Topic: USPLN Sensor Request

[ALITTLEweird1]

I received a FedEx shipping notification this morning of the package going out. Expecting a delivery date of Friday.

Ditto.  Just got the same.

No Morse Code tappytalky thingy though.

Nothing here yet.

[WeatherHost]

Well, I got it.  One small piece missing but it was something I had on hand.  It's in place, not sure if it's working or not though.

[drew]

Well, I got it.  One small piece missing but it was something I had on hand.  It's in place, not sure if it's working or not though.

I received mine today as well. I have not had a chance to go through the contents yet.


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[WeatherHost]

I am NOT happy at all.

At first it lit up, but I couldn't tell if it was normal, abnormal, or just because they hadn't activated it yet.  The Threshold light stayed on for a long while, several minutes, then finally turned off.  The Comm light was off also when it should have been on according to the papers.  There was a mention that this could be a port problem, so I looked into setting open ports using the IP addresses in the papers.  One of the steps in the modem/router information was to reboot both the modem and the device.

Modem came back up OK, but when I plugged the sensor back in, only the power light was on and it started making a weird whining noise.  Tried it again, same thing.  Now, it doesn't do anything.  No lights, no noise, no nothing.

What is bugging me is that the LAN switch/AP/Repeater I have out there that has been working fine for weeks, now won't connect to the LAN and is doing other strange things.  I don't know if the sensor died and took the switch with it, or what's going on.  I called TOA, got a recording.

Somewhere during the whole process outside installing the PVC and adapting it to what I needed for this install, I dropped a can of that purple PVC cement primer.  It was open and it splashed.  Everywhere.  Including the light tan vinyl siding on the garage.  I have no idea if it will ever come off.

I am NOT happy.

[miraculon]

I am NOT happy at all.

At first it lit up, but I couldn't tell if it was normal, abnormal, or just because they hadn't activated it yet.  The Threshold light stayed on for a long while, several minutes, then finally turned off.  The Comm light was off also when it should have been on according to the papers.  There was a mention that this could be a port problem, so I looked into setting open ports using the IP addresses in the papers.  One of the steps in the modem/router information was to reboot both the modem and the device.

Modem came back up OK, but when I plugged the sensor back in, only the power light was on and it started making a weird whining noise.  Tried it again, same thing.  Now, it doesn't do anything.  No lights, no noise, no nothing.

What is bugging me is that the LAN switch/AP/Repeater I have out there that has been working fine for weeks, now won't connect to the LAN and is doing other strange things.  I don't know if the sensor died and took the switch with it, or what's going on.  I called TOA, got a recording.

Somewhere during the whole process outside installing the PVC and adapting it to what I needed for this install, I dropped a can of that purple PVC cement primer.  It was open and it splashed.  Everywhere.  Including the light tan vinyl siding on the garage.  I have no idea if it will ever come off.

I am NOT happy.

Do you have a multimeter? I would first check the power supply that came with the unit. I am not sure where the noise was coming from, but if it was the power supply it might have been defective and failed.

Also, since you already know how to reboot and change the IP/DHCP stuff, you can put in a "?" followed by <CTL-J> (they use control-j as an 'enter' for some reason). There is a list of commands. I find the 'status', 'strokes', 'server' and 'gps' to be the most useful. My TOA module is out in the garage, so I have a Raspberry Pi connect to the USB port and use minicom to check things remotely. Of course, this assumes that the system is working, and it sounds like something died.

One final thing, the power connector is a ¼ turn twist lock type and maybe it isn't seated and locked properly?

Greg H.

[WeatherHost]

I am NOT happy at all.

At first it lit up, but I couldn't tell if it was normal, abnormal, or just because they hadn't activated it yet.  The Threshold light stayed on for a long while, several minutes, then finally turned off.  The Comm light was off also when it should have been on according to the papers.  There was a mention that this could be a port problem, so I looked into setting open ports using the IP addresses in the papers.  One of the steps in the modem/router information was to reboot both the modem and the device.

Modem came back up OK, but when I plugged the sensor back in, only the power light was on and it started making a weird whining noise.  Tried it again, same thing.  Now, it doesn't do anything.  No lights, no noise, no nothing.

What is bugging me is that the LAN switch/AP/Repeater I have out there that has been working fine for weeks, now won't connect to the LAN and is doing other strange things.  I don't know if the sensor died and took the switch with it, or what's going on.  I called TOA, got a recording.

