GEM suddenly not responding in dashbox, last packet in April?

[JPhi1618]

So I moved the cable to com 1 on the gem and the dash box. On the baud rate page, it shows no device detected for both ports. On the settings page for energy monitors, it shows my Gem and says no packets received, but it still says it’s on com2. I guess that would update on its own if it was receiving packets?

And since there is no consistent communication between the gem and dashbox, the :8002/:8001 URL won’t load. If I could connect a computer with a serial cable to the gem, is there more troubleshooting I could do to see if it’s communicating?

[ben]

Let's make sure the cable doesn't have a broken/near-broken line in it:

- Remove the STS cable from the GEM.
- Open the GEM Network Utility.
- Connect to the associated port via TCP Client (8001 for RS232 #1, 8002 for RS232 #2).
- Touch together the Tx/Rx lines of the STS cable.
- Go to the Debug tab.
- Click any of the command boxes to the left, the command in the box should echo back.

[JPhi1618]

Ok, I think I cracked the case... Literally cracked open the case of the dashbox. So I saw some residue/corrosion on the headphone plug and didn't think much of it because this is installed in my filthy garage, but you saying the STS cable might have issues got me thinking about it again. So, I opened up my dashbox and it looks like the large capacitors near the serial ports have died and released some schmoo. It seems to have dripped down onto the serial connection ports. Now, I'm not sure what the caps do, but if they control serial communications, then that is definitely an issue. If the caps do something else, then that still isn't good, but the immediate problem could be a gunked up serial port.

Thoughts? Do you think replacing those bad caps and cleaning the serial ports would fix my issue? Think you could give me a link to mouser or similar for a replacement cap if that sounds like a good idea?

[ben]

The caps are important, they provide ~10 seconds so the DashBox can properly unmount the MicroSD card when power is lost.

Can you email me your mailing address? We should just be able to send you a new bottom board. I'll talk to sales here about it.

[JPhi1618]

Just started a new job and I’ve been super busy, but I did get the replacement installed and it works great. On the topic of communication- my baud rate is set at the lower speed, but it seems to work ok. Should I increase to the higher speed on the GEM and the dash box? Also, less related, can I run a GEM and an ECM-1240 off the same dashbox? Is that setup pretty seamless?

[ben]

Just started a new job and I’ve been super busy, but I did get the replacement installed and it works great. On the topic of communication- my baud rate is set at the lower speed, but it seems to work ok. Should I increase to the higher speed on the GEM and the dash box? Also, less related, can I run a GEM and an ECM-1240 off the same dashbox? Is that setup pretty seamless?

The lower baud rate is fine. The only benefit to the higher baud rate is it makes the setup pages faster if configuring thru the DashBox.

You can use an ECM-1240 on the same DashBox (plugs right in an STS port). Should be pretty easy to setup, especially if you're using the shipped CT config of the ECM-1240.