We have 3 web-i internet relay boards and they have recently started to lose connection often and need to be rebooted which we do by disconnecting the power supply and reconnecting. They then work for a while but drop out again in a matter of hours or a day or so.
Do the web-i’s have a static IP address assigned outside of the DHCP range of the controllers?
Are any other devices on the network having connectivity issues?
Was anything changed with these Relay Controllers recently such as load, new network, rewiring?
The Web-i is set to run on DHCP, not static IP, The other devices on these networks are working and can be accessed remotely. No hardware changes have been made recently, and the same loss of connection happens on three separate networks. unplugging and repowering the board temporarily fixes the problem.
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How are you connecting to the Web-i? Is it over TCP sockets or are you sending http requests to the board?
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What loads are you switching with the relays?
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Are you sharing the 12VDC power supply that powers the board with any other loads?
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How are you powering the boards? 120VAC to 12VDC power supplies we provide, automotive 12VDC, etc?
- We use port forwarding and type the router ip into a browser to access the web i interface.
- we use all of bank 1 on our sixteen channel boards, and a few of bank two on some to power DC Motor pumps.
- power supplies are i think SMPS DC-DC voltage regulators, one uses the 24V to 12V power supply that you guys sell, the other two use something like the MEAN Well RSD-60-12.
Main power for the whole thing is a large battery bank (20+KW) and solar charging, one worked fine for years, another for more than a year, same setup.
So there are a couple things I’d recommend to troubleshoot the problem.
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If you are using port forwarding on the router can you tell me if the port forwarding rule references the controllers local IP address on the network or the controller’s MAC address? Different routers handle this differently. If the Port Forwarding rule references an IP address and the controller is obtaining an IP from the router via DHCP then it is possible that the controller’s DHCP lease on the network is expiring which leads to the Port Forward rule breaking. One thing you can do which I highly recommend is IP reservation on the router. Most routers allow you to reserve an IP address for a device. Reserve an IP for the controller outside the router’s DHCP address range, then setup port forwarding using that IP. Most of the time this will correct the problem.
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If the instruction above does not resolve the problem then I would start to wonder about hardware related issues. DC pumps are highly inductive loads which can cause all kinds of trouble if not properly accounted for. Try running the system without the Pumps connected to the board to see if that resolves the problem. You might even power the board from a 120VAC to 12VDC power supply for a few days with nothing connected to the relays just to make certain there are no “hardware environment issues” possible.
Let us know what you find.
Thank you,
Travis Elliott
I think it may be due to conflicting ports, my remote cameras use upnp and take up port 80 e/i intermittently, though im having a hard time catching the problem in the act. Can i set the web-i to use a less common internal port, any alternate ports? We dont use link.signalswitch. I am considering a flyback diode to help with my inductive loads, but the way it is acting really leads me to believe it is software connectivity.
We don’t have any way to change the HTTP listening port so it is fixed at 80. However if you are accessing the board remotely and are using port forwarding on the router perhaps you could use port mapping to take incoming connections on something like 8080 and route the connection to the board over port 80. That’s a fairly common way to deal with something like this.