Question

I have a remote solution with the need for internet. It is encapsulated inside a sturdy plastic box which is weaterproof, it is insulated and the insulation has some metallic-looking coating.

So I tested with a Huawei E5577 4G LTE WIFI - modem. But I lost connetion to it during the first 24 hours. That's when I bought a RUT240 from Teltonika. The modem is now placed inside the plastic box with one mobile antenna inside and the other SMA connector has an external magnetic foot antenna placed outside the box.

It is updated to the latest firmware and bootloader 3.2.1 if I can recall.

It operates normally for 2-36 hours, but then randomly becomes unresponsive and does not respond to neither mobiledata nor SMS.

The coverage for LTE, 3G WCDMA is fine in the area and LTE signal reports around -50 to -69 dBm when connected. I have enabled periodic reboot and PING reboot to 8.8.8.8. 

After every periodic reboot it comes online fine. PING reboot have not yet been activated/used used as far as I can se in the logs strangely.

The log only says "Mobiledata disconnected" and "Unknown". It then seems to cycle connection to 3G WCDMA but does not respond to my SMS or mobiledata use.

I have spoken with the operator and they have not yet found any cause on their side.

Answer 1

Hi,

Current log's from WebUI are insufficient to determine why device is disconnecting from the mobile network, could you PM me with a troubleshoot file which contains more detailed logs, it can be downloaded in WebUI -> System -> Administration -> Troubleshoot.

Also would it be possible to test different operator SIM card to determine that issue is definitely not operator related?

Comments

Thankyou for your reply. I will as soon as it comes online download the Troubleshoot-file and PM you.

The device unfortunately is now in a remote location and I can not get to it physically in long while. To test another operator, that has to be done in the future.

Isn't it strange that the PING reboot service is not kicking in ?

Answer 2

Ok, so yesterday evening (except for downloading troubleshoot file) I put the RUT240 in "Only LTE" mode. Worked overnight and got disconnected this morning and is not seen since. Even though I have periodic reboot at 3 PM.

Any ideas ?

Answer 3

Does it make sense to set the APN manually ? Right now I'm using Auto APN.

Comments

Hi Grelle,

I've reviewed the troubleshoot file that you've sent and in the logs it could be seen that device was working smoothly at that time, signal strength was great too. System.log file is stored in RAM and has limited capacity for logs that's why there were no useful information to determine what might be causing disconnects.

When device is unresponsive does it respond to SMS utilities commands, e.g. status command? Usage of SMS commands can be found here.

Usually using auto APN is sufficient but when you get a public IP for your SIM card or make a contract for private APN then it's needed to insert APN manually.

---

Thankyou for your answer.

No the thing is, the device is totally unresponsive. It does not respond to anything remote. None of my SMS commands works, I have set up status, reboot and everything via SMS which does work fine when device is connected. And yes, it should be in a location with great cell coverage.

So, how should I go about this ? The device is about to be brought away from my remote location to have it closer to be able to troubleshoot but I'm a bit sad about this, I thought these devices would be very fail-safe.

As you might have seen, since the day I put it in only LTE mode...it is completely dead. Does not come online ever, even after my time of periodic reboot. This prompts me to get to my remote location and get it...

Answer 4

I think I might have found the problem.

In my lab (that is my home...), connected to the RUT WiFi when the device does not respond via mobile-network (sms, mobiledata etc) it clearly stated "sim card not inserted".

So I removed the sim-card and polished it a bit and put it back in, it has since worked perfectly, that is for almost 24 hours.

I had also connected the external antenna to the aux connector and this antenna is now moved to main connector.

Could a failing/bad connection SIM <--> Router be the problem ?

Comments

Hi, 

Main antenna is being used both as receiver and transmitter while AUX antenna works only as receiver to increase signal quality and download speed. 

You've mentioned before that you're using magnetic foot antenna, is it now connected to Main or AUX connector? 

Also is that antenna from RUT accessories list or is it from a different manufacturer? If antenna is from different manufacturer, then could you provide the specifications of that antenna?

Regarding the SIM card itself, if devices are placed outside and plastic box in which you put RUT240 is not completely sealed/IP certified then there's a chance that oxidation might occur on SIM contacts and that's why connection might be lost.

---

The antenna now connected to main is a omnidirectional magnetic foot from Teltonika yes.

Well, it is not placed outside and no, it has not yet had the possibility to oxidate :) But it might have had some sort of bad connection due to dust, malplacement etc ?

Anyhow, it clearly stated, "simcard not inserted".

I would suggest you add this information to debug logging (to be able to read out if sim-card is inserted or not) if it is not already logged.

---

Troubleshoot already includes the state of SIM card, but those log's that display SIM status are stored in RAM memory and are wiped after each reboot. The first troubleshoot that you've sent displayed no such issue as SIM card status was shown as inserted and data connection established.

If there was a visible layer of dust on SIM then it might've been caused an issue, SIM card in its tray doesn't have space to move so there shouldn't be any issues with that.

It'll be needed to monitor the performance of device further and if there's an issue with mobile connectivity, I'd be best if troubleshoot was downloaded at the time when device is experiencing connectivity issues.