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Weather Station Hardware => AcuRite Weather Stations => Topic started by: Glenn on January 18, 2018, 08:23:57 AM

Title: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on January 18, 2018, 08:23:57 AM
I installed the Access the other day and last night, set it up on MyAcurite. After removing the old SmartHub from the account, all seemed well. But the Access wasn't uploading data. I unplugged the unit...then remembered the battery backup. So I unplugged the Ethernet, waited, replugged and all seemed well. I noticed my upload times weren't as instantaneous as with the SmartHub, but all the data was showing on WU. I believe someone here mentioned it doesn't send data as frequently, but it send all the data it's captured.

This morning, it seems to have stopped sending data again. I went on to the MyAcurite website and the status is color is yellow and says "Weak". But looking at the signal strength, it says "Strong".

Anyone have any issues with their Access?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on January 18, 2018, 09:58:52 AM
If it's not sending faster than the smarthub, you have a signal problem. It seems like you are not getting 18 second hits from the 5n1, so moving the access to a better location is the best thing to try. You can pull up your diagnostic page thru your router (192.168.XX) and check you signal. As you move the access around, hit refresh to see if the signal has improved. The dashboard does not update for a long time, so that is not a good way to know quickly if you have a good signal.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on January 18, 2018, 10:10:36 AM
It's now back online and reporting pretty regularly. My WU page shows it reporting current conditions within seconds; under 10 seconds to be exact. WU graphs are updated every 5 minutes.

I had issues with my hub dropping randomly, but that always required a reboot. With the Access, I'm not sure why it would fall off...then back on again.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on January 18, 2018, 01:15:47 PM
It's been good for the last few hours. I'll be keeping an eye on it. I have to imagine it's the Access/5 in 1 connection that's being lost since I have a data gap of about 40 minutes in that time period. I'm thinking if it was a network issue, the battery backup would have saved the data and sent it once the network was back up again. My SmartHub had connection issues here and there. I was hoping the Access would alleviate that.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on January 19, 2018, 07:56:50 AM
Another gap early in the AM for about an hour and a half. Not sure why it's fine most of the time, then has these sudden drops and reconnects.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on January 19, 2018, 09:34:14 AM
Check the Wunderground topic. There are technicians from Wunderground who will help you there.

http://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=33651.0
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on January 19, 2018, 11:09:56 AM
Thanks! I'm glad to see WU is here.

It's certainly a station issue. I'm offline again and seeing the status as "offline" on myaccurite.com
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on January 20, 2018, 08:04:23 AM
Did a full reboot on the unit yesterday late afternoon; unplugged, pulled the batteries and the ethernet cable. Waited a few minutes and reconnected. I also put the Access on top of a box to give it a bit more height. Worked great util about 3AM this morning when I had about an hour drop off. Then it came back online again.

Anyone know how the antenna in the Access is oriented? Maybe positioning it so it faces the 5 in 1 will help.

Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: vreihen on January 20, 2018, 08:18:21 AM
Silly questions:

Do you have a console available and does it show a loss of connectivity from the 5-in-1?

What was the outside temperature at 3:00 AM when the connection broke?

Do you have lithium batteries in your 5-in-1?

My 5-in-1 will randomly stop transmitting for a few hours when the temps drop to near 0F on alkaline batteries.  I have another piece of equipment outdoors that does battery voltage graphing, and it shows a quarter volt drop between 32F and 0F even running cold-weather-recommended lithium batteries.  Just want to verify that your signal problem isn't because the 5-in-1 stops sending.....
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: John Z on January 20, 2018, 10:36:21 AM
Glenn,

The antenna in Access is a compact vertical spiral. It should be omnidirectional.

The battery comment by vreihen is spot on. Good to check them.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on January 20, 2018, 03:39:33 PM
Thank you both! I appreciate the feedback. With the antenna setup, I guess I'll refrain from spinning it around to try to get a better signal. I know you could do that with the SmartHub and it would help.

Temps have warmed up a bit as of late. During the 3AM drop off it was 30.F then rose to 31.8F when it came back online. It dropped again this afternoon between about 12PM and 1PM Temp was 45F....then rose 45.1F when it came back online.

I haven't been awake or home when the drops happen, so I can't report on what the lights on the unit are doing at that time. I just know I have a data gap on WU and MyAcurite for both of those time periods. Is there a way to look at the console and check for data loss after the fact? I have the HD dsiplay for my 5 in 1.

Batteries are not Lithium. Starting to think it may be a good idea to put those in the outside unit to remove that as a possible problem.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on January 21, 2018, 07:01:18 PM
I hooked up the old SmartHub again and I'll be running that as well as the Access. I'll keep an eye on the Access and note the drop offs and see if the SmartHub has the same issue. I have the SmartHub in a different location than the Access as of now.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on January 22, 2018, 09:51:37 AM
Access had a drop earlier this AM for under and hour; SmartHub did not have a drop during that same period.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on January 25, 2018, 01:17:01 PM
I posted over on the Acurite support forum and gave Acurite a call. Long story short... I moved the Access away from the router a bit more. I also rebooted it a day or so after the move. Last night, things were much more steady. Only had one gap in data that was longer than 5 minutes.

I'm going to set up the second access at the other location in VT this weekend. I'll have both reporting to MyAcurite and will see if any issues pop up.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on January 29, 2018, 10:10:21 AM
Keeping this updated in the event someone stumbles upon this in a forum search or google down the road.

My Access in CT has been fairly stable over the last few days. I will see an occasional report to MyAcurite that's longer than 5 minutes, but under 10 minutes. Seems those tend to happen around the 1AM time frame. The SmartHub has been chugging along fine until yesterday when it dropped off in the AM. I picked it up when we got home and it reconnected with no issues. So, moving the Access away from the router, Sonos Play 1 and Wink Hub 2 seems to have helped.

I have my second Access up and running in VT. That has proved to be stable so far. I just switched that to reporting out to WU. Interestingly enough, that's close to the router and the old hub. No issues thus far.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on February 19, 2018, 08:58:52 AM
It's having connection issues again. It started very early Sunday morning around 2AM. It came back online on it's own. Then last night, it dropped off around 8:30PM and was offline when I woke up this morning.

I took a look at the Access and all lights were on; blue light up front, green in back, blinking yellow for data transmission. So I'm not 100% sure what's going on. It's like it's dropping signal between the 5 in 1. I pulled the batteries, unplugged all cables and let it sit. I plugged it in and it was online for a bit, then dropped again. My Acurite shows a signal strength of "strong" but states it's offline. To make it more interesting, my chart on WU is mostly blank, but WU  says it's updating every X seconds. I'm seeing the temp and wind direction moving. I've got the SmartHub running in tandem on MyAcurite.com and that's been chugging along fine for the last few days.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on February 20, 2018, 08:45:17 AM
It randomly came back online yesterday afternoon/evening. It's been solid since. I have no idea what's causing these random hiccups at this point.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: John Z on February 20, 2018, 03:20:25 PM
Hey, Glenn:

A little searching tells me you are surrounded by Ham Radio operators. The nearest, I think, is only 3000 feet away from you. Not saying that is your problem, but you might want to look into it. Access/smartHUB have no real defenses against strong transmissions at 440 MHz.

http://www.city-data.com/aradio/lic-Wallingford-Connecticut.html
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on February 21, 2018, 09:12:54 AM
John,
That's really interesting! I hadn't given that any thought.

I have my SmartHub running in tandem. I noticed a few outages with this this morning as well. Hmmmm.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on February 21, 2018, 10:16:05 AM
Turning on the transmitter is likely knocking down your signal. The only solution may be a weather station that broadcasts on 900 instead of 400mhz
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on February 23, 2018, 08:30:39 AM
So things have been normal for the last day or so; no drop outs. I'll keep and eye on it and report back. Again, it seems to be fine for a period, then it has some issues, then they go away. It's a hard one to chase down.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on March 08, 2018, 03:23:47 PM
I had a dropout this morning on my VT station and a power outage in CT last night; that brings up a question...

Does the battery backup just provide data after an outage to MyAcurite? It looks like there's missing data on both stations on WU...but not on MyAcurite.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: John Z on March 08, 2018, 03:27:19 PM
Glenn,

Yes, for now at least, the data patching capability of Access is limited to MyAcuRite. I see no technical reasons to make WU patches impossible, so maybe we'll see that in the future
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: BeaverMeadow on March 08, 2018, 04:21:13 PM
I noticed a heck of a lot of issues on the Acurite community board regarding problems with the Access. Maybe just beginners having problems getting it set correctly? There hasn't been much mention of Access problems here at wxforum.net so maybe it's not as problematic as it appears to be over at Acurite's site.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: John Z on March 08, 2018, 04:33:44 PM
Beavermeadow,

Access does have a few hiccups.
These are things I have observed.

- If you quickly remove and restore power at the micro-USB connector, Access will hang up, and a disconnect and restore of the Ethernet connection will be needed to get it going again.
- Access has been showing rain resets at random times.
- Access has been logging phantom rain at times.
- Access has had difficulty finding its way to AcuRite servers after a brief power outage.

I have about 7 months total run time on two devices. It took nearly that much before I experienced an issue.

 These are not Noobie issues, they are real and need to be addressed. Hopefully soon.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on March 09, 2018, 08:55:35 AM
John,
Thanks for info. That makes sense based on what I'm seeing on WU and MyAcurite. It would be cool if they had that data report out to WU as well. Hopefully, in the future it will.

My CT Access is offline again this AM. Not sure why or what caused it. With any luck, it'll pop back on. This has been an odd one to sort out. The drops are very random.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: BeaverMeadow on March 09, 2018, 09:03:31 AM
Glenn, what about setting up a timer to cut power for a minute each day to the Access and router to auto-reboot the setup? I don't think much if any data would be lost but you would be able to continue uninterrupted monitoring while away.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: John Z on March 09, 2018, 09:04:33 AM
Glenn,

I expect that feature is on their punch list somewhere. They probably have their hands full right now with a bunch of clean up work.

Overall, I like my Access devices and see tremendous potential in them for the future.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on March 09, 2018, 09:54:32 AM
The reboot isn't a bad idea. I actually have a Winkhub in VT that I do that too after a power outage. I have it hooked up to a wifi plug. Something like that should work with the Access. But I'm wondering if the battery backup would throw a wrench in the gears....
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on March 12, 2018, 10:30:11 AM
I had a lot of issues this weekend with the Access at my CT location. No one was home, so diagnosing it was difficult. Not much I could do remotely but check on things and see when it came back up.

It started having problems Friday AM that lasted until about 2-2:30 PM.
Saturday it dropped from 7AM to 3PM (about), then was offline until 5ish....then again sporadic until 9P. At that point it was done reporting for the day.
The unit was offline Sunday from just before 10AM to about 5PM. I had another gap overnight into this morning.

This morning I moved the unit out of our office and down a floor. We'll see if that helps. I have the SmartHub in the office where the Access used to be.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: alanb on March 12, 2018, 12:56:41 PM
There are many posts over on the Acurite Community Forum about various problems with the Access. This does not bode well for any expectations of an Atlas 7/8 availability any time soon.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on March 12, 2018, 01:14:30 PM
Good point Alan! I've got a thread over there as well. The AcuRite employees have chimed in from time to time.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: daman on March 12, 2018, 01:49:19 PM
I just recently got my Access it's been up for 3 days and so far no issues with drop outs always a full 4 bars.

But I will be keeping a close eye on things.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on March 12, 2018, 04:03:49 PM
Mine seems to go in cycles...it'll be ok...then it has issues...then goes back to being ok.

I should point out, I was getting the occasional dropout with the SmartHub at times. But they didn't last as long and seems slightly less frequent.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on April 02, 2018, 01:19:30 PM
So, I've had my SmartHub in the location where my Access used to be. Both are running with the Access reporting to WU.

Over the weekend, I've had a number of drops with the SmartHub. The Access had no issues; but I haven't done a thorough analysis of all the data.

So, that being said.... I'm not sure if the issue is the placement of the unit---as it relates to the distance or materials the signal has to pass through. Or if it's interference from other devices in the room. When these drops happen, the other devices aren't really doing much. Regarding the distance/materials...That could be it. Ironically, the space where both devices did better is on our lower level and is lower than the outdoor 5 in 1.

So, no conclusive solution as of yet.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on April 03, 2018, 01:43:37 PM
Ok, I spoke too soon.  :lol:

Both the Access and the SmartHub are showing  as 'offline'. However, the signal strength on the Access is "strong", hub "weak".

No data is being pushed to WU from the Access. However, I'm seeing data charts going to MyAcurite. Typically, they'll be a gap in data. But I'm seeing 5 minute reporting intervals for the Access. It's reporting out the same temp for the last few hours, but I do have a few instances of wind speed a slight change in humidity. It's currently raining, but no rain amounts are reported.

This one has me stumped.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: daman on April 03, 2018, 03:10:15 PM
Since putting mine on line no issues thus far, no drop outs that I've ever seen.

 Glenn do you think your having internet issues randomly? It seems like you go off line often.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on April 04, 2018, 08:46:37 AM
daman,
That may have been the issue yesterday. I came home to a blinking read light on the Access and my phone wasn't connecting to wifi. Odd that my IP cams were working and the Smarthub was online. I rebooted the router and the Access was good to go...a few drops on WU, but it's been fine since later last night.

Now here's the issue. I'm reporting fine to WU from the Access...but MyAcurite is showing as "offline" and no data has been reported since yesterday afternoon. I may try a full reboot of the Access; unplug, battery pull, let it sit and see if that helps.

