Local app problems on day 2

[Wxboy]

I got the local app. working 2 days ago and then all of a sudden last night I started seeing device not available on both the desktop and the laptop.  I turned the Classic on and off about 4 times and did the same with the router but no luck.  Anything else I can try?  I was loving it while it was working. 

[boB]

NO!   One cannot live without that local app  !  I know I can't at least...

Is the Classic still getting a DHCP local IP address from your router ??
To test, you can change it to STATIC, change to some different IP address
and then set it back to DHCP and the IP address should change again.

That will tell if the Classic is still talking with the router at least.

I don't suppose you may have accidently change the port from 502 to
something else from the local app ??  If so, then it is possible the Classic
cannot be found because of that.  With the MNGP (remote) go to the
MISC menu and then COMM sub menu and make sure the port is
set to 502.

Or, did you accidentally uncheck the Auto-Detect Classic in the local app
configuration menu ?

You can also type in the Classic's IP address and its port (usually 502) in
the configuration menu of the local app which you will want to try.
To get that IP address, again, go to the NET menu in the MNGP
and let it get an IP address from your router then set it to STATIC
so that the Classic stays with that IP address  (something like 192.168.1.123
or 10.x.x.x etc.)  nad it should not change from there on.

Let us know if that helps.

boB

[Wxboy]

You are the man boB!  I had already tried just about everything you mentioned except one thing.  I hadn't double checked the port on the Classic.  I didn't think I had changed it so it wasn't something I was looking at but apparently I had accidentally changed it to 501.  All is well in solar land again.  Thank you!!

[boB]

    Excellent ! 

[ChrisOlson]

This thread is a little old.  But I have noticed that after the last firmware update my Classics stop communicating with the Local Status Panel after 2-3 days.  I can ping the Classic's static IP address and the ping responds fine.  But the only way (that I have found) to get the Classic and Local Status Panel to talk to one another again is to reboot the Classic.  Then it's good for another 2-3 days.

This only has happened here since the last firmware update.

Another thing I have noticed that is different, is that with the previous version of the Status Panel I was able to give each of my Classics names.  I can't find that option in the latest version of the Status Panel.  The Classics retained their names I had given them during the latest firmware update, but it appears I can't change it anymore.
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Chris

[boB]

This thread is a little old.  But I have noticed that after the last firmware update my Classics stop communicating with the Local Status Panel after 2-3 days.  I can ping the Classic's static IP address and the ping responds fine.  But the only way (that I have found) to get the Classic and Local Status Panel to talk to one another again is to reboot the Classic.  Then it's good for another 2-3 days.

This only has happened here since the last firmware update.

Another thing I have noticed that is different, is that with the previous version of the Status Panel I was able to give each of my Classics names.  I can't find that option in the latest version of the Status Panel.  The Classics retained their names I had given them during the latest firmware update, but it appears I can't change it anymore.
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Chris

Uh Oh !    I'll try to get the others to check out this thread, Chris.

  Is the Classic set as STATIC or DHCP  IP address ?  Sometime static IP addresses can conflict with things.  Not sure about the name though.
The name shouldn't have anything to do with things.

boB  On the road but back to the office tomorrow.

[Halfcrazy]

The new local app has all the 2 way programming and the name is in that category. So to use those functions it requires the latest version of Classic firmware. The newest Classic firmware has some more tweaks as well that may help with the lost network function.

Ryan

[ChrisOlson]

You mean newer firmware than what I got from June 26 or 29, or whatever it was?

I got my router set up with a IP block that is used specifically for static IP's and is not in the DHCP pool.  I run each Classic on one of the static IP's in that reserved block, and I run each one on a different port so I can port forward the ports for each one thru the router to the outside world.  That way I can access them all from a remote location.  This has worked fine for 6 months until this latest Firmware update.

When I'm on the LAN with the Classics, with the old Local Status Panel I used to have to tell it which ports to look on for each Classic that wasn't on port 502.  But with the newest Local Status Panel it has found the other Classics running on ports 503 and 504 by itself.

