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Temperature, Voltage, Operating Status information - UBNT NODES

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k1ky
k1ky's picture
Temperature, Voltage, Operating Status information - UBNT NODES
We are considering building some interface units to support remote node deployments at our sites.  Some of the information that would be useful would be the operating voltage, overall health and temperature of the nodes themselves.

Is any of this information available somewhere within the operating environment of the hardware/firmware of the Ubiquiti equipment that can be extracted for monitoring purposes?
 
KG6JEI
Operating voltage probably is
Operating voltage probably is not ever available, the CPU's are on the low side of a buck converterter so the CPU always see a constant voltage, and I'm not aware of any specific voltage monitoring circuit on the high side on Ubiquiti units

"Overall health" isn't exposed as any single value but may not be a bad idea to have added.

CPU tempature I would have to look into before being sure one way or other, SNMP might have it but then again we might not have some library installed to allow it to pull that sort of data so it's very possible that isn't available.
km6dyy
battery health

We're especially interested in operating unconnected to infrastructure (such as AC power).  At one point, when I went to check a node I could no longer see via the mesh network (due to the battery charge being too low to operate the node), I saw the LEDs on the NanoStation M2 cycling from left to right in a continuous pattern that I thought must be indicating a low-battery-charge condition, so the device must have some method of noticing that.  It sure would be convenient to notice something remotely, via the network displays, about battery level getting low prior to the device leaving the mesh network, to indicate that a service visit would be required soon.  If there's not already available something of this sort, I wonder whether a mod introducing an A/D from the battery voltage to something the CPU could see might be in order.  It surely would be of widespread generic value to anyone operating a mesh network with remote nodes on (solar and) batteries.

km6dyy
operating voltage
The LEDs on my NanoStation M2 show a pattern in response to low battery voltage, which makes me suspect the information is available somewhere.  See my other, earlier, post in this thread.  How would we explore in more detail what the software could see regarding battery health?  It seems crucial to emergency networks on batteries to be able to remotely monitor battery health.  How can we make it happen?
KG6JEI
To my knowledge this is

To my knowledge this is nowhere in our code, it may be a low level hardware function on the DC to DC converter or it might be a low level fucntion of the MCU or could just be a fault scenario while the chip is dying (unable to sustain life)

All our source code access info is available here: https://www.aredn.org/content/source-code-access. You are encouraged to look through it and expand upon the code or feature sets and submit the improvement to the team for inclusion in a future version.  You will also need to be willing to open your device and track the hardware (no one to date has to my knowledge done a full pin by pin schematic breakdown of the devices)  If you find it going to a pin on the MCU there may be room to work with it but I'm not aware of any such pin at this time.

Note: The AREDN team does not support devices which have been modified, so while you may find use in opening your device and attempting ot modify it the AREDN team will not guarantee the firmware support on devices which ahve been previously opened.  The AREDN team aims to provide tools for reliable trusted networks which can not be guaranteed when weather seals and boards have been physically moidified.

You may want to look at the functions of your Charge Controller if you have a battery site.  For example on solar sites the TS-MPPT60 has ability to serve a full blown website with statistical history and configuration ability of the controller.  We have a repeater locally that serves our CERT team that is 100% solar that uses this controller and we are able to monitor it with the mesh (they had the controller before the mesh and were happy when they found out they could see the data without hiking up the hill)

The mesh could also be tied into any datalogger that outputs (you could use a Serial to Ethernet converter if the device only has a serial port) for reviewing the history.

Honestly there is so much more you can do with this off node the advantages of performing this on node seem limited to me.

ke6bxt
ke6bxt's picture
Temperature, Voltage, Operating Status information
How do you feel about Raspberry pi projects?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Raspberry-Pi-3-Pi-2-Sense-HAT-with-Orientation-P...

Or use one of these Wireless Smart Outlet with Metering
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Incipio-CommandKit-Wireless-Smart-Outlet-with-Me...


Hope that helps.
WX4LTG
PowerBox Pro?

The MikroTik "PowerBox Pro" would seem to be a no-brainer for this. PoE in, four PoE out, full-flavored router with VLAN switching built-in. It's built into a weatherproof box, too. 