This is a different problem than I usually have. It usually drops the connection from the 5 in 1. Aside from some "weak" connection signals last night after the router reboot, signal strength has been excellent in the overnight to this AM.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: daman on April 04, 2018, 12:31:19 PM
I've had on occasion that MyAcuRite will show yellow with low signal but splash page shows sig of 4 so I don't even worry  anymore, I think it'll get into a glitch sometimes but then it'll be fine.

Flashing red means no Wi-Fi.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on April 04, 2018, 12:45:56 PM
I'll update things when I get a chance to look at the unit. I'll check the splash page as well.

For now, data is still going to WU, but not MyAcurite.  #-o
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on April 04, 2018, 01:10:36 PM
I had to reboot my router this morning. The red light was flashing on the Access. This is the first time it's done this since the last time I posted about it. None of my ports or Wifi was working, so I don't think it was the Access. I'm not sure why this router needs to be rebooted occasionally...
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: daman on April 04, 2018, 01:56:27 PM
I had to reboot my router this morning. The red light was flashing on the Access. This is the first time it's done this since the last time I posted about it. None of my ports or Wifi was working, so I don't think it was the Access. I'm not sure why this router needs to be rebooted occasionally...
I had a NETGEAR router that would need rebooting often because it would loose connection AND Wi-Fi speeds would  slow down, It ended up going out, junked it got a new one.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on April 05, 2018, 01:23:44 PM
I'm not 100% sure what's going on, but I'll update here.

My Access was working just fine on WU, but not data was being sent to MyAcurite. It would show a good signal, but be "offline" on myacurite.com. Mind you, still reporting to WU. I did a reboot of the router while letting the Access sit unplugged with the batteries removed for some time...did not help the situation. I went to the splash page and rebooted the unit a few times. No difference. Then at some-point overnight, it came back to myacurite.com. But now, I have no charts or data available. It just shows current conditions. It is still reporting just fine to WU. I have a smarthub running in tandem with the Access and no issues there. I'm starting to wonder if it's a problem on Acurite's end.

My Vermont Access (and hub for that matter) has been running fine. We had a power outage up there last night and the Access filled in all the lost data. So that's pretty slick.

Just hoping this gets sorted out. As you can see in this thread, I've had some issues with the dropped connection between the Access and the 5 in 1...but this issue is new and certainly perplexing.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: BeaverMeadow on April 05, 2018, 02:44:39 PM
Much appreciate all the work you've been doing Glen regarding the Access. Too bad about Acurite's corporate behavior. If they only updated us on what is going on with this current fiasco and what they are doing about it, that would have been very much appreciated. Sadly, their lack of transparency and lack of HONESTY is going to be, for me, a big detriment to any future purchases with this company. I do not think I am alone in this viewpoint.

Again, thanks for doing all this testing and troubleshooting for Acurite. I guess they prefer to let their customers waste untold hours attempting to resolve issues that should be their responsibility and that of their beta tester volunteers. I suppose it saves them money in the long run-- penny wise, pound foolish.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on April 05, 2018, 04:18:14 PM
I'm not 100% sure what's going on, but I'll update here.

My Access was working just fine on WU, but not data was being sent to MyAcurite. It would show a good signal, but be "offline" on myacurite.com. Mind you, still reporting to WU. I did a reboot of the router while letting the Access sit unplugged with the batteries removed for some time...did not help the situation. I went to the splash page and rebooted the unit a few times. No difference. Then at some-point overnight, it came back to myacurite.com. But now, I have no charts or data available. It just shows current conditions. It is still reporting just fine to WU. I have a smarthub running in tandem with the Access and no issues there. I'm starting to wonder if it's a problem on Acurite's end.

My Vermont Access (and hub for that matter) has been running fine. We had a power outage up there last night and the Access filled in all the lost data. So that's pretty slick.

Just hoping this gets sorted out. As you can see in this thread, I've had some issues with the dropped connection between the Access and the 5 in 1...but this issue is new and certainly perplexing.

It's likely there are still some server-side issues going on with the Access.  myAcurite has a different API for the Access than the SmartHUB.  Last month myAcurite suddenly had a problem interpreting data from detachable sensor probes (water leak, soil temp, etc.) through the Access, but that was quickly fixed on the server side. SmartHUB users were unaffected.


Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on April 05, 2018, 08:31:39 PM
BeaverMeadow,
Happy to help out. I have another thread going on the Acurite support forums that's a bit more detailed. I do hope someone from Acurite chimes in over there soon. If they are in fact having issues, an announcement of some sort would be helpful. When the Access works, it's a great device! But being kept up to date on issues would help a lot of the end users.

George,
Thanks for all of your help. You've provided a lot of guidance here and on the Acurite forums. I did take a look at the splash page for both the Access and the SmartHub and noticed they report to different URLs. Gives a bit of credence to my theory of it being an issue on Acurite's end.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on April 07, 2018, 06:01:58 PM
Around 11AM this morning, my CT Access started reporting back to MyAcurite with all the data including charts. No idea what caused that to start happening.

We've lost power twice today at the VT location. Both times, I had to pull all cables, open the battery cover, wait...and that go it reconnected. Just letting the unit sit as is did not allow it to come online. One power outage was less than a minute, the other probably 30 minutes. Same result...no auto reconnect.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on April 09, 2018, 01:16:12 PM
Did a little digging and see that some others have had issue with the Access coming online after a power outage. Anyone here find a solution?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: HH2 on April 15, 2018, 11:31:14 AM
Early this morning we had a very brief power blip (less than a second because microwave clocks didn't need reset) and Access has been off line ever since (offline on acurite and wunderground).  I wonder if it will reset its self or do I have to take action?? I sure hope it comes back on line buy itself, otherwise, when we are away from home and there a power blip, no longer able to get weather info at home or inside house temp info.  I am going to do nothing for now and send an update tomorrow to this forum.  So far it has been offline for over eight hours.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on April 15, 2018, 03:04:43 PM
Early this morning we had a very brief power blip (less than a second because microwave clocks didn't need reset) and Access has been off line ever since (offline on acurite and wunderground).  I wonder if it will reset its self or do I have to take action?? I sure hope it comes back on line buy itself, otherwise, when we are away from home and there a power blip, no longer able to get weather info at home or inside house temp info.  I am going to do nothing for now and send an update tomorrow to this forum.  So far it has been offline for over eight hours.

It would probably be most expedient to just reset it.

Update 47 has been deploying over the last 5 days or so.  Maybe you just got caught up in the middle.

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: HH2 on April 16, 2018, 07:31:48 AM
I chose not to reset Access yesterday because I wanted to see if things would reconnect on their own after the power blip yesterday. About nine hours after the power blip, Access reconnected with Acurite and Wunderground.  All but one of my temp/hum sensors reconnected about 12 hours after the power blip.  At least I now know the system will reconnect on it's own (a good thing to know).
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on April 16, 2018, 08:37:56 AM
Glad to hear it came back on it's own! I'm hoping things will be more stable with the latest firmware update.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: daman on April 16, 2018, 09:32:28 AM
I cant believe it would take that long?  :sad:
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: BeaverMeadow on April 16, 2018, 10:27:29 AM
Was the 9 hours of data saved and uploaded to MyAcurite and WU by the Access?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on April 16, 2018, 01:27:36 PM
I cant believe it would take that long?  :sad:

I had a somewhat similar issue. My unit was reporting to WU, but not MyAcurite. Took a few days to clear. Someone on the Acurite support form mentioned that the batteries in the Access could have an effect on the unit coming back online after an outage. If they weren't at a certain power level, it could cause issues.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: HH2 on April 17, 2018, 08:01:51 AM
Batteries have only been in Access for a couple months, so I hope it's not a battery issue for the slow restart.  All history appears to be in Acurite, even things were off line for around nine or ten hours.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on April 17, 2018, 09:34:56 AM
Was the 9 hours of data saved and uploaded to MyAcurite and WU by the Access?

At this time the Access does not back-fill wunderground.  It's a feature that has been requested.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: HH2 on April 18, 2018, 01:23:36 PM
At 8:48 this morning I lost our internet connection for around 30 seconds.  I know because I was on my desktop and working with my browser.  Access, 5 in 1 station, and all temp/hum monitors are all off line again (since 8:48).  I am not going to reset Access at this time, I want to give it awhile and see if it comes back on line like it did the other day nine hours after a power blip.

It has been offline now for almost five hours.  If I do decide to reset Access, what's the best procedure?

It has now been 23 hours and Access is still not on line, so I guess if there's the slightest internet blip while on vacation, things are down until it's manually reset.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on April 19, 2018, 01:21:54 PM
Keep us posted. That's been offline for quite some time.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: HH2 on April 19, 2018, 01:58:08 PM
I got tired of waiting so I reset Access.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on April 25, 2018, 03:14:20 PM
I had a network blip last night and it knocked the Access offline. Despite that, all lights were showing as normal on the Access. After rebooting the router, it started reporting to WU without an issue. That was at 6AM. It's now 3:15PM....still nothing on MyAcurite and it's showing as "offline". But still reporting to WU.

Sometimes, I just don't get how this thing works. It reports to WU better than MyAcurite.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on April 25, 2018, 03:23:07 PM
Sometimes, I just don't get how this thing works. It reports to WU better than MyAcurite.

Some of it is on Acurite's end.  The API is new and they are still working out some bugs.

Wunderground is the same as it ever was.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on April 27, 2018, 09:42:59 AM
Thanks George. That very may well be the case.

Things did get a bit strange Wednesday evening. The Access just stopped reporting to WU. When I went to reset it in the AM, all lights were operating accordingly. I did a battery pull/power cord pull, network cable pull....let it sit, reboot and all was well.

I can't figure out: Why this thing randomly disconnects and then has issues getting back online by itself.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: davefr on April 27, 2018, 06:24:32 PM
Everything was going pretty good until I got the dreaded "loss of signal" notice last night.

I unplug the access hub, remove the batteries, reset the router, power up and it fails to connect to the sensor.  The IP address shows nothing connected. Factory reset does not help.

Next I bring in the sensor, change batteries and place it close to the hub and get a "4" in signal strength.  Next I take it half way back to the original mount and signal drops to 2-3.  I remount it in the same exact spot is has always been and functioning just fine and no signal is reported. (I've previously had about a month of consistently excellent signal quality.)

I revert back to Smart Hub and all is fine.  So now I try Access hub again and no signal. Nothing would get me back to the good signal I've had over the last month.

I finally opened up the Access case and unsoldered the "ball point pen spring" antenna and soldered on an RF connector and routed it thru a hole I drilled in the top of the case.  I attached the same external 433 MHz dipole antenna I made for Smart Hub to improve it's reception.  Now I'm back at 4's in signal quality with Access.

This new Access hub appears to be another half baked/intermittent design and I'm obviously not alone. I'm wondering if their new rev 47 firmware is causing degradation in reception issues. That's the only thing that's changed recently.





Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on April 27, 2018, 07:35:24 PM
Since the release of firmware 47, complaints have dropped dramatically.

That "ball point pen spring" antenna is called a "helical".
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on April 28, 2018, 08:28:57 AM
Davefr,

Your issue is not the access, but the remote sensors... You proved that by moving them and the signal coming in. I've also found myself needed to move the outdoor sensors just a little to improve reception. When the leaves come out on trees, it can really cause issues from reflections. I've also had to adjust my outside TV aerials in the last few weeks.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: davefr on April 28, 2018, 09:25:15 AM
Davefr,

Your issue is not the access, but the remote sensors... You proved that by moving them and the signal coming in. I've also found myself needed to move the outdoor sensors just a little to improve reception. When the leaves come out on trees, it can really cause issues from reflections. I've also had to adjust my outside TV aerials in the last few weeks.

That could be.  The sensor is about 150' away which is probably pretty close the "real life" range of the system. All I know is that Smart Hub was pretty flaky until I added an external antenna and then it became rock solid.  It now appears that the same external antenna helps with the Access hub.

RF reception can be a weird thing at times.  (part of it is antenna design and another part seems to be unpredictable/luck).

I wish Chaney would add external antenna connectors to the hubs.  Just like others they do with WiFi adapters/routers/etc.





Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on April 28, 2018, 11:41:33 AM

I wish Chaney would add external antenna connectors to the hubs.  Just like others they do with WiFi adapters/routers/etc.

That isn't allowed per FCC regulations for this type of equipment and frequency.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on April 29, 2018, 08:50:13 AM
I know part of my problem is the signal between the 5 in 1 and the Access. I had similar issues with the Hub. But the not reconnecting to the internet on it's own is unique to the Access.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: davefr on April 29, 2018, 08:55:08 AM

I wish Chaney would add external antenna connectors to the hubs.  Just like others they do with WiFi adapters/routers/etc.

That isn't allowed per FCC regulations for this type of equipment and frequency.

I'm curious why the FCC would care about receiving antennas?  I thought they were only concerned about the transmitting side of things. I thought anything in the airwaves was free game to receive using whatever antenna design would work.

Is there any handshake between the hub and 5 in 1 that would involve transmitting from the hub back to the sensor?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on April 29, 2018, 08:56:33 AM
I'm curious why the FCC would care about receiving antennas?  I thought they were only concerned about the transmitting side of things. I thought anything in the airwaves was free game to receive using whatever antenna design would work.

