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Root :: AMANDA :: Supernova

Dec 03, 2007

Iridium modem failure reported 

By: TeX
Time: 2007335 03:42Z

I emailed Thomas Kowarik on Friday about the status
of supernova for my weekly report and today he replied and mentioned
that he had seen failures of the Iridium modem.

I confirmed this on the web site, which I do
not have access to at the second to record the information.

So this morning I went to MAPO and looked it over, no loose
cables as far as I can see. As QUAD has been active in
removing equipment, I looked on the roof as well. While
some cables have been cut, Darryn believes that the
antenna is in the wooden box on the roof, but it
is somewhat inaccessible due to the QUAD stuff around
it at the moment.

Tonight or tomorrow I will power cycle the modem.
I have also asked Mr. Kowarik if he knows what account
the winterovers use to get on the machine so I can see
if I can talk to the modem manually with cu or some such.

20:21Z Got online to get the failure times:
	message type	time (UTC)	time delay to reception (seconds)	needed modem dial attempts
	test	Sat Dec 1 16:00:01 2007					2	(mail)
	test	Sat Dec 1 09:59:54 2007					69	(mail)
	test	Sat Dec 1 04:00:08 2007					415	(mail)
	test	Fri Nov 30 22:44:19 2007				44	(mail)
	test	Fri Nov 30 15:59:58 2007				5	(mail)
	test	Fri Nov 30 09:59:58 2007				65	(mail)
	test	Fri Nov 30 04:00:00 2007				63	(mail)
	test	Thu Nov 29 21:59:51 2007				12	(mail)
	test	Thu Nov 29 16:43:02 2007				1	(mail)


2007336 01:00Z Powercycled the Iridium modem.

2007336 21:00Z Latest modem failures:
message type time (UTC) time		delay to reception (seconds) needed modem dial attempts
test 		Sun Dec 2 16:00:08 2007 	-5 				(mail)
test 		Sun Dec 2 09:59:49 2007 	14 				(mail)
test 		Sun Dec 2 04:43:34 2007 	29 				(mail)
test 		Sat Dec 1 21:59:48 2007 	2775 				(mail)

So I'd say the power cycle did not work. 

2007337 00:39Z I got onto the sncount machine and looked at the logs.
	The file snews/last_dialing.txt appears to be the log from dialing
	the modem and shows:
		OK

		OK

		NO ANSWER


		OK

		NO ANSWER


		OK

		NO ANSWER


		OK
		+++
		ATQ0H0
		 Modem hangup OK
		 Initializing: 21:54:59...
		ATQ0V1
		ATX3DT00CONCEALEDFORSECURITYREASONS
		 Dialing: 21:55:00...
		DIAL Failure: 21:56:11:  "NO ANSWER"

		Dial attempt 2 of 3...
		ATQ0V1
		ATX3DT00CONCEALEDFORSECURITYREASONS
		 Dialing: 21:56:21...
		DIAL Failure: 21:57:28:  "NO ANSWER"

		Dial attempt 3 of 3...
		ATQ0V1
		ATX3DT00CONCEALEDFORSECURITYREASONS
		 Dialing: 21:57:39...
		DIAL Failure: 21:58:45:  "NO ANSWER"

		*************************
		DIAL-class command failed.
		Modem type:  generic
		Device:      /dev/ttyUSB0
		Speed:       9600
		Dial status: 26 [No answer]
		 . SHOW COMMUNICATIONS, SHOW MODEM, SHOW DIAL to see current settings.
		 . HELP SET MODEM, HELP SET DIAL, and HELP DIAL for more information.
		(Use SET HINTS OFF to suppress future hints.)
		*************************

		+++
		ATQ0H0

	So it appears to that the modem is up, but dialing out returns
	no answer. So the issue is probably either the link to the antenna,
	or perhaps some issue on the other end of the link. Next test is
	to dial the number on a different iridium or phone line.

23:46Z Wrote Kowarik about the status, asked him to call the modem on
	the other end to see if it is just no answering.... Googling for
	an Iridium modem manual to see if any diagnostics. No one here seems
	to have a manual.


2007337 22:12Z Kowarik wrote back, he checked their end and the problem was fixed.
	Evidentally the socket for the cable on their modem was broken.
	Will wait a day to see if the call actually works.

Edgar Nielsen | 03 Dec 2007 16:16 GMT | AMANDA/Supernova | | permalink