Looks to me like a perfect solution for putting several nodes on the same tower/mast. I've been looking into this to replace a design for an installation with three nodes on solar power, using a Pi and multiple injectors...

https://mikrotik.com/product/RB960PGS-PB

KF6RTA
KF6RTA's picture
Re the mikrotik PowerBox Pro POE router
Does this device have the option for generating 24v?   Most of these generic POE injection devices produce 48v, which is a problem for Ubiquiti devices.

-Jonathan
 
WX4LTG
PoE

Most MikroTik devices run on 24V passive injection. So does this one. It'll handle up to 48V, and do 802.3af/at, but you don't *have* to do that.

See the second paragraph in their brochure on the product:

https://i.mt.lv/routerboard/files/PowerBox_Pro-170508144017.pdf

W2TTT
W2TTT's picture
Poe in a 12V World

Devices such as the MikroTik create some great opportunities for power distribution and monitoring, mast mounting whole nodes and wiring simplification, but it does not answer the reliability issue with respect to power sourcing.  Currently, we run passive PoE injectors, singles or quads fed by 12-15 volts, but that requires lots of in and out jumpers for the passive PoE, but it allows us to use convenient power from power supplies, batteries, solar panels and vehicles in a plug and play manner. 

The generation of 24V or 48V power can easily be accomplished with a boost module that takes 12-15V to 24V or 48V.  These devices can be put in a watertight box with enough air space to keep cool by the 12-15V source and all is good.  You can find 250W to 600W models from Geree and others on Amazon.  Definitely use on with a much higher rating than what you think you need so that it runs cool.

73,
Gordon, W2TTT 
201.314.6964
w2ttt@att.net




 

WX4LTG
24V power
That's exactly where I suggested the MikroTik box - it would replace the multiple injectors, the switch, etc., and allow for a really clean installation that includes site temperature and power monitoring - which could be SNMP-polled over the mesh itself. I'm using Splunk to do that with one of my own MikroTik routers right now.

What you *feed* that with, 24V-wise, isn't part of what I was talking about. You'd just be replacing power supplies for a switch and up to four nodes with a single injector that puts out clean 24V into the PowerBox Pro, and from there run outdoor-rated ethernet cable to the nodes.
W2TTT
W2TTT's picture
We are in agreement.  I was
We are in agreement.  I was just pointing out how one could use this gear with a base power supply voltage of 12-15VDC from a battery source.
73,
Gordon Beattie, W2TTT
201.314.6964
 
k1ky
k1ky's picture
Voltage and Temperature monitoring revisited - March 2019
I have seen some information that may suggest that voltage and possibly temperature information may be available on some Microtik devices.  Has anyone out there found a way to monitor voltage and temperature on UBNT or Microtik equipment that we use?  The information about the Microtik PowerPro device listed earlier in this thread may satisfy "most" of our needs, but still interested in being able to extract "health" information if it is available directly from the nodes.
AJ6GZ
MikroTik

The MikroTik devices contain the hardware for system temperature and voltage as well as voltage and current to each PoE interface. It's probably available via SNMP and I've seen a script to send it via syslog as well.  This is all using native RouterOS.  Not sure what is visible via OpenWRT.  This is from a hEX PoE which has the same guts as a PowerBox Pro via winbox:


All of the other MikroTik models I have used (and its most of them!) have this data available.

Ian

K9CQB
K9CQB's picture
Voltage and temperature is what I would really like.
It would be amazing if I could monitor Temp and Voltage. Because we could then set alarms in a monitoring application at our QTH to monitor our nodes before one of them goes out.
-Damon K9CQB
K6AH
K6AH's picture
A great use of SNMP

As suggested by Ian, above, this is a great use of SNMP.  Someone should run an SNMP Walk on one of these to determine if they're reporting these values in the standard reporting taxonomy.