Unintentional emitters.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on May 08, 2018, 08:20:52 AM
I had about a 40 minute drop last night with the Access. No data went to WU or MyAcurite. I'm again back to the loss of signal between the Access and the 5 in 1 theory. If it was an internet blip or a power issue, it should be back filling data on to MyAcurite. I can only guess that if there's no data, there's no signal between the two for that time period.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: JonMacaluso on June 04, 2018, 05:47:51 AM
Hi All. I’ve been a member of this group for about 4 years now and have never chimed in here. I primarily participate in the two Facebook pages and on Acurite’s own forum. In any case, I though it’d be nice to get involved here.

While not an electronics engineer, I have over 20 years of extensive knowledge with computer networking, topology, and peotocols as well as trouble shooting up tp and including disaster recovery.

My experience with Acurite goes back about 5 years. I got a 5-in-1 that came with an LCD display with scrolling text, and a “WeatherBridge”. Everything worked great. Except the scrolling text was hard to read. One call to Acurite and I had their brand new (at my the time) color LCD display (also with scrolling text - but readable!). I was the weather guru for friends and family. Then there was the big software/firmware upgrade that converted the WeatherBridge to the SmartHUB. Zero problems, flawless in place upgrade. I then ordered a dual panel upgrade for the 5-in-1’s ambient air flow fan. Easy install. The next issue I had was that my 5-in-1 stopped giving proper humidity readings. It was stuck at 99% all the time. I contacted Acurite and the were aware that this happens. My unit was too old for the $10 replacement part to work, so I bought a new 5-in-1 and when it was delivered I immediately a :roll:put the Pro top on it (the dual solar panel unit). All was well again. That’s when the Access was released. I jumped on the $90 discount offer right away. I followed the directions to the letter and it worked flawlessly. I was amazed at the increased signal strength. I added four (4) temperature/humidity sensors to my setup (one for a gun safe, one for a garage, and the others to monitor a couple of indoor areas. They all work flawlessly. My next two additions consist of a temperature/humidity sensor with a leak detector for my laundry room (just in case the water heater or the clotheswasher have an issue) and one of those battery extension units for the 5-in-1 so I don’t have to climb up on the shingles of my roof every year to swap out batteries. I’ll be able to do it at the eave instead.

So I am a happy customer with excellent equipment. I have had none of the issues I hear the very loud whiners complaining about. I have offered suggestions to help others and all that seems to happen is a widening of the right between the silent group of happy users (I’d say at least 98.5%) and the very vocal and extremely rude whiners that comprise about 1.5%. The problem is that their whining is louder than my smiling.

The point of this post is to say that if you’re willing to come to for advice, I will gladly provide it. But when your system starts to work, you need to spread,the word,that it is not Acurite’s fault, it’s the fault of,the users who take things out of the box, don’t read the instructions and then start doing things their way instead of doing them the right way.

I am here to help those who admit they need it. Sass

Message me here as JonMacaluso
Message me at either of the Acurite sites as Jon Macaluso
Check out my PWS  KCABUELL4.

Thanks!
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on June 04, 2018, 11:03:09 AM
Jon,
If you installed the 5n1 on the top of the shingles, I can't imagine how high above ambient your thermometer must run. While I agree with everything else you have said above, I don't know how you can be thrilled with that installation?

The nice thing that hopefully will transpire soon with the Atlas line, is the ability to install the thermometer and rain bucket near ground level, and have just the anemometer section on the roof tops.

While I had my 5in1 on the roof, I had to use a different thermometer to send to networks because my readings were up to 20 F too high. After a few months, my anemometer "froze up" because of the dry heat pouring into the sensor, causing the lube on the ball bearings to become useless.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: JonMacaluso on June 04, 2018, 11:55:06 AM
My 5-in-1 is mounted on a 2x4 that is mounted to the eave of the highest point of the upwind side of my home. See the picture on WU for KCABUELL4. The wind blows to the east 98.9% of the time and my gauge is elevated above the west side of my home. With the dual solar panels on the 5-in-1 Pro, and the fact all of my ambient heat from the roof blows away before reaching the sensor, I have very accurate readings. And yes, the wind is always breezy to 29moh every day in Buellton. So I got lucky. 
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on June 12, 2018, 08:47:46 PM
I just installed a new router, I'll see if that helps things along. I've noticed a few data gaps on WU over the last few days. So I'm still getting some type of connection issue here and there.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: daman on June 13, 2018, 06:57:22 PM
Things have been chugging along pretty well here no major issues with the Access.

The only thing that bothers me is with the improved reception with Accesses I'm now picking up the neighbors sensors  ](*,) but I can live with that lol.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: MacGarage on June 14, 2018, 10:25:05 AM
For those that have a working Access, are your sensors reporting the correct time on the IP address internal page? Looking at all of my network specs, that is the only issues I can find. It seems all sensors connected to the Access gain time quickly. No matter what is tried, it drops within hours. I can sit there and watch the sensors drop one by one and then notice the reported time from Acurite’s servers is incorrect.


My Access has never worked properly while my SmartHub does. The Access, with firmware 47, quickly finds all sensors (with fresh batteries) but has dropped them from day one while the SmartHub works perfectly. All sensors show a strong signal and battery in the IP information page.

I have tried everything to get the Access from dropping. As a last resort, the Access now has a 10ft ethernet cord direct to my internet router and as close as 10-15 feet to an indoor sensor in the same room and via a window line of sight now about 100 feet to my 5 in 1.

If you had problems, what ended up fixing the issue?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on June 16, 2018, 07:19:42 AM
Since installing the new router, I've had a few data gaps show on WU. Most appear to be about an hour in length and happen overnight.

I've checked the MyAcurite app a few times during the day and most of the time have excellent signal strength. However, there have been some instances where it's indicated a weak or poor signal. Always seems to bounce back though. I just can't figure what's messing with it.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: MacGarage on June 16, 2018, 09:48:27 AM
Thanks...your experience sounds like it is very similar to what I am experiencing right now.

There seems to be a gap of about one to two hours on MyAcurite and then they bounce back to full strength. While they are offline, I can still see the sensors on the IP internal webpage and all show a strong signal. The sensors will show back up again after the 1-2 hours. Of course, the SmartHub is seeing them all and working fine.

Mine is now directly plugged into a provided newer internet router (Spectrum Technicolor TC8715D). The behavior did not change regardless of the router.

The only thing I noticed is that the Access shows my sensor's time is off (SmartHub does not) and when the time gets too far off, then I notice they are offline.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: BeaverMeadow on June 16, 2018, 09:56:53 AM
I think I recall seeing a suggested workaround for a periodic resetting of the time. It was either on this site or the Acurite site. If you haven't tried it already maybe that will resolve your problem.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on June 16, 2018, 10:58:18 AM
I think I recall seeing a suggested workaround for a periodic resetting of the time. It was either on this site or the Acurite site. If you haven't tried it already maybe that will resolve your problem.

I've suggested that a few times, but I finally had the problem myself and I don't really think that is going to help (though it doesn't hurt to try).  I'm thinking the clock drift might be more of a symptom than the root cause.

Last week I had an Access unit that went "offline" and stayed that way.  It had been running fine since it was installed a few months ago.

I took a look at the traffic during this time and saw that all traffic to myAcurite had stopped... there was nothing on port 443 at all.  However, traffic on port 80 to wunderground continued without issue.

Just to make things really weird, I couldn't clear this behavior with a simple power-cycle.  I had to remove all power and batteries for about 5 minutes, then power up again.

After doing that, traffic to myAcurite started up again.

I'm stumped as to what the trigger might be.  It's really weird that only traffic to myAcurite is impacted.  Or maybe it's only encrypted traffic that's impacted.

The Access has been running fine ever since, but I'm sending it back to Acurite for analysis, anyway.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on June 16, 2018, 11:12:13 AM
Sending it back isn't going to help. The Access can only do what it is programmed to do... It shouldn't be going rogue.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on June 16, 2018, 11:16:41 AM
Sending it back isn't going to help. The Access can only do what it is programmed to do... It shouldn't be going rogue.

It will help determine what the trigger is, particularly if it is caused by a problem in the hardware.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: MacGarage on June 16, 2018, 11:34:49 AM
That is interesting about the 443 port. Earlier, I even made sure all the ports were open on the router and that did not make a difference.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: daman on June 16, 2018, 12:15:51 PM
I had my first issue the other day..

These problems are piling up my Accsess has been working fine since installed I had my first hiccup the other night I have a 5n1 and 2 tower sensors reporting to my Acurite dashboard but ONLY my 5n1 seemed to mysteriously drop off to a signal of "0" display showed full signal, nothing was being sent to either my dashboard OR WU but my tower sensors were unaffected nice full signal of "4". So why only the 5n1 was effected and not the tower sensors? signal came back on it's own 7 hours later and WU and dashboard were updating again.

There is definitely a issue going on with the Accsess the old smart hub had no problems like this.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on June 16, 2018, 01:40:14 PM
I just checked mine. The clock is about 20 secs or so fast, and the Atlas dropped to 1 and then came back to 4. The 5n1 stayed at 4 along with a 2 in 1 sensor.

Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: vreihen on June 16, 2018, 08:00:12 PM
I've suggested that a few times, but I finally had the problem myself and I don't really think that is going to help (though it doesn't hurt to try).  I'm thinking the clock drift might be more of a symptom than the root cause.
.
.
.
I'm stumped as to what the trigger might be.  It's really weird that only traffic to myAcurite is impacted.  Or maybe it's only encrypted traffic that's impacted.

SSL certificate validation is dependent on the local clock.  Did the clock drift far enough (or reset to 1970-01-01) to make the SSL library puke for an expired certificate?????
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on June 16, 2018, 08:21:13 PM
I've suggested that a few times, but I finally had the problem myself and I don't really think that is going to help (though it doesn't hurt to try).  I'm thinking the clock drift might be more of a symptom than the root cause.
.
.
.
I'm stumped as to what the trigger might be.  It's really weird that only traffic to myAcurite is impacted.  Or maybe it's only encrypted traffic that's impacted.

SSL certificate validation is dependent on the local clock.  Did the clock drift far enough (or reset to 1970-01-01) to make the SSL library puke for an expired certificate?????

I didn't see any large drift of the clock in my case.  The splash page doesn't present the actual time, but the times each sensor was last heard, so  I just look to see if the minutes line up with my laptop clock.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: daman on June 17, 2018, 01:21:39 PM
Had another drop(off line) last night from the 5n1 WU and dashboard, tower sensors unaffected full 4 bars, batteries are all fine, definitely something wrong with the Access.

Removed the ethernet cable for 30 seconds then re attached seemed to bring it back online but shouldn't have to do that.  :evil:
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on June 24, 2018, 07:37:54 PM
My CT station hasn't had any major issues since installing the new router...fingers crossed. I do get a few less than two hour drops now and again.

Up in VT, things were different this week. We had some type of power blip. I'm not sure how long it lasted, but it wasn't all that long. For prolonged outages, the power company sends text updates; nothing sent for this one. The Access was offline for a few days. I was able to get it up and running by unplugging the power cord, waiting a bit, then plugging it back in. Came right back online. Makes me wonder if I should get a remotely operated switch to hook up to the Access.

So! Not sure if this is a router issue, Access issue or a combo of both.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: BeaverMeadow on June 24, 2018, 08:07:07 PM
Wouldn't a small UPS solve this problem? (Send the bill for it to Acurite. I'm sure they'll send you one of their typically speedy responses).  :roll:
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on July 01, 2018, 03:56:18 PM
I bet that would!

I'm still getting a few random drops on the CT unit. We'll see if there's another major outage with the new router.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on July 01, 2018, 07:15:38 PM
The Access has an issue reconnecting after power outages. We had an outage today in CT that lasted about an hour. I had to pull all the cables, batteries....wait and then reconnect to get it back online again. There has to be a better way...
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on July 01, 2018, 07:30:33 PM
My access has stopped picking up the 5n1. I had to solder the cables inside on the top board, and since doing so, it hasn't worked on Access, only the consoles. I am sure it is something in the 5in1 not making good contact...
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: daman on July 01, 2018, 08:16:51 PM
Since posting my problems above I haven't had one issue yet, all is working perfect!
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on July 03, 2018, 10:39:09 AM
I just soldered my ribbon cable over that is on the very top. Now the access is working full strength. Check your ribbon connections to be sure they are not loose. This can lead to a lot of issues that can be confusing to figure out!
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: MacGarage on July 03, 2018, 10:49:53 AM
I just mailed my Access in this week for their repair and updates. It will be interesting to see what they do and if it fixes my daily drop-outs.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on July 03, 2018, 11:00:23 AM
I just mailed my Access in this week for their repair and updates. It will be interesting to see what they do and if it fixes my daily drop-outs.

I should clarify, this was inside the 5n1 sensor, and NOT inside the access. There is a ribbon cable with 4 connections on the very top under the black shield that can pull loose very easily if it is not soldered down right. This caused my displays to work, but not the access internet connection.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on July 04, 2018, 08:09:50 AM
I'll have to check that connection. My 5 in 1 will need a cleaning and a battery change in a month or two.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on July 04, 2018, 10:29:11 AM
My air sensor seems to be more accurate now also and runs right along with the Atlas. Those ribbon lines apparently get brittle on the end after being in the heat after so long and need to be checked and soldered over. My mistake was I had some of the hairs crossing over and touching the connector next to it. I had to heat them up, and remove the strands, and do it over. Those fine hairs are hard to see.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on July 04, 2018, 04:24:30 PM
So I have more data on power outages. We had an outage in VT today for a short period of time. My Access is still offline. No issue with the SmarHub running in tandem with the 5 in 1. So in the last 4 days, I've had an outage in both CT and VT and both Access' did not come back online on their own.

