your W5100 Ethernet IC is not 'awake' after your board is powered up or reset, the most likely issue is that your Arduino microcontroller has come out of reset sooner than the W5100 IC, and the sketch has sent the W5100's ethernet configuration out before the W5100 140-280ms reset period has expired.
This is because the Arduino microcontroller has a 65 millisecond powerup/reset delay, the longest available to be set by the fuses and bootloader, and the STM811 Reset IC controlling the W5100 Ethernet IC has a longer reset delay of 140-280 milliseconds.The fix:
Insert this line as the very first line in the void setup() { function in your project:
delay( 50 ); // allow some time (50 ms) after powerup and sketch start, for the Wiznet W5100 Reset IC to release and come out of reset.50 ms covered all boards in our testing, though if in doubt make it 200-250 ms for full reliability. Adding this to the start of setup() does not affect any normal operations or running, it just adds a fraction of a second to the one-off powerup or reset of the board.
</quote>
