Author Topic: Access Connection Issues  (Read 30154 times)

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Offline rodchev65

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #200 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.


Offline nincehelser

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #201 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. 

Offline rodchev65

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #202 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.
« Last Edit: January 03, 2019, 01:19:43 PM by rodchev65 »

Offline nincehelser

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #203 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.


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Offline nincehelser

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #204 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.


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Offline rodchev65

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #205 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.

Offline nincehelser

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #206 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.

Offline rodchev65

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #207 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???

Offline nincehelser

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #208 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:

Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #209 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.

Offline nincehelser

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #210 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.

Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #211 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.

Offline giveme5

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #212 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.





Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #213 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...

Offline DrewShock

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #214 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.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2019, 02:31:59 AM by DrewShock »

Offline nincehelser

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #215 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.
« Last Edit: January 23, 2019, 04:34:22 AM by nincehelser »

Offline worachj

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #216 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.


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Offline nincehelser

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #217 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.

Offline John Z

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #218 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.

Offline worachj

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #219 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.

 
« Last Edit: January 23, 2019, 09:38:42 AM by worachj »


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Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #220 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

Offline DoctorKnow

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #221 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
« Last Edit: January 23, 2019, 08:45:33 PM by DoctorKnow »

Offline John Z

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #222 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?

Offline worachj

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #223 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.

« Last Edit: February 09, 2019, 09:34:01 AM by worachj »


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Offline worachj

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Re: Access Connection Issues
« Reply #224 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?


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