Any thoughts on this? It's a bit frustrating considering the Access has a battery backup.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on July 05, 2018, 07:52:53 AM
The plot thickens! The VT station is back online. It was offline yesterday, from 9:56AM to 5:24PM. Not sure what caused it to reconnect on it's own...or why it took so long.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on July 06, 2018, 08:39:53 AM
My whole dashboard is offline and started at 8 05 EST
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on July 06, 2018, 12:50:31 PM
I updated my thread on the Acurite forum. There's another individual there who sees a similar issue. His Access goes offline and doesn't reconnect until 6-7 hours later.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: daman on July 09, 2018, 07:17:37 PM
Was out of town this weekend Detroit Edison was here changing a fuse on my pole power was off for approximately 15 minutes +/- after power came back on Access re connected no problem right away all data was updated.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: BeaverMeadow on July 09, 2018, 07:33:43 PM
When the Access is without power and then power comes back on does the Access back-fill WU with all missed data that wasn't transmitted during the outage?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on July 09, 2018, 07:52:33 PM
When the Access is without power and then power comes back on does the Access back-fill WU with all missed data that wasn't transmitted during the outage?

No.  It only back-fills myAcurite.

Back-filling wunderground has been requested as a future feature, though.

Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on July 18, 2018, 08:40:43 AM
I updated the firmware on my router last night in CT. I had an alert overnight that the Access signal had dropped. It all seemed well from early this morning onward. I checked yesterday on WU and it was reporting data up to midnight. So there's certainly some issues with the Access establishing a connection with the router after reboots/outages.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: MacGarage on July 25, 2018, 11:02:38 AM
Received a replacement Access this week...has the same issue with randomly losing connection to all of the sensors despite a strong signal.

Support told me to "hold tight and wait for a solution from the developer."

(https://7556552.dotster.com/photos/IMG_3909.jpg)
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on July 25, 2018, 12:21:58 PM
Mine is dropping off as well, but it comes back for the next refresh, which is every 5 min. I can see with these kind of bugs why Acurite doesn't want to release anything new hardware wise until they can fix this stuff.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on July 25, 2018, 01:37:57 PM
I'm hesitant to say this for fear of jinxing myself...  Both units have been OK for a period of time. I'll get a random dropout on my CT unit during the overnight hours here and there. That shows up as a gap in data on Weather Underground. Still not sure what is causing that. Data gaps are usually an hour or so.

The bigger issue for both units seems to be internet and power outages. Those instances will cause the Access to be offline for hours before reconnecting.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on July 30, 2018, 08:19:12 AM
I'm on the troubleshooting page this AM, and the signal #'s are bouncing all over the place with each refresh... This is not normal.
I am moving the access around and have it currently on it's side to get the signal with the top aimed at the stations.  I now have all "4s" so maybe all the water on the trees is causing reflections. We've had a drenching and everything is soaked.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on August 20, 2018, 01:34:17 PM
I had a drop on the CT station this morning for 2+ hours. I received an e-mail from MyAcurite alerting me. I unplugged the ethernet cable, waited and plugged in. Green light started blinking again. Now, here's the strange part. No data gaps on WU at all. I'll usually see a gap in data for the period the Access drops offline.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: MacGarage on August 30, 2018, 10:00:16 AM
Received a replacement Access this week...has the same issue with randomly losing connection to all of the sensors despite a strong signal.

Support told me to "hold tight and wait for a solution from the developer."


I do not want to jinx things but for the first time since I first ordered the Access, I believe since March, my Access (second one) has not dropped a connection for over three days.

I have not done anything different so perhaps something is going on behind the scenes?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on August 30, 2018, 10:32:31 AM
I do not want to jinx things but for the first time since I first ordered the Access, I believe since March, my Access (second one) has not dropped a connection for over three days.

I have not done anything different so perhaps something is going on behind the scenes?

I haven't seen any revision changes, but that doesn't mean they might not have slipped something in to help matters.

They are, for example, able to change some parameters in the Access by sending them along with the response codes. 
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: MacGarage on August 30, 2018, 12:43:57 PM
I did hear back from AcuRite and they stated they: "did issue an update to MyAcuRite.com a week ago today."

So far, whatever they did seems to be working, at least for me.

I do not want to jinx things but for the first time since I first ordered the Access, I believe since March, my Access (second one) has not dropped a connection for over three days.

I have not done anything different so perhaps something is going on behind the scenes?

I haven't seen any revision changes, but that doesn't mean they might not have slipped something in to help matters.

They are, for example, able to change some parameters in the Access by sending them along with the response codes.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on August 30, 2018, 01:14:59 PM
Mine have both been fairly solid. Fingers crossed!

Although, I've had two instances where I'll get a notification form myacurite stating my VT station has been offline for two hours. A check of WU shows it's been chugging along just fine. So not sure what's going on there.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Jim Ace on August 31, 2018, 02:35:02 PM
I installed the Access the other day and last night, set it up on MyAcurite. After removing the old SmartHub from the account, all seemed well. But the Access wasn't uploading data. I unplugged the unit...then remembered the battery backup. So I unplugged the Ethernet, waited, replugged and all seemed well. I noticed my upload times weren't as instantaneous as with the SmartHub, but all the data was showing on WU. I believe someone here mentioned it doesn't send data as frequently, but it send all the data it's captured.

This morning, it seems to have stopped sending data again. I went on to the MyAcurite website and the status is color is yellow and says "Weak". But looking at the signal strength, it says "Strong".

Anyone have any issues with their Access?

The whole world has the same problem. going on for month.  No solutions so far.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: pcjunky on September 02, 2018, 03:31:29 AM
Knocks on wood. 

Looks like they finally fixed the connectivity problem.  I had been getting red or yellow status for my sensors probably 90% of the time I would check Myacurite since day one of installing the Access.  The last few days Access has been as reliable as my Smart Hub which I have running side by side.



Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: gdicarlo on September 03, 2018, 09:54:16 AM
Nothing has changed for me. Access still not reporting to myacurite regularly, but reports to WU . When it does report to myacurite, the reporting intervals are random: anywhere from 1 to 10 minutes.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on September 06, 2018, 08:29:36 AM
My VT Access has been flaky the last few days. It's had some random dropouts, extended drop outs and eventually comes back online. I installed a new router last weekend, so maybe that's the issue. I'll try a full reboot of the router and Access and see if that helps.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: daman on September 09, 2018, 10:10:06 AM
Things have been quiet on the front here no drop outs that I've noticed the Access is working great! =D>
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Jim Ace on September 12, 2018, 08:03:06 AM
I had a signal drop out last night,  over two hour's it's the first one in a while BTW the old smarthub had no issues.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: yankeesdood16 on September 16, 2018, 09:23:25 AM
Other than the occasional loss in signal, haven’t had any issues.    When the signal goes just have to reset it(unplug everything from the access and disconnect the batteries- remove cover), let it sit for a few mins then hook it back up and usually good again for a while.     Been good now for a couple weeks.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Jim Ace on September 16, 2018, 09:28:01 AM
If I was just using a 5n1 it would be fine, but I use water detection sensors so if it goes offline it could be an issue.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on September 18, 2018, 08:15:49 AM
I had two alerts last night for signal loss at the VT location. Both the Access and the SmartHub were listed as offline for 2 hours by 2:23AM EST. However, checking my WU page, the Access has been reporting data steadily since midnight.

So slight confusion here. Not sure if this is a false alarm...or if possibly the Access is now back filling data on WU?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on September 18, 2018, 09:12:25 PM
I had two alerts last night for signal loss at the VT location. Both the Access and the SmartHub were listed as offline for 2 hours by 2:23AM EST. However, checking my WU page, the Access has been reporting data steadily since midnight.

So slight confusion here. Not sure if this is a false alarm...or if possibly the Access is now back filling data on WU?

I don't think there's any wunderground back-filling going on yet.   I would expect that feature would require a firmware upgrade.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on September 19, 2018, 10:28:09 AM
Maybe it's an issue between the Access and MyAcurite?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: KC5JIM on September 19, 2018, 12:25:24 PM
I installed the Access the other day and last night, set it up on MyAcurite. After removing the old SmartHub from the account, all seemed well. But the Access wasn't uploading data. I unplugged the unit...then remembered the battery backup. So I unplugged the Ethernet, waited, replugged and all seemed well. I noticed my upload times weren't as instantaneous as with the SmartHub, but all the data was showing on WU. I believe someone here mentioned it doesn't send data as frequently, but it send all the data it's captured.

This morning, it seems to have stopped sending data again. I went on to the MyAcurite website and the status is color is yellow and says "Weak". But looking at the signal strength, it says "Strong".

Anyone have any issues with their Access?

Don't worry - they will soon kill the Access just like they did with the SmartHub and then sell you ANOTHER version.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on October 22, 2018, 08:49:02 AM
We had a power outage in VT yesterday morning that lasted for just under two hours. The Access did not come back on its own; I had to reboot it. Thankfully, we were there to do so. I suppose I could have remotely rebooted the router had we not been there. What's odd is one of my IP cams didn't come back online either. There was a power issue earlier in the week and everything came back online just fine.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: daman on October 22, 2018, 09:17:57 AM
How long did you give it Glenn only the two times my home lost power my access reconnected just fine on its own, sometimes it can take two to three hours.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on October 23, 2018, 12:50:14 PM
I just took a look at my WU charts for that day. I gave it about 2.5 hours before the reboot. We were heading out, so I figured I'd reboot before we left.

I've had it come back as well in certain instances.  In fact, there wasn't much of a blip from the outage we had earlier in the week. So I was surprised this time, it didn't come back on it's own.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: oldman43 on October 26, 2018, 12:42:43 AM
My ACCESS keeps losing the internet connection.If I unplug it, reboot the router, then reset ACCESS,  it will work for 2-6 hours.  This is the 2nd ACCESS  unit that has done this.  I have tried moving it about 6 ft. Away from the router, but it hasn't helped.  I know the router works, because I've been streaming live tv from it with no dropouts.
The situation is untenable  because this is a 2nd home, that is only visited 2-3 times a year.  I haven't figured out a way ro remotely reboot it.  I'd like to get the root problem fixed, but don't know where to start.....Any suggestions anyone?
Bob
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on October 26, 2018, 08:10:55 AM
That's tough Bob. I'm dealing with a second location as well. Thankfully, we visit fairly often.

Have you tried contacting Acurite on the issue? Were you running a SmartHub prior to the Access?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: daman on October 26, 2018, 08:31:58 AM
My ACCESS keeps losing the internet connection.If I unplug it, reboot the router, then reset ACCESS,  it will work for 2-6 hours.  This is the 2nd ACCESS  unit that has done this.  I have tried moving it about 6 ft. Away from the router, but it hasn't helped.  I know the router works, because I've been streaming live tv from it with no dropouts.
The situation is untenable  because this is a 2nd home, that is only visited 2-3 times a year.  I haven't figured out a way ro remotely reboot it.  I'd like to get the root problem fixed, but don't know where to start.....Any suggestions anyone?
Bob
If you're streaming using too much data that will kick the access offline

If both accesses are doing the same thing it's not the products fault you have another issue
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: oldman43 on October 26, 2018, 11:59:57 AM
That's tough Bob. I'm dealing with a second location as well. Thankfully, we visit fairly often.

Have you tried contacting Acurite on the issue? Were you running a SmartHub prior to the Access?
Yes, I was using a SmartHub successfully before Access, and I did connect with Acurite.  After numerous troubleshooting/rebooting steps, they gave me an RMA but told me it would be 3 weeks before I got it back.  So, I bought a second one, figuring that would eventually give me a spare.  But that exhibits the same issues. 

Is the SmartHub compatible  with the Atlas, and will it send data to Weatherground?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: oldman43 on October 26, 2018, 12:05:28 PM
Quote
If you're streaming using too much data that will kick the access offline

If both accesses are doing the same thing it's not the products fault you have another issue
I agree.  However, I've tried everything I can think oh to get them working.
It's not a streaming issue.  I did my last reboot just before I went to bed, and 4 hrs. later, it disconnected.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on October 26, 2018, 01:04:10 PM
Is the SmartHub compatible  with the Atlas, and will it send data to Weatherground?

The SmartHUB is not compatible with Atlas.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: radioman61 on October 28, 2018, 05:02:35 AM
I have a smart hub that works flawlessly and two Access units that have been very buggy.  It’s a shame Acurite is forcing the smart hub in to obsolescence.  This was definitely a step backward.  Another example of how Acurite was positioned to crush their main competitors and pissed it away.  I would speculate that this is a classic example of what happens when engineers are hobbled by the accounting department.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on October 28, 2018, 05:19:15 AM
I have a smart hub that works flawlessly and two Access units that have been very buggy.  It’s a shame Acurite is forcing the smart hub in to obsolescence.  This was definitely a step backward.  Another example of how Acurite was positioned to crush their main competitors and pissed it away.  I would speculate that this is a classic example of what happens when engineers are hobbled by the accounting department.

That's awfully strange, especially given the number of people complaining about problems with the SmartHUB. 

Saying the Access is a "step backward" is nonsense.  Take a look at the hardware in the the two systems (pictures have been posted here) and that's quite easy to see.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: daman on October 28, 2018, 07:05:51 AM
My Access overall has been working very well and I have been pleased with it my old Smart Hub worked okay also but I got tired of missing data packets because the signal was just horrible no matter what I did I.

