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M9 salvageable?

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Wed, 10/26/2016 - 09:25

#1

w5mig

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M9 salvageable?

Plugged a cat 5 cable into a Nanobridge M9 and the status lights started dancing all over. Tested the cable to find wires 3 &5 were crossed. (Yes, I did this out of order). Replaced the cable and was not able to connect to the m9. Can ping it. Was able to get into recovery mode and reinstall the software successfully. Still can't connect to it with the browser. LAN adapter shows an unidentified network. So did that +24v send the m9 to the junk pile or is it salvageable?

Jerry
w5mig

Wed, 10/26/2016 - 11:36

#2

kg9dw

kg9dw's picture

If you can ping it, it likely

If you can ping it, it likely isn't dead.

Which software did you re-install? AREDN or airOS?

Wed, 10/26/2016 - 12:37

#3

K5DLQ

K5DLQ's picture

if you can ping it, are you

if you can ping it, are you certain that you are pinging the LAN interface and not the WIFI (via another connected node)? (Actually, if you successfully used TFTP recovery mode, then, that proves that the ethernet port is ok).

If you haven't already, try closing your browser and re-opening it before attempting to connect via the gui.
Perhaps, try a different browser as well.

Wed, 10/26/2016 - 19:07

#4

w5mig

w5mig's picture

I can ping it when I am in

I can ping it when I am in recovery mode only. I had reinstalled both AREDN and airOS. I have closed and opened both Chrome and IE browsers. There are no other operating nodes in the immediate vicinity. Still get "unidentified network". AREDN boot test come back "good, good".

Thu, 10/27/2016 - 09:42

#5

kg9dw

kg9dw's picture

After you load the AREDN

After you load the AREDN software on the node, what IP address are you trying to connect to?

Thu, 10/27/2016 - 13:08

(Reply to #5) #6

K5DLQ

K5DLQ's picture

Good question.

Good question.

1) after loading AREDN, ensure that you set your PC's network back to DHCP (from static)
2) try and use: http://localnode.local.mesh:8080 instead of an IP address. (ie. 10.x.x.x)

Thu, 10/27/2016 - 21:22

#7

w5mig

w5mig's picture

On the road for two days

On the road for two days (from Texas to Illinois, coincidentally). Will install the AREDN software, make sure the pc network is dhcp, and try to connect to http://localnode.local.mesh:8080. Will report the results back here on Saturday. Thanks for staying with me.

Sat, 10/29/2016 - 14:28

#8

w5mig

w5mig's picture

Here's my log of today's

Here's my log of today's events:

PC wireless adapter is disabled, lan adapter is set to 192.168.1.22, subnet mask to 255.255.255.0.
I am in recovery mode on M9. TFTP the file "aredn-3.16.1.0-ubnt-bullet-m-squashfs-factory.bin". Successful.
Power light solid green, connectivity light flashing green, top status light solid green. Lan adapter says "unidentified network". Change pc lan adapter to "obtain an ip address automatically". Lan adapter stills says "unidentified network". Open Chrome browser. Enter "http://localnode.local.mesh:8080" in address window. After several seconds get message "There is no internet connection".
Restart both M9 and laptop. All network conditions the same, lights on M9 the same. Open IE, enter "http://localnode.local.mesh:8080". Get "You're not connected to a network" message. Open Chrome, enter "http://localnode.local.mesh:8080". Get same "There is no internet connection".

So, is there something to learn here?

Sat, 10/29/2016 - 15:06

(Reply to #8) #9

K5DLQ

K5DLQ's picture

Power up the node fully (60

Power up the node fully (60-75 secs)
(Assuming a Windows laptop) open a command prompt on your PC and type: ipconfig

What is your IPv4 address show for your ethernet interface?

Do you have any software firewalls enabled on your PC? ala: Norton Internet Security, McAffee, etc?

Sat, 10/29/2016 - 15:37

#10

w5mig

w5mig's picture

I get 169.254.90.227 as the

I get 169.254.90.227 as the ethernet ip address. No firewalls except Windows which I disabled for this test.

Sun, 10/30/2016 - 16:37

#11

n0kfb

n0kfb's picture

WireShark

It would be interesting to see what is coming from your M9 via a tool like Wireshark, a packet sniffer. If you are not familiar with this free tool, let mw know and I can help you get started.

--Dan Meyer / n0kfb

Sun, 10/30/2016 - 19:50

#12

kg9dw

kg9dw's picture

If you are able to tftp to

If you are able to tftp to the node, and get back a successful message, then the node is not messed up.

You do a tftp -i 192.168.1.20 put <filename> and you get back success?

