Light sensor stop transmitting

Products
1

Hello, my IoT Long Range Wireless Light Sensor every now and then stops transmitting (with no apparent reason) and I need to manually press the “rst” to restart the transmission. I use Node Red to receive the data.
Any clue?
Thank you

Luca P.

2

Hi @luca.parasacco What is the battery voltage? What is the sampling interval configured on the sensor? Could you please share the complete sensor data (screenshot) from the debug window in Node-RED so that we can review it?

Thank you,
Eduardo M.

3

sure:
Battery voltage is per debug below and sampling interval is 2 min. But with 10 I had the same issue

thx

Luca

{“topic”:“sensor_data”,“data”:{“nodeId”:0,“firmware”:0,“battery”:“3.29”,“battery_percent”:“99.64”,“counter”:174,“sensor_type”:10,“sensor_data”:{“lux”:0},“sensor_name”:“Light”,“type”:“sensor_data”,“addr”:“00:13:a2:00:42:0c:33:62”,“received”:1732044268610,“original”:{“mac”:“00:13:a2:00:42:0c:33:62”,“receive_options”:{“ack”:0,“broadcast”:0,“type”:“”},“data”:[127,0,0,3,255,174,0,10,0,0,0,0,0],“rssi”:{},“type”:“receive_packet”},“rssi”:82,“modem_mac”:“00:13:A2:00:42:0C:32:2D”},“payload”:{“lux”:0},“time”:1732044268626,“_msgid”:“1663485cc794eda3”}

4

Hi @luca.parasacco thank you for feedback, I can see that the counter value is 174, indicating that the sensor is functioning correctly at least in terms of data transmission. This counter increments each time a transmission is made. The value of the counter ranges from 0 to 254, and it is reset either when it reaches 254 or when the sensor undergoes a reset, at which point the counter returns to 0.

  1. What is the approximate distance between the sensor and the receiver (Modem or Gateway)?
  2. Is this the only sensor on the network? If there are other sensors, are they functioning properly?
  3. Are you receiving data through a Modem or Gateway?

Thank you,
Eduardo M.

5

Hello,

  1. The distance between the modem and the sensor is approx 5 meters with a wall in the middle
  2. That is the only NCD.io sensor in the network but are many others from other moanufacturers
  3. I am receiving data through your USB modem.

thanks for your feedback

Luca P.

6

Hi @luca.parasacco Thank you for feedback. We will try this:

  1. First, could you please check if there are any duplicate configuration nodes for the serial port within Node-RED? To do this, navigate to the “Configuration Nodes” tab in Node-RED. There, you should see only one serial node configured for use with the NCD library nodes. If possible, please share a screenshot of this section.
    Note: In this window, there should be only one configuration node associated with the COM port, typically labeled something like: COM4 (115200).

  2. Could you please install the XCTU tool on your PC? This tool helps us retrieve all the USB Modem radio module parameters and allows us to check communication with the NCD sensors. It will help us rule out any issues with the radio module parameters or communication, and see if the problem is more related to Node-RED.

You can download XCTU for Windows at:
https://hub.digi.com/support/products/xctu/?path=/support/asset/xctu-v-659-windows-x86x64/

I’m sharing a video that demonstrates the procedure for establishing the connection with XCTU. Although the video is presented for macOS, the steps are also applicable to Windows. I recommend following the instructions from 00:00 to 04:20.

Once the connection is established, we need to check if data is being received from the sensor. To do this:

  1. First connect to the USB modem.
  2. Go to the ‘Consoles Working Mode’ tab
  3. Click the ‘Open’ button.
  4. This will allow us to observe the incoming messages in the ‘Frames Log’ window, as shown in the following image:
    ncd-xctu-tool
    ncd-xctu-tool1697×907 140 KB

To perform the test, you will need to force a data transmission from the sensor. This can be done by pressing the RESET button.

We would like to verify that messages are being continuously received in the “Frames Log” window during the set monitoring period (i.e., during normal operation of the sensor). Could you also share screenshots of the results you are seeing in this window?

Please try this and let us know if you have any questions.
Thank you,
Eduardo M.

7

lucas can you share your order number ?

8

I put two orders:

  • 539161, 9/11/2023
  • 540056, 23/11/2023

btw, I started to ha those issues apporx 6 months ago but I did not want to raise my hand immediately but waiting to understand if the problem would persist.

@Eduardo: I will do the procedure you suggested this week end.

thanks

Luca P.

9

Luca,
the current firmware we are shipping is 3.
will you be able to send this to our UK location for a firmware update or we can send a replacement board ?

10

@Eduardo and @Bhaskar, if we can organize for a replacement board it would be great!

Luca

11

should we ship to same address as your order ?

12

yes please Baskhar.

Luca P.

13

hello, any news?

thx

Luca P.

14

Hello,
We will have it shipped out today. We used the address from order #540056.

Thanks

15

thanks very much

Luca P.