The battery backup and data fill in on the access has been working perfect for me I'm glad I got in on the $40 deal.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Jim Ace on October 28, 2018, 08:01:23 AM
I had many issues with access,  I returned the unit, it could not be repaired so Acurite sent new one, since I received the new and I guess improved unit I have not had any issues.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: radioman61 on October 28, 2018, 10:00:30 AM
The internal clock still runs wild.  Keeping the batteries out of it seems to help the recovery time connecting if the router suffers a power outage but then what’s the point?  My biggest gripe is the 5 minute update intervals to the MyAcuRite app.  The Smarthub updated at much shorter intervals.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on October 28, 2018, 11:10:06 AM
The internal clock still runs wild.  Keeping the batteries out of it seems to help the recovery time connecting if the router suffers a power outage but then what’s the point?  My biggest gripe is the 5 minute update intervals to the MyAcuRite app.  The Smarthub updated at much shorter intervals.

The 5-minute myAcurite update rate was implemented in an attempt to keep the myAcurite service free.  The way the SmartHUB is sending data (basically everything that it gets as often as it gets it... including your neighbor's sensors) is expensive to process in the back-end.  The Access instead pre-process all the sensor data locally.  It's just more economically efficient.

The 5-minute interval isn't set in stone.  The Access has the capability to send data more frequently (as it does to wunderground every 10-seconds), but the back-end costs of myAcurite need to be covered somehow... perhaps through a tiered service subscription model.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: daman on October 28, 2018, 11:10:29 AM
My AcuRite updates in 5 minutes intervals no matter what time the data is sent, you think that's bad you should have had the old system when it was 15 minutes! 

Coming from that 5 minutes is a dream but I agree that's way too long
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: galfert on October 28, 2018, 12:24:35 PM
5 minutes seems to be a good normal average for online services. Few services allow less than 5 minute uploads without paying extra. PWSweather, and ambientweather.net are about the only ones that I'm aware of that allow less than 5 minute uploads (they allow 1 minute for free). Some have 10 minute upload at best like WeatherCloud. The majority of the ones I'm aware of are all 5 minutes: CWOP, AWEKAS, MET Office WOW, Windguru.

Alas Weather Underground if you look a the history the data is only available every 5 minutes also!

Weather Underground sort of stands alone in providing "Live" data allowing up to 5 second uploads. But it only keeps a record every 5 minutes. For this reason Weather Underground stands alone in being the only service I'm aware of that provides "Live" data view. For all the problems and grief that WU is known for they are the biggest Weather Network in terms of stations reporting and they provide something that nobody else offers. People get upset with WU and claim to leave them for good....but there really is no good alternative ...other than to run your own website. Okay now I'm getting off topic, so enough of that.

I don't know what the Weatherlink limit is...perhaps someone can let us know.

So for Acurite to be limited to every 5 minutes in comparison does not seem terrible as it seems to be a good normal average. What Acurite could do is adopt the Weather Underground method of allowing "Live" less than a minute or at least a minute view of readings but only keep data average every 5 minutes. That would increase bandwidth considerably for Acurite though, but at least it wouldn't increase storage costs.

Still it is a shame that the Access does not provide Live access with a PC on the network for you to then publish to a personal website or to run 3rd party software.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: CW2274 on October 28, 2018, 04:02:19 PM
I don't know what the Weatherlink limit is...perhaps someone can let us know.
WL will allow for "rapid fire" (if it's still available thru WU, I have no idea), other than that, my data is updated every minute.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on October 29, 2018, 09:11:43 AM
That's tough Bob. I'm dealing with a second location as well. Thankfully, we visit fairly often.

Have you tried contacting Acurite on the issue? Were you running a SmartHub prior to the Access?
Yes, I was using a SmartHub successfully before Access, and I did connect with Acurite.  After numerous troubleshooting/rebooting steps, they gave me an RMA but told me it would be 3 weeks before I got it back.  So, I bought a second one, figuring that would eventually give me a spare.  But that exhibits the same issues. 

Is the SmartHub compatible  with the Atlas, and will it send data to Weatherground?

I had issues when I first received the Access units...both were dropping offline quite a bit. Then, things seem to stabilize. I'm now getting an occasional issue with reconnecting after an outtage. But the stability has improved. Not sure what the cause of that has been. Maybe they did a firmware update?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: daman on October 29, 2018, 10:19:26 AM
Latest firmware I believe is 47?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on October 29, 2018, 11:37:15 AM
The last I heard some changes were made on the myAcurite server side. 

It makes sense as many of the problems seemed to be myAcurite centric.

 
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Victoria on October 29, 2018, 01:24:49 PM
I'm now getting an occasional issue with reconnecting after an outtage.

Hi Glenn, I'd like to look into this a little more. Would you be alright with sending me a private message with your Device ID?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: snow755 on October 29, 2018, 06:14:15 PM
got my  acuRite acces  today     wish way  do i need too  put  the battery when i install them ?

and so far i had not has any  issues  with my  acuRite acces
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on October 29, 2018, 06:22:06 PM
got my  acuRite acces  today     wish way  do i need too  put  the battery when i install them ?

and so far i had not has any  issues  with my  acuRite acces

This photo should help:

 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: snow755 on October 29, 2018, 06:52:39 PM
thanks nincehelser that helped
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on October 30, 2018, 01:08:49 PM
Thanks!  Just checked and that's what version mine is at.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: yukit on November 02, 2018, 10:03:57 PM
My Access lost connection to MyAcurite & wunderground after I soft-rebooted my home router last night. It stayed disconnected for at least 18 hours until I unplugged, then plugged in the USB power cable to the Access unit.

I also have a SmartHub next to the Access both connected to a 5-in-1 station. The SmartHub always reconnects back to the network.

I had the Access stay disconnected a few times in the past, usually after a router firmware update or hard reset to reboot the router. It is annoying the Access is unable to recover & reconnect on its own despite the battery backup.

BTW, I have my Access reporting to MyAcurite & wunderground, but I don't depend on the Access since it is unable to report to CWOP or PWS. I am using the SmartHub with Meteobridge to report the 5-in-1 station data to CWOP & PWS so my Rachio irrigation controller can monitor the weather data input.

I will have to switch to another weather station once SmartHub is EOL next year unless Access is allowed to send its data to 3rd-party to be supported by Meteobridge or directly by CWOP. I have no incentive to get Atlas until Access can send the data to CWOP.


 

Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: galfert on November 03, 2018, 07:26:19 AM
Yukit,
You have a few other options...

- Upgrade your irrigation controller to new 3rd generation Rachio that does use Weather Underground.
Or
- Upgrade your irrigation controller to Hunter Hydrawise that does use Weather Underground. (what I use)

Then you can upgrade to the Atlas 7/8 if you want. Or just keep the 5-in-1.

On the other hand if you want to keep your existing irrigation controller that requires CWOP or PWSweather then you could get an Ambient Weather station that would easily integrate with your Meteobridge. Like a WS-2000 with an ObserverIP, WS-2902A with an ObserverIP, or just a simple WS-1550-IP that has no display and instead just an ObserverIP.

But like you said you have some time yet to see what happens.

EDIT: Everything below this point is not a working solution. See follow up posts for corrections.

In the mean time you could have the Meteobridge trigger a power cycle of the Access. I've done this as I have the Meteobridge do this any time the Meteobridge stops receiving data from my ObserverIP. It works like this...

Meteobridge sends email out alerting it lost live data. Email is then forwarded to an SMS message. My phone receives SMS alert of loss of Live Data. Then IFTTT gets triggered by alert SMS and it then sends out a power cycle of my SmartThings power outlet where the ObserverIP is connected. Works every time.

I did a whole write up on how to do all this in the following post:
https://www.wxforum.net/index.php?topic=34948.msg357305#msg357305
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: galfert on November 03, 2018, 08:06:49 AM
I guess I was still waking up when I wrote the previous post. Forget the Meteobridge resetting the Access. The Meteobridge is getting data from the SmartHub and that is not loosing data. So the Meteobridge never lost Live Data. So the power cycle that needs to happen is with the Access.  But the problem is the Meteobridge can't help you find out when the Access has lost connectivity. I guess I need my coffee.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: galfert on November 03, 2018, 08:37:09 AM
Okay here is similar solution for the Access not being connected. Rather than going 18 hours without finding out that you've lost connectivity you can limit it to just 2 hours and the process can be automated.

Weather Underground has a notification email setting where it will send you an email if you lost connectivity for 2 hours. Just go to the bottom of your WU Station settings and you'll see the two check boxes for notification. The top check box is the relevant one here.

Now you can set your email system to filter (or rules wizard) those notifications and forward them to your phone as an SMS message as every cellular provider has an email to SMS gateway, so use the gateway address for your cellular provider. Then IFTTT gets the SMS and triggers the automated power cycle of your smart power outlet (SmartThings, Wink, Weemo, Caseta, MyQ... etc), where your Access is plugged in. The reason for forwarding email to SMS is because IFTTT reacts to SMS a whole lot quicker than email.

To do a power cycle with IFTTT requires two rules. First rule is the trigger to power off the device. The second rule is to check if a device has been powered off and to always turn it back on.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: yukit on November 03, 2018, 06:39:01 PM
You have a few other options...

...
galfert, thanks for the detailed response.

I have thought about some power cycle options with Access, but it is not my priority right now.
I am hoping there will be a firmware update for Access to fix the network connection issue.

 
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on November 06, 2018, 09:46:51 AM
I'm now getting an occasional issue with reconnecting after an outtage.

Hi Glenn, I'd like to look into this a little more. Would you be alright with sending me a private message with your Device ID?

Hi Victoria,
Sorry I missed this! I haven't been on in a few days.

Most certainly. I have two Access currently.

Thanks,
Glenn
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: au-ajax on November 06, 2018, 04:05:40 PM
I've had my Access installed for 3-4 months without issue and in what is totally in my mind a coincidence, I ran across this thread a couple of weeks ago looking for some other information about the Acurite Access and a few days later, I started losing signal between the Access and my 5-in-1.

I have two Temp/Humidity sensors installed in my garage attic and the second floor attic. The second floor attic sensor is maybe 20-25 feet from the eve where the 5-in-1 is installed. The Temp/Humidity sensors have not lost connection to the Access, but now I'm losing connection with the 5-in-1 almost every day. First thing I did was change the batteries in the 5-in-1 but it still loses connection... Aside from it happening once overnight, for the most part the only (mostly) common thread I've found is that the sun comes up. But no, I don't think the Sun is causing the problem. So far, it seems to come back on its own, but I did have to force it once or twice by powering off the access and removing the batteries. My firmware version on the Access is 47. To top things off, I've emailed Chaney instruments support twice and still haven't gotten a response after more than a week since I sent the first email.

At this point, I'm about to go back to my SmartHub and sniff the traffic with a Raspberry Pi and the scripts I found from nincehelser a couple of years ago (THANKS by the way! I had great fun building that pi and playing with the configs, scripts, etc.)  I'd be happy to keep using the Access but I don't know that its "there yet". And just when I was getting over what felt like forced obsolescence of the SmartHub...   
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: daman on November 06, 2018, 06:32:02 PM
If this problem just started as you say your Access is not at fault( your Temp/Humidity sensors working fine) something is going on with your 5n1 maybe some new interference?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: au-ajax on November 06, 2018, 08:12:44 PM
Generally speaking, I agree with you. One thing to note though is that I replaced my 5-in-1 station less than a year ago. The old 5-in-1 kept reporting the same temperature (something like 50 degrees) without increase or decrease. Its been long enough I don't remember the exact details but it was a model where I didn't have an option to replace parts other than to just replace the whole thing. If I have to replace the station again, then I'm inclined to not go the Acurite route. However, for my current station, when it does stay connected to the access, it appears to be accurate.  I'm about to move my Access to the room closest to the 5-in-1 station and see if it keeps dropping. Something changed. I'm just not sure what.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: au-ajax on November 08, 2018, 04:59:43 PM
Moving the Access upstairs, just on the other side of the outside wall from the 5-in-1 station seems to have stopped the dropping of signal from the 5-in-1  Still, I'm wondering what changed all of sudden that caused the daily dropouts to start. I'm definitely inclined to believe it's the 5-in-1 at fault. That said, are there conditions that anyone is aware of that would reduce the reliability of the transmitter antenna in the 5-in-1?  Would any Zwave devices (like Hue Bulbs, Lutron switches, etc.) cause interference?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: daman on November 08, 2018, 05:30:22 PM
Moving the Access upstairs, just on the other side of the outside wall from the 5-in-1 station seems to have stopped the dropping of signal from the 5-in-1  Still, I'm wondering what changed all of sudden that caused the daily dropouts to start. I'm definitely inclined to believe it's the 5-in-1 at fault. That said, are there conditions that anyone is aware of that would reduce the reliability of the transmitter antenna in the 5-in-1?  Would any Zwave devices (like Hue Bulbs, Lutron switches, etc.) cause interference?
It's possible.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on November 15, 2018, 08:45:40 AM
Had an outage in VT yesterday around noon. Thankfully, I get text updates from the power company up there. Power was back within an hour or so. All my devices came online...except the Access. I gave it a few hours then rebooted the router remotely. I'd say that was 4-6 hours after the power came online. Didn't help the Access. Looking at my WU graphs from yesterday, the Access did come back online around 10PM and has been chugging along since.

I still have my SmartHub hooked up and that came back online after the power outage and router reboot.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DrewShock on November 20, 2018, 12:37:22 AM
Anyone figure out why the Access shuts down for hours? Mine struggled with my far 5 in 1 (60ft away) until I added a super long antenna. That helped that sensor but my Access still goes offline for no reason I can tell. The lights are all normal and the router shows it's connected but can't get the splash page to show up and yes I have the right ip address.
Note: I have a smartHUB connected also to the same three sensors and it does not have this issue.

