I left this message as a private message, but haven’t heard back. Thought I’d post it here as well. This is somewhat critical.
This modem is installed on a pump location in my orchard. The antenna is mounted on a 15’ pole which is line of site connected to a receiver antenna about 100m away. The issue is the base station is constantly loosing contact with the remote station. The base station reports a “transmission error” (code 4). Cycling the power on the modem does not change the behavior. Pressing the reset button will enable communication, but only for a short time before it is lost again.
I have had problems with birds landing on the top of the towers and “re-orienting” the antenna to a horizonal position on the base station. Several years ago I enclosed the base station antenna in a wire cage (1/4“ wire mesh, that extends from the 2” pipe mounting to a couple of inches above the antenna tip. This seems to have worked. However, the birds have done the same to the remote antenna this winter. The antenna wire had come out of the antenna. I re-inserted it, re-mounted it and enclosed it in a mesh cage as well. Could not get any connection.
I was wondering if the metal cage was interfering with transmission. I took the cage off and was able to get transmission. When I put it back on, I lost it. I left it off and was able to complete an irrigation cycle. However, transmission is lost, and the only way I can get it back is to press the red reset button on the modem, wait and transmission is restored. Cycling the power on the modem and remote station does not appear to fix anything, only resetting the modem.
I’m at a loss as to how to proceed. It could be a problem with the remote antenna that the birds destroyed and I re-assembled. It could be the wire cage around the base station is degrading the signal. It could be a faulty modem. All the items for this application were purchased on 3/28/2022, order number 489035.
Hi,
A metal cage around the modem, if grounded, would certainly create interference to the wireless signal. Couple that with the antenna being possibly damaged and I would say that is the real issue.
However this could also be software related which would explain why resetting the modem corrects the problem. Resetting the Ethernet modem would forcibly close any TCP socket connection to it which would prompt the software to reconnect and begin functioning again. What software are you using to control the remote relay through the modem?
You could try a higher gain antenna at the modem to see if that resolves the issue. These types of antennas are commonly available like this one:
Antenna
Thank you,
Travis Elliott
So the base station antenna (connected to the modem) is on top of a 15’ galvanized pipe pole anchored in concrete. The wire cage is attached to the pole and surrounds the antenna. Sounds like this could be an issue, although it had been working fine for 3 years. This was the antenna that came with the modem unit, I just used the RP-SMA Male/Female Antenna Extension Cable routed up through the interior of the pipe pole to mount the antenna at the top of the pole. I bought a second extension cable and an antenna to mount at the top of the valve station pole (15’ - galvanized)
I’ll take the wire cage off the base station antenna and see if that helps. (On the receiver station I ended up attaching two wooden dowels with spiked ends on each side of the antenna to discourage birds landing on it, but the antenna could have been damaged from the first bird strike, so I’ll replace it as a precaution.)
Looking at the antenna you recommended, the connectors don’t look the same. Do you think I can just screw the new antenna into the end of the extension cable that is already at the top of the pole?
Two other observations. First, the connections seem to last during the day, but fails at night. This doesn’t make any sense to me. Second, I have control software I wrote myself to communicate with the relay controller on the remote station. It’s worked for years. But even when I use the Digi tools (XTCU) it doesn’t communicate either.
Based on the recommendation from both you and Jacob, I purchased a new outdoor antenna from Amazon ( Waterproof 5.8dBi Lora 915MHz Fiberglass Antenna with 20Ft Low Loss KMR195 Cable). This is a much stouter antenna. I wasn’t able to mount it on top of the pole (my forklift not available), but I temporarily mounted it next to the pole about 5’ above ground. Lots of tree branches between it and the base station, but communication was established almost immediately and it’s been functioning for several days now. Everything is working just fine.
Thanks for you help and suggestions.