Andre, K6AH
 

AJ6GZ
Mikrotik MIB

mtxrHealthGroup OBJECT-GROUP OBJECTS {
mtxrHlCoreVoltage, mtxrHlThreeDotThreeVoltage, mtxrHlFiveVoltage,
mtxrHlTwelveVoltage, mtxrHlSensorTemperature, mtxrHlCpuTemperature,
mtxrHlBoardTemperature, mtxrHlVoltage, mtxrHlActiveFan,
mtxrHlTemperature, mtxrHlProcessorTemperature,
mtxrHlCurrent, mtxrHlPower,
mtxrHlProcessorFrequency,
mtxrHlPowerSupplyState, mtxrHlBackupPowerSupplyState,
mtxrHlFanSpeed1, mtxrHlFanSpeed2
}

mtxrPOEGroup OBJECT-GROUP OBJECTS {
mtxrPOEName,
mtxrPOEStatus,
mtxrPOEVoltage,
mtxrPOECurrent,
mtxrPOEPower
}

from the MIB, it's in there :)

AE6XE
AE6XE's picture
Let's track this as an
Let's track this as an enhancement request.   Someone want to submit on github?   There are packages, "lm-sensors" and "lm-sensors-detect".  These are not currently made available in AREDN build, however nightly build compatible ones can be found here:

https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.2/packages/mips_24kc/packag...
https://downloads.openwrt.org/releases/18.06.2/packages/mips_24kc/packag...

No guarantee this will get what is desired, but sure looks promising.  More specifics of the hardware on mikrotik devices is needed to know how RouterOS is obtaining the information.   Also assumes RouterOS can obtain this information on the models we are concerned about--the hardware supports this ability.

Joe AE6XE

 
AE6XE
AE6XE's picture
I tried lm-sensors on an hAP
I tried lm-sensors on an hAP ac lite.  This program is looking for i2c hardware, which does not exist on the hAP ac lite.   I noticed that some mikrotik hardware, e.g. RBM33G, show in dmesg output (the boot information) some i2c hardware where this information may be available.  Further research is needed to determine if the hardware in the AREDN support list, is physically capable of pulling voltage, temp, etc.  A few internet googles, and I did not find any information.

Joe AE6XE   
KG4IKT
i've downloaded the mib, put
i've downloaded the mib, put it in the path, tried several versions of the snmpwalk command, but just get timeouts.
Using Linux Mint 18.

sudo snmpwalk -v1 -c public -m "/usr/share/snmp/mibs/Mikrotik.mib" 10.31.223.33
Timeout: No Response from 10.31.223.33

sudo snmpwalk -v3 -m "/usr/share/snmp/mibs/Mikrotik.mib" 10.31.223.33
snmpwalk: Timeout
AJ6GZ
snmpd
is snmpd installed?
w6bi
w6bi's picture
snmpwalk w /v3
Don't both with v3; it's a whole 'nother can of worms that aren't worth hassling with, IMO.

Does snmpwalk -v1 -c public <IPaddress> system return anything?

Orv W6BI

 
KG4IKT
sudo snmpwalk -v1 -c public
sudo snmpwalk -v1 -c public 10.31.223.33 system
system: Unknown Object Identifier (Sub-id not found: (top) -> system)


I installed with : sudo apt-get install snmp

The following NEW packages will be installed:
  snmp
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 404 not upgraded.
Need to get 155 kB of archives.
After this operation, 553 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://mirror.cc.vt.edu/pub2/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 snmp amd64 5.7.3+dfsg-1ubuntu4.2 [155 kB]
Fetched 155 kB in 0s (410 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package snmp.
(Reading database ... 387554 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../snmp_5.7.3+dfsg-1ubuntu4.2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking snmp (5.7.3+dfsg-1ubuntu4.2) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Setting up snmp (5.7.3+dfsg-1ubuntu4.2) ...
AB7PA
Need to download the MIBS

The "Unknown Object Identifier" message means that you probably need to download the standard MIBs on the computer where you are running snmpwalk.  You can get around this by running <code>snmpwalk -v1 -c public 10.31.223.33 1.3.6.1</code>

If you want to use object identifiers, you'll need to install the MIBs.  On Linux there is a package called <code>snmp-mib-downloader</code> that handles this automatically for you.  After installing all the MIBs, you need to edit your snmp.conf file and comment out the <code>mibs : </code>  line by inserting a # character in the first position.  Then you can successfully use the "system" object identifier.

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