Acurite contacted me asking about my issue but have yet to respond to my email. Did those of us with issues just get bad devices? I have two and they both have this issue. Thanks in advance for any help.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on November 20, 2018, 02:15:58 AM
Anyone figure out why the Access shuts down for hours? Mine struggled with my far 5 in 1 (60ft away) until I added a super long antenna. That helped that sensor but my Access still goes offline for no reason I can tell. The lights are all normal and the router shows it's connected but can't get the splash page to show up and yes I have the right ip address.
Note: I have a smartHUB connected also to the same three sensors and it does not have this issue.

Acurite contacted me asking about my issue but have yet to respond to my email. Did those of us with issues just get bad devices? I have two and they both have this issue. Thanks in advance for any help.

If you're not getting a splash page, then something is seriously wrong.

I've never heard of anyone having such a problem unless they have a wiring or network issue.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on November 20, 2018, 08:07:47 AM
Drewshock,

Is the device you are trying to use (PC?) connected to your wireless network? If not, you will get the "page cannot be displayed" screen... If that is good, maybe you have a firewall issue?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DrewShock on November 23, 2018, 07:17:52 PM
Thanks for the replies. My Access will be working fine and then a power outage (usually a quick one of less than 6 seconds) will happen and it will no longer update (smartHUB still does). The last time this happened the lights were normal but I got no splash page. Router shows it's connected. Usually I disconnect the Ethernet and re-plug it and it starts back up. Sometime I have to remove the power and remove the batteries also. This last time I decided not to do anything and see what happens. It came back online 6 hours later and of course the splash page was back. It did not back fill the data on MyAcurite even with fresh Duracell batteries it.

As for how it's wired, it's just plugged into one of my Ethernet ports on my router.

Acurite finally emailed me back. They want me to send the unit in so they can look at it. Unfortunately, I have two Accesses both with the same issue in two different locations. 
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: MacGarage on November 25, 2018, 03:34:37 PM
I had my first long-term power outage with my Accesses (two). My power was out for about ten hours.

Despite having batteries installed, I had to manually restart each Access to get them back on online. I waited close to an hour. The splash screen showed up for one (blue light) but not the other (red light).

Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on November 26, 2018, 08:05:42 AM
These issues are similar to what I experience after a power outage. Sometimes it will come online...other times it will take 8+ hours to do so.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: MacGarage on November 26, 2018, 09:58:13 AM
I should also add that I had to reset up my Atlas panel with regards to time and date. Really wish there was a battery back-up for the panel!

My Fine Offset clone came back online quickly and without any effort by me...the panel also came up properly but it has a battery back-up.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DrewShock on November 26, 2018, 06:04:05 PM
Glenn, my Access will on rare occasions recover quickly on it's own but it's usually more like 6+ hours later. I have had it only once back-fill data that I know of out of 20+ lost connections. I think the product is defective at least the ones we have. Most people probably don't pay close enough attention to even notice.

Still waiting for Acurite to reply to my email about getting it looked at. Don't hold much promise though. One gentleman on the Acurite forums (when they were still around) said he got his back with no change, still disconnects. I don't want to put any more money into it. I rather just try a new system from a different company.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on November 27, 2018, 08:02:49 AM
There was a power and internet outage in VT this morning. The Access came back online without an issue. I wonder if the duration of the outage has an effect on things? The outage this morning was maybe an hour or so total?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: hdtvluvr on November 27, 2018, 06:13:10 PM
Well, I've had issues of losing signal for 2+ hours 11 times in Oct and 7 times now in Nov.  They all happened at night and finally came back up on their own.  I figured it was that my internet was down or something.  BUT right now internet is working and it is middle of the afternoon and it has been down for over 3 hours.   I've unplugged the power and ethernet from the access.   I've rebooted my router too for good measure.   The access has a blue light.  I can get to the access splash page but it doesn't show my 5 in 1.

I installed new lithium batteries in July.   I did this when I also installed the remote battery box sold by Acurite.   Not sure if this is important or not. 

WU obviously is also not reporting.   FWIW, My Acurite dashboard shows battery: Normal which I assume isn't right as it also shows my status as Offline.

How do I get this back online?

EDIT:  I just checked both of my displays (which are a lot further from the 5 in 1 than the access and have more walls to penetrate) and the sensor indicator shows all the bars.  So at least I know the 5 in 1 IS transmitting.  It is also 30 deg outside currently.   So if it was a battery issue I don't think the displays would be receiving data either - isn't that correct?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: hdtvluvr on November 28, 2018, 10:24:09 AM
Now offline for 19 hours   :-x


Just checked and it is now back online.  I didn't do anything so I'm not sure what is happening.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on November 28, 2018, 10:31:07 AM
Have you moved the Access around to try and pick up the 5 in 1 signal again? I've noticed if my access gets moved any at all, the signal can change a lot. Try rotating the mushroom in small amounts and refresh the splash page.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: hdtvluvr on November 28, 2018, 01:18:17 PM
Sorry, I edited my previous post before I saw your response.   It is back online.
The access unit has not been moved.   Well, I probably did move it a few mm when I unplugged/plugged the power and ethernet but nothing substantial. 

Now I'm wondering about the temp and the remote battery pack. 
https://www.acurite.com/remote-battery-pack-for-5-in-1-weather-sensors.html

Wondering if the temp has a more drastic affect on the extra wiring between the pack and the 5 in 1.  But then again, my displays in the house were and are working fine. 

The Access splash page says:
Signal 0
Battery  Normal

My Acurite Dashboard says:
Signal strength   1 Bar  Poor
Battery Strength  Normal
Status  Good


EDIT:  Temp here is now 48 deg and the signal on the Access Splash page says:  1    My Acurite Dashboard still has 1 Bar
AND while I was typing this, the Splash page now has a signal of 0 and it is still online.

What is the amp draw of the 5 in 1 and what is the nominal voltage required?  I assume the battery pack wiring is 16 gauge but may be 18.  I couldn't find any specs.

EDIT 2:  Just got off CHAT with Chris.  He didn't know the wire gauge of the battery pack and when I asked about nominal voltage and amperage for the 5 in 1 he said since there were 4 1.5 volt batteries, it required 6 volts.  I informed him that this was not correct since it has 2 banks of batteries so that 1 bank could be replaced at a time so as to prevent signal loss.  His response was then:

"I wouldn't have access to anything like voltage for the wiring that would be propitiatory knowledge"

Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: hdtvluvr on November 28, 2018, 06:58:08 PM
Well, it's been offline > 2 hours now.   Outside temp is 45 deg - so doesn't seem to be temp related.

Any ideas?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on November 28, 2018, 07:26:29 PM
I'm thinking it is a chip inside the 5n1 itself. I bought one off of E-bay, and it was DOA.  While I was trying to figure out what was wrong, I would have symptoms like you describe, where my display would work, but my Access would show 0 signal. Then my displays would finally drop off entirely as well. This was happening while I was poking around the board.

If you are comfortable working on circuit boards with a soldering iron, you might try to heat up some of the solder joints on the chips near the battery leads. That is where I found my problem... I assume this 5 in 1 is the new generation?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: hdtvluvr on November 28, 2018, 07:40:55 PM
Well, I won't be able to get to take the 5 in 1 down until the weather gets better - may be a month or more.  I'm not sure if it is a new generation or not.   I had gotten it a couple years ago from Acurite for a backup for when the one installed died.   I put this unit up on July 1, 2017   probably got in in 16.  It has been running well since I put it up.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on November 28, 2018, 08:59:07 PM
The newer models don't have all those connection cables inside connecting the different boards for the reed switch etc. There isn't much in the newer ones to work on. Some apparently had cold solder joints on those tiny chips though.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on December 05, 2018, 07:22:25 AM
Are you running a SmartHub in tandem? That can sometimes help troubleshoot things. I found that my Access would drop, but the SmartHub would chug right along.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: hdtvluvr on December 05, 2018, 10:14:08 AM
Regarding the smart hub, I discarded that shortly after I got the Access.  It was due to go dark soon at the time before the extension was made for Feb. 2019.   

After days of moving the Access a little, rotating, raising, lowering, etc.  I've had a signal strength of 4 bars for the last couple of days.   I guess this means that the antenna on the Access is not very good because it is so sensitive that small changes make a HUGE difference.  Shouldn't be this way IMO.    So the Access now sits where the blue light, instead of pointing towards the 5 in 1, is now pointing 45 degrees clockwise from the 5 in 1, about 2 inches south of its original position on the shelf and is now standing on a 5 inch tall box.  It took a lot of time to adjust and check.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on December 05, 2018, 10:58:24 AM
Regarding the smart hub, I discarded that shortly after I got the Access.  It was due to go dark soon at the time before the extension was made for Feb. 2019.   

After days of moving the Access a little, rotating, raising, lowering, etc.  I've had a signal strength of 4 bars for the last couple of days.   I guess this means that the antenna on the Access is not very good because it is so sensitive that small changes make a HUGE difference.  Shouldn't be this way IMO.    So the Access now sits where the blue light, instead of pointing towards the 5 in 1, is now pointing 45 degrees clockwise from the 5 in 1, about 2 inches south of its original position on the shelf and is now standing on a 5 inch tall box.  It took a lot of time to adjust and check.

The antenna is just fine.  I can't account for the particulars of your environment, but with radio moving things around is often normal. 

That's just the way it works.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on December 05, 2018, 07:36:36 PM
Regarding the smart hub, I discarded that shortly after I got the Access.  It was due to go dark soon at the time before the extension was made for Feb. 2019.   

After days of moving the Access a little, rotating, raising, lowering, etc.  I've had a signal strength of 4 bars for the last couple of days.   I guess this means that the antenna on the Access is not very good because it is so sensitive that small changes make a HUGE difference.  Shouldn't be this way IMO.    So the Access now sits where the blue light, instead of pointing towards the 5 in 1, is now pointing 45 degrees clockwise from the 5 in 1, about 2 inches south of its original position on the shelf and is now standing on a 5 inch tall box.  It took a lot of time to adjust and check.
The antenna is just more directional and this means that it will hold the signal well once you find the right orientation. WIth the smarthub, sometimes during certain atmospheric conditions, , the signal would become too weak to read at night due to the omni directional nature of the design.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: radioman61 on December 06, 2018, 11:00:18 AM
Regarding the smart hub, I discarded that shortly after I got the Access.  It was due to go dark soon at the time before the extension was made for Feb. 2019.   

After days of moving the Access a little, rotating, raising, lowering, etc.  I've had a signal strength of 4 bars for the last couple of days.   I guess this means that the antenna on the Access is not very good because it is so sensitive that small changes make a HUGE difference.  Shouldn't be this way IMO.    So the Access now sits where the blue light, instead of pointing towards the 5 in 1, is now pointing 45 degrees clockwise from the 5 in 1, about 2 inches south of its original position on the shelf and is now standing on a 5 inch tall box.  It took a lot of time to adjust and check.
The antenna is just more directional and this means that it will hold the signal well once you find the right orientation. WIth the smarthub, sometimes during certain atmospheric conditions, , the signal would become too weak to read at night due to the omni directional nature of the design.

Another fine example of replacing what works good with what sounds good.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on December 06, 2018, 11:31:09 AM
Regarding the smart hub, I discarded that shortly after I got the Access.  It was due to go dark soon at the time before the extension was made for Feb. 2019.   

After days of moving the Access a little, rotating, raising, lowering, etc.  I've had a signal strength of 4 bars for the last couple of days.   I guess this means that the antenna on the Access is not very good because it is so sensitive that small changes make a HUGE difference.  Shouldn't be this way IMO.    So the Access now sits where the blue light, instead of pointing towards the 5 in 1, is now pointing 45 degrees clockwise from the 5 in 1, about 2 inches south of its original position on the shelf and is now standing on a 5 inch tall box.  It took a lot of time to adjust and check.
The antenna is just more directional and this means that it will hold the signal well once you find the right orientation. WIth the smarthub, sometimes during certain atmospheric conditions, , the signal would become too weak to read at night due to the omni directional nature of the design.

Another fine example of replacing what works good with what sounds good.

This isn't correct.  The Access has vertical helical antenna.  Very omni-directional.

The SmartHUB had a straight wire antenna, bent in an odd fashion several times.  It's an omni, but not a very good one in practice, with some definite directionality.  The bends make it difficult to theoretically analyze.  The length of antenna that has to run parallel to the main board is also troublesome.  Not only does it tend to pick up noise from the main board, the antenna has be known to short out on the main board for some users.

In another thread here I and John Z did an Access teardown and some analysis, photos included.  I'd love to see some of the "experts" here pick it apart and tell me exactly why they think the SmartHUB antenna is superior. 

However, even though the antenna is an omni, that doesn't mean you don't have to move it around sometimes (particularly indoors) where there are other factors impacting reception.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on December 06, 2018, 11:38:06 AM
So you don't have to go searching for the other thread, here are the antennas in an Access and a SmartHUB.

