Limit automatic power cycles

Projects Programming
1

Hello,

After trying to solve this problem for several days I have decided to try asking here. I feel this should be an easy thing to do, but I can't make it work.

I am trying to use an Arduino Uno with an ethernet shield at a remote site to monitor voltages and data connection. I am using wireless routers for data communications. Sometimes the routers will "hang" and not pass traffic even though they still have a connection. I have the remote wireless router checking the http connection with the main data collection computer located 50 miles away once every 15 minutes. If it does not get a response the Arduino will flip a relay off, wait 15 seconds and then back on again. The problem is, I want to limit the power cycles to four times. This station is repeated through another site and the problem could be at the repeater site so I don't want to keep bouncing my radio over and over until I can get there (this location is approximately 400 miles from my office). I have tried "for" statements (Line 124) and "while" statements but I still haven't been able to get it to stop power cycling, it just seems to ignore it.

Please just point me in the right direction - I want to learn how to fix it myself.

The code is too long to post here so I have included it as an attachment.

Thanks,
John

FYI - If you are wondering, this is for an earthquake monitoring station in East Tennessee.

WMTN2.txt (7.73 KB)

2

The code you posted does no counting of how many times you have retried. When your checkIfmttnIsAlive() function returns false, increment a variable. If that functions returns true, reset that variable to 0. Add a check to see what value that variable has and if it is less than 4, run checkIfmttnIsAlive() again..

Also, since you are using a Uno, get rid of all your Strings and learn how to use char arrays or you will eventually run into problems since there is not very much memory available.

  if (resetCount < MaxResetCount) {

    if (millis() - lastmttnCheck > 900000)  //Check if there is a connection to mttn every 15 Minutes
    {
      lastmttnCheck = millis();
      Serial.print("Number of times radio reset");
      Serial.println(resetCount);
      if (!checkIfmttnIsAlive())
      {
        Serial.println("Link to mttn is DOWN!");
        digitalWrite(wmtn2ep, HIGH); // If link is down, turn off EP radio
        delay (15000);  // Wait 15 seconds
        digitalWrite(wmtn2ep, LOW);  // Turn radio back on
        resetCount++;
      }
      else {
        resetCount=0;
      }
      delay(1000);
    }
  }
3

That worked like a charm. Thank you very much. I will take your advice to learn char arrays.