Hello, I recently purchased a 2 channel AC current monitor (PR55-4B) and a Wireless Ethernet modem (PR55-17B) to evaluate. I followed the “Getting Started with NCD Enterprise Ethernet IoT Wireless USB Modem” video to setup the modem and I was able to see data from the AC current monitor. The next morning I was working on setting up a Node-Red flow to continue with the evaluation. I had just entered the modem MAC address into the node configuration and went back to the Windows computer with Alpha station to confirm the MAC address of the current monitor when the modem seemed to stop working. I had not deployed the node yet, so pretty sure it had nothing to do with this.
Alpha station could see the modem on my network, but when clicking “Sensor View & Setup” an error, “Unable to Communicate with Modem”, would appear. At that time I was also unable to connect with the modem via browser (ERR_CONNECTION_REFUSED). After a few times of resetting and re-powering the modem I was able to connect via browser, but I was still getting the “Unable to Communicate with Modem” error in Alpha station.
I have read and tried the trouble-shooting steps I could find here in the forum. The last thing I tried was switching to a USB connection and got the same error.
One thing to keep in mind is only one software application can be connected at a time. If you run Alpha Station you must make sure Node-Red is not communicating with the modem.
I read that in the forum and closed down all other possible connections when Alpha station first failed. When I switched the modem from Ethernet to USB that should have eliminated all other possible connections as well.
did you switch the jumpers to USB as well ?
can you share pictures of the modem board
Yes. I switched the jumpers when I attempted to test in USB mode and made sure the baud rates were the same for the computer and the modem.
This picture shows the modem with the jumpers in the Ethernet position.
I attempted to connect to the radio in the modem, but the XTCU software was unable to communicate with it as well. I have opted to send both the modem and current sensor back for evaluation and repair.
I received the devices (modem and sensor) back from RMA. I used Alpha station to connect with the modem, but I was unable to see the sensor. After that I tried the Base station software which has a “communications recovery” option.
I am now guessing that is where my problems began the last time around. Immediately after trying the recovery option, Alpha station (not running at the same time as Base station) was once again “unable to communicate” with the modem. The network discovery of the modem still worked, but nothing else.
I switched the modem to USB mode and this time I was able to use XCTU to successfully reload the profile as described in the link provided above. Still neither Alpha station nor Beta station will communicate with the modem via USB, even though XCTU has no problems connecting immediately with the same settings.
Can you tell me what was done to the modem when it was sent back for repair that fixed the communications issue?
base station does not work with modem.
can you share the screenshot of the xctu ?
Not sure what happened. While waiting for a reply I deleted Base station, then I uninstalled and reinstalled Alpha station. When Alpha station launched at the end of the reinstall, it successfully communicated with the modem. I turned on the sensor and it also appeared in the sensor viewer.
I will put the modem back in network mode and let you know if it works as well.
Have not had any communications problems with the modem since reinstalling Alpha station. Thanks for all the help.
1 Like
