My GSM shield on a MEGA Arduino is supposed to run continously. But now the shield stops after a week or so. There does not seem be an exact count of seconds when it stops, but it just stops. It is a bit hard to test, because the system is not here. I send the code by email. There is quite a lot code the mage, but it should be full, and I am not declaring any new variables or objects, so it is hard to see what in the code would take a week to crash.
Now as a test, and to keep everything online, the system sends a SMS once a day. Othervise there is not much happening with shield.
LMI:
Now as a test, and to keep everything online, the system sends a SMS once a day. Othervise there is not much happening with shield.
From the product description:
"ON/OFF Button – there is a button for turning ON and OFF of the module. It is possible to do the same directly from the Arduino board. The reset signal of the GSM module is connected to the Arduino. This feature can help to improve a reliability of the whole application."
Have you trie turning the module off until needed?
LMI:
Now as a test, and to keep everything online, the system sends a SMS once a day. Othervise there is not much happening with shield.
From the product description:
"ON/OFF Button – there is a button for turning ON and OFF of the module. It is possible to do the same directly from the Arduino board. The reset signal of the GSM module is connected to the Arduino. This feature can help to improve a reliability of the whole application."
Have you trie turning the module off until needed?
Perhaps I should try that, I have not really thought about that. A problem with that is that the user may want to send an SMS to the system, and it should have an (almost)immediate effect.
So far I have used only "gsm.TurnOn();". I have planned to use gsm.TurnOn(); or a relay to reset the module every now and then. But inserting a relay in the system is difficult. And I'd like to know a reason for this problem, or be pretty sure it works before I start.
Have you been able to tell if the GSM shield is powering itself off or if the MEGA code is the problem?
An easy way to tell if the GSM shield powered off is to just call the phone number. If it's powered on it should ring a few times but if it's off it should go straight to voice mail.
How are you powering the unit?
If the power supply drops below the recommended voltage the device will usually shut down.
wayneft:
Have you been able to tell if the GSM shield is powering itself off or if the MEGA code is the problem?
An easy way to tell if the GSM shield powered off is to just call the phone number. If it's powered on it should ring a few times but if it's off it should go straight to voice mail.
How are you powering the unit?
If the power supply drops below the recommended voltage the device will usually shut down.
There is the problem that system is not here, I send code and then hear the results. But whether it is the CPU or SW is a good question.
I think there is enough current. We tried to lower the power supply voltage to check overheating, I dont think it is that.
I sent a version with gsm.poweron command everyday to reset the gsm module. We'll see how it works.
Before I forget. The Arduino Mega1280 schematic diagram is almost useless. Could someone check what pins in Mega are the GSM ON/OFF J1/6 and GSM reset pins J1/5. Thanks
wayneft:
Have you been able to tell if the GSM shield is powering itself off or if the MEGA code is the problem?
An easy way to tell if the GSM shield powered off is to just call the phone number. If it's powered on it should ring a few times but if it's off it should go straight to voice mail.
How are you powering the unit?
If the power supply drops below the recommended voltage the device will usually shut down.
There is the problem that system is not here, I send code and then hear the results. But whether it is the CPU or SW is a good question.
I think there is enough current. We tried to lower the power supply voltage to check overheating, I dont think it is that.
I sent a version with gsm.poweron command everyday to reset the gsm module. We'll see how it works.
Why not just have the MEGA check the GSM to see if it has turned off and if it's off then turn it back on. You could then increment a variable every time it has to turn itself back on. This way you would also know how many times it's shutting down a day/week.
Be careful with lowering the voltage too much. If the voltage drops are too high during GSM bursts (2A) then the dropout voltage will be below the recommended voltage and shut the unit down.
Shutting itself down? I have thought that it just goes crazy. How do you check power state. What AT commands. Or is it so that when there is no response to the AT command, the shield is down.
LMI:
Shutting itself down? I have thought that it just goes crazy. How do you check power state. What AT commands. Or is it so that when there is no response to the AT command, the shield is down.
Interesting ideas. Thanks.
Unfortunately they used the POWERMON pin for voltage level translation so you can't monitor that. You could use the function CheckRegistration() as one of the returned values is NO RESPONSE. Another thing you can try is configuring one of the GPIO's as an output and wiring it to one of the MEGA's digital pins. If the unit shuts down the pin will probably go to some tri-state state (you'll need to read over the data sheet).