Sun, 10/30/2016 - 21:36

(Reply to #12) #13

w5mig

w5mig's picture

Yes, as I indicated above I

Yes, as I indicated above I get "successful" after I tftp the aredn software. But I am not able to connect to then connect to the node.

Mon, 10/31/2016 - 09:10

#14

kg9dw

kg9dw's picture

After you get the tftp

After you get the tftp successful message, the node is going to go through a flashing sequence of the lights, then reboot. While it is going through the flashing of the lights, you can switch your PC to DHCP. Then, after the node finishes the sequence and reboots, you should see your LAN connection drop, re-establish, and then you should have an IP address other than 169.x.x.x.

What lights are currently illuminated on the nanobridge?

Mon, 10/31/2016 - 16:08

(Reply to #14) #15

w5mig

w5mig's picture

All that you describe occurs,

All that you describe occurs, except that I get a 169.x.x.x. ip address. Typically, it takes maybe 15 seconds for the lan adapter to go from "identifying" to "network xx" in my experience installing bbhn and aredn software. For this one it takes maybe 60 - 90 seconds and then it says "unidentified network". The lights illuminated are the power light, steady, connectivity light, random flashing, and the top status light, steady. all green.

Mon, 10/31/2016 - 18:50

(Reply to #15) #16

kg9dw

kg9dw's picture

The 169 address is what

The 169 address is what Windows semi-randomly assigns when it can't get a DHCP reservation. It is essential an unusable address as far as you're concerned for this configuration.

I would staticly assign 192.168.1.100 with a 255.255.255.0 mask to your LAN and see what you can ping/connect to. If you can get to 192.168.1.20 then the tftp update didn't take and you've got airOS on the node. If you can get to 192.168.1.1, then you may have AREDN installed. I don't know why the dhcp server isn't working. Try this and let us know. We may need a developer to jump in here soon, as I'm about out of ideas.

Mon, 10/31/2016 - 19:12

(Reply to #16) #17

KG6JEI

I would say it sounds like

I would say it sounds like something is fried to me.

While the symptoms are odd and don't match what I would think I would see, the fact that voltage went up pins intended for data and the data wire was tied to a power pin means anything is posible from a hardware damage standpoint.

Tue, 11/01/2016 - 00:12

(Reply to #17) #18

w5mig

w5mig's picture

Did the static assignment and

Did the static assignment and tried pinging the different ip's. Same result, can't connect.

If someone wants to do a post mortem on this m9 I'll ship it.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Tue, 11/01/2016 - 00:29

(Reply to #18) #19

K5DLQ

K5DLQ's picture

one last thing to try...

one last thing to try...
TFTP AirOs 5.5 back onto the device.

Can you connect to it via AirOS with a static IP? (ie. http://192.168.1.20)

Tue, 11/01/2016 - 00:38

(Reply to #19) #20

K6AH

Connect via wifi

My fellow team members will think this a real long shot, but before you tftp back to AirOS, grab your smart phone, look for and connect to SSID: Mesh. If such an SSID exists and you can connect, you'll be on the initial setup page. Scroll down the page and report how much Flash Memory is available.

Andre

Tue, 11/01/2016 - 01:58

(Reply to #20) #21

KG6JEI

That would prove the Ethernet

That would prove the Ethernet is corrupted at least.

The flash check is way beyond a long shot (likely being suggested since Andre recently tested some super extreamley alpha code on an unsupported device he was testing for the future and didn't get the results he would of hoped for but not in any way related to this but now everything is this same problem)

Tue, 11/01/2016 - 10:25

(Reply to #21) #22

K6AH

Won't work on an M9

Never mind. What I suggested would only work on an M2. Your phone isn't going to work on 900 MHz.

Andre

Tue, 11/01/2016 - 10:30

#23

w5mig

w5mig's picture

Was able to connect to SSID

Was able to connect to SSID:MeshNode. Had to place the phone on the m9 to get a strong enough signal to connect. Attached is a screenshot of the page requested.

Image Attachments:

Tue, 11/01/2016 - 12:15

(Reply to #23) #24

KG6JEI

Having to hold the phone

Having to hold the phone close makes sense (900MHz gear is 2.4 with a transverter inside), so glad you were able to get in.

I notice it shows no LAN IP addresses which I believe it should (I haven't spent much time in preconfig mode lately) I suspect in the backend the chip probably "oopsed" out due to damage (you could navigate to the admin page and grab a support dump to further confirm this)

This does prove that the node is online but we're having some sort of network issue (which without proof to the contrary I'm going to suspect to be hardware related as most likely cause)

Tue, 11/01/2016 - 12:12

#25

kg9dw

kg9dw's picture

Andre headed you in the right

Andre headed you in the right direction as an M9 may be (I'm not sure) a downconverted 2.4GHz signal. The screen you show doesn't have any of the buttons. Are those not there?

