Hi,
I received the kit today here in the UK ( it took just 4 days to arrive here! WOW! Very impressed! )
Plugged it all in, with the antenna on the box (stuck it all inside a plastic bag, because it tarted to rain as soon as the kit arrived …sigh… ) positioned it and it all worked first go WOW again!
As I type it is getting 8.05 db of signal and no errors …
So it was running no worries, I can see grib files and a couple of aprs logs… a page full plus 4 items on the second page in the “recent” tab! Until it got to " 6996-France.html.tbz2 (62%)" and it has not received any new files now for about 4 hours .
I have restated the CHIP ( by removing power completely, but it is still “Stuck”
What should I do?
The only other “stuck” message I have seen here had no answer, but it seems it may have fixed itself after a couple of days…
Please advise… do I wait for days , or is there something I can do? HELP!
With the power applied, suggest you shut down the CHIP by pressing the button on the CHIP. Then after a minute or so, start the CHIP again up by pressing the same button. Ken
Don’t despair at this point - - waiting for data is OK. Sometimes Outernet is not transmitting. Give your setup a couple of hours (yes - sounds weird), but things may look better after a glass of wine. Take a look in hour increments to see what you see without reboots/power downs. Ken
Thanks Ken,
It is almost bed time for me, but the device is running on batter, so I will have to turn it off .
It is receiving packets OK,… maybe there is no data being broadcast… I will leave it up till the battery pack dies I guess
If you can power your unit from its USB charging port with a long extension cord running a 10 watt USB charger, then it will stay awake. But I know that’s hard to do if your unit is a long way from your house. Ken
So here is the news from the home front
The battery died last night after a full 9 and a half hours ( not bad!) but it was still just saying “waiting for files” despite lock on a good signal and lots of good packets.
I charged the battery over night & fired it all up again this AM and it has “unstuck” .
The file it is downloading is happily growing…
YAY
Soooo… I think that maybe the answer here is that , for som reason, the whole thing needed to be powered down for an extended ( who knows how long - mine was about 8 hours!) period and then it works again …
Weird, but there you go!
ERG!!! STUCK AGAIN, SAME FILE!
So now after running OK for a few hours this morning it has stuck on 6996-France.html.tbz2 (66%) This time at 66% and had been for over an hour
It seems that the last file it received was “messages-1.htm” in APRS which was the last full file it received yesterday too… maybe it is because they are always transmitted in the same order, but maybe something in side the previous file is cause it to have a problem ( the APRS file has undisplayable fonts inside it BTW)
Any ideas?
I will turn it off for a few hours… I was hoping to get a full set of files so I could display the weather globe today
Disconnected it for a few hours
Actually used the SDR & An to look for other stuff from the satellites…
Fired it up and now it has been "waiting for download for about 15 mins ( again)
I know from last nigh that it will not recover from this state…
I guess all I can do is keep restarting it until it either works or I get frustrated and jump up and down on it …
Unsurprisingly it has died again on the same file at 66%
6996-France.html.tbz2 (66%)
I will leave it downloading for an hour or so & see, then try to restart it … sigh… there is defiantly either a corrupted file (on my librarian) or being sent from the sat…
Again, I don’t know if the files are always in the same order but the LAST file completely received received was messages-1.html in APRS
any ideas @syed ?
can I rekey the database in the Chip?
(edit) I have restared it a number of times now, and ( after fiddling around) it either just says “waiting fro download” or goes back to “6996-France.html.tbz2 (66%)” … It is receiving packets no worries with 7-8 Db SNR with no bad packets & no errors
HELP!! I was so happy that I could see the data at first, but this is becoming insane… Maybe I should clear the database? & refresh the CHIP, but how ? *(( and WHY??)
Hi @Syed
Thanks for replying.
I only received the equipment day before yesterday, and I wasn’t planning on “screwing around” with it until I had it working in the configuration that it arrived : )
Anyway, YES the packet count continuously increases so it is certainly receiving the that data. and I am using Librarian (Version3. whatever it is), as it is as it arrived newly minted from Outernet on Tuesday .
I have not looked at the method of flashing the CHIP , but I am comfortable enough with doing it - I am guessing you are suggesting an upgrade to the beta Skylark? I am happy to run beta software I was just hoping to play with the “stable” release before I broke anything
let me know, meanwhile I will look at what flashing to Skylark entails
I really think that Outernet is a great concept and I will keep supporting it
(edit) I am frustrated enough now with this (after a zillion reboots) to just go straight to the Skylark flashing…
I have all the downloads done… I actually found a metal paper clip accidentally, so I think the gods support the flashing idea
Wish me luck
Flashed to Skylark now, and I have no idea WHAT it is downloading as There is no way I can see …
It has only downloaded ONE file so far (about 40 mins) which SCARILY is “messages-0.html” in ARPR, which was the last file it downloaded before hanging on the “6996-France.html.tbz” file before
It is downloading packets 100% successfully, but I suspect it has “hung” on the same bloody file again, which must be broken from the satellite…
How can one tell what is currently being downloaded with Skylark? ( I can ssh to the chip) I really, really really suspect that you have a corrupted file being delivered from the sky…
It may only affect systems that are “brand new” so are missing something that has been download before
Heres the explanation for the so-called “hung/stuck” files:
These files are all “large” files, typically 3MB or more. While we try to keep such large files off the carousels, its also important to put one on once in a while and see how things go. Given how the system works, no file can ever get stuck/hung at all. What you are seeing is simply an example of a file not being successfully received. the 3+MB France file will typically take 5-6 hours to go over the carousel.
If during that time, you restarted your receiver (or switched it on for the first time), it would seem to you like no file is being received at all, as the system never saw the “header” of the file being broadcast, and cannot tell what is going on until the next file starts going out.
Now, the france file is a “low priority” file. A higher priority file like the “messages-0” file actually interrupts the lower priority file and is broadcast first. Once that file is done, the lower priority file is continued from where it was interrupted.
If you started receiving one of these large files, but then at some stage in the middle, lets say when it was at 62%, you restarted/lost signal lock/etc, once again, the system loses its “place”, and the file won’t progress beyond 62% on your receiver. But the file is still playing out. Being a large file, it will take hours to play out, and then other files will start (higher priority files might show up before that though, as explained earlier). So that 62% will keep showing until the next file starts playing our, which might be many hours.
your 62% file may still complete when the france file plays out again, maybe 12-24 hours later.
So now what is one supposed to do?
If your receiver has a frame lock, the absolute best thing to do is to NOT reboot it or switch it off. Rebooting does not help receive files faster as its impossible for files to get “stuck”. Rebooting only makes the file impossible to receive.
In the beta Skylark, if your tuner status is frozen (known bug), you might want to keep an eye out on the /mnt/cache directory for file size changes. Or log in over ssh and view the tuner status using the “sdr” command.
OH Thanks so much @Abhishek That all makes some sense…
the whole thing started when the Rx lost lock during the the France file .
The problem is, of course, that no other files (except the message files!) showed up…
because the kit is only running on battery, it will stop in the middle of a big file, thus this issue will be inevitable
What if the file is newer broadcast again BTW? Will no other files (other than ones marked as a higher priority) ever be received?
WOW again!
.
Take a look in hour increments to see what you see without reboots/power downs. Ken