RR Control Access Stopped Working

[W1UE]

My Remote rig was working fine as late as 3 months ago.  With the summer here, and other contests, I disconnected my K3 to use it elsewhere.  Finally got around to hooking it up this weekend, and find I can no longer access the remote station.

I have verified that the Remote Station works; 2 others have been able to access it with the settings that it has.  However, I
can't access it from my control unit.  I have checked the setups in Control and Remote units, and they match. 

When I turn my K3 on, it comes up in the NORM mode.  When I put it into the TERM mode, it just stays there with TERM on the LCD display.  It doesn't connect, the Remote unit radio doesn't say its on, and it just hangs there.

The only hardware changed since I know it worked was the replacement of the FIOS interface box.  Mine, and my neighbor's box, both got taken out apparently by a voltage surge.  The FIOS interface box was hard wired to the wireless modem, and the Remote Rig Control Unit was hardwired through a switch to the wireless router, but none of the other 10 or so items in the house that were hardwired to the FIOS box got zapped.

At this point, I'm getting frustrated and am out of ideas.  Any help?  Thanks.

Dennis W1UE

[dj0qn]

Dennis,

I assume you are trying to access it from outside the station's network. If so, is this the
same location you had previously used the control RRC from, or is this a different locations?

Normally I would suspect the router's port forwards, but you said that others can access the
rig. This indicates a problem on the control RRC side. If you are using it in a different location
than before, you should enable DHCP on the control RRC. If this isn't the problem, we will
need to take a closer look.

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[W1UE]

Yes, the Control location is outside the Remote network.  The location did work, and I haven't changed any of the settings that I know of.

A few more bits of info:
1. I hooked the K3 up to the computer today.  Communications from the K3 to N1MM and from N1MM to the K3 were all successful.
2. I can access the Control Remote unit via Microbit and over the web.
   The status shows that the radio is "Off" even when its on in front of me.  The SIP Status is Idle, and the DNS Status is OK.

I also hooked up the computer and N1MM via the Com1 on the Control unit.  I could not communicate with the local radio, but I'm not sure that it should work.

UE

[dj0qn]

No, that will not work without the CAT signal coming over the network.

What do you see on the control RRC status page under "other party" or "DNS status"?

Under IP settings, is DHCP set to yes? What do you see on the info page under
"IP address", "gateway" and "DNS"?

Is the control RRC located at a home, or in a company network?

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[W1UE]

DNS Status: OK, dzjah2om.ddns.remoterig.com = 66.31.240.232

DHCP is "yes"

Under IP settings:
IP Address: 192.168.1.170
Gateway: 192.168.1.1
DNS: 192.168.1.1

Control RRC located at my home.

Only hardware that changed in my system since it worked- the FIOS interface box got zapped a while back, probably from a surge on the AC line.  If it was zapped by a surge, nothing else in the house got zapped by that same surge.  Control unit
was on at the time, though.

Dennis W1UE

[dj0qn]

This looks fine to me. This makes the whole thing very strange.....there is no reason
that it shouldn't work, assuming nothing changed and others can connect to the K3.

The only thing I can suggest is to:
- remove and then repower both RRC's
- then try a connect with the control K3 and give us the status for the following (the entries below are for when it works):

Connection status   OK
SIP status   Connected/transfering
Last SIP error   None
RTP status   Excellent(60)
UDP cmd status   OK(45)

Maybe the error message will provide a clue.

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[W1UE]

I don't have the ability to remove the power from the Remote RRC.  Since others have been able to connect, it doesn't seem like it would be ther problem.

I disconnected the DC power, and also removed the USB cable to make sure it didn't get any power that way.  Waited 5 minutes, then connected everything up.  No joy:
Connection Status: OK
SIP Status: Idle
Last SIP Error: None
RTP Status: Disconnected
UDP Cmd Status: Disconnected

I went one more step and removed the cover from the unit, to see if there was any visible damage to any of the parts inside the unit.  Directly behind the Com2 input for the Control radio RS232 connection, there is a part that is reddish with no part number visible on the top.  Above that part, there is what looks like an SMT cap that is there, and below that part there looks like a set of pads for an SMT cap, but no cap.  From the picture on the website (Open the Box), it appears that there is an SMT
cap there, but that could have changed in production.  There were also no little pieces of parts rolling around inside the cabinet, nor any traces of an SMT part left on the solder pads.  BTW, the SN on my unit is 4743.

I'm going to the Remote site tomorrow, so I could take this unit with me and see if it works when hooked to the local network.
If it doesn't work there, it certainly won't work over the Internet.

Also, I'm assuming that the DB9 adapter is just a gender changer, and not to convert the cable to a null modem type.

Dennis W1UE

[dj0qn]

Then you just found the problem: the control K3 did not even attempt a connect, otherwise
there would be either an error message or a connect message.

This means that you have either a cable or K3 problem, but nothing to do with the RRC.

I would first check the serial cable between the RRC COM2 and the K3's CAT to make sure that it is
properly seated. If this is in place, then you have another problem with your K3. Check to make sure
that the K3's CAT baud rate matches the RRC COM2 baud rate and otherwise look for what the problem
may be.

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[W1UE]

One more bit- this K3 has been used as a remote K3, but never as a Control K3.   Now I want to use it as a Control K3.  Is there any thing special that needs to be done to the K3?

I've tried 3 different cables- no joy with any of them.  I will have a different K3 to try tomorrow.

Dennis W1UE

[dj0qn]

Not to the K3 itself, just hook the necessary cables up to it as you did before.

I understood your first mail as stating effectively that "nothing has changed", so this is the cable
that was working previously, right? As you can see on page 206 of the manual, this is a "null modem"
cable with pins 2&3 and 7&8 crossed. Make sure you are not using a straight serial cable.

73,
Mitch DJ0QN / K7DX

[W1UE]

Bingo!  I was using a straight through cable.  Put on a null modem cable, and it connected right away.

The null modem cable was still packed from my last trip.  The 3 cables I tried were all straight through cables.

DOH!

Thanks.

Dennis W1UE