Connection loss after power failure

[philf]

Apologies if this has been well documented elsewhere, but I couldn't find my exact issue. I see plenty of dialogue on resetting the GEM/ethernet board, but don't want to venture down that road my issue is simpler. My GEM has been humming away for over a year, now, reliably recovering from power outages and continuing to upload data to SEG. Yesterday, however, we had a couple of power bumps and communication stopped. I cycled power on the GEM, just to be sure of a clean start, and after the usual sequence everything (status LED-wise) looks good. Activity showing on ethernet port LEDs, and I can even ping the device at its expected address. But that's it. I can't connect to the thing through a browser, and it no longer shows up in either the GEM Network Utility or Wiznet tool. Just want to be sure there isn't something simple to try before we start getting into hard resets. Not sure if the thing has been spooling up data for the hours since the bump, and it would be nice not to lose it.

Is this a familiar/common issue that I've just missed seeing elsewhere?

Thanks for the help. Great product.

[ben]

Apologies if this has been well documented elsewhere, but I couldn't find my exact issue. I see plenty of dialogue on resetting the GEM/ethernet board, but don't want to venture down that road my issue is simpler. My GEM has been humming away for over a year, now, reliably recovering from power outages and continuing to upload data to SEG. Yesterday, however, we had a couple of power bumps and communication stopped. I cycled power on the GEM, just to be sure of a clean start, and after the usual sequence everything (status LED-wise) looks good. Activity showing on ethernet port LEDs, and I can even ping the device at its expected address. But that's it. I can't connect to the thing through a browser, and it no longer shows up in either the GEM Network Utility or Wiznet tool. Just want to be sure there isn't something simple to try before we start getting into hard resets. Not sure if the thing has been spooling up data for the hours since the bump, and it would be nice not to lose it.

Is this a familiar/common issue that I've just missed seeing elsewhere?

Thanks for the help. Great product.

Have you updated firmware in awhile? We had some issues similar to that in the 2.XX series of COM firmware.

You can do a direct IP search with both tools (works better with the WizNET one I find however), does that work? If so, it could just be an issue with UDP being blocked.

[philf]

Wow. Thanks for the quick reply...

I did try (even using the Wiznet Tool) going straight at the IP, but no go. Seems odd that it would be replying to ICMP, but nothing else.

I confess, I've updated nothing since installing in September of last year (it was working fine!). Nothing else in my setup has changed - using the same PC, on the same network, to do the configuration.

I haven't tried plugging directly in to the ethernet port yet (will try that this evening). My gut feeling after looking at everything from the outside was that the GEM was fine, and so was the Wiznet board - but perhaps they were out of sync (baud rate possibly changed on one or the other), and I was hoping it was a simple matter of checking/rectifying that using the network tool - but something else is going on.

I'll assume that, if I can't see the Wiznet board when directly connected to it with a laptop, the next logical step is the Jumper/power cycle to reset the Wiznet?

Wish I'd made note of which firmware versions are on the respective devices.

[ben]

Wow. Thanks for the quick reply...

I did try (even using the Wiznet Tool) going straight at the IP, but no go. Seems odd that it would be replying to ICMP, but nothing else.

I confess, I've updated nothing since installing in September of last year (it was working fine!). Nothing else in my setup has changed - using the same PC, on the same network, to do the configuration.

I haven't tried plugging directly in to the ethernet port yet (will try that this evening). My gut feeling after looking at everything from the outside was that the GEM was fine, and so was the Wiznet board - but perhaps they were out of sync (baud rate possibly changed on one or the other), and I was hoping it was a simple matter of checking/rectifying that using the network tool - but something else is going on.

I'll assume that, if I can't see the Wiznet board when directly connected to it with a laptop, the next logical step is the Jumper/power cycle to reset the Wiznet?

Wish I'd made note of which firmware versions are on the respective devices.

You could try putting the GEM into Recovery mode (unplug, hold down the button on the GEM, and plug it back in). That'll make sure nothing is interfering with the operation of the WizNET module. The GEM could be resetting it constantly.

[philf]

Thanks, Ben. Will give that a try this evening and report back.

[philf]

Just in case anyone winds up following this thread, I thought I'd best report in to close it. I hate getting to the end of a thread in a forum that discusses an issue I'm having, but fizzles out before a solution is posted .

Anyways, this was really just a matter of jumpering SW1 on the Wiznet board, and cycling the power to the GEM. The Wiznet board then became visible again (I used the GEM Network Utility, and not the Wiznet tool) and I was able to plug my configuration back in. It instantly reconnected to SEG, and away I go.

Thanks for the help! The tip I got here regarding the jumper on the ethernet board was golden.

[Teken]

Hello Philf,

Thank you for taking the time to follow up with the end results.

What COM / Engine firmware is the GEM running right now? Also how old is the unit you have in place?


Encrypted By: Phoenix Security Solutions

[philf]

Hiya.

My unit was ordered and shipped in September of last year (2013). Just checking what shows up on the screen when I enter setup mode, I see the following:

COM firmware ver: 2.38
ENG firmware ver: 1.45

Likely there have been changes in the last year, but I haven't had need to pursue them as (until this event) things have been bulletproof.

Cheers!

[ben]

Hiya.

My unit was ordered and shipped in September of last year (2013). Just checking what shows up on the screen when I enter setup mode, I see the following:

COM firmware ver: 2.38
ENG firmware ver: 1.45

Likely there have been changes in the last year, but I haven't had need to pursue them as (until this event) things have been bulletproof.

Cheers!

Yeah, the 2.XX firmware had a lockup problem that occurs rarely.

[philf]

Well, I thought I was out of the woods with a "one-off", but it looks like this is a new and permanent behaviour. We've been having a helluva windstorm here in Burlington, and we lost power again last night. Sure enough, the ethernet board didn't come back after power was restored. Same symptoms - I could ping it, but that was all. Had to repeat the SW1 reset process all over again. I'm not clear on where the settings are actually stored on the device (had assumed on-board on the Wiznet). I see the GEM has a battery (looks like a CR2032) on board, but I'm not sure what *that* is backing up...

Any ideas why this thing becomes partially reset during a power failure (it's interesting that it still holds and responds to its IP address via PING, but nothing else)?

Thanks