what do the GEM LEDs mean?

[mwall]

what does it mean when the left LED is 'normal' (green with an occasional red flash), but the right LED is steady yellow?

is there a complete description of what the two LEDs indicate?

this is what i understand:

* left LED indicates system status. steady green means OK. occasional red flash when data are sent. no red flash if the GEM is configured to NOT send data regularly.

* right LED indicates network status. steady green means OK.

is that correct? what are the other meanings of flashes and color?

two of the GEM i support spontaneously went into a state where the left indicator is green (with a red flash every 10 seconds) and the right indicator is steady yellow. one GEM is serial only (no network kit on it) and one GEM has combination ethernet/wifi. i have been unable to communicate with either since the right LED went yellow.

m

[ben]

what does it mean when the left LED is 'normal' (green with an occasional red flash), but the right LED is steady yellow?

is there a complete description of what the two LEDs indicate?

this is what i understand:

* left LED indicates system status. steady green means OK. occasional red flash when data are sent. no red flash if the GEM is configured to NOT send data regularly.

Correct.

* right LED indicates network status. steady green means OK.

is that correct? what are the other meanings of flashes and color

WiFi/Ethernet:
Green (might be greenish yellow) = Connected to the network.
Yellow = No network connection, check for access point from the GEM.

Serial:
I think the LED is supposed to be off unless the hardware option is set incorrectly.

two of the GEM i support spontaneously went into a state where the left indicator is green (with a red flash every 10 seconds) and the right indicator is steady yellow. one GEM is serial only (no network kit on it) and one GEM has combination ethernet/wifi. i have been unable to communicate with either since the right LED went yellow.

Were the firmwares up-to-date on those units? Are you using the original power supplies?

Check the power supplies versus the notice at http://www.brutlech.com/contact.

The bad power supplies can cause the EEPROM on the GEM to get corrupted in certain areas.

You can pop the battery or disengage the super capacitor also to see if that gives you access.

Super cap header is located above the Ethernet jack on the blue boards.
Battery is located at the top right of the black boards.

[mwall]

ben, thank you for the clarifications.

the gem with serial-only has one of the old transformers. i will replace it.

the gem with wifi/ethernet has a new transformer, but it is behaving in a way that i cannot explain.

the gem is in the basement of a 100+ year old house. it is mounted to a plywood panel on a granite wall about 15 feet away from the house's wifi access point and router. the access point router is on the ground floor, abut 3 feet above the gem in elevation. the gem is below the joists (the joists are heavy wood timbers). i have verified that the house wifi signal in the basement is strong, even near the plane of the joists (i measure about -65 to -70db). i have tried 5dbi and 9dbi antennas on the gem.

i started by configuring the gem using a laptop, as per the instructions in "Wifi_Ethernet_Setup_ver_6.3_.pdf":

1) reconfigure the gem AP
- change gem AP setting to ssid called 'cake'
- set password for the gem AP ssid
- change security mode to WPA2-PSK and AES
- restart using restart button in 'Device Management' page

2) bind the gem to the house wifi
- change to STA mode
- change STA settings to use the house wifi (ssid, password, AES)
- restart using restart button in 'Device Management' page

at that point the gem shows up on the house network. i can ping the gem, i can communicate with the gem on port 8000. all is good.

then the weirdness begins.

when i remove the laptop from the basement, the gem disappears from the house network. (i did not notice this for awhile because the laptop sat in the basement, and i used other devices on the network to work with the gem) the laptop is on the house wifi network - no physical network connection.

when i take the laptop back to the basement, the gem shows up again.

the laptop is a an old macbook pro, with a bog standard network configuration ('automatic' in the network system preference panel).

so i tried configuring the gem with a wired connection. i ran a 25 foot patch cable from the gem to the router. i did a factory reset on the wifi/ethernet module, then plugged in the patch cable between gem and router. no changes to the gem network hardware. the gem shows up on the network with address assigned by the house dhcp server. the patch cable from the gem shows up as active on the router.

but when i move the laptop out of the basement, the gem apparently shuts down the ethernet port - it no longer shows up as active on the router. and the gem disappears from the network. the laptop is not physically wired to anything, and it is connected only to the house's wifi network.

have you ever seen anything like this before?

there must be an explanation, but i am at a loss to find it. and i cannot leave the laptop in the basement just to keep the gem operational

m

[ben]

Did you check to make sure the GEM was in AP mode with the Ethernet cable installed?

Was the Macbook connected to the GEMs AP mode while operational? If so, does disconnecting from it also take the GEM down?

[mwall]

Did you check to make sure the GEM was in AP mode with the Ethernet cable installed?

the GEM was in AP mode with ethernet cable installed

but i get the same behavior when the GEM is in STA mode with the ethernet cable installed

Was the Macbook connected to the GEMs AP mode while operational? If so, does disconnecting from it also take the GEM down?

the behavior i described happens when the macbook is connected to the house wifi network. the macbook was connected to the GEM's AP only for the initial configuration of the GEM's wifi.

i did a clean-slate test of the wired interface: factory reset the GEM network module, then plug in an ethernet cable from the GEM to the router. the wire to the GEM shows up as 'live' on the router while the laptop is in the basement, but when i take the laptop upstairs, the wire to the GEM becomes inactive. at no point in this test did the laptop connect to the GEM AP wifi.

m

[ben]

Can you try a static IP instead of DHCP? Something completely different then what DHCP assigns.

We've had some troubles with DHCP in the past where the WiFi/Ethernet module gets assigned the same IP as another device.

[mwall]

problem solved! i am embarrassed to say that it was a really, really simple solution.

so it turns out that there are two outlets near the breaker panel. one of those outlets is switched, on the same circuit as the basement lights. the other is not switched, and is always on.

when i first installed the gem, i plugged the two adapters into the always-on outlet. somewhere along the way the adapters got unplugged and replugged into the switched outlet.

it was not the laptop in the basement that magically enabled the GEM, it was the basement light switch.

oops!

[ben]

problem solved! i am embarrassed to say that it was a really, really simple solution.

so it turns out that there are two outlets near the breaker panel. one of those outlets is switched, on the same circuit as the basement lights. the other is not switched, and is always on.

when i first installed the gem, i plugged the two adapters into the always-on outlet. somewhere along the way the adapters got unplugged and replugged into the switched outlet.

it was not the laptop in the basement that magically enabled the GEM, it was the basement light switch.

oops!

At least it was an easy fix . Glad to hear it's resolved.