I have a product with a B-SoM module in the field that has been working fine for many months.
OS: 5.6.0
For the last several days, however, although it continues to send in status reports every 20 minutes as expected, I am unable to contact the device remotely, either from our dashboard or from the Particle console.
On the Particle console, it shows as “Online”. Cell strength is 58%, signal quality is 88%.
I have several functions implemented, and when I try one from the console, it fails (“Failed to call GetStatus”).
I tried the “Ping” from the console as well, and it also fails (“This device was unreachable by the Particle cloud within 15 seconds. The device may be powered off, or may be having trouble connecting to the Particle Cloud.”).
I have a “reset CPU” function which I also sent from the console. It failed as well, but when the next incoming status report arrived, apparently the function was sent through, because the device then reported that it reset.
Despite that, I still cannot contact it from the console or from our dashboard. Ping and my functions all fail, but it continues to send updates on schedule.
The troubleshooting options through Particle’s web site require plugging into the module. The device is about 800 miles from me so I’ll have to dispatch a technician to do anything at the site.
What could cause this and how do I fix it? Or even troubleshoot it?
I’ve toggled the SIM state, and there is no improvement.
It appears that the device is either in a state where the firmware does not allow the system thread to run, or it loses it’s cellular connection, and only establishes it when the keepalive is sent at the 23min mark, or the device publishes data.
Usually you’ll se the device being responsive a couple of seconds after an event was sent to the cloud. If that’s the case it’s on the cellular side and we’ll need to get in touch with the provider.
Yes, that’s exactly what we were seeing. The device publishes data every 20 minutes, and it seems that a command sent around that publishing event MAY be received by the device. But commands sent at any other time don’t get through to the device.
However, whatever you did does seem to have solved the issue. I can (at least right now) send commands to it from the console or from our dashboard, and it does respond to the PING command from the console.
Is this likely a one-time fluke? Or should we just plan on replacing the device?
We do have 2 other devices nearby and they have been working fine all along.
Ah, ok, so if that worked (SIM activation cycle) it’s likely just a misconfig on the tower, and I don’t expect it to pop up again. Please let me know if it does though!