Boron LTE stops processing SMS after several hours

Troubleshooting
1

Hi, I have a Particle Boron LTE sending and receiving SMS. The problem I am having is that after a few hours it stops receiving/processing the SMS. When you reboot it, it works again. It generally works for 2 to 3 hours some times up to 5 and then stops. The code is still running as i can see it on the serial monitor and nothing appears to change.

I never had this issue on a Election, what is the best way to refresh the modem every hour with the least disruption. I would prefer not to have to have it disconnect and reconnect if I didn’t have to.’

Yes I know this is a hard question with out supplying the code. There is just too much to upload.

2

@ParticleD, or @mstanley are you able to assist?

3

Does it lose connection and flash green or does it keep breathing cyan?

4

I will send you down the same rabbit hole I investigated:

The u-blox SARA modem used on the Boron (and Arduino MKR NB 1500, Hologram Nova modem, as well as some other products) was problematic for me with SMS – everything from not receiving SMS’s, to freezing the board.

I have no answers for you. I am not an expert, just a user. But I can honestly state the frustration of working with SMS’s on this modem drove me away from a direct SMS path here at Particle. For the record, I never had any similar issues with a number of 2G and 3G products in the past 5 years or so. with SMS I still “send” SMS messages from my LTE Boron, but it’s via Particle.publish() and a Twilio webhook.

5

I have the lights turned off at the moment. Ill have to check. I know its still connected as I can access it through particle and it still publishes data. I can see the loop hasn’t frozen as I can see it running on the serial monitor.

6

@michaelm That’s what I am thinking, I have improved it slightly with some check and balances, and if it detects an issue it resets as such. out of curiosity,do your Boron’s take longer to send SMS then the 3G version?

7

System.reset();
should simulate hitting the reset button

8

Exactly the opposite, happily. :-). SMS messages sent via Particle.publish() and onward to actual SMS via a Twilio web hook are scary fast / instantaneous. I’ve been very pleased with how well it works. I used outgoing SMS from 3G Hologram Dash previously – it worked fine, but the Boron + Twilio combo is even faster from event to receipt of SMS.

9

@michaelm Ahhh. I’m using the actual Boron to send and receive SMS as then if the data connection drops the device is still controllable via SMS.

10

Just curious – who’s SIM are you using?

11

@michaelm Telstra

12

Sorry, I have no experience with them. :frowning: I’ve used Hologram with some success on the Boron LTE.

13

All good. I think I have it working now. I think the issues was it was not checking for SMS because it though it wasn’t in a connected state. I have changed the code around and it seems to be working now. fingers crossed. Thanks

14

For those that come across this problem, make you you set the modem to the correct network frequencies. Since I did that, My SMS issues went away.

15

Could you please link me to this in the documentation? I am having trouble finding more information about how to use SMS through Boron without having to use Twilio. Thank you very much, I really appreciate it.

16

The issue with sms was it was actually dropping out of Text mode when the modem reset.

What are you trying to achieve with sms?

17

I have a system that monitors heavy equipment. Temps, pressures, etc. I would be nice to be able to send emergency alerts to my clients phone as needed.

I’m having trouble finding a good starting point in the documentation. I probably looking in the wrong spot, but I’m not sure.

18

Have you seen this post by Cameron. It is a very good starting point. Receiving SMS in Particle Electron

19

Awesome. Thank you very much!