You do have this connected to an antenna, right?

Tue, 11/01/2016 - 13:12

(Reply to #25) #26

K6AH

Thanks...

Ha! Thanks Mike, I'm sure glad someone still appreciates me ;-)

Tue, 11/01/2016 - 14:45

#27

n0kfb

n0kfb's picture

Going waaay back to the top

Going waaay back to the top of this discussion, if you can ping it, the device is at least sending small packets back to you. The same goes with the TFTP process; if you can TFTP, the Ethernet is working.

I am holding out for some sort of firmware issue. I suggest loading third party firmware on the device (Open WRT, etc) and let us know what happens.

--Dan Meyer / n0kfb

Tue, 11/01/2016 - 17:44

(Reply to #27) #28

w5mig

w5mig's picture

The screenshot from earlier

The screenshot from earlier today was taken from the bottom of the initial setup page as suggested by Andre. I think that may have caused some confusion so this afternoon I logged into the setup page and this is a screenshot of that. After the screenshot I entered a node name and password via my smartphone connection, saved and rebooted then could not find the device anywhere, either wirelessly on my smartphone or via the lan connection on the laptop. So, tftp'd and reinstalled AREDN and was able to return to the same screen.

I tried Daryl's suggestion of reinstalling airOS 5.5 but after a successful tftp (twice) the status 4 light would not come on. I will try again as I know I had done it previously. Then I will give Dan's advice a try with Open WRT.

Image Attachments:

Wed, 11/02/2016 - 12:28

(Reply to #28) #29

kg9dw

kg9dw's picture

The LED functions on airOS

The LED functions on airOS are different than AREDN. You won't have a green LED showing "running" on airOS. If you load airOS on it, then it will come up on 192.168.1.20.

Wed, 11/02/2016 - 13:08

(Reply to #29) #30

w5mig

w5mig's picture

Ok. Can't ping it with static

Ok. Can't ping it with static ip of 192.168.1.22. Going to ship it down to Darryl and let him have a look at it. My head is spinning from changing ip's, tftp's, green lights flashing or not, etc. Need a different pair of eyes to look at it. Let's see what he finds.

Tue, 11/01/2016 - 23:20

#31

K5DLQ

K5DLQ's picture

Jerry, I'd be happy to take a

Jerry, I'd be happy to take a look at it if you want to ship it to me (Houston).

Email me if you want to: k5dlq@aredn.org

- Darryl

Fri, 11/04/2016 - 23:46

#32

wa2ise

wa2ise's picture

It's unlikely that anything

It's unlikely that anything got fried by the crossed cable. Ethernet uses little transformers to DC isolate connected devices.

All that would happen is that the RX twisted pair will see a bias of 24VDC, but no current flow. The transformers at both devices won't pass any DC current.
However, the RX signals would be seriously degraded, but that shouldn't damage anything, SW or FW or HW.
Most of these transformers have centertaps that go to ground thru a capacitor, which also blocks DC current. The ethernet standard calls for 1.4KVDC isolation, just like in switching power supplies from powerline to its output. Idea being if a twisted ethernet pair somehow becomes hot with 120VAC, it won't start a fire or burn anything out. Maybe one could even have ethernet conectivity to some circuits on the hot side of a switching power supply or other power handling device and be safe, Though I'd probably would want the centertaps of the transformer windings on the RJ45 side be directly connected to the green grounding wire of the equipment power cord to ground to be sure of safety.

Sun, 11/06/2016 - 14:45

#33

K5DLQ

K5DLQ's picture

I did receive your M900 the

Hi Gerald, (et al)

I did receive your M900 the other day. I had some time today to look at it.
Good news and bad news:
The good news is that I was able to get it working.
The bad news is that it appears that the ethernet port was damaged slightly. I say it is crippled, but, functional.
To connect your PC to the node, YOU MUST set your network adapter to force 10MB rate. (not auto, not 100MB).
If you do that, you will get an IP address and can communicate with it normally over ethernet. Mesh wifi is unaffected and is working 100%.

- Darryl

Sun, 11/06/2016 - 15:05

(Reply to #33) #34

w5mig

w5mig's picture

Darryl,

Darryl,

Thanks for receiving the unit and identifying the issue. At least now I know it is useable. Will also look into getting an RMA as you discovered this has been an issue with other units.

73,

Jerry
w5mig

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