Electron SIM card usage not consistent with each units

[Jeffrey]

Hi all,

We have been experiencing inconsistency with SIM card usage with a few of our devices. We are currently using Electrons with each device using the same software, firmware, and each have the same electronics associated with them. They are all located within the same proximity of each other (RSSI of ~ -89), but each unit has a totally different SIM usage. These devices have been deployed for almost a year and has been consistent with each other up until recently. Here are some data usage graphs from a few of them:

Each of these devices had greater than 99% up time since September 23rd, the start of the cycle as shown on the pictures, but have different data usage. I have looked throughout the community forums and documentation. but haven’t found anything that suggests why this may occur. I have downloaded the history from these devices and found unusual things:

Device with 6.2 MB:

Device with 30.89 MB:

The devices with higher MB usage seems to have a spike in service.cloud.publish.sent and service.cloud.uptime. What do these two parameters describe and why do some of them spike while the others do not. Does this contribute into having a higher MB usage?

Are there any other things we should check to answer why these devices have inconsistent data usage?

Best,
Jeffrey

[marekparticle]

Hi @Jeffrey!

I’d like to help you with this. Would you mind PMing me the ICCIDs of the three SIMs in question so I can take a more detailed look?

I see a few unacks on the 30.89MB device, and a huge discrepancy of the publish.sent value. Given that they’re running identical code, I suspect that the 30.89MB device might be struggling with its Cloud connection a little bit, eating up data as it renegotiates its connection to the Cloud. An RSSI of -89, assuming these are 3G devices, evidences this hypothesis a little bit (both in terms of disconnections and variance in reporting).