Access:
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

SmartHUB:
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]


Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: radioman61 on December 06, 2018, 11:53:04 AM
George, I can't dispute anything you're saying... RF wise it should work better.  Based on experience though, a weak signal was consistent on the old unit. Meaning, a signal that was a 2 would sit there dumb and happy as a 2 forever.  The Access seems to suffer from random changes in signal strength which should be minimal on two stationary units.  I don't think it has anything to do with the antenna but rather the receiver in the Access. It's not like there's any sort of front end in either receiver so maybe the more efficient antenna is causing overload or a high BER?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on December 06, 2018, 12:01:52 PM
George, I can't dispute anything you're saying... RF wise it should work better.  Based on experience though, a weak signal was consistent on the old unit. Meaning, a signal that was a 2 would sit there dumb and happy as a 2 forever.  The Access seems to suffer from random changes in signal strength which should be minimal on two stationary units.  I don't think it has anything to do with the antenna but rather the receiver in the Access. It's not like there's any sort of front end in either receiver so maybe the more efficient antenna is causing overload or a high BER?

Both the Access and the SmartHUB use the same radio receiver chip. MICRF211

I can't say what's happening to your particular Access.  It certainly isn't happening to all of them.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DrewShock on December 06, 2018, 02:28:14 PM
radioman61, I agree with you. Doesn't matter how the units look on paper but my smartHUB stays pretty consistent with 1 or 2 on the signal strength for my far 5 in 1 (60ft away) than the Access. The Access jumps around no matter how I orient it. The smartHub is happy staying connected with 1 or 2 bars. The Access will loose connection for hours sometimes for no reason I can see. I did add a silk coated very thin copper wire extension to my far 5 in 1 antenna and ran it out of one of the holes for the rain gauge, down the 5 in 1 mount and then pointed the very end in the direction of my Access and smartHUB.  The wire is two to three feet long. That has helped a lot with the Access keeping the signal more consistent. My smartHUB now read 2 to 3 bars instead of 1 to 2.

However I still have the Access losing connection on quick power outage thing. So I have sent it back to Acurite to look at. I will make a post once they send it back to me to update the findings. Both my Accesses exhibit this behavior rendering the battery backup useless. Only once it about 20 power outages have I had the Access back-fill data.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: juched on January 01, 2019, 05:45:22 PM
I am also having an issue with my Acess hub going offline... stops reporting to Acurite, and then 30 minutes later it stops reporting to weather underground.

My status "splash" page also doesn't show.

I have had this happen 3 times now.  No power outage.  I haven't left it long enough to see if it comes back on its own.  Pull power and batteries and then it comes back.

Now, it only started once I setup Acuparse on a raspberry pi.  I think that may introduce some network issues for the Access. which has previously been running for months with no issues.

Edit: I can ping the device but the http service doesn’t reply.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: juched on January 02, 2019, 11:53:36 AM
It happened again.

I dug through the logs in AcuParase and I found that when there were delays in the response, the Access would try again, and it seems that the Access code is buggy and gets hung up.  At that point, the splash screen becomes unresponsive as well, even though the networking is still working since I can ping the device.

Examples of issues I found which would lock up the Acurite access:
1. Returning 200 OK with 0 content.
2. Long delays in responding (seems to be a 20-second timeout inside the Access), which seems to hang it.


For now I have reset the Access to talk directly to the cloud service and I hope to see stability again.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: rodchev65 on January 02, 2019, 08:01:43 PM
I'm having the same issue, sporadically showing no signal on the display, goes offline, does not update etc. despite that nothing has been changed on the system. Acurite Model #01536.

This has been going on for months but it's getting worse. Two year old unit. I'm set up on a custom built PC that stays up 24-7.

This issue usually fixes itself after a day or so but apparently NOT this time. Something is failing and the same thing appears to be happening to many different versions of Acurite weather stations so we need to find a commonality.

I'm curious, how many of us with this issue are using Windows 10?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on January 02, 2019, 10:42:35 PM
I'm having the same issue, sporadically showing no signal on the display, goes offline, does not update etc. despite that nothing has been changed on the system. Acurite Model #01536.

This has been going on for months but it's getting worse. Two year old unit. I'm set up on a custom built PC that stays up 24-7.

This issue usually fixes itself after a day or so but apparently NOT this time. Something is failing and the same thing appears to be happening to many different versions of Acurite weather stations so we need to find a commonality.

I'm curious, how many of us with this issue are using Windows 10?

This thread is about the Access.  It sounds like you are using a PC Connect system.

If the PC Connect display isn't showing a signal, then that either means radio interference, or your 5n1 isn't transmitting.  I'd put my money on radio interference.

The radio noise sometimes comes from the PC over the USB cable..  I'd try putting ferrite beads on the USB cable.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Jim Ace on January 03, 2019, 07:05:05 AM
I'm having the same issue, sporadically showing no signal on the display, goes offline, does not update etc. despite that nothing has been changed on the system. Acurite Model #01536.

This has been going on for months but it's getting worse. Two year old unit. I'm set up on a custom built PC that stays up 24-7.

This issue usually fixes itself after a day or so but apparently NOT this time. Something is failing and the same thing appears to be happening to many different versions of Acurite weather stations so we need to find a commonality.

I'm curious, how many of us with this issue are using Windows 10?

I had the same issue with access, I sent it back and it was replaced with a new unit by Acurite.  I have had no problems since I received the new access. 
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: rodchev65 on January 03, 2019, 10:36:23 AM
Yes, now that I look it's PC connect.

Seems strange that the unit would lose a signal for no reason then fix itself, same as others described here.

Signal was always 4 bars then it's no signal what so ever, then a day later it fixes itself, been going on for a few months but now it appears to be down for good.

Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on January 03, 2019, 11:38:40 AM
Yes, now that I look it's PC connect.

Seems strange that the unit would lose a signal for no reason then fix itself, same as others described here.

Signal was always 4 bars then it's no signal what so ever, then a day later it fixes itself, been going on for a few months but now it appears to be down for good.

Radio interference often comes and goes.  Sometimes it is related to a noisy electrical device (e.g. lights, motors, microwaves, etc.) and comes and goes as the device is turned on and off.

It doesn't help that the frequency used happens to be in a very congested and noisy part of the radio spectrum, either. 
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: rodchev65 on January 03, 2019, 01:18:02 PM
I appreciate the help but Nothing has changed on my end, no new devices, nothing at all was added to the system. 4 bars to absolutely zero bars and no connection at all, not just interference, it's the complete lack of signal.

But of course I've taken the time to bring in the 5in1 to my house just in case, no difference, no signal what so ever.

It seems strange that it would randomly lose connection then fix itself without me changing a thing, but even that won't work anymore.

I wonder what the warranty is on these things? Or if they will even try to fix it.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on January 03, 2019, 01:35:00 PM
Your local radio environment can be changing and you won’t notice a thing.  For example, a local amateur radio operator can start a conversation near 433.92MHz and obliterate your signal every time they key the mic and talk.

Radio interference kills your signal as it makes it hard to separate the signal from the noise.

Again, I suggest you start by putting a ferrite bead on your USB cable.  They are cheap and can’t hurt.

Should that not work, look for local sources of possible noise.  As electronic systems age, they can start spewing noise and you won’t notice a thing.   For example, a nearby dimmer switch might be going bad and throwing noise, however, from your perspective it will seem to be working just fine, and may continue to do so for months or years.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on January 03, 2019, 01:39:20 PM
Warranty is one year, but that doesn’t cover noise issues. 

It’s highly unlikely the equipment is “fixing itself”.  Noise coming and going tends to be the issue.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: rodchev65 on January 03, 2019, 04:48:55 PM
If it was interference don't ya think that bringing the 5in1 into the same room at the display/receiver would eliminate that possibility?

 A consistent 4 bars to zero bars from interference seems rather unlikely to me, or more to the point, completely impossible. And now, it won't connect at all.
 
I believe It's entirely more likely that these cheap Chinese made electronics have failed.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on January 03, 2019, 04:57:39 PM
If it was interference don't ya think that bringing the 5in1 into the same room at the display/receiver would eliminate that possibility?

 A consistent 4 bars to zero bars from interference seems rather unlikely to me, or more to the point, completely impossible. And now, it won't connect at all.
 
I believe It's entirely more likely that these cheap Chinese made electronics have failed.

Sorry.  I guess you have your own ideas how these things work.

Why even bother asking for help if you're going to act like that?

Good luck.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: rodchev65 on January 03, 2019, 05:01:36 PM
Try coming up with a worth while answer instead of repeating the same BS answer over and over and over again. You are wrong, do you get that???
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on January 03, 2019, 05:04:58 PM
Try coming up with a worth while answer instead of repeating the same BS answer over and over and over again. You are wrong, do you get that???

 :roll:
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on January 22, 2019, 11:48:08 AM
I found why one of my Atlas sensors was not sending a signal to Access, but would send signal to the display. If you are having this issue, what I discovered was a battery not making proper contact. I am not sure which one of the slots was the culprit, but if all 4 batteries are not working, you will get no signal to Access at all, unless the sunlight is hitting the Atlas directly to power the sensor. The sensor will actually work with 3 batteries and give a blinking red light. The battery was not bad in my sensor, it was just not lined up with the contact good enough. I had to pull the batteries out a bit so that each one was not flat down against the housing. Then on the splash page the signal went to 4 from 0.

I am betting this is the main issues with people not getting a signal on their Access.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on January 22, 2019, 11:51:39 AM
I found why one of my Atlas sensors was not sending a signal to Access, but would send signal to the display. If you are having this issue, what I discovered was a battery not making proper contact. I am not sure which one of the slots was the culprit, but if all 4 batteries are not working, you will get no signal to Access at all, unless the sunlight is hitting the Atlas directly to power the sensor. The sensor will actually work with 3 batteries and give a blinking red light. The battery was not bad in my sensor, it was just not lined up with the contact good enough. I had to pull the batteries out a bit so that each one was not flat down against the housing. Then on the splash page the signal went to 4 from 0.

I am betting this is the main issues with people not getting a signal on their Access.

Recently there has been some speculation that, unlike the 5n1, the solar panels of the Atlas are supplementing the batteries, so that makes sense.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on January 22, 2019, 12:22:22 PM
If you could test yours, and confirm what I experienced, that would be helpful I'm sure. Remove a battery or two and check, also check the red light blinking and check in the sunlight with one battery out.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: giveme5 on January 22, 2019, 03:47:57 PM
Hi all

I have the same problem with Access (firmware 047) losing signal for hours at the time. Sometimes it comes back by itself and sometimes I have to unplug it and bring it very close to the sensor (Atlas) in order to re-acquire the signal.

The distance between Access and Atlas is about 30ft. Only one wall between the two. There are no signal level drops to 3, 2 or 1. It's either 4 or it drops to 0.

Indoor Display (06061) never lost connection (always 4 bars), even though it's placed about 100ft from Atlas, and signal has to go through 4 walls.

To eliminate possible battery issue, I have installed power adapter for Atlas (Model 06073).

As far as radio interference goes, I checked that out, but at the time Access dropped connection, there was no radio interference. Just Atlas signal every 10 seconds or so.

Currently 0 signal at Access yet again. Atlas signal OK...
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]
 [ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

There must be some other issue with Access dropping the signal, besides HAM operators interference.




Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on January 22, 2019, 04:17:40 PM
Somethings funny where when mine goes out of sunlight, the batteries don't power the unit properly to send a signal to the Access. I don't think it has anything to do with Access at all from what I am experiencing. Tomorrow morning once the sun comes back, it will show up again. I have tried a power supply, and that works as it should and gets picked up by Access, so my experience is different than giveme5's.

Very odd...
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DrewShock on January 23, 2019, 02:29:50 AM
Update to my Access issues.

I received my Access back from Acurite after a month and then I tested it for 10 ten days. You can see the stats below. The smartHUB still out performs the Access for my two main sensors. The Access does seem to do better with not cutting out for hours but it still misses lots of data points. I'm not at the location where it is but I had someone simulate quick power outages and it seemed to work. I'll test it myself next month.

When I asked what they did to make it work better the answer was, "fine tune the antenna", which l doesn't help me much as I wanted to apply it myself to my other faulty Access.  I asked them what they did specifically to fix the Access losing connection after short power outages of less than 6 seconds and then taking 6+ hours to reconnect.

They replied," We are not able to tell you the exact remediation to the Access. The correction is proprietary information. " I didn't realized they were running a top secret mission with low to mid end consumer weather stations.

The people helping me from Acurite were very accommodating and I felt like they really tried to make it work right. I just wish they would tell me what they did so I wouldn't have to send my other one in and could fix it myself. Still not sure it does work right until I can test it in person.

Below are the number of missed data points in 10 days. The number in parenthesis is the most it missed in a row for those ten days.
 
My 20ft away roof 5 in 1 - smartHUB 1 (1), Access 61 [8]  smartHub much better on this one.
My 60ft away roof 5 in 1 - smartHUB 49 (25), Access 127 [8] again smartHUB better here too although Access missed less in a row.
My 40ft away patio sensor (this is a tower sensor that is about 5 ft off the ground and very old so I don't rely on it since it has issues. I just included it to show the Access does better with my low sensor than my roof ones, which is unfortunate.
     smartHUB 2656 (130), Access 478 (28)

At this point there seems to be some improvement especially not dropping out for hours on end, which is good. But it's still somewhat disappointing that it misses many data points. At least it helped some. I think most of the improvement was from me extending the antenna 3ft and down through a rain drain hole so it's outside the plastic case on my far (60ft away) sensor.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on January 23, 2019, 04:08:12 AM
They replied," We are not able to tell you the exact remediation to the Access. The correction is proprietary information. " I didn't realized they were running a top secret mission with low to mid end consumer weather stations.

