Author Topic: Weatherlink IP downgrades itself  (Read 1278 times)

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Offline elji-nils

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Weatherlink IP downgrades itself
« on: December 15, 2014, 07:40:21 AM »
Hello! We have two Weatherlink IP's (connected to one VP2 and one Vue). They are supposed to run the latest firmware, 1.11, but approximately once a week they suddenly stop working. Both at the same time (or roughly five minutes apart).
No response on port 22222, nor 80. They can be found by the Weatherlink software, but it cannot connect to it.
If we run the firmware updating tool, it finds both of them and reports that they are running version 1.0 (!!). Upgrading to v1.11 proceeds and then everything works as expected again.
How is this even possible? Has anyone heard of this before?

Offline pfletch101

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Re: Weatherlink IP downgrades itself
« Reply #1 on: December 15, 2014, 09:19:58 AM »
It sounds as if something is repeatedly corrupting the firmware. I would wonder about power line disturbances or other significant electromagnetic noise - if they are in a very dry environment, a static discharge triggered by someone walking past them might conceivably do this.
Vantage Pro 2+ connected to Raspberry Pi running weewx by means of Meteo-Pi - data incorporated in domestic energy production (PV) and use monitoring system.

Offline elji-nils

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Re: Weatherlink IP downgrades itself
« Reply #2 on: December 15, 2014, 09:30:02 AM »
Indeed. But another weird part is that they are a couple of hundred meters apart. One is on the summit of a mountain and the other one at the bottom. But they are on the same local network tho, and perhaps the share the same power lines. They are on UPS-power so I thought that would protect them...

Do you know if the 1.0 firmware is stored in separate ROM on the device?

Offline johnd

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Re: Weatherlink IP downgrades itself
« Reply #3 on: December 15, 2014, 09:59:03 AM »
Has anyone heard of this before?

Yes, but it's very rare. Think I've seen only two instances in 3-4 years. It's almost certainly something to do with the exact network type/configuration but we never did find out the precise cause. Might be worth relaying the observation to Davis but I doubt that they'll be able to suggest anything other than 'keep an eye on it'.
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Sorry, but I don't usually have time to help with individual issues by email unless you are a Prodata customer. Please post your issue in the relevant forum section here & I will comment there if I have anything useful to add.

Offline pfletch101

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Re: Weatherlink IP downgrades itself
« Reply #4 on: December 15, 2014, 10:52:04 AM »
Indeed. But another weird part is that they are a couple of hundred meters apart. One is on the summit of a mountain and the other one at the bottom. But they are on the same local network tho, and perhaps the share the same power lines. They are on UPS-power so I thought that would protect them...

Assuming that they are on separate UPSes, it is very unlikely that a power line disturbance would affect both of them at about the same time (even if the filtering on one of the UPSes were defective and letting it through). If they are on a single UPS, however, with a long power cable going to the more distant device, that cable could be acting as an antenna, and introducing noise on the load side of the UPS. It is certainly unlikely that static (other than lightning!) would affect two widely separated devices at the same time.

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Do you know if the 1.0 firmware is stored in separate ROM on the device?

I assume that the firmware ROM is the firmware ROM (for any firmware version) - 1.0 may be the default response if the actual version installed is not identifiable. I don't have the devices or a circuit diagram available to me.

Johnd's response suggests a rare networking problem, but I can't think of a mechanism (which doesn't mean that this isn't the right explanation!).
Vantage Pro 2+ connected to Raspberry Pi running weewx by means of Meteo-Pi - data incorporated in domestic energy production (PV) and use monitoring system.

Offline elji-nils

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Re: Weatherlink IP downgrades itself
« Reply #5 on: December 16, 2014, 05:25:41 AM »
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1.0 may be the default response if the actual version installed is not identifiable
Yes, this is what I figure as well. Since it does not upload any data, nor respond to any of the ports, it seems like the "application" is not running. I guess the part that handles the flashing is not part of the firmware but rather some kind of boot rom.

Does anyone know what kind of device they use to store the firmware? I guess I have to look up the specs to understand what might be causing this...

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Might be worth relaying the observation to Davis but I doubt that they'll be able to suggest anything other than 'keep an eye on it'.
Yeah, I've gotten no response from Davis as of yet tho.

 

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