Somewhere during the whole process outside installing the PVC and adapting it to what I needed for this install, I dropped a can of that purple PVC cement primer.  It was open and it splashed.  Everywhere.  Including the light tan vinyl siding on the garage.  I have no idea if it will ever come off.

I am NOT happy.

Do you have a multimeter? I would first check the power supply that came with the unit. I am not sure where the noise was coming from, but if it was the power supply it might have been defective and failed.

Also, since you already know how to reboot and change the IP/DHCP stuff, you can put in a "?" followed by <CTL-J> (they use control-j as an 'enter' for some reason). There is a list of commands. I find the 'status', 'strokes', 'server' and 'gps' to be the most useful.

Noise was coming from the sensor box.  I'm not USBing/TelNetting into anything.  All I did was open ports in the ISP provided modem/router.

[hankster]

No ports should need to be opened on the router.

[DaleReid]

Talk about a tease!

FedEx just came... all excited. Dogs barking.  And he comes around the back of his van with a long skinny, solitary, package. 

So I have the Efield probe and nothing else!  I can't even put up the antenna and GPS this nice weekend.  How the boxes got separated in shipment, I  don't know.

Bummer.  But I'll be patient.  Dreaming about and wishing doesn't make it so.

Hope everyone else's stuff arrived OK and their installations are proceeding.

Dale

[DaleReid]

It's a cute thing.  Not NASA quality, but should do for the life of the unit.

I've held it, put my finger on the SMA connector, put it to my ear and hear nothing so far.  I guess I'll have to wait for the cable and receiver and power supply.  Alas

Come on guys, just trying to be funny.  Have a good weekend.

Didn't AM radio start out with cat's whisker detectors of some sort?  Maybe I should let my beard grow out?

[drew]

I finally got around to unpacking everything. It seems I am missing the pvc connector that screws onto the GPS antenna.

I'll have to make a trip to the hardware store to see what I can find.


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[WeatherHost]

Yeah, that's the piece.  At least I had one in a goody box.  I think it's 1" PVC to 3/4" NPT.

[DaleReid]

Greg,
I got a sticker on my door saying the rest of my system is at the local FedEx shop, needing a signature rather than leave it when I was gone.  I hope to pick it up this morning.

I don't like putting stuff up in a hard to get to situation (roofs, towers, etc) without doing a dry run on the ground.

You mentioned you have a rasp pi interface so you can see what is going on with the USB interface, and mentioned some stuff like Ctrl-J etc, which is reminiscent of an old hyperterminal communication with a modem.

I don't have the stuff you do, but wonder if in your experimentation you used a Windows based product like a laptop or something to see what was on that usb port?

In other words, can you tell those of us who are in anticipation what we might do to peer into the output stream of that port to see if all is well?  Obviously plug a cable into the laptop/computer, but what program can one use (hyperterminal isn't on Windows any more) to tickle the box with some commands to make sure all is well before getting stuff up on the roof?

Thanks for any hints, Dale

[WeatherHost]

You mentioned you have a rasp pi interface so you can see what is going on with the USB interface, and mentioned some stuff like Ctrl-J etc, which is reminiscent of an old hyperterminal communication with a modem.

I don't have the stuff you do, but wonder if in your experimentation you used a Windows based product like a laptop or something to see what was on that usb port?

In other words, can you tell those of us who are in anticipation what we might do to peer into the output stream of that port to see if all is well?  Obviously plug a cable into the laptop/computer, but what program can one use (hyperterminal isn't on Windows any more) to tickle the box with some commands to make sure all is well before getting stuff up on the roof?

In the leaflet packed with the sensor, there is a page talking about that.  I personally don't plan on trying it, but there might be enough there for others to do it.



They feel the power supply with mine failed and smoked the sensor, so they sent a replacement set.

[miraculon]

Dale,

I found that Tera Term worked well for the initial test connection using the PC. I used one of those USB-Serial cables. You'll need the drivers for it, etc.
The port settings are 115200, 8, N, 1 per the instructions.
The undocumented thing is the <CTRL> j is used as an "enter" function.
The commands are found by going "?", <CTRL> j. You should be rewarded with the list of commands available.

Although a lot of these are interesting, I find that the "strokes", "status", "server" and "gps" are the most useful. I am using the Pi because the controller (as with the Blitzortung) is out in the garage and the Pi allows me to check on it at random remotely without lugging the laptop out to the garage. I access it from the Pi using the old "minicom" program. I wrote a small shell script to load the settings into minicom for me, so it is ready to go when it launches.

