1216H looses connectivity with 2.0

[rockyjones]

Jan, thanks for version 2.0.  The new antenna selection code works great!  At least on one of my switches.  Much more versatile.

I have two switches; serial #1537 and #1776.  1537 works great with 2.0.  1776 does not.  It seems to "hang" and be very slow to respond to menu selections or require me to reload it in the browser where I have to "restart" it to get it to work again but it only seems to respond quickly for a few minutes then requires a restart again.  I had to go back to version 1.23 on it and give up the new features of 2.0 :-(

The only difference I notice in the two boxes is the one that works has bootloader 1.8 installed and the one that fails has bootloader 1.9.  I've pasted the info from each box below.

The one that fails:

Company   : Microbit
Product   : 1216H Web Switch
Software  : 1.23
Hardware  : 1
Bootloader: 1.9
Build     : Oct  5 2011 13:44:38
S/N       : 1766
PID       : 4
Uptime    : 5011
=========================

MAC       : 00:1e:fd:00:xx:xx
IP address: 192.168.0.xxx
Netmask   : 255.255.255.0
Gateway   : 192.168.0.1
DNS       : 192.168.0.1
=========================
Max available memory = 16301 bytes
Sun state: Unknown

The one that works

Company   : Microbit
Product   : 1216H WebSwitch
Software  : 2.0
Hardware  : 1
Bootloader: 1.8
Build     : Dec 16 2011 16:12:50
S/N       : 1537
PID       : 4
Uptime    : 5530
=========================

MAC       : 00:1e:fd:00:xx:xx
IP address: 192.168.0.xxx
Netmask   : 255.255.255.0
Gateway   : 192.168.0.1
DNS       : 192.168.0.1
=========================
Max available memory = 16301 bytes
Sun state: Unknown
Last Dynamic DNS status: Error, code=2

In addition, I notice if I set only 2 switches to be "active" in the "relays to be used for antenna selection", after saving the change I don't see any way to get back to be able to change this setting and add another switch to be active.  The "antenna selection" menu shows only the two "active" switches and does not show the lower part of the window to allow selection of different relays to be active nor does it show the "disconnected timeout" selection anymore.

Joe W4WT

[Jan (Microbit)]

In addition, I notice if I set only 2 switches to be "active" in the "relays to be used for antenna selection", after saving the change I don't see any way to get back to be able to change this setting and add another switch to be active.  The "antenna selection" menu shows only the two "active" switches and does not show the lower part of the window to allow selection of different relays to be active nor does it show the "disconnected timeout" selection anymore.

Joe W4WT

Does this only apply to the one which "hangs"? If so, have you tried swapping Ethernet connections between them? Thinking it sounds like some kind of network communication problem. Or have you tested connecting to it using USB and the Setup Manager program when it gets slow browsing it? Or made some other test like if it still selects antennas while being "slow browsed". Those tests could help distinguish it being "slow browsed" or actually performing slow in general.

[rockyjones]

Well, I may have falsely alerted you.  I reloaded the switch today to get more info for you and this time it seems to be working correctly!  I'm a little surprised at this as this is the fourth time I've loaded 2.0 on this switch and in all previous loads it failed in exactly the same way.  I'm using the same 2.0 file I downloaded previously so it is not a new download.  I see no sluggishness and the "antenna selection" menu looks correct after disabling three relays in the "Relays used by antenna selection" dialog.  This is where I had a big problem before.  As I mentioned, when I disabled some relays previously, the "antenna selection" dialog showed only three rows of "boxes" rather than the usual 25 and the bottom part of the window was missing completely.

I have to assume now that I somehow had a bad upload to the switch on my first three attempts.  Seems odd, as I did the uploads on different days.  I do all firmware uploads remotely and don't believe I've ever had a firmware update act like this on any of the boxes.

I guess you can forget it for now, Jan.  I'll leave 2.0 on it and see if it continues to work okay.  If not, I'll be back and post what I see.  Hopefully, it will behave itself!

Thanks and sorry for the erroneous alert,

Joe W4WT

[Jan (Microbit)]

Having a "bad upload to the Webswitch" seems like a long shot to me. That is because the firmware file is checked for validity in several ways, of which the checksum check is the most important. If it fails then it won't allow the new firmware to be flashed.

On the other hand it is hard to understand how it could "fix itself" like that, hehe! You did not change its network surroundings somehow?

[rockyjones]

No, nothing has changed in the network.  All four uploads were done with the same router and same number of devices attached; no new devices were added or removed.  I changed the internet service recently from cable to dsl as the cable provider could not eliminate a WAN problem that was causing dropped packets.  This, of course, was causing audio dropouts.  I can't see how that would affect anything on the local network and certainly would not be able to single out this switch over the other one.

From what you wrote, I assume you upload the new file to the switches RAM, do the checksum there, then if it passes flash it from RAM.  That certainly should prevent a bad load, I would think.  I guess it will remain a mystery at this point.

I just checked the switch after it was powered off all night and morning and it powered up with no problem and all looks to be working correctly so whatever the problem was, it is definitely gone now.  I'm a happy camper because the new 2.0 changes are great!  Much nicer way to set the switch up.

Joe W4WT