connectivity issues with the Wireless Temperature sensors.

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-05

I am consistently getting alerts that the sensors are unplugged or have malfunctioned, and have to constantly reboot the sensors. sometimes the sensors will come back online after rebooting and sometimes I have to place them directly on the Rack monitor for it to pick the sensor back up. The RSSI strength is high enough that I don't believe they should just be dropping off like this. We have a large amount of these sensors deployed and need to find out what is causing this. Has anyone had this issue and found a solution?

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-05

I also wanted to mention that all of the sensors have been updated the the latest firmware.

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-05

Hi Matthew,

What exactly is the RSSI? I would suggest in issues like this that you keep it above 50. Also, if you have the coordinator plugged into the appliance itself, you may want to connect it to a USB extension or if not on a 250, a usb repeater cable. Which appliance is it and what firmware is it running? I know you said the sensors are at the latest but can you provide the version number?

Id also be curious to know if it happens at a specific time. For instance if it’s happening during work hours and not off hours, it may be some sort of interference. Is there any fiber running near the sensors with the issues? Is it all sensors or just some?

steve.

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-05

Hi Steve, The RSSI's are ranging anywhere from 75% to 98% so I do not believe this is the issue. We have 660 sensors spread across 22 NetBotz570 Rack monitor devices. Does the USB extension apply to a Rack monitor 570? The firmware version on the Sensors is 1.1.2, and the firmware on the Coordinators is 1.1.1. The Rack monitor is running OS version 4.6.3. The timing seems random and when I restart one and get it back online another one will fall off so it seems like it can happen to any sensor. As far as fiber goes. there is fiber in the cage but I would not say it is 'near' the sensors. Most of it is ran above the rack on a ladder tray.

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-05

Hi Matthew,

If RSSI can be seen over time at a consistent 75%, there would appear to be no issue there. I would't worry about any issues until it regularly went below 50%. The warning for this threshold is (I believe) around 30 but I like to troubleshoot with better numbers. I'm assuming your battery voltage is fine?

With the NetBotz 570 being mounted in a rack, a USB extender is usually a good idea. I normally suggest this with RSSI issues but you don't seem to have those kinds of issues. The 570 can use an extender or a USB repeater (basically a 1 port hub). the 250 can not use the repeater as it does not have the driver for it.

660 sensors is a lot of sensors. Are they all installed within close range with each other? Are you using any of the coordinators as USB routers? These can add extra traffic to the already busy wireless networks.

I'd also be curious to know if you've turned off any settings for auto-join or if you had used that feature at all. If your NetBotz are in close enough proximity so that they would be able to communicate with sensors associated to other networks, I could see where the sensor could be discovered by multiple networks during a comm lost issue and could start communicating with other NetBotz. You'd have to verify the commission lists of nearby appliances to verify that.

Steve

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-05

Hey Guys,

Even i am facing the same issue. we have about 280 of these T/H sensors. For every 40 sensor we have one netbotz 250 controlling it. Randomly the sensors get inactive/unplugged and sometimes we have to restart the sensor.

Thanks

DCIM_Support · ‎2020-07-05

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