GEM suddenly stops sending data

[jgreene]

I've had my system up and running for quite some time now and for the most part everything has been fine. I last updated all the firmware in the GEM last February (actually today) and it had been running fine until recently. Now the Dashbox reports that it is no longer receiving packets from the GEM. If I reset the GEM, it sends a packet and everything looks like it is ok but then the SSLP counter just keeps incrementing and no new data comes in unless I reset the GEM. I have to power cycle the GEM to get any data at all. If I connect to the GEM via the GEM network utility I can see the data change in the 'Live Data' tab. But if I click on the "Live Data" button in the 'settings' menu in the Dashbox, it never updates. That page never updates even after I power cycle the GEM so I am not sure if that is relevant. The lights on the GEM are a solid green on the Left LED and a pulsing green on the right. So it appears that for whatever reason the network interface stops working after one packet but I cannot find any debug information that tells me there is a problem.
Any suggestions on how to best go about trouble-shooting this?

[ben]

I've had my system up and running for quite some time now and for the most part everything has been fine. I last updated all the firmware in the GEM last February (actually today) and it had been running fine until recently. Now the Dashbox reports that it is no longer receiving packets from the GEM. If I reset the GEM, it sends a packet and everything looks like it is ok but then the SSLP counter just keeps incrementing and no new data comes in unless I reset the GEM. I have to power cycle the GEM to get any data at all. If I connect to the GEM via the GEM network utility I can see the data change in the 'Live Data' tab. But if I click on the "Live Data" button in the 'settings' menu in the Dashbox, it never updates. That page never updates even after I power cycle the GEM so I am not sure if that is relevant. The lights on the GEM are a solid green on the Left LED and a pulsing green on the right. So it appears that for whatever reason the network interface stops working after one packet but I cannot find any debug information that tells me there is a problem.
Any suggestions on how to best go about trouble-shooting this?

Can you check the Status section of the GEM Setup Webpage and make sure no flow control has become enabled? If so, turn it off using the Adv section.

Flow Control is left floating so it'll cause the GEM to lock up if enabled.

[jgreene]

BTW this is a 'wifi only' GEM. Would flow control affect the wifi link?
I checked it anyway and it isn't enabled and the problem still exists.

[jgreene]

BTW this is a 'wifi only' GEM. Would flow control affect the wifi link?
I checked it anyway and it isn't enabled and the problem still exists.

I guess I should say how I have the dashbox connected. My GEM is an early wifi version and it connects to the dashbox over the wifi network. The dashbox lives near my gateway/wifi router and my GEM is in the garage next to my breaker panel. I find it very difficult to use the GEM network utility as it behaves differently depending on which PC I run it from. It works the best on my Macbook running parallels (Win7) but I cannot do any searching for the dashbox that way because Parallels sets up an internal gateway bridge over to the mac side. But everything else seems to work. I can connect to the GEM using a serial cable and open the set menu in the browser. If I run the network utility from my Windows 10 laptop, it connects to the GEM via the serial connection, but only stays running if I run it in administrator mode and even then it frequency crashes. It doesn't show the serial number of my GEM at the top like it does with my macbook and I cannot open the setup screen in the browser. When I try it launches my browser just like the Mac but it is http://127.0.0.1:8000/ and it immediately closes the network utility when the browser opens and then the browser never opens the setup page.
The GEM seems to think it is happily sending data to the daskbox as it should if I monitor the data using the GEM network utility via the serial port. But the dashbox only receives the first packet after a power cycle of the GEM and not again. Today I checked the dashbox menu and it 'looks' like it received data from the GEM 5 times between 3 and 4 pm. But nothing the rest of the day. This is if I am using the dash board. However, in the summary page, it shows hourly bar graphs for total consumption! I looked at the live channels and the main power display shows a spike of 65,831 watts at 11:30am today! Maybe the problem is with the dashbox?

Screenshot 2022-11-11 161518.jpg (43.03 KiB) Viewed 7442 times

[ben]

Have you checked the power supply versus the notice at https://www.brultech.com/contact? If it's a WiFi-only it's possible you have one of the old bad supplies.

I'm guessing the GEM went down at that point, the battery was dead, so the GEM loaded with a random "reasonable" wattseconds counter.

[jgreene]

The power supply failed a while back and was replaced. I can connect to the GEM and watch it report data in the live data window using the network utility. But this is what the dashbox is showing. So the GEM thinks it is sending data to the dashbox but the dash box only receives the first packet after I power cycle the GEM. If I try to monitor the live data at the dashbox it never updates. But I can see the GEM 'trying' to send the data at the programmed update rate.

[jgreene]

I just noticed that whenever the GEM should be sending an update packet the system LED flashes red once. Is there a description of the LED indications in one of the manuals?

[jgreene]

I powercycled it a few more times and now it blinks red twice every update period, is off briefly after the second red flash and then is solid green until the next update period. If I look at the status page on the GEM it shows everything is “OK”.

[ben]

I powercycled it a few more times and now it blinks red twice every update period, is off briefly after the second red flash and then is solid green until the next update period. If I look at the status page on the GEM it shows everything is “OK”.

The first red flash is the packet leaving the GEM. The off/red again might be a reset to the network module.

Can you send me a screenshot of the Status page?

Under Live, make note of the Wh counters. Remove power, wait like 15 seconds, plug back in. Did they load back up at the relatively the same values or are they random?

[jgreene]

Here you go.

Under live data, all the sensors look correct and are updating.