When one drops off and won't communicate with the Local Status Panel anymore I just wait until it rotates its logs (so I don't lose the day's power production data), then reboot it.  A reboot brings it right back online.  When it drops off it won't communicate with the Local Status Panel either on the LAN, or thru the router from a remote location.

I could try to gather some more information and details on what I see it doing if it's not a known issue, as I just updated to the newest firmware roughly a week ago.  I have noticed there must've been some "tweaks" to how the MPPT is done on solar because it used to run my panels at 105-108 volts in hot weather.  With the new firmware I see it running the panels at up to 123 volts at times, and it seems to be squeezing a few more kWh out of them.
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Chris

[Halfcrazy]

Chris
Is every thing else like the charging algorithm and screen working as planned?

Ryan

[ChrisOlson]

Is every thing else like the charging algorithm and screen working as planned?

Yep.  When it quits communicating, absolutely no problems with the controller itself, none of the menus, or anything else.

One thing I haven't tried it manually switching it to a different IP address to see if it comes back online without a reboot.  In fact, I have one as I write this that isn't communicating with the Local Status Panel.  I'll go try that and see if it works to bring it back online.

Nope - don't work.  This is what I had (see attachments).

I changed the static IP to 192.168.0.5 and the communications port to 502 to see if it would communicate with the Local Status Panel.  Nothing.  I manually entered in the static IP and port in the Local Status Panel for it and it said it was trying to connect, but then comes up with "Busy".

But I think I may have stumbled upon something - I tried switching it to DHCP and it looks like the DHCP client in the controller is hung - it won't get an IP address from the DHCP pool.  I went to another controller that's presently communicating OK, switched that one to DHCP, and it instantly got a DHCP lease from the router and a IP address from the DHCP pool.

So I'm going to conclude that there's a problem with the DHCP client in the controller crashing or hanging after awhile and tying up the IP networking when it crashes or hangs (just a theory).

Edit: Or the TCP/IP stack just crashes.  Do these things have a Linux kernel running the OS in them?
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Chris

[Halfcrazy]

Chris
Good stuff. Andrew thinks he must have introduced a timing error somewhere in hos code. He is going to go rooting around and see what he can find.

Ryan

[ChrisOlson]

Ryan, this doesn't seem to be consistent for some reason.

My solar controller dropped offline (with the networking) only once after the firmware update, and now it's been fine ever since.  Both wind controllers have required two reboots to get them to communicate with the Local Status Panel since the firmware upgrade and I just rebooted both of them last night again (now three reboots).  Almost like clockwork the wind controllers have been dropping offline after about 48 hours.  But the one on the solar panels seems to have no problem.

I'll report back in two more days to let you know what happens after last night's reboot.
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Chris

[atop8918]

Hi, Chris,
Sorry about the disconnects, I'm checking through the code.

I have noticed that when I lose comms with the Classic using the Local App, closing the Local App for a minute or two and then bringing it back up seems to solve the disconnect problem.

I'm working on a better solution for this, but maybe that will help in the meantime?

Sorry for the troubles!

[ChrisOlson]

Andrew, it's really weird.

My solar controller has no problem at all after the last reboot, and it has been fine for over a week.

Both of my wind turbine controllers dropped offline at roughly 37 hours after the last reboot and neither will communicate with the Local App on either of two different computers.  The initial message is "Busy" and then it drops off the list of controllers all together until I reboot them again.

There's nothing else in the controllers that appears to be affected.  They work fine - only the networking part with the Local App.  I can ping them (they have static IP's) and they respond to a ping fine.

But it's only the two controllers using Wind Track Mode that it appears to happen to after this last firmware update.  I don't know if that means anything, but hopefully that info will help track it down.  If there's anything else you would like me to try for diagnostic purposes before I reboot them again (while they're both not communicating), let me know and I'll do it.
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Chris

[raydias]

I am having the same issue. I am no longer able to use the local app but can ping the static IP of my classic 150. I updated to the latest firmware a few weeks ago and all was well until this week.