They remember you, Drew, as I do.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: worachj on January 23, 2019, 08:55:41 AM
Signal strength of sensors reported by my Access are constantly jumping between 1-4. But they always stay connected and it gets the data. I don’t know how the Access works, but I wonder if there’s a firmware problem with the Access when reporting signal strength and how its measured. Different sensors send data at different intervals, maybe it’s just getting confused and needs a longer interval to look for signals. I don’t know what “Signal Strength” means on the Access, but maybe its just bad firmware and not hardware.

My displays always show constant signal strength, it’s only the Access where the signal strength fluctuates so much.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on January 23, 2019, 09:14:37 AM
Signal strength of sensors reported by my Access are constantly jumping between 1-4. But they always stay connected and it gets the data. I don’t know how the Access works, but I wonder if there’s a firmware problem with the Access when reporting signal strength and how its measured. Different sensors send data at different intervals, maybe it’s just getting confused and needs a longer interval to look for signals. I don’t know what “Signal Strength” means on the Access, but maybe its just bad firmware and not hardware.

My displays always show constant signal strength, it’s only the Access where the signal strength fluctuates so much.

The receiver chip in the Access (and SmartHUB) computes an RSSI value each time a transmission is received.  It ranges from 1 to 4 based on how well it was "heard".

The displays show "signal strength" a different way because they don't have a receiver that generates an RSSI value.  Instead, they start with full bars, then subtract bars periodically as expected data packets are missed.  That means you can't really compare the signal strength on the Access with the "signal strength" on the displays.  Their behavior just isn't the same.

It's unlikely to be bad firmware.  47 has been out for quite a while now, and most of the "connection" complaints have gone away.  They seemed to have solved it on the server side, which indicates the bulk of the problems probably weren't local RF reception issues, but a problem somewhere in the back-end servers, probably in the specific API for the Access.

So if you're still having problems, I'd guess there's an issue in your particular Access hardware, assuming it's not a local noise problem.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: John Z on January 23, 2019, 09:34:36 AM
I had gone many months with no sensor dropouts at all. Suddenly my Atlas started falling off. Indoor sensors were all good. I soon realized that a new Echo Dot had been parked too close to Access. I moved the Dot a few feet away, and the problem cleared up.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: worachj on January 23, 2019, 09:36:45 AM
Signal strength of sensors reported by my Access are constantly jumping between 1-4. But they always stay connected and it gets the data. I don’t know how the Access works, but I wonder if there’s a firmware problem with the Access when reporting signal strength and how its measured. Different sensors send data at different intervals, maybe it’s just getting confused and needs a longer interval to look for signals. I don’t know what “Signal Strength” means on the Access, but maybe its just bad firmware and not hardware.

My displays always show constant signal strength, it’s only the Access where the signal strength fluctuates so much.

The receiver chip in the Access (and SmartHUB) computes an RSSI value each time a transmission is received.  It ranges from 1 to 4 based on how well it was "heard".

The displays show "signal strength" a different way because they don't have a receiver that generates an RSSI value.  Instead, they start with full bars, then subtract bars periodically as expected data packets are missed.  That means you can't really compare the signal strength on the Access with the "signal strength" on the displays.  Their behavior just isn't the same.

It's unlikely to be bad firmware.  47 has been out for quite a while now, and most of the "connection" complaints have gone away.  They seemed to have solved it on the server side, which indicates the bulk of the problems probably weren't local RF reception issues, but a problem somewhere in the back-end servers, probably in the specific API for the Access.

So if you're still having problems, I'd guess there's an issue in your particular Access hardware, assuming it's not a local noise problem.

 Thanks, great stuff! Helps me understand things much better. I think my Access is OK, I’m not missing data that matters to me just seeing the signal strength fluctuate a lot when looking at the Access splash page. About once a month I will get an app Alert that one of my 10 sensors has lost its signal. But knowing there may be interference, I wasn’t too worried about it. It was when I got a couple of lost signal alerts that I started looking at the Access splash page and notice that the signal strength readings were fluctuating so much.

 
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on January 23, 2019, 11:25:45 AM
Today, I had sunlight this morning, and the issue Atlas came back online, later I now have overcast, and the Atlas stayed online. Strange. I am not going to touch it, and see if it drops off, or if it keeps working.

I haven't been using it because I thought it was just broken, so now I am just letting it ride, seeing how it behaves. lol
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on January 23, 2019, 08:36:37 PM
Signal strength of sensors reported by my Access are constantly jumping between 1-4. But they always stay connected and it gets the data. I don’t know how the Access works, but I wonder if there’s a firmware problem with the Access when reporting signal strength and how its measured. Different sensors send data at different intervals, maybe it’s just getting confused and needs a longer interval to look for signals. I don’t know what “Signal Strength” means on the Access, but maybe its just bad firmware and not hardware.

My displays always show constant signal strength, it’s only the Access where the signal strength fluctuates so much.

The receiver chip in the Access (and SmartHUB) computes an RSSI value each time a transmission is received.  It ranges from 1 to 4 based on how well it was "heard".

The displays show "signal strength" a different way because they don't have a receiver that generates an RSSI value.  Instead, they start with full bars, then subtract bars periodically as expected data packets are missed.  That means you can't really compare the signal strength on the Access with the "signal strength" on the displays.  Their behavior just isn't the same.



My Access works like the displays, where if a data packet is missed, the numbers start going down. As the data starts coming back - the numbers go up. Basically my Access diagnostic page never holds a signal of anything different than 0 or 4.

My trouble Atlas is still working tonight, and I just rotated my access half way around. The signal went to "0" slowly. I then rotated it back to where it was, and the signal returned to 4 with the capture of each data packet it received... So this is different than what the smarthub used to do where you could maintain a "2 or 3" and be OK.

Sensor List:PRESSURE: 30.07 Inch
SIGNAL:433MHZ
# Type          Id        Last Time (UTC)   Signal  Battery
0 Atlas  00000998  2019-01-24T01:37:57    4Low
1 tower  00010975  2019-01-24T01:38:00   4Normal
2 Atlas   00000532  2019-01-24T01:37:59   4Normal
3 tower    00000322   2019-01-24T01:34:08   0Low
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: John Z on February 01, 2019, 09:00:13 AM
A while back Nincehelser posted some pictures of the Access circuit board.

I went to look again at them this morning. It appears that the RSSI pin (14) on the receiver chip is unused. On the topside of the board it is a stub, going nowhere. On the reverse side it is a bit less certain, but RSSI does not appear to even have a via hole to that plane.

So maybe Access and the displays use the same " missed packets" signal reporting scheme now?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: worachj on February 09, 2019, 09:28:14 AM
Signal strength of sensors reported by my Access are constantly jumping between 1-4. But they always stay connected and it gets the data. I don’t know how the Access works, but I wonder if there’s a firmware problem with the Access when reporting signal strength and how its measured. Different sensors send data at different intervals, maybe it’s just getting confused and needs a longer interval to look for signals. I don’t know what “Signal Strength” means on the Access, but maybe its just bad firmware and not hardware.

My displays always show constant signal strength, it’s only the Access where the signal strength fluctuates so much.

The receiver chip in the Access (and SmartHUB) computes an RSSI value each time a transmission is received.  It ranges from 1 to 4 based on how well it was "heard".

The displays show "signal strength" a different way because they don't have a receiver that generates an RSSI value.  Instead, they start with full bars, then subtract bars periodically as expected data packets are missed.  That means you can't really compare the signal strength on the Access with the "signal strength" on the displays.  Their behavior just isn't the same.

It's unlikely to be bad firmware.  47 has been out for quite a while now, and most of the "connection" complaints have gone away.  They seemed to have solved it on the server side, which indicates the bulk of the problems probably weren't local RF reception issues, but a problem somewhere in the back-end servers, probably in the specific API for the Access.

So if you're still having problems, I'd guess there's an issue in your particular Access hardware, assuming it's not a local noise problem.
My Access splash screen was showing one of my Tower sensors to have a low battery strength. Since I have 8 Tower sensors, I wasn’t sure which one it was. So, I removed the batteries from one of the Towers and refreshed the Access splash screen every 10 seconds and checked the signal strength. To my surprise when refreshing the splash screen every 10 seconds the signal strength of one of the Towers would decrease by one until it reached zero.

So, it appears that the Access splash page is not showing an actual signal strength reading for the Tower sensor but some type of a sampling average.

Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: worachj on February 12, 2019, 09:07:16 AM
MyAcuRite.com report that both my SmartHub and Access lost communication last night approximately between 12:15 AM & 3:25 AM CST. Not sure of the reason, but it could have been because my internet was down or there was an AcuRite server problem. It would be an AcuRite problem if other people lost communication too. So….

Anyone else lose communication last night?
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Beech33 on February 12, 2019, 09:24:52 AM
Hi worachj
I have not had any interruptions from my Atlas/Access. I have two running perfectly. =D>
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: worachj on February 12, 2019, 09:33:39 AM
Hi worachj
I have not had any interruptions from my Atlas/Access. I have two running perfectly. =D>
Thanks! Not always easy to determine since the Access has the battery backup. I went into my modem’s event log and it looks like it was my internet being down that cause my problem.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: daman on February 12, 2019, 09:42:51 AM
No issues here, It amazes me the people that have problems, we have two Access's running and never a issue they just keep going.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: worachj on February 12, 2019, 09:55:43 AM
It was my lost internet connection that cause my missing data. I also looked at other stations in my area on WU and saw the same missing data gap as mine. So, Comcast internet was down in my area.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: BeaverMeadow on February 12, 2019, 01:03:37 PM
MyAcuRite.com report that both my SmartHub and Access lost communication last night approximately between 12:15 AM & 3:25 AM CST. Not sure of the reason, but it could have been because my internet was down or there was an AcuRite server problem. It would be an AcuRite problem if other people lost communication too. So….

Anyone else lose communication last night?

I received a text from Acurite on Monday 3:51am (EST) that "No signal received from 5-in-1 Weather Station in more than 2 hours. Check batteries and verify range and placement."

That looks like it might coincide with your outage. I'm in Mass.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on February 24, 2019, 06:59:00 PM
I'm getting a random less than two hour drop on my CT station now and again. I can't figure out why.

Fingers crossed, I haven't had any issues with the unit disconnecting for long periods of time. I'm hoping the new firmware update took care of that.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on April 08, 2019, 10:45:43 AM
The VT Access has been on the fritz for a little over a day now. Not sure what the cause is. Usually, a drop off will correct itself, but this one remains sporadic. Overall, it's been fairly stead for quite some time. Will keep an eye on it and hope things shake out on their own.

Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on April 08, 2019, 01:27:52 PM
I hope Acurite is working to give us more options on the Access... Especially after the smarthub being bricked.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Glenn on April 09, 2019, 05:27:04 PM
It's back online again. Seems to be fine now. I'll certainly keep watching it for any future drop offs.

I never figured out what caused these random drops. Perhaps there was a power blip there.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: HamDxer on April 11, 2019, 11:22:00 PM
Just found a problem with the access connect. The Cat5 cable sent with it is not Cat5 pinout. Its a straight wired. You need a Cat5 with the correct pairs of wires on the right pins. IE 1 and 2 are xmit and 3 and 6 are rec.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: nincehelser on April 11, 2019, 11:29:14 PM
Just found a problem with the access connect. The Cat5 cable sent with it is not Cat5 pinout. Its a straight wired. You need a Cat5 with the correct pairs of wires on the right pins. IE 1 and 2 are xmit and 3 and 6 are rec.

It should be straight.

https://community.fs.com/blog/patch-cable-vs-crossover-cable.html

However, sometimes you need a crossover if the run in your house is not terminated correctly.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: HamDxer on April 11, 2019, 11:43:31 PM
The router has its xmit on pins 1 and 2 that pair of wires should go to the other end to 1 and 2. The router has recive on 3 and 6 that pair of wires should fo to 3 and 6 of the other end. Its not a crossover I'm just saying the twisted pair of wires have to be on these pins or your trying to push a signal down split pairs of wire which don't work so well.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: Jim_S on April 12, 2019, 01:13:57 PM
Just found a problem with the access connect. The Cat5 cable sent with it is not Cat5 pinout. Its a straight wired. You need a Cat5 with the correct pairs of wires on the right pins. IE 1 and 2 are xmit and 3 and 6 are rec.
I can't see your cable and I'm a little confused by your post. In any case I just checked the patch cable that came with my Access and it's a correctly wired Cat5 patch cable.

Here is how it should be wired:

(https://community.fs.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Patch-Cable-wiring-scheme.jpg)

If yours is different, perhaps you got a bad cable.

Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: HamDxer on April 12, 2019, 07:46:54 PM
Yes that wiring you showed is correct. Mine wasn't new cable worked great, Thanks.
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: DoctorKnow on April 12, 2019, 08:14:58 PM
? I'm lost...
Title: Re: Access Connection Issues
Post by: giveme5 on April 29, 2019, 02:15:41 PM
? I'm lost...

On 10/100 ethernet you need dedicated transmit (TX) and receive (RX) pins, so that TX would always go to RX. For that reason devices which were to connect to network would have MDI (medium dependent interface) while network device like hubs, switches would have reversed TX/RX layout or MDI-X. If you wanted to connect two PCs directly (MDI to MDI), you would need crossover cable.

On gigabit ethernet and above, there are no dedicated TX/RX pins, all data can be transmitted and received simultaneously (auto MDI-X).
If you have gigabit ports on switch or router, even when if you plug in a 10/100 device like Access, gigabit ports would automatically adjust, no matter what cable is used (straight or crossover).

Sometimes though, it won't work as intended and you have to be mindful of which cable is used (very rare these days).