Dropping the connection to spark cloud

Almost 24 hours later and I’m still humming along on the guest network. The only other device on the guest network is a WeMo Outlet; the main network has an apostrophe in the name, which the WeMo can connect to just fine and it has no problem talking to my smartphone over the LAN, but for some reason that apostrophe prevents it from connecting to the internet, Good job Belkin!

AndyW, what’s the pcap show? Can you email it to me? [m e AT t i m b DOT u s]

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I’m running on 6 hours without a drop, which is the longest stretch it has gone (to my knowledge). It is currently the only device on the guest network. Both of my networks have SSIDs with a space as well as WPA2 passwords.

The only always-on wifi devices normally on my network are 2 iPhones, 2 iPads, an iPod, 2 MacBook Pros, a Nest thermostat, and a D-Link Ethernet bridge. Even the laptops aren’t always-on. The always on wired devices are a Roku, an AppleTV, and a RaspberryPi. Other than the laptops, the wifi doesn’t get much traffic, but they weren’t even on when I was getting disconnects.

I’m wondering if there are any other similarities amongst networks with the same issues that might help us dig deeper. I can pretty much disable anything except the Nest thermostat and probably the Roku (lest there be a mutiny in my house).

OK, When you say you have setup a guest network. What exactly do you mean by that?
I would like to try the same to see if I can get more than 30mins of use of my cores.

most routers have the main network you connect to and the option to run a second wireless network called guest network. you will need to log into the router to see this.

the guest is commonly a network that can access the internet but not your local area, so it prevents access to stuff like network drives. it looks like this on my router

I also have the dropouts - times vary a lot - between hours and days. It might be related to my ISP since I sometimes have dropouts when listening to internet radio - Anyway, I think we need a feature to better handle/configure the way the core connects to the Spark Cloud.

This is one issue im hoping I dont have. I want to use this for a light controlling project and if I lose internet and the cloud is lost, even my motion sensors wouldnt trigger the lights

A good idea may be to put an LED on the board, and let it pulse from low to high. When it cuts off check your internet. And it only checks every 15 minutes so if the led stops pulsing you know to check the internet. It could also be the wireless cutting out. I know my wireless will sometimes leave my mobile connected but say I have no internet when lan devices do

Just dropped out again - 15min - really not usable for anything if the thing needs a reset and the running program is dead.

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Did you check that your internet was on the whole time? And was it 15 minutes after the initial boot?

Yep it was on - skype and other services work fine - /btw it dropped again. Was getRSSI(); implemeted yet ? I would like to see if for some reason the signal is weak.

Do you have any other wireless devices connected?

One daft thing that sometimes happens. Try changing the channel on your router to something random under 11. Sometimes there may be wireless interference when lots of people are using the samw wireless channel.

This could cause it to lose connection after the initial login. Again is it exactly 15 minutes after the initial boot up?

Yes, quite a few wireless devices are on my DIR-825 (ch 6) (4 devices, repeater (ch 11), 2 thermostats, ). As for the 15min - it was not exact - it now running for almost an hour.

strange. I was thinking perhaps it was connecting initially when it logs into the router then losing its session after that.

perhaps it is just being picky or has issues with the repeater being there. it could even being something as simple as the core having a lot of lag through the internet, for example your ping is high and it doesn’t get a fast enough reply. maybe try running a test on speedtest.net and see what your connection speed and ping are like

As I mentioned before, I had a 2.8" TFT display hooked up, cycling through random screen colors, while running ping on both my MacBook Air and an iMac which is wired directly into the Router, both of them showed ZERO packet loss over 6 hours, during which the Core stopped updating the LCD and began flashing cyan three times!

I don’t think this is an issue with internet connectivity.

So, my Core on the guest network did go to flashing cyan this morning, but that’s ONE time in 36 hours, as compared to every 1-6 hours on the main network. Sooo there’s clearly something happening here…

I think I’ll take my Raspberry Pi and use it to host a WiFi network, bridge it through a VLAN and then out through the LAN port directly into the router’s switch. I can use ethercap or something to monitor it at the packet level. Perhaps I’ll write a trigger script on the Pi that tries to poll a variable every few seconds from the Core, when it stops changing or can’t contact it anymore it’ll save a detailed log from 60 seconds before and after the event.

pcap file is inconclusive to me. There is at least one event where one end or the other is having a fit, but it rides through(ish) - there is a single TCP connection maintained throughout the entire time, until the core appears to go mute and the cloud gives up.

timb - the file is on it’s way. Make of it, what you will.

Ok, the issue here could be because of insufficient power delivered by the Host to the Core. In most models of computers, the host can supply enough power but in some models, it’s limited to only 100mA by default unless requested by the USB device. @wgbartley, in your your case since you are using Serial, the USB Virtual COM port process on Core kicks in which request 450mA MaxPower from the Host. So the solution could be to start the USB enumeration process at the start of firmware.

Satish, this is not the case for my failure.

Failure occurs when supplied by a 20A bench supply.

@satishgn, My Core has been using a dedicated USB charger rated for 5v 1A. I only plugged it into my laptop to help with trying to get faster readings for debugging this evening. I also verified that my laptop should have enough juice to handle the 450mA required (at least according to the system report below).

My Core was using the dedicated USB charger for about 30 of the past 36 hours (the last 6-ish have been plugged into my laptop). Once I switched to the guest network, I haven’t had a single drop; not on the charger or on my laptop. It definitely feels related to the access point or the wifi network. Maybe too much chatter on the wifi could cause it to drop since wifi is like a hub rather than a switch. I’m going to gradually start switching devices over the guest network to see if any of them could be causing the drops.

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Keep us updated!

@AndyW Thanks, just saw it! I’ll have a look at this tomorrow and see if I can come up with anything. Maybe my 10+ years in networking and IT might actually come in handy (as to opposed to just raising my blood pressure and driving me to drink).

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My experience, for what it’s worth:

Also dropping the connection, going from ‘breathing cyan’ (connected) to ‘flashing cyan.’ Interval between an established connection and dropping can vary - between 30 seconds and 30 minutes. Quick press of reset and the core reconnects in less than 5 seconds.

It’s running a simple ‘blinking LED’ program and is plugged into a 1A power supply.

This only seems to happen in my office, not at home. I’ve switched between routers, adjusted settings from WPA to WPA2, etc. These things don’t improve the situation.

Would really like to solve this since once the Spark drops from the cloud it doesn’t auto-reconnect. Manually resetting a device I hope to leave on at (and sending data from) a remote location doesn’t make sense.

I get the same problem!! I have factory reset multiple times now because of the code stopping and the quick (not handshake fast) cyan led. Sometimes the spark will run for 10 minutes, yesterday it went for 14 hours. My router is about 8 metres away and I havent noticed that the internet is not contactable.

I thought I had a dud until reading this thread. Its cramping my dreams of actually using this thing for anything useful.

Shit, it just died again… 8 minutes.
Edit: 30 minutes since last reset. I am running off a 5v 2A supply also.