I have seen some noise events and other errors reported. Errors are sent without issuing a command, so if there have been errors you should see them when you log in.

Greg H.

[DaleReid]

Greg,
Thanks for the update.  You've already plowed those fields so thanks for sharing what you've found.

I've not heard of Terra Term, but PuTTY and I see that there is a way of moving HyperTerm over to a newer machine if you still have one (I do but it's not portable) where you can grab the program and a .dll and it still works.

Oh, as the other's who just received their packages, I too, am missing the little connector piece that screws the Trimble GPS antenna onto the mounting set.  I'm off to Menard's to see if I can find a suitable replacement.

Thanks for the support.
Dale

[miraculon]

You can get Tera Term here.

Greg H.

[waysta]

The undocumented thing is the <CTRL> j is used as an "enter" function.

See page 23, step 3, set "New line" Receive "AUTO", Transmit "CR+LF"

Also, was the FTDI driver installed?, see page 23 step 1.

Regular return works on Win 10 machine.

[miraculon]

The undocumented thing is the <CTRL> j is used as an "enter" function.

See page 23, step 3, set "New line" Receive "AUTO", Transmit "CR+LF"

Also, was the FTDI driver installed?, see page 23 step 1.

Regular return works on Win 10 machine.

That does work and is more convenient. Thanks.

Greg H.

[DaleReid]

After a trip to the hardware store to get the 3/4" NPT thread to 1" pvc coupler, I began to assemble. 

the GPS antenna has a threaded SMA connector, no problem.

the Stroke antenna cable has two BNC twist type connectors.  One attached easily to the electronics box, but the antenna that they shipped me has a TNC on the base of the assembly, not a BNC like is on the end of the Stroke cable.  I don't see any adapter.  The manual says BOTH antennas use TNC, but the stuff shipped clearly is different from the manual, and the connectors on the electronics box are obviously keyed to keep someone from intermixing the cable terminations to the box.

When those of you who got your recent shipments, did you have BNC to BNC on the Stroke?  And the proper BNC on the base of the antenna?

Was the GPS a screw thread type of TNC ?

Very weird.  Like I said not quite NASA quality but maybe they were rushing and got some contractor who didn't read things, or maybe I'm not reading stuff right either.

Dale

[drew]

After a trip to the hardware store to get the 3/4" NPT thread to 1" pvc coupler, I began to assemble. 

the GPS antenna has a threaded SMA connector, no problem.

the Stroke antenna cable has two BNC twist type connectors.  One attached easily to the electronics box, but the antenna that they shipped me has a TNC on the base of the assembly, not a BNC like is on the end of the Stroke cable.  I don't see any adapter.  The manual says BOTH antennas use TNC, but the stuff shipped clearly is different from the manual, and the connectors on the electronics box are obviously keyed to keep someone from intermixing the cable terminations to the box.

When those of you who got your recent shipments, did you have BNC to BNC on the Stroke?  And the proper BNC on the base of the antenna?

Was the GPS a screw thread type of TNC ?

Very weird.  Like I said not quite NASA quality but maybe they were rushing and got some contractor who didn't read things, or maybe I'm not reading stuff right either.

Dale

I hadn't even noticed that. I also have a BNC on the receiver, BNC cabling and a TNC on the stroke antenna.

My GPS module is TNC from antenna to receiver, so I'm good there.


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[WeatherHost]

Mine had the right connectors.  Both TNC for the antennae and 1 BNC, 1 TNC for the box end.  I also have a spare one of each in case the cable had to be cut, etc.

[WeatherHost]

Now, considering the similar discrepancies (and not to jinx anyone), I'll be curious to see if your boxes work. 

[DaleReid]

Drew,
Just a thought.  I had requested a non-standard cable length, and wonder if you did too?  If they were just tossing pre-made or contractor made sets of cable into a box, then no big deal.  If those of us requesting a custom length required them to make that specifically in house before shipment, then I can see how in a rush they could be confused and just BNC both ends.

Did you as for a non-100 foot length of coax?

Dale

[DaleReid]

Weatherhost, did you get a standard 100' cable or have them make a custom length for you?

Always doing root cause analysis to see what went wrong.
Dale

[WeatherHost]

I didn't request anything special, but I think they're 50' each.